Home Inspection Insider Blog

News and tips for home buyers, sellers and homeowners

Home Inspection Insider News & Tips

Should I Get a Pre-Listing Home Inspection?

A Licensed Home Inspector's Perspective on Getting Your Home Inspected BEFORE You List It As a licensed home inspector, I’m often asked whether it makes sense for a seller to schedule a home inspection before listing their property. Traditionally, inspections...

Top 5 Misconceptions About Home Inspection You Need to Know

If you’re buying a home in the Chicago suburbs, selling one, or even thinking about putting your house on the market, you’ve probably heard about the home inspection. It’s one of the most important steps in a real estate transaction. But it’s also one of the...

Garage Door Safety and Maintenance: A Home Inspector’s Perspective

When most homeowners think about home safety, they picture smoke alarms, electrical wiring, or security locks. But there’s one large moving system that’s often overlooked—your garage door. As a home inspector, I can tell you that garage doors and their openers...

May is Deck Safety Month

Make sure your family's summer fun spot is safe and sound. Our decks and patios are like our homes’ fun-loving cousins, always ready for a good time. But to keep the good times rolling, you need to focus on deck safety. Sadly, the Consumer Product Safety Commission...

Updated Illinois Smoke Detector Laws – What Every Illinois Homeowner Should Know

In 1988, the state of Illinois passed the Smoke Detector Act. This law required all dwellings to have working smoke alarms. In order to be compliant, the alarms could to be either battery-operated or hard-wired. Effective January 1, 2023, newly-installed smoke alarms...

Water Heater Maintenance is More Important Than You Think

Your gas-powered water heater is probably not at the top of your list of homeowner concerns. For most of us, water heaters seem to work fine, until they don’t. And, when they fail, oftentimes the result is an extended period of cold-water showers followed by a costly...