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There has been a lot of construction in the Halifax area over the past few years, with many new homes and apartment buildings opening for occupancy this year. With that hopefully comes long overdue opportunities for first time homebuyers in the market. Like any first-time buyer, when we bought our first home it become apparent that the wish list was just that, and many tough decisions had to be made to secure the home we were looking for.
Unicorns Don’t Exist
Despite the fact it is the national animal of Scotland, Unicorns are not real. So is the idea that you will find the perfect home. Let me dispel that myth right now: I have inspected homes of all types, and every single one is them has one thing in common: they aren’t perfect! I recently had a client who was buying an older home which could best be described as a fixer upper: as a home inspector I rightfully pointed out that while the home may not be aesthetically pleasing, the four major systems (roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC) were all in great condition and have been well maintained. These homes are often passed over when with a little TLC they can make a great new home!
Unicorns Don’t Exist
Despite the fact it is the national animal of Scotland, Unicorns are not real. So is the idea that you will find the perfect home. Let me dispel that myth right now: I have inspected homes of all types, and every single one is them has one thing in common: they aren’t perfect! I recently had a client who was buying an older home which could best be described as a fixer upper: as a home inspector I rightfully pointed out that while the home may not be aesthetically pleasing, the four major systems (roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC) were all in great condition and have been well maintained. These homes are often passed over when with a little TLC they can make a great new home!
Remember to Use Facts, Not Emotion
I tend to be a bit animated when doing inspections, mainly because I love what I do. There is a surprising amount of subjectivity in a good inspection, which is why I am not worried about an AI takeover anytime soon. Ultimately, however, I am interested in hard facts as much as possible. I always look for
Electrical: Is it grounded? Is the panel properly installed and labelled?
Plumbing: Is the area known for lead pipe? Does the home use modern materials?
Roof: What type of material? Are there any missing shingles or pieces? Any signs of leaks?
HVAC: What type of heating or cooling system? How old is the unit? Is there evidence of proper maintenance?
One of the biggest challenges as a home inspector is to balance between using past experiences and knowledge to draw from, and understanding that every home is unique. One of the best-looking roofs I ever inspected had an active leak and the worst…. did not. Same with sewer inspections: the best looking sewer line I checked was 50 years old while a 1 year old line had a partial blockage! While it can be a challenge, it is important to evaluate facts and know what your bottom line is.
I tend to be a bit animated when doing inspections, mainly because I love what I do. There is a surprising amount of subjectivity in a good inspection, which is why I am not worried about an AI takeover anytime soon. Ultimately, however, I am interested in hard facts as much as possible. I always look for
Electrical: Is it grounded? Is the panel properly installed and labelled?
Plumbing: Is the area known for lead pipe? Does the home use modern materials?
Roof: What type of material? Are there any missing shingles or pieces? Any signs of leaks?
HVAC: What type of heating or cooling system? How old is the unit? Is there evidence of proper maintenance?
One of the biggest challenges as a home inspector is to balance between using past experiences and knowledge to draw from, and understanding that every home is unique. One of the best-looking roofs I ever inspected had an active leak and the worst…. did not. Same with sewer inspections: the best looking sewer line I checked was 50 years old while a 1 year old line had a partial blockage! While it can be a challenge, it is important to evaluate facts and know what your bottom line is.
To Repeat, This Roof Was NOT Leaking!
Don’t Underestimate Maintenance Costs
One important quality of a good home inspector is to maintain impartiality and avoid real and perceived conflicts of interest. In addition to insurance, property taxes and other fixed costs, one of the "joys" of home ownership is having to deal with system breakdowns. Plumbing leaks? HVAC not heating? Lights flickering? That’s now your responsibility and usually nobody teaches you how to do those things.
My passion is helping home occupants from all walks of life live in a safe and healthy home but I especially like helping new homeowners. It motivated me in my first job as a fresh faced 16 year old and it motivates me to provide the best inspection services possible.
One important quality of a good home inspector is to maintain impartiality and avoid real and perceived conflicts of interest. In addition to insurance, property taxes and other fixed costs, one of the "joys" of home ownership is having to deal with system breakdowns. Plumbing leaks? HVAC not heating? Lights flickering? That’s now your responsibility and usually nobody teaches you how to do those things.
