We’re here to help Brisbane home buyers understand the difference between a high-quality pre-purchase building inspection and a cheap building inspection – and what the real-world risks are if you choose the wrong inspection company.
Expert advice from Andrew Mackintosh: In my experience, a quality building inspection is about two things, eyeballs and expertise. If your building inspector isn’t looking directly at every surface for red flags and risk factors, from the underfloor to the roof, they may be missing key problems. That’s where expertise comes in. A TAFE certificate doesn’t make you an expert. Time, experience, and builder expertise do. After looking at over 20,000 Brisbane homes, I can tell you that a little soft divot in the wrong place can absolutely mean termite-related structural damage.
As a qualified builder, I can spot a shortcut or flaw that indicates a property may have been built by someone… well… shonky. I know that if you’re buying in certain streets in Holland Park, I need to check for hidden flood damage. If you’re buying in some areas of the Redlands and Logan, I need to check extra carefully for any signs of subsidence damage. That’s what carrying out over 20,000 inspections does – not only do you develop expertise in the trade, you also become an expert in the Brisbane property market. It worries me when I see building inspectors using drones to do roof inspections when the roof is a key vulnerability for water inundation or pest infestation. A comprehensive building inspection is the only thing standing between you and a major financial disaster.
A Real-World Example
Dana and Simon were excited to be buying their first home in Brighton on Brisbane’s north side. The home was a fixer-upper and had been in the hands of shoddy renters for some time. The couple had put every penny they had into the deposit and money was very tight. Dana called around and found a cheap building inspector. As a first-home buyer, she had no idea what to expect. A young guy showed up with an iPad and did the inspection. It took about 45 minutes, and a report was issued the next day. The inspector highlighted the terrible state of the roof and the bowing wall in the lounge room. No surprises there. Dana and Simon went ahead with the purchase.
The first time Dana climbed into the ugly, pink acrylic bath, she noticed it seemed… to move. It even made a disconcerting noise. Simon armed himself with a torch and headed into the crawl space to find that the floorboards under the bathroom had thin strips of wood nailed to them from underneath. As he touched one of these strips, it fell away in his hand, revealing rotting flooring. Years of leaking pipes had destroyed the bathroom floor, and the couple were one bath away from potential serious injury.
The building inspector’s comprehensive terms and conditions meant they accepted no responsibility for missing this big, costly problem. The seller’s agent wasn’t taking Dana and Simon’s calls. Up to their necks in first mortgage debt, they now needed to replace the floors in their new home.
The water had damaged the flooring in the master bedroom and the second bedroom. The house was not safe to live in. The cost of replacing the original hardwood floors (hidden under ugly floral lino laid on top of Masonite sheets) and rebuilding the bathroom and two-bedroom built-in wardrobes came to just over $40K – and that was after tenacious haggling and material sourcing on Dana’s part. Had the inspector spent more than five minutes in the bathroom, he would have noticed the give in the floor and bath. To a trained eye, this was an obvious problem – and one that could have influenced Dana and Simon to walk away from the sale.
To save a couple of hundred dollars on a building inspection, Dana and Simon ended up spending over 13000% more. And then they had to effectively move out of the home they’d just moved into in order to carry out crucial repairs.
The true value of a comprehensive building inspection
The value of a comprehensive building inspection only becomes obvious once you receive your keys. The value isn’t just protecting yourself from costly mistakes like Dana and Simon’s. It’s the confidence of entering a major financial deal with ALL the information. It’s knowing that someone with decades of experience has checked your new home with a fine-tooth comb. It’s confidently signing those mortgage papers, re-opening negotiations, or walking away. And that confidence only comes from having the complete picture. That’s the true value of a quality building inspection.
