This is blog post number 2536 and today is an anniversary. Ten years ago we wrote number 1. Our platform at the time was ActiveRain.com, and later we switched to making it a part of our company website. But when the article count passed a thousand and it began getting hundreds of thousands of visitors each month, the blog got its own HOW-TO-LOOK-AT-A-HOUSE domain. For those of you who have followed along with our regular dispatches over the years, thanks!

      A lot has changed during the past decade. Home inspection is now a profession that has an education prerequisite and licensing exam, along with continuing ed requirements in most states. There’s more home inspectors out there, and many of them depend on hi-tech equipment like infrared cameras and drones. The days of needing only a flashlight, screwdriver, and plug-in receptacle tester are long gone.

    But careful, patient observation and the accumulation of lessons learned from solving the daily problems on thousands of home inspections is still what makes a good inspector. Most of our blogs are a result of an issue or question that came up at an inspection, and often the article was written shortly after it was encountered. We keep saying that some day we will run out of things to write about, but it hasn’t happened yet. 

    Here’s three of our favorite, and probably most idiosyncratic, articles from the archive:

• The seller gave me a report from a previous home inspection. Should I use it or get my own inspector?

• How does a home inspector find roof leaks? What about wet spots in the walls?

• How do you know it’s a dead person’s house?