Good job on the article, Nick, but home buyers need not go out of the area to find a non-biased inspector. I’m right here. 
I’m thinking that was a typo or some kind of messed up communication.
This typo reminded me of review a competitor received a few years ago. Maybe David needed “air & emissions” insurance…
Wow, if that is true, David should probably find a different line of work. Burger flipper comes to mind.
Thought I might share this article until saw the absurd comment about the realtor inspector relationship and calling from out of town. There are an insanely amount of inspectors in our area and most realtors at least in this area give out three names so you choose. I have run across a few realtor inspector husband and wife teams lately (which I find unethical) though. I definitely agree with the should always have any home inspected though. Personally I think it should be required just like an appraisal.
“I think my real estate agent tried to get me to use one of her patty cake inspectors” is a very common concern I hear from buyers. I posted a study a couple years back showing a list of professions along with their corresponding trust levels. Real estate agents and used car salesmen were trusted the least.
What would you recommend to a homebuyer who is worried about using one of the inspectors their real estate is directing them towards?
I’m not Alan, but I recommend that home buyers do their own research which would include calling and talking to different inspectors, looking at sample reports, checking with the BBB to see if they’ve had any complaints and checking their online reviews.
Those 4 suggestions would be good to alleviate a concern about competency. But what would you recommend to a homebuyer who is worried about conflict of interest between their inspector and the local real estate agents involved in the transaction?
I can only speak from my experience doing repairs for listing agents. Every single time they bring in an inspector from out of town, they call out all sort of BS that is either 100% cosmetic or start calling for structural engineers for hairline driveway cracks with a bunch alert words on possible sinkholes loaded up with weasel language how it’s not their responsibility.
Construction practices are very local and what my AHJ might want, yours may not and in fact want something different.
See my recent thread on calling for a birdcage to get bonded or grounded. No pool. Out of town inspector.
I’m not saying there can’t be merit to what you’re saying. Getting arms length from a REA doesn’t hurt…but dragging in someone from the coast to central Florida for example is going to end up creating a bunch of unnecessary havoc.
To hire me. 
I think that after they do their due diligence in researching good inspectors, that many will go with their gut. I’ve had clients tell me that they liked all the positive reviews and my sample report, but it was the phone call that clinched it for me.
The realtor that clients have to be concerned with are ones who schedule the inspections directly. A good realtor will give their client several inspectors to choose from and let the client decide. The client could also call any inspector that the realtor doesn’t recommend.
Basically from your interview, what ABC9 viewers heard was, “Don’t trust local inspectors”, which basically throws guys like Kevin and Alan under the bus.