If you are purchasing a home in Minnesota, the answer can be "both". If you are purchasing a home, you need to start with a pre-purchase 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 construction industry.  Minnesota does not regulate the practice of home inspections and does not mandate education and experience as it does for licensed general contractors and licensed Professional 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 will typically recommend analysis by a licensed professional.  Home inspectors typically observe and report.   If a potential issue is observed, further analysis is necessary.  This analysis is typically performed by a Professional Engineer with expertise in building construction and systems.  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 browser 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 building 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 a disipline of engineering that specializes in building inspections - Building Inspection Engineering.  There is also a professional organization for licensed Professional Engineers who specialize in building inspections: The National Academy of Building Inspection Engineers.  For more information on this organization, see www.nabie.org.   

Licensed Professional Engineers who practice Building Inspection Engineering can be certified as "Building Inspection Engineers" through education, experience, and knowledge by The Building Inspection Engineers Certification Institute or BIECI.   The BIECI Board reviews applications and proctors the certification exam.  For more information, see www.bieci.org.

The Principal Engineer at Advanced Consulting & Inspection has a certification in Building Inpsection Engineering from BIECI, is a member of the National Academy of Building Inspection Engineers (NABIE) and is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers (NAFE).  For more information on NAFE, please visit their website at www.nafe.org. 

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