Reading a Home Inspection Report as a Trade

Why this matters

The agent forwards you one line from a sixty-page report and asks for a price. That line was written by a generalist who looked at your system for a few minutes, under a standard that tells them what not to touch, with wording chosen partly to limit their own liability. Quote off the line and you will price the wrong job, miss the condition next to it, or promise an answer to a question nobody asked. Read the report the way the inspector wrote it and you know what you are actually being sent to find.

What a home inspection is, and is not

A home inspection is a visual, non-invasive survey of a house's readily accessible systems at one moment, performed to a standard of practice: either the one a state licensing board adopted (Texas, for example, publishes its own and requires a promulgated report form) or, in states without one, a national association's standard. Every one of those standards does the same three things: it lists what the inspector must look at, lists what they are not required to do, and requires them to report deficiencies they observe and recommend correction or further evaluation.

Hold onto the second list. Inspectors are generally not required to dismantle equipment, determine remaining service life, run systems when conditions would damage them, move stored belongings, test for environmental hazards, or confirm code compliance. A report that says nothing about your system's heat exchanger, sewer lateral or panel interior has not said it is fine. It has said nobody looked.

The three kinds of line item

Most reports sort findings into tiers, and the names vary by software and by inspector. Underneath the labels there are three kinds:

• Defect (or deficiency, or repair). Something observed not functioning as intended, or a safety concern. The inspector is saying "this is wrong."
• Observation (or monitor, or informational). A condition worth noting that is not, today, a defect: an older unit near typical end of life, a stain that tested dry, efflorescence on a foundation wall.
• Maintenance item. Routine upkeep: a dirty filter, caulk at a tub, a gutter full of leaves.

Agents and buyers routinely treat all three as a repair list. You should not. Your quote has to say which tier you are answering.

Step by step

1. Get the whole report, not the screenshot. Ask for the PDF. The line you were sent is one item; the scope and limitations section, the weather and utility notes, and the items near yours are elsewhere. Skip this and you will quote a furnace "not tested" item without knowing the gas was off at the meter.

2. Read the front matter first. Find the inspection date, the weather and outdoor temperature, whether the house was occupied or vacant, which utilities were on, and the inspector's stated limitations. This tells you what the inspector could have tested. A report done on a 45 F day that says the air conditioner was "not operated due to low ambient temperature" is correct practice, because running many compressors in cold weather risks damage; it also means the cooling side has never been tested by anyone in this deal.

3. Find every item that touches your trade, not just the one you were sent. Search the PDF for your system's words. A plumber sent for "water heater: TPR discharge line terminates high" should also see "slow drain, hall bath" and "evidence of past leak below kitchen sink." A buyer who learns about the other two from you after closing will ask why you did not mention them.

4. Separate what the inspector observed from what they inferred. "Rust and scale on burner assembly" is an observation. "Unit appears to be at end of life" is an inference, usually from age alone. You can confirm or contradict an observation on site; an inference is a question you will answer with your own evidence. Do not let an inference become the scope.

5. Read the deferral line for what it actually asks. "Recommend evaluation by a licensed professional" is the standard deferral. Sometimes it means the inspector saw something they could not characterize; sometimes it is boilerplate attached to every item in a category so the inspector is not the last word on it. The sentence before it tells you which. A deferral after "flame rollout scorching observed at burner compartment" is a real concern; one after "furnace is 22 years old" is an age flag.

6. List what was not tested and why. For each item in your trade, note whether the inspector operated it, observed it only, or could not access it. That list becomes the part of your visit nobody else has done.

7. Write the question you are being asked in one sentence. Not "inspect the HVAC." Something like: "Is the short cycling noted in item 9.3 a defect, what causes it, and what does correction involve?" If you cannot write that sentence, call the agent before you quote.

8. Decide the scope and say it back. Price and book the visit against that sentence, and tell the person ordering it what is in and out. See related: The Recommend Further Evaluation Call.

