Inspector for Brownstone
My husband and I are getting ready to make an offer on a brownstone. We want an inspector to do a walk-through with us beforehand. Can anyone recommend an inspector? Also, what does this cost? I am completely clueless. Thanks all!
My husband and I are getting ready to make an offer on a brownstone. We want an inspector to do a walk-through with us beforehand. Can anyone recommend an inspector? Also, what does this cost? I am completely clueless. Thanks all!
You can also search for older forum posts. I recall a lot of recommendations for Accurate Building Inspectors. I recently used George http://stellarinspection.com/ & he’s good. Price ranges in above posts sound right.
You can get an inspection before making an offer, but I think it’s common to get an accepted offer before laying out the $750 or so. You then may be able to negotiate a bit before going to contract if the inspection turns up something that’s going to be expensive to remedy that you didn’t already know about.
PS, usually you don’t want to spend the money on the engineer until after you have an accepted offer and then you negotiate down from there with your engineer report before you sign a contract.
I’ve used Ubell (1982), Heimer (1987) and AVT Enterprises (2009). I was happy with Ubell (who works under name of Accurate Building Inspection), I did not like Heimer who failed to identify some rather expensive repairs I assumed shortly after buying the house, and I was very happy with AVT Enterprises who charged $800 last summer on an inspection that identified improperly repaired termite damage in the basement. I believe John of AVT is licensed both as an engineer and as a home inspector. Not only did he answer my questions during the walk through (which it is imperative that you attend), he produced the usual scary report AND he was available to me afterwards by phone to help me work out strategy of negotiating price based on his findings.
i second richard perri. he is the best and a nice guy to boot.
Colin Albert (718) 622-4664. He’s ASHI certified. We used him several times during our 2yr search for a house and still use his report as a basis for much of the renovations we’ve done so far.
I cannot recommend George at Old House Inspections enough. They are incredibly thorough and will answer all of your questions along the way. I believe the cost is around $700/$750.
Try Richard Perri at 718-828-9116. He did a great job for our brownstone last year. I think it was between 700 and 800.
Find someone who is a licensed house inspector AND a licensed engineer. You need both. It costs between $600 and $950.
I have used three, of the three, I preferred Heimer Engineering. Walk through with whoever you hire, listen carefully to everything they say, ask lots of questions, be prepared for alarmist writeup that says you must replace everything older than ten years, don’t believe it, but be sure you find out what genuinely is a problem and needs attention, negotiate the cost off the purchase price.
There is a list online somewhere of licensed engineers and house inspectors for New York City maintained by the organization that licenses them — you can google it.
You can call John Gromamski at 718-514-3393. Not sure on the current cost.