Straight
answers.

It depends on the size and age of the home, the foundation type, and which additional services you want — a sewer scope or radon monitoring, for example. You get an exact number before you book, not a range and not a surprise at the end.

What we won't do is quote you low and add fees later. Thermal imaging is included on every inspection at no extra charge, and your report is delivered the same day. Call or text 704.918.9449 with the address and we'll price it in a few minutes.

Long enough to do it right. A small, newer home moves faster than a large older one with a crawlspace and multiple HVAC systems, so we don't quote a fixed number of hours and then race a clock to hit it.

When you book, we'll tell you roughly how much of the day to keep the house available so your agent and the sellers can plan around it.

The same day. You get a digital, photo-rich report you can read on your phone — clear photos of every issue, plain-English explanations, and no filler padding the page count.

Due diligence periods in this market are short. Waiting two or three days for a report costs you negotiating time you can't get back, so we don't make you wait.

You're welcome to come, but it isn't necessary. Your inspector does his best work focused on the house, and the more people moving through it, the easier it is to lose a detail that matters.

If you do want to be there, our suggestion is to come for the last half hour or so. That's when we can walk you through the major defects in person, point out the shutoffs and the panel, and answer questions while everything is fresh.

If you can't make it at all, you're not missing anything. The report lands the same day with photos of every issue, and it answers most people's questions before they think to ask them. Anything still unclear after you've read it — call us and we'll go through it together.

Sooner is better, but we schedule same-week as a rule and we know how tight due diligence windows get. If you're up against a deadline, call us — we'll do everything we can to fit you in.

The greater Charlotte region in both North and South Carolina. In North Carolina that includes Charlotte, Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Concord, Kannapolis, Harrisburg, Mooresville, Statesville, Matthews, Mint Hill, Pineville, Indian Trail, Stallings, Monroe, Waxhaw, Weddington, Gastonia, Belmont, Mount Holly, Denver, Lincolnton, Salisbury, Lexington, Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

In South Carolina we cover Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie, Indian Land, Clover, York and Lancaster. Outside that list? Ask anyway — we travel for the right job.

Yes. 20/20 Property Inspections is licensed to inspect in both North Carolina and South Carolina, and we carry general liability and errors & omissions insurance. Every inspector on our team holds their own state license — we don't send unlicensed help to do the work.

Every major system in the home: grounds and drainage, foundation and structure, exterior, roofing and chimney, attic and ventilation, crawlspace, interior, appliances, plumbing, water heater, electrical, and heating and cooling. Thermal imaging is included on every job at no extra charge — it finds moisture and missing insulation the naked eye walks straight past.

The full system-by-system breakdown is on our What's Covered page.

A home inspection is a visual inspection of what is readily accessible on the day we're there. We don't open walls, pull up flooring, dig up buried lines, or move your stored belongings and furniture to see behind them. If a crawlspace hatch is blocked or an attic is stacked to the rafters, we report what we couldn't reach rather than guessing.

We also don't do code enforcement — an inspection is not a code compliance inspection — and we won't promise you how many years are left in a roof or a furnace. Anyone who does is guessing.

Several things sit outside a standard inspection but are available from us as separate services: radon testing, mold testing, sewer scopes and pools. Wood-destroying insect reports, septic systems and wells are handled by separate specialists — tell us and we'll point you to the right one.

Yes, on every inspection, at no additional cost. Most companies in this market treat it as a paid upgrade. We don't — a temperature difference behind a wall is often the only sign of an active leak or a failing seal, and we'd rather find it than sell it.

An appraiser works for your lender and answers one question: what is this property worth? An inspector works for you and answers a different one: what condition is it actually in?

An appraisal will not tell you the water heater is leaking or the panel has a double-tapped breaker. Passing an appraisal says nothing about whether the house is sound.

No — and that's deliberate. An inspector who also sells repairs has a financial reason to find problems, and the licensing rules we work under prohibit it for exactly that reason.

Our only product is an honest opinion about the house. What we will do is tell you plainly what matters, what can wait, and what kind of contractor you need.

You get the facts, in writing, with photos, the same day — and then the decision is yours and your agent's. We don't tell people to walk away and we don't talk anyone into a house.

A major finding isn't automatically a dead deal. It's usually a negotiation, a repair request, or a specialist's second look. Call us once you've read the report and we'll talk it through with you.

Yes, and this is the one people skip most often. New does not mean flawless — houses are built fast by many different crews, and the municipal inspector checks code compliance, not workmanship or whether your systems were installed correctly.

The builder's inspector works for the builder. We work for you, and on new construction we routinely find items worth far more than the inspection costs — while they're still the builder's problem to fix.

It's an inspection done after framing, wiring, plumbing and ductwork are in but before the drywall goes up — the last moment anyone can see the bones of the house.

Some of the most expensive mistakes in a new home get sealed behind drywall permanently: a notched joist, a missing strap, a duct that was never connected. Once it's covered, finding it means cutting the wall open. Ask your builder for the drywall date and call us a few days ahead.

Most builder warranties run twelve months from closing. An 11-month inspection is a full inspection done just before that window shuts, so every defect gets documented while the builder is still on the hook to fix it.

Schedule it around month ten so you have time to submit the list. We always find items for it — settling cracks, trim separation, HVAC balance, grading that has shifted through a full year of weather.

Yes — that's a pre-listing or seller's inspection, and it's one of the most underused tools in this market. You find the deal-breakers before a buyer's inspector does, fix them on your own schedule and at your own price, and go to market knowing exactly what's coming.

We also publish a free seller's checklist to get the house ready before any inspector arrives.

Yes. We inspect the unit itself and the systems serving it — HVAC, water heater, electrical, plumbing, interior, appliances and windows — plus whatever exterior and structural components we can readily access.

Common elements like the roof or shared walls are usually the HOA's responsibility, but what's behind your own walls is yours, and it still needs looking at.

Yes. Pools, commercial buildings, detached shops and barns, and plenty of one-off requests that came in simply because someone picked up the phone and asked. If it's a property and you need to know its condition, ask us — the answer is usually yes.

It can be, and more often than people expect. The EPA rates much of the greater Charlotte region as a moderate radon zone, and individual homes here routinely test above the EPA's action level of 4.0 pCi/L. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas — you can't see it, smell it or taste it — and it is the leading cause of lung cancer among people who have never smoked.

The important part: radon has nothing to do with a home's age, price or condition. Two identical houses on the same street can test very differently, because the gas comes up out of the ground beneath them. A brand-new home is not exempt. The only way to know about the house you're buying is to test that house — we place a continuous monitor and you have results in about two days.

If the home is on a public sewer line and has any age on it, we'd say yes. The lateral line running from the house to the street belongs to the homeowner, not the city — so a collapse or a root blockage is your bill, and it is frequently a five-figure one.

Older Charlotte-area neighborhoods carry the usual suspects: clay tile that cracks and lets roots in, aging cast iron, and — in homes built from roughly the 1940s through the early 1970s — the tar-paper pipe known as Orangeburg, which deforms and collapses with age. Mature trees anywhere near the line raise the odds considerably. It's worth doing on new construction too, where we sometimes find construction debris left in the line.

A camera down the line before closing costs a fraction of finding out afterward.

When there's a reason to: a musty smell, visible growth, a past leak or flood, a damp crawlspace or basement, or someone in the household with allergies or respiratory trouble. Humid Carolina summers give mold plenty of opportunity, particularly in crawlspaces.

Mold is a health question before it's ever a visible one — what matters is what's in the air, and that takes a lab, not a look. If we find conditions during an inspection that warrant it, we'll tell you and you can decide.