45 minutes on site · written summary the same or next day · Moore County, NC

The due diligence window is short. The report is long.

You put a home under contract and the clock starts. Inside that window you hire a home inspector, who spends a few hours in the house and hands you a 40 or 50 page report. Every item he can see goes in it, from a missing screw on an outlet cover to "termite damage observed on structural members," and most entries end the same way: should be evaluated by a licensed contractor.

That line is how inspectors protect themselves. It leaves you, with a week or two left, trying to get a contractor to show up, look at the scary items, and put a number on them so you can go back to the seller. The contractors who will come out for free are usually the ones who aren't busy. The ones who build whole homes and six-figure remodels are on a job. Local realtors tell us this gap is the number one reason home sales fall through.

That is the gap we fill, for a fee, as a third party who is not inside the deal.

What you get for $500

45 minutes on site with a licensed general contractor

We go straight to the items the inspector flagged: foundation and framing, crawl space, moisture, termite damage, drainage and grading, roof and trade issues. We go where inspectors tend not to, into the far corners of the crawl space, because that is where the real story usually is.

The cause, not just the symptom

An inspector is trained to note what he sees. A general contractor is licensed to build the house from the ground up and works with every trade on it, so we look at the big picture: the wet soil under the girder is there because the gutters overflow and the grade runs toward the house. Fixing the wood without fixing the water is money wasted. We tell you which is which.

Real numbers, not "get it evaluated"

You leave with a preliminary repair scope and cost ranges we aim to have within 75 to 85 percent of final, with a clear note on what could move the number. Where a repair is structural, we talk to the engineer before we leave and tell you what his letter is likely to call for. Complex structural work can't be priced to the dollar in an afternoon; we say so instead of guessing.

An honest "if this were my family's home" read

What we would fix first, what can wait, and what would make us walk away. A video walkthrough when it helps, and a written summary the same or next day that you can hand to your agent and the other side.

Leverage in the negotiation

A contractor's scope with numbers is something a seller can respond to. Clients routinely recover the fee many times over in price reductions, credits, or repairs the seller agrees to make. And if the house turns out to be more than you bargained for, you find out while you can still walk away.

A real one

A buyer's inspector found termite damage on the structural members of a 1912 home. The seller's agent called us. We went under the house, found the damaged main girder with plumbing, electrical and HVAC lines running beneath it, and gave an initial repair estimate the same day with a recommendation to bring in an engineer. The engineer found more: termite and microbial damage deep in the crawl space, and the drainage problems feeding it.

The hard part: the sellers had bought that house one year earlier. Their home inspector and their termite inspector had both missed it. The termite inspector was looking for an active infestation, which is his job, and found none. Nobody was looking at the whole house. Those sellers would have paid our fee ten times over to have known.

We walked both sides through what we found. The buyers chose to terminate. The sellers now know what they own. Nobody who is honest is upset about finding what is there.

Who it's for

Buyers under contract

Especially first-time buyers whose report has red flags. You want to know what it really costs and whether to stay in the deal.

Sellers who want to keep the sale together

When the buyer's inspection raises alarms, a contractor's scope and number gives both sides something concrete to negotiate from, and a crew that can do the repairs if that is the path.

Agents

You know the deals that die in due diligence. Send both sides a clear answer instead of a contractor who never calls back.

Why a general contractor, not another inspection

Of the licenses involved in a home sale, the home inspector's is the easiest to get. That isn't a knock; an inspector does five or six hours of careful work and takes on real liability for a few hundred dollars, and a good one is worth hiring. But the report is built to limit his exposure, and he isn't licensed to fix anything he finds.

We are. Transform NC is a licensed North Carolina general contractor (license 79579) that builds whole-home remodels, additions, and structural repairs in Moore County every week. You are paying a premium for a short amount of a busy builder's time. Whether you hire us for the repairs afterward is up to you; our feelings aren't hurt either way, and that is exactly why the assessment is worth having.

Frequently Asked Questions

How fast can you come out?

Assessments are scheduled Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and we keep slots open for them. Book online, send the inspection report ahead, and we arrive knowing what to look at.

Why does it cost more than the inspection?

You are buying 45 minutes of a licensed builder's judgment on the specific items that threaten the deal, plus numbers you can negotiate with, instead of four hours of a checklist. On one of the largest financial decisions a family makes, the fee is usually recovered in the first concession.

Will the estimate hold up after I buy?

We put our assumptions in writing and tell you what would move the number. If you hire us for the work, we honor the scope we gave you; if the engineer's letter calls for more, you see that before anything is built.

How do I pay?

$500 by bank transfer when you book. Your time is held while the payment clears, then confirmed with a calendar invite.

Know what you're buying.

Pick a time, send us the inspection report, and get a straight answer before your due diligence runs out.

Book Your Assessment

Hear the whole story on the Transform Your Home podcast, Ep. 4: Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Overwhelming inspection report?