Worked example: three lines, one real question

An HVAC shop is sent this, and the agent's note says "please quote furnace repair":

9. HEATING
 Inspected 3/14, outdoor temp 41 F, occupied
 9.1  Furnace, gas, forced air. Mfr date 2004.
      [INFO] Unit is at or beyond typical
      service life. Budget for replacement.
 9.2  [MAINT] Filter dirty at time of
      inspection. Replace.
 9.3  [DEFECT] Burner flame lifts and
      wavers when blower starts. Recommend
      evaluation by a licensed HVAC
      contractor prior to close.
 9.4  Heat exchanger not visible without
      disassembly; not inspected.
10. COOLING
 10.1 [LIMIT] A/C not operated, outdoor
      temperature below 60 F.

Walk it through the steps.

The front matter (step 2) says 41 F and occupied, so the heating side was run and the cooling side was not. Item 10.1 is a limitation, not a finding, and the agent did not mention it.

There are four heating items (step 3). 9.1 is an inference from a 2004 manufacture date; it is informational, not a defect, and "budget for replacement" is advice to the buyer, not a scope. 9.2 is maintenance. 9.3 is the defect. 9.4 says the one component that would most change the answer to 9.3 was not looked at.

Step 4 separates them: the flame lifting and wavering at blower start is an observation, and it is the kind of symptom a tech connects to air from the blower reaching the flame, which is why a cracked or breached heat exchanger is on the list of causes, though not the only one (a pressure problem in the cabinet or a burner issue can do it too).

So the question in one sentence (step 7) is: "What causes the flame disturbance in 9.3, and does it indicate a heat exchanger breach?" That is a diagnostic evaluation with a camera or the manufacturer's inspection method on the heat exchanger, a combustion analysis, and a check of the burners and cabinet pressure. It is not "furnace repair," and it is not a replacement quote.

The shop quotes the evaluation, notes that 9.2 will be done at the visit because a loaded filter changes the readings, and adds one line: the cooling side was not operated by the inspector, and an A/C check is available on a warmer day if the buyer wants it before closing. The agent had not noticed 10.1. The buyer adds it.

Safety, because this example has a combustion symptom. A flame that lifts when the blower starts can mean combustion products entering the supply air. If the visit confirms it, the tech shuts the appliance off and follows the shop's red-tag and customer-notification procedure for a suspected heat exchanger breach, and tells the occupant to keep a working CO alarm in place. That decision belongs to the occupant's safety, not to the sale.

What would change the read. If the report had said "flame steady; furnace 22 years old; recommend evaluation," there would be no defect at all, and the honest scope would be a condition check and a frank answer that age alone is not a failure. If 9.4 had said the heat exchanger was inspected with a camera, the question shifts from "is it breached" to "what else disturbs the flame," a shorter visit.

Where the reading goes wrong

Quoting the inference. The commonest mistake is treating "at or beyond typical service life" as a replacement order. The buyer then waves a replacement quote at the seller for a furnace that works, the seller's own contractor says it works, and your quote looks like an upsell in a document the other side's agent is reading.

Answering a different question. A tech who arrives, finds the flame fine on the day, and writes "furnace operating normally" has answered "does it run" when the question was "why did it do that." Say what you saw, and say that the condition was not reproduced.

Missing the limitation line. Untested systems are where post-closing calls come from. Pointing them out costs one sentence and is often the most useful thing in your response.

How to verify you read it right

Before you send the quote, check four things against the report itself: the tier of each item you are answering (defect, observation or maintenance) matches the inspector's label or you have said why you disagree; every item in your trade is either in scope or named as out of scope; every "not tested" or "not inspected" line in your trade is mentioned; and your one-sentence question is printed on the quote. If the agent reads your quote and the report side by side, nothing in your trade should be a surprise.

References

• State home inspector licensing board standards of practice (for example, the Texas Real Estate Commission's standards and promulgated report form), and the national association standards used where a state has none
• Manufacturer installation and service instructions for combustion and heat exchanger inspection methods
• See related: The Recommend Further Evaluation Call; Writing a Findings Letter Buyers, Sellers and Lenders Can Use
• See related: Working With Home Inspectors Reference; When a Home Inspector Flags Your Recent Work