The Consumer Advocate's Guide to Home Inspection: Avoiding the Nightmare of Purchasing a Money Pit [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Barry Stone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 2002

Find the dangers are lurking inside your new home. Put ""The House Detective"" on the Case!

100% of home inspections reveal either a series of defects or safety hazards. And every home inspection can result in a renegotiation of the terms of sale, that is, if homebuyers understand their options. Barry Stone, author of the definitive guide on this issue, The Consumer Advocate's Guide to Home Inspection, can offer the knowledge you need in order to understand how to benefit from the home inspection process.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"fascinating reading...on my scale of 1 to 10, this outstanding book rates an off-the-chart 12." -- Robert J. Bruss, Tribune Media Services

About the Author

Barry Stone is America’s de facto expert on home inspection and real estate disclosure. During his 33-year career as a contractor, tradesman, and home inspector, he has evaluated more than 7,000 homes, hotels, shopping centers, and other commercial buildings. He began writing weekly columns in 1993 to alert buyers and sellers about common building defects and residential safety hazards. His Inspector’s in the House column appears in more than 120 newspapers and online via hundreds of Web sites. In addition, he is a frequent guest on television and radio programs nationwide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing; illustrated edition edition (November 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793160324
• ISBN-13: 978-0793160327
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,744,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I absolutely do NOT recommend this book. Nothing but filler., February 11, 2005

By 

J. Sundquist (New York) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Consumer Advocate's Guide to Home Inspection: Avoiding the Nightmare of Purchasing a Money Pit (Paperback)

The first 120 pages of the book do nothing but drone on and on about why you should get a home inspection done and about the legal liabilities of the inspectors. I think most people who've bought the book have probably already decided to use an inspector and don't need to be told through 120 pages that they should!

Every other page is a reprint of a question that someone had sent him in his newspaper articles and are mostly redundant.

For example, he'll tell you that in most parts of the country Inspectors don't consider swimming pools to be part of the inspection. He'll then use up a full page for a q&a letter that says, "Barry, I recently got an inspection done and the inspector didn't include the swimming pool in the report. Wasn't he supposed to do this?".

I consider all of the Q&A letters to be redundant and insulting my intelligence by assuming I need the point repeated like a preschooler. It is nothing more than filler so that you won't realize you are buying what is essentially a 75 page book that is nothing more than a checklist.

Lastly, once the interesting part of the book commences (the checklist) he puts up pictures of common problems. The problem is that the pictures are black and white and are so small that you can't even see what the problem he's describing in the picture actually looks like!

In short, I think you could find the checklists you need for free on the internet and skip this book. It is nothing like what I expected based on the title.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God for Barry Stone, November 15, 2003

By 

Ryan McGuffin (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Consumer Advocate's Guide to Home Inspection: Avoiding the Nightmare of Purchasing a Money Pit (Paperback)

I bought this book to help through the process of buying a home that I had inspected already but felt as if the inspection wasn't accurate. The inspector found barely anything wrong with the 50 year old home I was buying. I was concerend, especially considering the inspector was a personal friend of my real estate agent. I chose this book over others due to Barry's national status as a columnist and after reading it, I hired my own inspector based upon Barry's insights. What I learned about the home in terms of what had not been disclosed to me was enough to consider action against both my agent and home inspector. Above all else, the old furnace was emitting hazardous fumes into the home. Thank God for Barry and this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great teaching tool for homeowners, January 9, 2003

By 

"jt5150" (Upland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Consumer Advocate's Guide to Home Inspection: Avoiding the Nightmare of Purchasing a Money Pit (Paperback)

Mr. Stone has managed once again to provide the consumer with a wealth of practical knowledge. His easy-going nature and vast experience is translated into a must read for any potential, or current, homeowner as well as anyone in the real estate and inspection professions.