Questions buyers ask.

Three to four days is typical. In spring it can stretch to a week, so book as soon as your offer is accepted rather than waiting on the attorney review — the date is easy to move and hard to find.

No, and the report will be the same either way. But the last hour is worth being there for. Standing in the crawlspace looking at the thing I am describing is not the same as reading about it two days later.

Yes, with the seller's permission, and it is sometimes the cheapest five hundred dollars in the whole transaction. A pre-offer inspection tells you what to offer rather than what to renegotiate.

Three to four hours for a typical house. Older houses, houses with additions, and anything over 3,500 square feet run longer. I only book one inspection a day, so it takes as long as it takes.

Where it is safe and the pitch allows, yes. Where it is not — wet slate, anything over a 10/12, three storeys — I fly it. A drone photograph of a failed flashing detail is better evidence than a description from the ground.

It goes in the report as not inspected, with the reason and a photograph. An inaccessible area is a finding in its own right — nobody should be told a space is fine when nobody has been in it.

By nine the next morning, as a PDF, with the photographs embedded rather than in a separate folder. If your attorney review closes sooner than that, say so when you book and I will write it the same evening.

No. I do not do repair work and I do not take referral fees from anyone who does, which means I have no reason to shade a number in either direction. What I will tell you is which findings are worth getting a contractor's number on before you go back to the seller.

For as long as you own the house. That is not a marketing line — people call four years later about a furnace I photographed, and I still have the file.