What COVID-19 means for home inspections

The current COVID-19, a.k.a. corona virus, pandemic is impacting our lives in an unprecedented manner. We have to make significant changes to our personal lives, our jobs, and our behavior to reduce the infection rate. The health and safety of real estate agents, home buyers/owners/ sellers, and the home inspector is paramount to us.

As a result, Desert Diamond Home Inspections is modifying our inspection protocol until further notice. For the time being, we will continue to perform home inspections as scheduled as long as we feel it is reasonably safe to do so, but with some changes. 

Changes to our inspection protocol

  • We ask that the client does NOT attend the home inspection. We will no longer perform a walk-through at the end of the inspection. Instead, we will offer a free phone consultation after the client has reviewed the report with their agent if there are questions. 
  • We ask that listing agents do NOT attend the home inspection. 
  • We ask that, if the house is occupied, that all residents/tenants vacate the premises before the home inspection commences and not return until after the inspection is completed and everybody has left. 
  • We ask that, if the house is occupied, that the residents/tenants disinfect all handles and switches and other commonly touched surfaces both before and after the inspection
  • We will not shake hands or bump fists or elbows. 
  • We will avoid touching our faces during the inspection.  
  • We will wash our hands multiple times throughout the inspection.
  • We will wear nitrile gloves during the inspection if requested. 
  • We will wear an N95 face mask during the inspection if requested. 
  • If available, we will use hand sanitizer. 

Possible reasons for cancellation

We reserve the right to cancel an inspection appointment on short notice for any of the following reasons:

  • If the home inspector develops flu-like symptoms
  • If we arrive at the premises and observe conditions that we deem unsafe/a health risk. For example: Individuals with flu-like symptoms are present. People are present that should not be (residents/tenants, friends and family of buyers, contractors, curious neighbors, etc.). Individuals with flu-like symptoms are living in the home. You get the idea. 
  • If there are children present
  • If our city, state, or federal government issues orders that prevent us from performing the inspection (e.g. mandatory lockdown). 

We will issue a full refund for any paid but canceled inspections, unless the reason for the cancellation is that somebody disregarded our above requests, in which case we will refund the inspection fee minus a $90 cancellation fee. 

The situation is very fluid and circumstances can change at any time. We acknowledge that this might pose an inconvenience but, again, the health and safety of everybody involved is our top priority. As the saying goes, this too shall pass, and once the situation has normalized, we will return to our regular scheduled programming. 

We appreciate your cooperation and understanding. We hope that these modifications to our inspection protocol are a reasonable compromise so we can continue to perform inspections for your clients while prioritizing health and safety for all parties involved. 

We welcome any feedback and input you have to to help us deal with the current situation in the best possible manner. 

Please be safe and responsible. 

Alex Byron – Owner, Desert Diamond Home Inspections