National Building Inspectors

We used NBI for home and termite inspections for a number of years. The main issue we had originally was the uneven quality of the inspectors.
If you’re a buyer, you can end up losing a property because an issue gets blown out of proportion in an inspection and you misjudge it on that basis (which almost happened with our first inspection). If you’re a seller, you can lose a buyer that you’re in escrow with, obliging you to go back on market, taking a big hit on your pricing. If you’re the real estate agent, you can lose both the transaction and a client. So there’s a lot at stake in the quality of the inspections.
We solved this issue, for a while at least, by engaging only the owner of the company to do our inspections. In our experience, he was the only one there who did consistently good work, though he was not always available when inspections were needed.
Initially, the owner was a very pleasant, modest fellow, who welcomed constructive feedback. Over the years, his persona changed, into something quite different. It was as if success had really gone to his head. He no longer had time for common courtesies, such as responding to a simple question by email, even when given many days to do so. He took offense at the idea that customers’ names on the inspection reports they pay hundreds of dollars for should be corrected if misspelled. He became imperious and overbearing. It was a sad transformation to witness.
Fortunately, we discovered that by searching on Unilocal for home inspection companies in San Francisco, we could find some very good ones, which share our values and cover the entire Bay Area, including the South Bay. «All’s well that ends well,» as the saying goes.

I am a Realtor in the SF bay. Hands down, BEST building inspection you will find in the bay. No question. Jack is meticulously thorough. His report is laid out beautifully, thoughtfully, and user friendly with many color pictures. I had him do an inspection when I was working with a seller. When the buyers hired someone to come do an inspection for them, they kept referring to Jack’s report that I had available for ideas. Also, the buyer’s inspector told me five times that they were beyond impressed with Jack’s work and presentation. Jack and NBI are truly leaders in their industry, and I will never use anyone else.

As a real estate broker my business depends on National Building Inspectors to provide thorough home and termite inspections. I’ve used National Building Inspectors exclusively for approximately 13 years.
The initial reason I was compelled to use National Building Inspectors is because they are «unbiased». In other words, there isn’t anything in it for the company or the inspector to call out things that are not there. I once had Jack Burnett doing an inspection in a home I was listing for sale. The owners had only lived in the home two years. The owners kept the reports and inspections that were provided to them when they purchased the home. The termite report indicated there were termites and a laundry list of other Section 1 items that needed to be repaired. The total cost to remedy Section 1 was approximately $ 10,000.00.
Jack was down in the crawl space. He said he could see where the other company had tagged but there were not any termites. Sad to say, yet it is a fact of life, there are dishonest people in the world. There are also companies that will sell people something that is not needed simply in the name of profit and/​or greed.
I simply am not concerned about dishonesty or unscrupulous business practices with Jack Burnett. The man’s honestly and integrity is rock solid.
The NBI reports are easy to read complete with many color photos and color coded notes.
Jack Burnett is professional, knowledgeable and personable. He takes the time to explain issues in ways that are easy to understand. He is patient with me and my questions as well as a home buyer or home seller who may be present during the inspection.
If I have to wait to get on Jack’s schedule to complete a home or termite inspection then that is what I will do. Jack is the only inspector I want doing inspections for my clients.

Had an expedited inspection for a potential purchase scheduled recently and NBI was thorough, detailed, and professional throughout the entire process. Chief Inspector Jack Burnett spent a good 2.5 hours on all parts of the property and provided a very complete report of the condition of multiple subsystems with detailed photos and write-​ups.
Jack was able to access a very tight crawl space even though a previous home inspection company utilized by the Seller had indicated the area was inaccessible. This was important to me to rule out foundation damage and gave me the peace of mind to go on with my purchase. Very well done Jack!
Jack even took the time to explain his findings real-​time to me during the inspection — he is current and knowledgeable on building codes, and, has extensive experience at recognizing evidence of pest infestation. I know that most workers (including myself) would hate it when you were peeking over their shoulders while they were performing work, but Jack was pleasant, courteous, and informative during all aspects of his very thorough inspection.
Highly recommended — call NBI (and Jack Burnett) for your home inspection needs!

I am a Realtor in the East Bay and have recommended my clients use National Building Inspectors. I really appreciate the time Robert Swickard takes with my clients to explain his findings and answer their questions. I also really appreciate that he takes a lot of color photos and puts them in the report. I highly recommend them.

