Birmingham Home Inspectors Blog

Don’t be a member of the “unlucky few home buyers’ club”.

We get this question all the time: " What’s the worst thing that you've ever found?". Before I attempt to answer this, I have to state that most home inspections never really have these types of big issues (even though this is a buyer’s greatest fear). But you asked for it so here's a sampling of home inspections that even surprised us:

• -Mansion with siding on a mountain top ridge that was so badly weather-damaged that some of the exterior walls bowed outward and weren’t supporting the roof properly.
• -Two-story home built on a hillside in a slide zone that had tilted so much that the floors sloped severely, and the walls were wracked. 
• -Two-story home in a high-end residential neighborhood with a beautiful large rear addition improperly attached that had caused the entire home to lean backward.
• -Home in a popular residential neighborhood built next to a creek that had a sink hole so large under the front of the home that the home was temporarily supported by railroad steel (covered with black plastic) to prevent the front of the home from falling into the hole.
• -Nice looking ranch home in a rural area that turned out to be supported by a damaged mobile home frame.
• -Home in an older neighborhood where the plumbing wouldn't drain at all. Turns out the home didn’t have sewer available, and the septic had failed because the ground was not capable of supporting a septic system in the first place. Glanced at it years later and it was still vacant.
• -High-end brick home sold in a bidding war that was newly painted and no outside cracking visible. One entire side of the home’s crawlspace foundation had dropped an inch or more next to a sinkhole. The foundation settlement was only visible from a difficult-to-reach crawlspace vantage point.

 Again, we almost never see these kinds of unusual issues, but all these examples were from some of the unlucky few real Birmingham home buyers who were looking to purchase a home. Be sure to get a complete home inspection from an experienced and trained home inspector if you want to avoid belonging to the "unlucky few club".