As an inspector that had construction and trade experience before I opened my inspection company, I have paid attention to this argument over the years. In a perfect world the potential buyer would bring a Mechanical Engineer, General Contractor with structural experience, Master electrician, Master plumber, WDO (Termite) inspector, Pool contractor, Roofer, Air quality inspector and most importantly a highly skilled Administrative Assistant to take the information from all these egos and place in one easy to comprehend report. Obviously, this is not realistic, for even if the customer has the funds to pay for this, just the scheduling to give them all access would be difficult. I have done a few inspections where both the buyer and seller had their attorneys, inspectors and mold companies on site for the re-inspection, but this is rare.
First let me say I have a lot of respect for an Engineering degree, my limited math skills prevented me from going this route. I have had a Mechanical Engineer and an Electrical Engineer help me with some of the higher end homes. In this case the ME was very sharp, but I want someone to explain to me why the Electrical Engineer knew absolutely nothing about the inside of a breaker panel. He obviously didn’t stay around long. Quite often Engineers are so specialized that if you take them out of their specialty they are lost. For example, are all Engineers qualified to inspect a foundation? In my opinion the answer is no, not only should they be experienced in structure but specifically in foundations themselves. Then you must ask yourself and this goes for inspectors as well will they don a hazmat suit and crawl the entire nasty crawlspace, photograph it and prepare a report? There have been times where I wished I had a master level Electrician on site but his isn’t always possible, although I do bring one on commercial inspections and on some older homes where the electrical system has been messed with by not so handymen over the years. Very rarely does the client want to pay extra for this. I feel I am qualified to inspect most electrical systems and I passed a Journeyman test, but I am not close to being an electrician. HVAC and Construction are my strong points and I do my best to understand the other trades as they pertain to inspection.
