See a Real Report Before You Book
Most inspectors ask you to hire them sight unseen. Here are two actual reports I wrote, so you can judge the work instead of taking my word for it.
What does a home inspection report actually look like?
A Cardinal Home Inspections report is a digital PDF built on the Texas TREC form (REI 7-6). It runs anywhere from about 30 pages for a newer home in good shape to 90 pages or more for an older house with real findings. Deficiencies are photographed, described in plain language, tagged by severity, and located by room. Length reflects how thoroughly the house was documented, not how bad it is — a long report is a complete picture, not a disaster. Two full redacted examples are published on this page so buyers can see the format before hiring anyone.
- Format
- Digital PDF, Texas TREC form REI 7-6
- Typical length
- 60 to 90+ pages
- Delivered
- Within 12 hours
- Examples here
- 2 complete reports, free, no signup
Open Either One
No email, no form, no signup. They open straight in your browser.
A Brand New Build
A house nobody had ever lived in — and the report still runs to sixty-one pages. Missing drain pan, boot flashing with improper shingle coverage, a service disconnect that isn't there, wood in contact with concrete. None of it is the builder being careless; it's what happens when a house is finished fast by a lot of different hands. Read this one if somebody has told you a new home doesn't need inspecting.
Open the PDF — 61 pages, 4.8 MBAn Older Home With Real Findings
Ninety pages, heavily photographed, with genuine problems including water damage and unfinished repairs. Worth reading if you want to see how I separate what matters from what doesn't.
Open the PDF — 90 pages, 5.3 MBHow These Were Redacted
These belong to real clients who hired me to look at real houses. Before publishing them I removed every detail that could identify anybody:
- Client names — buyers and sellers both
- Real estate agent names, on both sides of the deal
- Street addresses, and the city or town
- Inspection dates
- Any photo showing a house number, a street sign, or a mailbox
The redaction is permanent. The information wasn't covered with a black box you could remove — it was deleted from the file. I checked the extracted text and the raw file data afterward to be sure.
What I left in: my name and my TREC licence number. You should know who wrote a report you're using to judge my work.
Why I Publish These at All
Hiring an inspector is oddly blind. You're asked to pay several hundred dollars for a document you've never seen, from someone you've never met, on a deadline.
So here are two of them, in full. If the writing is clear and the photos are useful, that tells you something. If it isn't, that tells you something too — and you should hire somebody else.
Read the Long One
The 90-page report is the more useful of the two. It has genuine problems in it — water damage, unfinished repairs, a garage fire-rating issue — and it shows how I describe something serious without turning it into a scare.
Sixty Seconds on Reading a Report
Sixty seconds, no jargon. Same thing I'd tell you standing in the driveway.
Go Deeper
Once you've looked at one, these explain the rest of the process.
What Happens During an Inspection
The five steps before the report arrives.
Read moreAfter Your Inspection
How to read it, sort it, and act on it.
Read moreReport Glossary
Look up any term you see in these PDFs.
Read moreBuyer's Inspection
What a buyer's inspection covers.
Read moreCardinal DealGuard
Verifying the repairs actually got done.
Read moreStart Here
New to all this? Begin here.
Read moreWant One of These on Your House?
Book online in about two minutes, or call and I'll answer whatever the reports made you wonder about.
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