On one hand I have hear of inspectors that are in and out in 45 minutes, I have also heard of inspections taking 5+ hours. Almost every home inspector has a slightly unique process so although the following timeline is usually true for my inspections it may not be true for another inspector.

The short answer is that I am usually at the house for approximately 3-3.5 hours for your average house. If the house is significantly bigger, older or in rough shape that time will obviously increase.

Over the last few years, I have learned that one of the keys to being a great home inspector is a process. I inspect every house in the same order. It takes me about 2-2.5 hours to go through all my checklists and to inspect all the systems in the home. I normally ask the buyers and their agent to come for the last hour of the inspection. Once the buyers arrive, I am usually getting close to wrapping up, so it gives them 15-30 minutes to walk through the home again, take some measurements, etc. Once I am wrapped up, I do a full walkthrough with the buyers and their agent. The walkthrough serves a couple important purposes. First of all it allows me to show the buyer any findings that are significant. It also allows me to educate the buyers on the homes systems. Finally, it allows me to double check my work, every once in a while I will catch something I missed on the walkthrough with the client that I did not see originally. The final walkthrough takes about 25-45 minutes.

So, although the home inspection lasts about 3.5 hours total most of my clients are only there for the last hour of the inspection.

If you have a house in mind you can plug in the address to my online scheduler and it will give you an estimated time on how long the inspection will take for your specific home, as well as pricing and additional services available.

Danny Geurink, Certified Master Inspector

Your Grand Rapids Home Inspector