What You Are Actually Buying
An inspection is not reassurance. Anyone selling reassurance for $299 is selling something they cannot deliver, because the house is whatever it is and a report does not change it. What a report changes is when you find out, and who is holding the bill at that moment.
Three concrete returns come out of it. Findings you can act on before you own them. A wind mitigation report that documents insurance credits nobody applies unless somebody records them. And a written, photographed baseline of the house, which is the only way to tell a new stain from an old one when you are standing in the same hallway in 2028.
The New Construction Case
West of I-95 this is not a close call, and the arithmetic is unusually clean.
Month eleven is the deadline nobody has in their calendar. Most builder warranties run one year on workmanship and finishes, two years on systems, ten on structural. Almost every real finding on a new house is workmanship, which means it lives inside the coverage that expires first, on an anniversary that passes without a letter or a reminder. An inspection at month eleven turns those findings into a claim. At month thirteen the identical finding is yours.
What Gets Found
A flex duct pulled off its boot above a bedroom ceiling, so the room never cools and the owner spends two summers blaming the thermostat. A bathroom exhaust fan discharging into the attic instead of through the roof. Kick-out flashing missing where a roof plane meets a sidewall, which is a small piece of metal now and a stucco and framing repair later. Insulation thin or absent over the far corner of the attic. Grading that was never brought back after the trades left, sending water toward the slab. None of it is visible from the living room and all of it is documented in an afternoon.
Against a Free City Inspection
Municipal inspections verify code compliance at specific milestones. That is a real and useful thing and it is not the same question you are asking. Nobody performed those on your behalf, they do not produce a defect list, and no one hands you a photographed report you can send to a builder. A certificate of occupancy means the work satisfied the code officials. It does not mean the ductwork is connected.
The Resale Case
East of the interstate, off Minton Road, the stock runs 1960s to 1980s and the return shows up in the negotiation instead.
Cast iron drain lines past fifty years, original service panels, aluminum branch wiring from the 1965 to 1975 window, a roof either replaced once or overdue. Each of those is a number, and a number with a photograph and a contractor's quote behind it is something a seller has to answer. That is the difference between asking for a discount because the house feels old and asking for $9,000 because the drain line is failing and here is the camera footage. The common issues page covers what turns up on both sides of I-95.
Using It Properly
Pull the items that affect safety, insurability or a major system. Get a quote on anything you intend to ask money for. Ask on those and let the loose towel bar go. Forwarding the entire report with a request to knock something off is how a good report gets wasted.
The Insurance Case
This one is pure arithmetic and it repeats every year you own the house.
The wind mitigation form records roof covering and permit date, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment, roof geometry, secondary water resistance and opening protection. Post-2002 construction generally earns strong credits, which is exactly why new-build owners skip the report: they assume the credits are automatic. They are not. An insurer applies what is documented. The report is free with a full inspection, which makes skipping it the single least defensible decision available on this page. On the older side, a 4-point at $75 alongside a full inspection is what a carrier will require anyway at around thirty years.
What Is Included and What Is Separate
Worth being precise about, because it decides who you call next.
The Roof
Part of every full inspection, walked where the pitch, covering and conditions allow, with the method recorded per slope so you always know how each one was assessed. A standalone roof inspection from $100 exists for when the roof is the only open question, usually ahead of an insurance renewal. Buying it alongside a full inspection is paying twice for one thing.
The Foundation
Houses here are slab-on-grade, so there is no basement and no crawlspace to enter. What gets reported is the visible evidence: cracking and its pattern, floor slope, doors and windows out of square, separation at joints, and drainage pushing water back at the slab on a flat lot. Where the evidence warrants it, the report says so plainly and names a Florida-licensed professional engineer as the next call, because an engineer is who evaluates a structural question and stamps the answer. An inspector who declares a crack definitely harmless is going past what the license covers.
For Sellers
A pre-sale inspection buys you information while you still control what happens next. You choose the contractor, you choose the timing, and you fix it at a normal price rather than at inspection-period speed. The alternative is learning the same facts during a buyer's ten-day window, when the leverage has moved across the table and the repair quote arrives with a deadline attached.
Booking
Full inspections from $299 with the schedule published on the cost page, no travel fee in 32904, report inside 24 hours. See what to have ready on the how to prepare page, check a license first on the licensed inspectors page, or get a real figure from the instant quote tool.