I arranged an inspection through NBI through a recommendation of my agent + these Unilocal reviews helped. Overall, I was very satisfied with the services. Don Nicks, who’s the chief inspector there, was able to come out with fairly short notice and during the inspection. He was also very flexible during the service (we decided to go with the full pest inspection after he got here, which takes more time, and he was able to do that with no problem.) Don was honest, thorough, and even funny. He listened to all of our concerns and was able to explain to all of us what he say and answer all of our questions.
There are a couple of reviews saying that they are not available for any follow-​up questions but Don was very available to us and offered us to call his cell over the weekend with any questions. Bonus: He was able to turn around the report over the weekend.
I couldn’t be happier with Don and NBI and will recommend them to anyone.

Derek Poe is the BEST!! I recommend him to all of my clients and all the agents in my office. Trustworthy, reliable and realistic. I have no doubt that he accurately asses the property and is great at explaining his findings. Reports are always neat, organized and easy to read, and only one trip to the house you can get the pest and whole home inspection done together!!!
Wouldn’t go anywhere else!

I have been a Realtor for 20 years and cannot say enough about Jack Burnett at NBI.
He is the best.

I would never hire this company. The inspector who came to our property almost blew the sale of our home because he was hypothesizing on what could potentially happen down the road — not based on any evidence he could see, just lots of «Well, this could lead to a problem in the future» type of statements. When he would say those things, I’d ask, «Can you be specific? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years??» and he would say he couldn’t pinpoint a definite time or show any concrete evidence… so not really sure why he was even saying it at all.
Not only that, but he was very defensive — to the point of being RUDE — I was shocked. Home inspectors are supposed to be neutral and state the facts, not create elaborate tall tales because their giant egos are getting in the way of being professional. This guy had a huge chip on his shoulder. Maybe the rest of the company is fine, but I would never ever ever ever hire them again for fear that the jerk would come back.

My wife and I are planning to purchase a home in the San Jose area, and our real estate broker recommended NBI to inspect the home. We met James from NBI at the home on the day of the inspection. James was on time, courteous and very thorough in his inspection. However, a couple of issues came up during the inspection that caused me to reconsider whether I would use NBI again.
First, James pointed out an area where water was pooling near the outside wall of the kitchen, near where the sink and dishwasher are located. James said, «This could be caused by a plumbing leak inside the wall or behind the dishwasher». James ran the sink and dishwasher but could not determine the source of the leak.
Also, James pointed out an elm tree in the backyard that was located «too close to the foundation of the house». James said the tree roots could cause the foundation of the house to crack, and that it may already be cracked. I asked James how we could check this, and he said «Dig away some of the decorative wood chips to expose the foundation, and go inside and remove the floor covering to check for cracks». However James said he was not allowed to do any of this himself.
So, my wife and I worked through our realtor to reschedule a follow-​up inspection with the homeowner. The homeowner works out of her home and this interrupted her work day.
I brought my brother-​in-​law along, who is an experienced home appraiser and handyman.
First we ran water in the sink and checked the area outside the kitchen wall. It was TOTALLY dry. On further investigation, we discovered water stains where water had run from a potted plant nearby. NOTHING to do with the kitchen plumbing. The we dug away the wood chips near the foundation, behind the elm tree. Literally a one minute job. NO CRACKS. My brother-​in-​law placed a level on the living room floor in the same area. PERFECTLY LEVEL. No cracks in the wall to indicate a shifting foundation.
In summary, even minimal on-​site investigation by James would have resolved both issues without having to disturb the homeowner and get us upset.

We were recommended this company through our broker. The inspector was very pleasant and told us the property had good bones and needed minimal work. Work that could be done over time. Since this was an income property we planned our priorities and purchase price on this verbal assurance. NBI does not perform work, so we called out a contractor to begin the work cited by NBI once escrow closed. In the course of this we were told that the damage was much more severe than noted. A lot of this analysis, which was visible, would have come with years of familiarity of stucco buildings and water patterns.
It turns out we have over $ 100k worth of work that is needed to be done. How is that «good bones»? We attempted to work something out with NBI and they have all but washed there hands of us. They have their insurance company managing the matter, along with their lawyer, and are not willing to acknowledge their err.
Bad business ethic and I dont recommend them.

