Home Inspection Blog

I'm excited to officially announce that Midwest Inspect is now serving clients as a licensed home inspector in both Illinois and Wisconsin. Illinois is where I originally became licensed and built Midwest Inspect. It's where I've crawled through attics, squeezed into crawlspaces, walked roofs, opened electrical panels and explained to countless homeowners that, no, the strategically placed bucket under the plumbing is not technically a repair. Now we're crossing the state lin

By late summer, we've had months of Midwest thunderstorms, humidity and heavy rain putting our homes' water-management systems through their annual stress test. And that's exactly why late summer is one of the best times to inspect your basement for moisture problems. As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, water management is one of the biggest things I'm paying attention to during an inspection. Not because every damp basement means the foundation is failing. It doesn't.

Snow is nature's version of fresh paint. Everything looks great when you can't see what's underneath it. Every fall in Illinois, our homes slowly begin disappearing. First, the grass gets covered with leaves. Then the landscaping starts dying back. Daylight disappears sometime around lunch. And eventually snow arrives and gives the entire property a beautiful white blanket that says: "Don't worry about any of this until April."

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.

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.

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, 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.

The Questions Homeowners Google at 10:37 PM Every home inspector knows the look. A homeowner points at something in their house and asks: "Is that normal?" Sometimes the answer is: "Absolutely." Other times the answer is: "Well... let's talk about that." As a home inspector with Midwest Inspect, I hear the same questions over and over again. And honestly, they're good questions. Homes make noises. Things crack. Things settle. Things leak. And Google isn't always helpful. So l