I'm trying to line up a third party inspector to make a couple of periodic inspections (phase inspections) of my home as it is built with the idea of catching any problems/defects early on so they can be most easily rectified before they become or cause major issues. My builder is totally on board with this idea - he even suggested it first when we were negotiating contract terms although I had already been thinking about it.

Today, after doing some web searches for possible inspectors in my area, I called up three different people who seemed to have the appropriate credentials. I told each one what I was looking for and asked if they were available for that kind of work. All said yes. Then, after discussing in general terms what the service was likely to cost and providing them with information re the size of my house so they could prepare a bid, I asked each if they would provide me with some references that I could begin checking. In all three cases, the inspectors acted like my asking for references was some kind of AN INSULT! One told me he quit providing references once he became a "something." Whatever that something was, it meant nothing to me. For all I know it could have been the home-inspection equivalent of winning the Nobel prize in physics or it could have had about as much meaning as a kid's tin sheriff's badge. The first inspector said that if I needed to check references, then he probably wasn't the inspector for me! I thanked him for his time and hung up. Ultimately, not one of the three was willing to provide references and one gave me a song-and-dance about how I was unlikely to find any certified inspector that would provide references because inspectors are all the "ultimmate independent personalities" who don't want to work for other people and don't like rules, etc!

Huh? What does that have to do with anything? I am totally flummoxed. What gives here???? Is this normal among home inspectors or did I just somehow manage to land on three crazies in a row?

With so many different organizations certifying home inspectors - so far I've found NACHI, ASHI, AAHI, NAHI, HFI, and NABIE - and with each one claiming to be the "best certifying organization", how is a homeowner like me supposed to assess whether a particular home inspector knows what he/she is doing or whether I'll be lucky if they know anything more about what to look for in a home than I do myself?

Am I crazy to want them to provide me with references who can tell me, "I hired Mr. A and he found X, Y, and Z that needed to be fixed and saved me a ton of money and hassles down the road" or "I hired Mr. B and the only things he mentioned on his report were cosmetic issues that I had already mentioned to my builder but three years later I found out that the window flashings in my entire house were installed wrong allowing water to enter the walls and leaving me with hundreds of thousands of dollars of repair bills."

If you've ever hired a third party home inspector to do phase inspections of your home as you built it, would you please chime in with your experiences? How did you find your inspector? What qualifications did you look for? What kinds of certifications are meaningful and which are meaningless? Was your inspector willing to provide references? Did you check those references? What did your inspector actually inspect? Did he/she find any issues/problems that you were not already aware of? Did your inspector overlook defects that you feel he/she should have caught? Anything else you can tell me?

I did my homework and feel confident that I've found a great builder but everyone is human and can make mistakes so having another set of knowledgeable eyes watching over the project seems like it would be a good thing. But I'm not willing to waste my money on charletons and when someone isn't willing to provide references, well....

And, if there are any certified home inspectors out there, I'd REALLY like to hear from you. Please reassure me that the three guys I talked to today are nut-jobs and not representative of your profession as a whole. Or else, explain to me just WHY home inspectors should be exempt from the general rule that when one is looking for a job - whether as an employee or as an independent consultant - you provide references who will vouch for the quality of work you've previously performed!