Home Inspection Blog

By late summer, your house has taken a beating. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, this is the time of year when I start noticing the evidence. The good news? Late summer and early fall give homeowners a perfect opportunity to catch small problems before snow, ice, freezing temperatures and another Illinois winter arrive. So grab a cup of coffee, walk around the house, and pretend you're a home inspector for 20 minutes. Here’s what I’d be looking for.

If you've ever owned a home, you've probably had one of these moments. You're carrying laundry downstairs. You notice a crack. You stop. You stare at it. You immediately grab your phone and type: "Is this normal?" Ten minutes later, Google has convinced you that: your foundation is collapsing, your furnace has one week to live, and your water heater is plotting against your family. Take a deep breath. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I answer these questions almost e

Some of the most expensive home repairs I’ve seen started with something small. Really small. Not a failing roof. Not a cracked foundation. Not a furnace gasping for its last breath. Sometimes the problem starts with a $12 outlet. More specifically: A missing or failed GFCI receptacle. And that tiny safety device can be the difference between: a minor repair, a serious electrical hazard, water damage, or a very expensive insurance claim.

There is something incredibly satisfying about walking into a freshly renovated house. New floors. Fresh paint. Modern kitchen. Updated bathrooms. Brand-new appliances that still have the stickers on them. Everything smells new. Everything looks clean. And somewhere in the distance, a gray vinyl plank floor is being installed in another house. As a home inspector, I've inspected plenty of renovated and flipped homes throughout Illinois. And I want to make something clear befo

Nobody ignores a $20,000 repair. But a $100 repair? That one's easy to put off until next weekend. Or next month. Or... next year. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I've learned something after inspecting hundreds of homes throughout Illinois: The biggest repair bills almost never begin with a catastrophic event. They begin with something so small that most homeowners barely notice it.

Being a home inspector in the Midwest means Mother Nature is basically your co-worker. And she has a strange sense of humor. One week it's 95 degrees with enough humidity to swim through the air. The next week Canadian wildfire smoke has the sky looking like Mars. Then comes a thunderstorm that dumps an inch of rain in twenty minutes. Fast forward a few months...

There's a moment during some home inspections when everyone in the room gets unusually quiet. The buyer stops taking pictures. The Realtor slowly lowers their pen. The seller suddenly becomes very interested in the weather outside. And I'm standing there thinking... "Well... this one isn't going to be fixed with a trip to the hardware store." As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I've inspected hundreds of homes throughout Illinois. Most homes have normal maintenance item

Nobody wakes up on a Saturday morning hoping to spend $25,000 on their house. Unfortunately... Houses don't always ask for permission. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I inspect homes every day throughout Illinois. While most inspection reports include maintenance items and smaller repairs, every now and then I come across defects that make everyone standing nearby quietly say: "...Well, that's going to be expensive."

As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I've seen what happens when a great cookout turns into an expensive insurance claim. So before you light the grill, spark up the smoker, or declare yourself Captain of the Backyard BBQ Brigade, here are a few tips to help keep your celebration safe—and stress-free.

As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, summer is one of my favorite seasons. Homeowners are finally outside again, tackling projects that have been on the "I'll get to it next weekend" list since April. It's also the season when small maintenance issues can become expensive repairs if they're ignored. And for realtors and homeowners alike, this is the season where proactive maintenance can make or break a deal—or protect thousands of dollars in equity.

As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, the first 60 seconds often tell me a surprising amount about a property. Now before homeowners panic...This isn't about judging. I'm not grading landscaping choices. I'm not criticizing lawn ornaments. And I'm definitely not reporting your inflatable Christmas decorations still standing in June. But homes leave clues. Lots of clues. And many of them are visible before I ever step foot inside. Let's take a walk from the street to the f

House flipping can be a beautiful thing. A neglected property gets a second chance. An outdated home gets modernized. An ugly duckling becomes the nicest house on the block. I've inspected some fantastic flips over the years. But I've also inspected some homes that appeared to be renovated by a group of caffeinated squirrels armed with YouTube tutorials and unlimited confidence. The challenge for buyers is this: Some flips are professionally done. Some are cosmetically done.

People often assume home inspectors spend their days looking at roofs, furnaces, and electrical panels. And they're right. Mostly. But what many people don't realize is that every house tells a story. Sometimes those stories are funny. Sometimes they're bizarre. Sometimes they're downright unbelievable. And occasionally... They're surprisingly emotional. After hundreds of inspections throughout Illinois, I've seen a little bit of everything. Here are ten of the strangest thin