Excellent, thorough honest and professional. Customer service is above and beyond any call of duty. We are homesellers and had them do a whole house inspection so we could fix any issues prior to showing house — They were here for over an hour and checked out with care but with respect.
Report was easy to read and recommendations made sense — contractors could easily see what needed to be done and give bids, then complete with minimum of confusion.
Robert and James have been our inspectors and they are excellent. Timelines are often short during the offer/​contingency periods — they went above and beyond to be sure everything went smoothly and was complete. I hope the people that sell to us use them as I now know that their standards are tough but once you get signoff, it’s gold.
Due to no fault of theirs — one of our buyers hired a psycho off brand inspector who managed to actually damage the house siding and doorframes in an attempt to create work, then hold the deal hostage for signoff unless using them and their inflated repair costs ($ 6K plus). Thankfully NBI called ‘em on it — the deal fell through but they’re even coming back to clear or clarify that some of the psycho findings were created, or false.
It should be noted that the office staff has been great — Jessica really works well with the field team and is great to work with in scheduling and getting reports going to the assorted corners of the universe. Thanks, Jessica!
Very reasonably priced as well — give them a call.

Being a first-​time home buyer who doesn’t have prior experience in construction, I must trust an expert for advice. James Lowe is the inspector from NBI who conducted home and pest inspection for my future home, and what a great experience it was learning from him. James did an amazingly thorough job with the inspection including plumbing, roofing, heating, electrical, and drainage. With his background as a plumber, James was particularly helpful in describing at length improvements needed to upgrade the pipes beneath the house that were very difficult reach, requiring crawling around to find the root cause of a puddle.
James is extremely professional, knowledgeable, and went above and beyond his role to provide me useful tips from conserving energy at the place to monitoring gradual wear and tear of certain parts of the house. He also kindly included costs estimates for repair, so I would know in the future if a contractor overcharges me for a project.
James’s inspection report was delivered timely and was written in a clear, detailed, and informative manner — something a layman could comprehend. His photographs and color-​coded mark-​ups that supported his findings were extremely helpful. James welcomed my follow-​up questions by telephone, and really put my mind at ease knowing that my place is inspected by an expert who is so thorough and knowledgeable. His assessment will serve as a guide for future home improvements.
With the fabulous experience I had with the James and NBI (all NBI staff were very courteous, friendly, and professional); I highly recommend James’s work and the company to any potential and existing homeowners.

They only assigned $$$$ costs estimates to termites which is the industry standards. There are a few inspectors out there who will assign costs to any property that needs work. NBI is definitely NOT one of them and will cost you a couple of hundred dollars more than average.
Worst of all, the inspector does not return calls. I will never use NBI again.

Its been a few years since I have bought a house (25 years) Things have changed .So really I don’t know a lot about it. Although I do know good customer service both on the phones and in the field and found that N.B.I has both .I talked to Jessica and another young lady in the office .I had to change times and ad things at the last moment They were very nice and patient as I like many other rookies had many questions I felt I needed answering right away. They sent out a very nice man named Don In uniform very clean very professional with all his tools in good working order a nice clean truck, ladder etc .He was there over three hours .When he was done he went over everything with my wife and I and answered all our questions with a smile on his face (He even attached a plastic cover on a light switch for us the painter’s forgot) not a big deal but I really appreciated it. So if your un sure like I was before I used this company I really hopes this helps you make an informed descison. Thank National.

I have been a realtor for 30 years and have used several Home Inspectors in my career. When I had National Building Inspection do a report for a buyer of mine they made my client buyer feel like they had a real professional working for them. I would recomend them any time.

I have been using NBI for about 7 years. They are an immense asset to the Real Estate industury. They are very professional and incredibly helpful. During the entire process of an inspection, they will go above and beyond to make it a pleasant and painless experience. NBI is also very accommodating to everyone involved, their schedule, needs, and concerns. They are a true pleasure to work with! I would not use any other company (if I can help it)
Leslie
Prudential california Realty

We needed an inspection done on a unit we had put a contract on in a very short time frame, and NBI was able to do so. The inspector did a pretty thorough job and was easy to work with and answered our questions.