Speaker of the House

The missus and I are in the process of purchasing our first home and we had Ken Jacobson of Speaker of the House Home Inspection Service come and inspect the home.
We scheduled a 9AM inspection and Ken arrived early which I loved. The actual inspection last about 2 – 2.5 hours. Ken checked just about everything I can think of in the home and pointed out a lot of the issues to me.
Ken did not physically walk the roof to look for issues but the house is only 7 years old and shouldn’t have any major issues.
Couldn’t check the A/​C because it is winter and we couldn’t check the plumbing because the water had been shut off and was not turned back on as we were told it would be. Ken agreed to come back out and check the plumbing when the water is connected for a charge of $ 80. I think that is more than fair to cover his time and travel.
The standard fee was $ 325 for a home inspection. A radon test is an extra $ 150. We didn’t have the radon test done. The price is a bit steep considering you can buy a radon test kit for $ 10 at your local home improvement store. Some other inspection companies charge based on how many bedrooms the home has. The home we are buying has 5 bedrooms so the $ 325 flat rate saved us well over $ 100. Even with the extra $ 80 to come back and check the plumbing we still come out ahead of the game.
Ken had the PDF report emailed to me within several hours of completing the inspection. Great turn around and all the issues were documented for me. The only thing I would like to see in the report is digital photos of the issues. Ken takes pictures to serve as his notes and I wish those were included in the report.
Overall I had a good experience and recommend Ken to those buying a home in the south/​southwest suburbs.