Good News Home Inspections Inc.

In April 2008, I hired Richard Crook of Bad News Home Inspections, sorry, I mean Richard Cook of Good News Home Inspections to do an inspection on a home I had signed a contract on to purchase in Gwinnett County, Georgia, since my latino ReMax realtor Victor Jayson Mejia had recommended his best bud Richard Cook for home inspection. It's as simple as looking into yellow pages. Always, find your own real estate inspector especially when buying a home out of foreclosure like I was. Jayson was anxious for a sale because even picked me up from my job and drove me to the closing attorney's office.

On day of the inspection, Richard arrived in an old convertible BMW instead of a pick up truck. As he arrived and began to inspect, Jayson drove me in his car to show another home in Norcross that I was considering for leasing out rooms as the home being inspected was going to be occupied by me, my girlfriend and her two teen children. All the foreclosed homes Jayson had shown me had locks on every bedroom door as if they were all leasing out rooms before abandoning them into foreclosures due to a mixture of The Great Recession and anti-illegal immigrant laws that were introduced. At that time nearly every fifth home in the county was under foreclosure, including my girlfriend's which had brought her to me. In a couple of hours Jayson dropped me back at home.

When I came back, front yard was wet and getting wetter due to water that was gushing out of an outdoors faucet located in front of the home. As I stepped inside and saw Richard, I asked him about the water. Richard peaked outside and said: "I must have left the water running", and ran downstairs to shut the water off when he could have just stepped out and turned the open faucet shut. He came back up said he was done with the inspection except that he could not check out the furnace and water heater due to the gas leak at the meter outside. He took me to the gas meter which was located on right side of the home, turned the gas on and there was smell of gas if you get close enough. He said the gas was leaking from the union on the gas meter outside.

Richard then ran over to his BMW parked in the driveway, reached into the trunk of his BMW and got out a natural gas detection meter to demonstrate his expertise in natural gas, and behold, there was a gas leak indeed. But he could have instead gotten a couple of large ranches out of the trunk of his BMW and tightened the union, check out the furnace and water heater and be done with it, assuming he did inspect the rest of the house. Even though Richard had turned the gas on, he claimed he was not allowed to mess with the gas meter and turned the gas off. I later learnt that in his written report he had stated that water heater and furnace weren't working with no mention of gas leak. I'm sure he loosened the union so he wouldn't have to test the water heater and furnace, neither of which, as it turned out later, coincidentally worked.

Guy from the gas company came the next morning and used two ranches to tighten the union but did not turn the gas on because there was no access to inside the house that morning. I then emailed Richard to come finish the inspection as he had promised to do. His first response was: "Yes, When I'm in that area I'll be happy to." Seeing the ten day window for inspections was slipping by, I phoned and emailed Richard again. This time his response was: "I'll be in touch in the next couple of days ,my grand daughter is in a various serious situation." Would you hire a home inspector who uses the word "various" in place of very? Thus the ten day window for inspection passed.

I complained to Jayson but Jayson assured me that home inspectors carry a million dollar insurance coverage for situations just like this one. I later learnt that home inspections last between four and five hours on a 4-bedroom home and Richard was done in a little over two hours, during which I was distracted by Jayson so I don't even know if he did anything or just sat out in his BMW smoking weed. Roof was rotten above the garage door. Richard's home inspection report stated that roof appeared to be fine except "not all parts of roof were visible." Granted that he couldn't accomodate a ladder in his BMW, this part of the roof was visible just as you pull into the driveway. All it would have taken was an experienced eye to notice the rot.

Despite his verbal assurances and written promises Richard didn't do a damn thing. Needless to say repairs costed me a bundle but despite paying property taxes on county appraisal of $197,000, I couldn't even sell that home in 2011 for what I had paid for it in foreclosure. I didn't live this far south before. I had never seen termite damage before. I couldn't tell the difference between rotten wood and termite damage. Richard's inspection did not encompass termite inspection, for which he recommended a termite inspector. Luckily termite damage was limited to a few floor boards by the front door.

Above - my first email to Richard Cook.

Richard Cook's qualifications can be judged from his poor spellings and grammar.

Below - my second email to Richard Cook.