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Be sure that the home inspector you hire is working for you. To begin with, you will have to do some research to locate a qualified home inspector. Second, the one you find must be ethical and have integrity.

Question yourself this. Your home inspector, whom is the customer? It should only be you. His customer is not be the real estate agent. You shouldn't be some sort of secondary client. Your inspector should be looking out for your best interest and not focusing on the next job a real estate agent will send his way.

When you hire a home inspector, it is to give you the full disclosed report about the condition of the house so you do not have any doubts about the quality of his report. Because you depend on the accuracy and objectivity of that report, you don't want anything to interfere with the inspector's loyalty to you as his customer.

One way to ensure the inspector know you are his customer, is to compensate him promptly. A suggestion would be if he is inspecting the house you are selling, do not wait until after closing date to pay him for services. Pay him beforehand, whether the house sells or not. Compensating the inspector when the house sells, can create a possiblity of conflct of interest for him. He might think of "not seeing" problems to get the sale to go faster.

If the home inspector is a real estate agent as well, do not hire him. Get someone else. Trying to perform both tasks is a serious conflict of interest. He'll do whatever he can to make the next sale. After all, who is he really working for and what are his goals?

The inspector you contract should have subscribed to a professional code of ethics. If you ask to see it, he should be able to show you a copy.

The American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI) have a Code of Ethics that all its inspectors are required to subscribe to. One of the main statements states "Inspectors shall avoid conflicts of interest or activities that compromise, or appear to compromise, professional independence, objectivity, or inspection integrity/"

The inspector you hire should do home inspection related work only. The home inspector needs to do just home inspections and possibly do some environmental testing for radon, mold or asbestos. This testing depends on his licensed qualifications. He shouldn't be responsible for participating in remediation or mitigation services for environmental problems. If he is unable to provide the service, he can suggest a professional whom can.

If a home inspector sells other products or services, such as heating and cooling systems, find someone else. After all, would you trust his judgment if he said your home's furnace needed to be replaced?

Your inspector should be "squeaky clean" if you're going to get the professional, objective report you need. The home inspector you want is one of high ethics and integrity.

You need to stay clear of the ones whom would take shortcurts, so you will not want to take shortcuts finding the home inspector. Buying or selling a home is such a significant event that you'll want to do whatever you can to insure your home inspector knows who the customer is. You and the inspector should both know he's working for you.