My passion is helping home occupants from all walks of life live in a safe and healthy home but I especially like helping new homeowners. It motivated me in my first job as a fresh faced 16 year old and it motivates me to provide the best inspection services possible.
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I remember back in my University days there was a website where you could enter the name of a person or organization and it would instantly spit out a convincing sounding essay about how bad that person or organization was, using lots of impressive sounding words. In reality, it was just a bunch of generic statements and the essay was always the same aside from the name.
There has been a lot of buzz about an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program called ChatGPT. For those not familiar with it, ChatGPT is impressive to put it mildly. It can instantly provide answers to complicated questions in many different ways on just about any subject you can think of. For example, I asked it to write a blog post for a home inspector in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is the place we call home. On the surface this sounds like a great answer that makes this blog potentially obsolete but let’s take a closer look:
There has been a lot of buzz about an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program called ChatGPT. For those not familiar with it, ChatGPT is impressive to put it mildly. It can instantly provide answers to complicated questions in many different ways on just about any subject you can think of. For example, I asked it to write a blog post for a home inspector in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is the place we call home. On the surface this sounds like a great answer that makes this blog potentially obsolete but let’s take a closer look:
This sounds like a great answer, but it highlights why a Chatbot is not a substitute for a blog written 100% by yours truly, a seasoned and Certified Professional Inspector and most importantly someone who is an actual living, breathing human being who has been in attic spaces and taken off electrical panel covers! I have noticed much of what we see on the internet lately is written by bots (home inspection related content being no exception), with the goal of getting to the top of search engine rankings (called SEO or search engine optimization) instead of sharing quality content.
The most obvious problem with this ChatGPT response is that you could plug in "Moncton", "New York City" or "Toronto" and it would not change anything. There are some things that are incorrect or half-truths in this "blog post" so allow me to point out just a few of them:
Overall, this AI created blog post is mostly true and grammatically correct but it is definitely a shallow representation of why it is important to hire a home inspector. I tried asking for a few blog posts on the same subjects I have previously written about with the same result: it's a great starting point but it is in no way comparable to the knowledge an experienced home inspector has.
Contrary to my critical tone, overall I have a strong belief in the power of AI programs such as ChatGPT to assist homeowners and provide a wealth of complex knowledge in an easy to understand format. However, being a home inspector, like many other specialized fields, requires far too much subjective judgement and detailed knowledge to be replaced by automated response bot.
The most obvious problem with this ChatGPT response is that you could plug in "Moncton", "New York City" or "Toronto" and it would not change anything. There are some things that are incorrect or half-truths in this "blog post" so allow me to point out just a few of them:
- You won't be able to find a licensed inspector in Halifax (or Atlantic Canada) because there are zero specific home inspector regulations and a license for home inspectors does not exist. As of 2023, Alberta and British Columbia are the only provinces that license home inspectors. I do point out some things to look for when choosing a home inspector in a previous blog post but being licensed isn't one of them.
- While ChatGPT is not wrong about what we look for, it isn't a simple linear examination as this answer implies. A home, especially modern homes, is a complex set of interdependent systems and requires someone who has a comprehensive or systematic way of viewing homes *cough* like me. I always mention to my clients that I tend to hop from room to room and system to system because they are often interconnected.
- The blog post tells you that an inspector will provide information for negotiation. True, but this ignores the fact that most home inspectors have done inspections for sellers, homeowners, landlords and even on behalf of tenants and many of my clients want valuable information, not just a negotiation tool. This is especially true of first time home buyers!
Overall, this AI created blog post is mostly true and grammatically correct but it is definitely a shallow representation of why it is important to hire a home inspector. I tried asking for a few blog posts on the same subjects I have previously written about with the same result: it's a great starting point but it is in no way comparable to the knowledge an experienced home inspector has.
Contrary to my critical tone, overall I have a strong belief in the power of AI programs such as ChatGPT to assist homeowners and provide a wealth of complex knowledge in an easy to understand format. However, being a home inspector, like many other specialized fields, requires far too much subjective judgement and detailed knowledge to be replaced by automated response bot.