BEWARE THE LONE BUILDING AND PEST INSPECTOR

by Dwell Building Services | August 2020 | Combined Building and Pest Inspections Gold Coast & Tweed Coast

For Arguments Sake: Could one building and pest inspector be better than two? A disturbing trend broke a little while ago with pest and building inspections – the Lone Inspector.

In challenging economic times (and lets face it, most times, when buying property are economically challenging) people come up with various ways to cut costs to attract more clients, knowing that people often make buying decisions based on price. One of those perceived economies is The Lone Inspector – getting a one-man-band to inspect your home instead of two trained professionals.

This one combined building and pest inspector is meant to save you money (only a matter of $20-$40) by covering both the pest and building inspection himself. In reality, this inspector is usually

These three simple questions will easily put rest to the perceived advantages of the one combined inspector:

1. Have you ever heard of a lawyer who is also a mechanic? What about a plumber who runs an MRI machine at the local hospital? Not many people are an expert in two fields.

2. Even if this person is both an experienced pest inspector and a licensed builder, are there many people out there who can multi-task? It’s been proven that multi-tasking is a myth.

3. If you were shopping around for a brain surgeon, would you look for the cheapest, or the best? And would you want a surgeon who had a specialist team around him, or a one-man-band who was doing the anesthetists job too? Okay, we know that it doesn’t work that way, and it is hard to perceive a building or pest inspector as being as specialised as a brain surgeon, but just think about the average cost of a property these days. For a house, you will never be spending less than $200,000.  I don’t know anyone who would happily gamble $200,000+ for the sake of a couple dollars off the price of their due-diligence.

For the sake of $40, wouldn’t you want the best possible pest AND building inspections carried out? Don’t skimp on the inspection phase of purchasing a property – it is almost guaranteed to cost you more than $40 in the long run.