I want to share an extremely positive experience that I had with a local home inspector this past weekend and I figured this real estate blog would be the perfect place.

Barrie and the surrounding area is fortunate to have a number of highly qualified, highly skilled, hard working home inspectors at their disposal.  They all do a good job and are instrumental in Buyers and Sellers coming together in successful transactions every day.

Now, given all of that I still want to give a quick testimonial about a home inspector my Buyers used on the weekend.  I’ve been in the real estate business for just over 9 years and I’ve booked many home inspection appointments.  Occasionally those appointments have to be re-scheduled.  Well, I got a taste of someone else’s reality yesterday.  I have Buyers who are purchasing a home and needed to book a home inspection.  We originally booked it for last Tue but had to cancel it and reschedule for last Fri.  Then, at the last minute we had to cancel again.  However, I didn’t know when we could reschedule until Sunday around noon.  I got in touch with this inspector and asked if he was available on Monday morning.  Well, because it’s a busy industry, he already had an appointment booked.  I tried another inspector, but he was also booked.  I started to look up another name, but the first inspector emailed me again and offered to do the inspection later that day.  Well, later that day is Sunday night!  I made some quick phone calls and managed to get us booked for a Sunday night.

So, here’s the part that really made an impression on me.  I’m just one agent.  I cancelled appointments twice.  Well, this one inspector had 6 cancellations last week: one of his other clients cancelled on him 4 times.  It’s all part of the job but…I’ve never really thought of how often these guys have to move their schedule around.  When a new client calls him for an inspection he occasionally has to turn them away because he is already booked.  It’s hard to book an inspection that is convenient for the Seller, the Buyer, the Buyer’s realtor and the home inspector.  So, sometimes realtors have to try two or three different inspectors before they get one who is available.    So the frustrating part for the inspector is when he turns away a new client because he’s booked, and then the original appointment gets cancelled at the last minute.  They don’t often get a second shot at that new client.

So, on the weekend, even though I cancelled on this inspector twice and then thought I couldn’t use him because he was already booked, he went the extra mile to change his plans and help find a way to find a time that would work for everyone.  It also took some extra effort from the other real estate salesperson to convince his Sellers to accommodate a last minute Sunday night inspection!

So, if you’re looking for a top-notch, highly professional home inspector…PLEASE think about contacting Scott Cowden at www.inspectmyplace.ca or call him at 1-888-476-8674.  He has my respect and gratitude and I look forward to calling him again soon!