How COVID-19 Has Changed The Business Of Home Inspections

Home inspections can be quite chaotic, depending on how thorough and well organized the person handling it is. However, getting a house inspected is a requirement to make sure everyone staying in the house is safe. There are often issues that people might not even know about, and these come up during a home inspection, and homeowners can work on getting them fixed, without waiting for it to be too late or the damage to be a lot worse.

While most people get their homes inspected before selling a house or making a purchase, some inspections are also taken care of otherwise. Homeowners can get an inspection done whenever they want to and can get in touch with a home inspector to make the process convenient. The current Coronavirus pandemic brought in many changes to the way they used to conduct inspections. People were left with no option but to adapt, whether they liked it or not, and these are some of the changes we had to get through to conduct home inspections during the Coronavirus pandemic.

With the Coronavirus hitting almost all businesses that have an in-person element, the real estate market has also taken a hit. Although the industry has slowed somewhat and more people may be nervous about having a house inspected, we will continue to provide our usual in-depth inspections. There might be multiple reasons for the slump, including people not wanting to make large investments when they are unsure about the future. Overall, business slowed down since some people are nervous.

Like most companies are adapting to the virus, we had to do our part too. While some companies and businesses are working remotely, we could not since ours is an in-person job. We have made it a habit to talk through masks when doing our walkthroughs with clients. We do not walk our clients through the house room by room in consideration for the homeowner. Instead, we sit down and go through the electronic report and answer all their questions. If there is anything significant they need to see, we take them to that item and go over it with them.

We also accept e-transfers now to avoid contact if that is how the client wishes to pay. While there are a lot of elements of our work that we can handle remotely, and we do these online, we have to inspect homes in person. When it comes to creating the reports or going through paperwork, we are comfortable doing that remotely, instead of an unnecessary visit to the house. 

We prefer that the client comes alone or with only their realtor. We don’t work in large groups anymore. After we inspect the home, we go room by room, wiping down everything we touched. We also wipe our laptop before anyone else can use it. We wear a mask when meeting clients and offer hand sanitizers if they need them. We always prefer meeting our clients in person at the property. If that is not possible, we send them the report through email and go through it over the phone.

Besides taking as many precautions as possible to stay safe ourselves, while not getting others infected, there are no changes to our working hours. We typically start our inspections at 9 am and plan the walk through for around 2 pm. The walkthrough time depends on the size, type, location, and condition of the property.

We will continue to take the required precautions based on the needs and requests of our clients. We have to get our job done and, at the same time, have to stay safe, so we always take necessary steps when dealing with others making sure everyone is comfortable.

If you need to get your home inspected, get in touch with Lizotte Inspection Services. We will conduct your home inspection in Saskatoon and surrounding areas, make sure we detect defects lurking in nooks and crannies of a house, and provide assessment reports for you to make educated decisions relating to your best interests. With the three decades of experience in construction, it was not a difficult leap to move to home inspections to assist people when they are purchasing their dream houses. If you want a better understanding of the services that we provide, please click here. To get in touch with us, please click here.