Pre-purchase inspection
For buyers under contract. A complete assessment of the property's condition before your contingency period runs out, so you can negotiate, renegotiate or walk away with facts behind you.
Services
What gets inspected
Every inspection is a full walk-through of the property with you present, followed by a written report with photographs.
Types of inspection
Pre-list inspection
Find out what a buyer's inspector will find, before they find it. Fixing a problem on your own schedule costs far less than conceding on it at the negotiating table.
Commercial property
Thirty years of commercial construction experience applied to investment and business properties. A visual condition assessment, with the scope agreed in writing before the job — commercial buildings vary too much for a fixed checklist.
Roof, method stated
Lou walks the roof where it is safe to; where it is not — steep pitch, slate, wet weather, three stories — the report states how the roof was observed, because New York requires it.
Thermal imaging
An infrared camera finds what the eye cannot: missing insulation, moisture behind finished surfaces, connections running hot. It reads temperature rather than seeing through walls — but a cold patch in a ceiling is usually a story worth following.
- Roof, attic, insulation & ventilation
- Plumbing systems
- Electrical systems
- Siding, including hardcoat and synthetic stucco (EIFS), visually and from the outside — no invasive moisture probing
- Appliances
- Heating & cooling systems
- Foundation — slab, block wall, poured concrete
- Walls, ceilings, windows & doors
- Garages & driveways
- Decks & porches
- Thermal scan for hidden moisture, electrical issues and insulation problems
Thermal imaging
Seeing what a flashlight can't
An infrared scan of the interior picks up moisture behind finishes, overheating electrical connections and missing insulation — problems that are invisible on a normal walk-through and expensive once they surface.
It is included in the standard inspection, not sold as an upgrade.
- Radon. A test device is placed and the result comes back from a New York accredited laboratory. What the State's testing found, county by county.
- Mold. A licensed New York mold assessor does the assessment. Lou does not sample or assess mold himself.
- Asbestos. A New York certified asbestos inspector takes the samples; an accredited laboratory analyzes them.
Lou will coordinate any of these around your inspection date. New York does not allow a home inspector to take a referral fee in connection with an inspection, and he does not accept referral fees for them — that rule is worth knowing about.
Levittown & Massapequa
Post-war slab houses: heat cast into the concrete, no basement, and attics finished decades later.
Long Beach & Island Park
Flood-zone buying: what to look at on a house that was raised, and on one repaired where it stood.
Garden City & Rockville Centre
Older houses carrying three eras of wiring and plumbing behind one set of walls.
Huntington & Northport
Suffolk septic and private wells — the two things a Nassau buyer never has to think about.
Queens co-ops & condos
Where a unit inspection stops, and why the “not observed” list is the useful page.
Brooklyn brownstones
Party walls, flat roofs, cast iron stacks and the things a suburban checklist has no line for.
Also inspecting in Westchester, where septic systems and private wells are common in the northern towns — something a Nassau buyer rarely has to think about.
Not sure which inspection you need?
Call and describe the property. Lou will tell you straight — including if you don't need him.