A home is one of life’s most important purchases. Before committing to a purchase it makes sense to learn as much as possible about any property you wish to acquire. Understanding the important differences between an appraisal and a home inspection will help you to obtain detailed information about the home’s value and condition. An Appraisal An appraisal allows the lending institution to determine if the property being purchased is suitable as security for a mortgage. For conventional mortgages, a lender will in most cases require that a professional third party assess the property to ascertain its current market value. In the case of a “high-ratio” mortgage (with a down payment of less than 20 per cent), the mortgage insurer will go through its own internal appraisal process. In particular, lenders and insurers are concerned that the property (in terms of its age, condition, and remaining economic life) constitutes a good match with the borrower and their ability to repay the mort...

Inspect it All uses Thermal Imaging with every inspection that we do for our customers.  Many innovative technologies developed for security, military and space exploration applications later find their way into industry applications that benefit us every day. That is certainly the case with thermal imaging. Breakthroughs in the late 1990s enabled manufacturers of thermal imaging cameras to marry an uncooled detector to earlier TI cameras, so that lower costs of what is technically known as a microbolometer could be brought to market. One of the major advantages of the microbolometer is that it has no moving parts and is therefore less susceptible to breakdowns. It is also less expensive to produce which allowed thermal imaging camera manufacturers to bring the price of their products down considerably.  Since that time, thermal imaging technology has allowed Inspect it All technicians to check for water intrusion without cutting through drywall or tearing up carpet....