If you are purchasing a home in Minnesota, the answer is usually "both". If you are purchasing a home, you need to start with a home inspection. When you hire a home inspector in Minnesota, you can typically expect an unlicensed generalist who has anywhere from very little to very extensive training and/or experience in the building industry.  Minnesota does not regulate the practice of home inspections and does not mandate education and experience as it does for general contractors and engineers. You need to choose your home inspector carefully.  Advanced Consulting & Inspection does not offer prepurchase home inspections and does not recommend home inspectors.

A home inspection will give you the “Big Picture” of the house based on visual observations only.  If the home inspector suspects or identifies the need for analysis of any specific systems the structure, they should recommend the appropriate licensed professional.  This is typically a Professional Engineer with expertise analyzing particular systems or the entire structure. The requirement for this analysis is becoming routine in Minnesota.  In fact, it is very risky to purchase a home without it.  There have been many lawsuits involving the purchase of homes that were later found to have serious structural defects, structural damage from moisture intrusion, or mold which was not detected during the standard prepurchase home inspection.  A quick web search for "mold" and "home" will return pages of content that discuss this serious issue. 

The term “Professional Engineer” does not indicate that an engineer has training or experience conducting home inspections, since there are many fields of engineering.  The term refers to an engineer that is registered to practice a specific disipline of engineering within a specific state.  It is very similar to the medical field, where doctors are licensed by each state to practice a specific disipline of medicine.  There is also a practice of engineering that specializes in building inspections.  There is a certification program for licensed professional engineers in the buidling inspection field.  For more information on this certification program, see www.nabie.org/certification.asp.   Many of the engineers that practice in this area are members of NABIE (National Academy of Building Inspection Engineers).  The engineers at Advanced Consulting & Inspection are active within NABIE.  For more information, please visit their website at www.nabie.org.   Mark Soderlund, P.E., has a certification in Building Inpsection Engineering and is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers.  For more information on NAFE, please visit their website at www.nafe.org. 

We recommend that anyone who is purchasing a home in Minnesota have both a pre-purchase home inspection and moisture probe testing.  If either the home inspection report or the moisture probe test report reveal structural defects or evidence of moisture intrusion, please contact us.