WeatherVane, Inc.

This page is for our clients!

This page has been provided for your convenience to help make your transaction easier.  It will inform you on the type of inspections we offer, the differences between them and what they may entail.  It also has pertinent information relevant to inspections. Read this page before choosing your inspection to make sure it will meet your lending or insurance institution's requirements as well as meet your personal guidelines.

See also our Services and FAQ pages for more details.

Choose an inspection:

If you are choosing a property inspection and not a single or multiple component inspection or service, WeatherVane, Inc.  can offer you several packaged options:

1. 4 Point Inspection: Covers the 4 major components of the home.  This is usually requested by an insurance company or lender as a minimal requirement for their protection. You will need to verify the specific information and forms that your institution requires.  Usually this consists of an inspection of the Roof, Electrical, Plumbing, and HVAC systems of building but can sometimes include the Structure. We will tailor it to fit your specific needs.  This will not be an inspection of walls, showers, cabinets, etc.  The 4 Point is not an actual 'home inspection' that some lenders or insurance companies require, but tries to determine integrity and ages of components mentioned. Usually we are asked if roof leaks and age, electric panel appearance, plumbing lines only for leaks, and operation of heat and air conditioning.
2. Standard Inspection: A home inspection performed to a highly recognized national industry standard- the ASHI's The Standard Of Practice For Home Inspections and The Code Of Ethics For The Home Inspection Profession. This inspection outline consists of Structural, Exterior, Roofing, Plumbing, Electrical, Heating, Air Conditioning, Interiors, Insulation, and others.  Most people choose a Standard Inspection because of price and value. This examines more than a 4 Point but is not as detailed as a Technically Exhaustive. An insurance company or lender may require a 'Home Inspection' over a 4 Point Inspection and due to the detail of our Report, they may accept our Standard Inspection to satisfy their concerns.
   
3. ASHI Standards of Practice defines Technically Exhaustive as 'An investigation that involves dismantling, the extensive use of advanced techniques, measurements, instruments, testing, calculations, or other means'. These are usually requested during legal disputes, for health issue necessity, for lawsuite information, or by some buyers who want more than what any typicall home inspection can provide.  We can provide you a full comprehensive Technically Exhaustive Inspection if you choose involving environmental testing, soil testing, engineering analysis, and such- we are advising you of this to remind you that a basic or Standard Inspection does not cover such in depth examination and that these are available. This inspection goes through every detail of home with complete listings of manufacturers, data plates, UL listings, Gas testing, Mold testing, Air Quality testing, Electrical testing, disassembling of components, etc.  This is the best type of inspection to have if you want an inspection to be able to uncover defects beyond what an ASHI Standard of Practice visual Standard Inspection or 4 Point Inspection can provide.  We always recommend this type of inspection for that reason but it may be cost prohibitive to some buyers. These inspections normally start at about $10,000.00 and require the sellers permission to perform such a detailed inspection as we need to disassemble components and take a considerable amount of time. 

Things to know:

• A WMI (Wind Mitigation Inspection) will be utilizing the OIR-B1-1802 (Rev. 01/12) form.
• A Standard Inspection does not include a Septic System Inspection [digging and opening tank], Pool Leak Test, Wood Destroying Organisms report, Florida Wind Mitigation Inspection, or Mold Testing  though these can be offered and provided.  Ask us if you have any special needs or concerns you would like addressed.

What you need to do:

If your loan institution and/or insurance company requires a 4 Point Inspection it is up to you to have them provide in writing the exact information they need or want and/or provide you with their form.  We will need a copy of this or their form prior to inspection if you would like us to fill it out [we fill out one 4 point form with the inspection, however if you have several companies for consideration, we will not fill out each of their forms pending your selection]. Our Standard Inspection usually has all the information within our Report that most bank and insurance 4 Point Inspections want and sometimes all they may want is a copy of our Report- DO NOT count on this.

You need to have water and electric utilities on during the times of our inspection as well as access to these.  Please note in our locale, the water company places a special lock at the meter when they shut the water off to a home- only they can remove it and they need to be notified prior to inspection to do so if this applies. By not providing the above, we cannot provide a full inspection and you may want us to go back at a later time to complete. Many homes have attic access in garage so make sure a car is not blocking this for us or it will prevent attic inspection.

You need to assure access to the property: we have a Realtor Supra Key!   If home is secured with another Realtor lock, we require the combination. If someone is giving us access to the property, we need the specific and actual key holder’s phone name and number.  It is the seller’s obligation to provide the time necessary to perform the inspection.  If we run into problems or home is large, it may take over 3 hours to complete a proper inspection.  This is a process of selling a home and may inconvenience them- they need to make this part of their schedule and plan for delays. If seller cuts the inspection short, all we can do is document items not inspected as such.

By handling all this now, you will prevent the possibility of a service call to run back out there.  If you are utilizing a Real Estate Agent, they are usually more than happy to assist with these details.

Thank you for choosing WeatherVane, Inc. as your Home Inspection Company.

All information on this site current at time last updated and published to web 2014/04/27. Please let us know if you find any information that is not correct, dated, or removed.  We do not continuously check to see if forms posted change, videos are removed by host sites, etc. and cannot be responsible for outdated information but we will update our site to reflect accordingly. Your input is truly appreciated.