(It Depends on How Many Ceiling Fans You Have!)

One of the most common questions I get from home buyers is: “How long does a home inspection take?”

The short answer is that most home inspections take between two and four hours, depending on the size, age, condition, and complexity of the home.

The more entertaining answer? It depends on how many ceiling fans, casement windows, and mini-splits the house has… and whether Uncle Bob the contractor decided to come along.

A thorough home inspection isn’t just walking around with a flashlight and pointing at things. Every accessible window, plumbing fixture, electrical outlet, appliance, heating and cooling system, attic, crawl space, and roof component has to be evaluated.

Along the way, there are a few things that can significantly slow the process down.

Here are some of the biggest offenders:

1. Casement Windows: The Escape Room of Home Inspection

Double-hung windows? Easy.

Sliding windows? No problem.

Casement windows? Every manufacturer apparently held a secret meeting and agreed there should be 17 different ways to open them.

Do I push? Do I pull? Is there a hidden latch? Why is there a second hidden latch?

Then comes the real challenge… Getting them closed tightly enough that they actually lock!

Multiply that by 20 windows and you’ve suddenly added another 30 minutes to the inspection.

2. Ceiling Fans: Spin Cycle

Every ceiling fan should be operated.

That means finding the wall switch…

…which doesn’t work.

Then finding another switch.

Still nothing.

Then discovering the previous owner installed a remote.

Which is nowhere to be found.

Eventually, after pulling the chain exactly fourteen times, the fan finally comes to life!

Now repeat this for every bedroom, living room, porch, office, basement, and bonus room.

Some homes have enough ceiling fans to qualify for federal wind energy grants.

3. Mini-Split Heating and Cooling Systems

Mini-splits are fantastic. They’re efficient. They’re quiet.

They’re also scattered throughout the house like Easter eggs.

Each indoor unit should be tested individually.

Each remote has approximately 47 buttons.

Some remotes are labeled entirely with symbols.

Some are missing.

MOST have dead batteries.

Some vanished sometime during the Obama administration.

Then you wait…

… because mini-splits don’t instantly change temperatures.

It’s basically speed dating with HVAC equipment.

4. The Inspection Audience

Most inspections have an audience.

Sometimes it’s curious kids.

Sometimes it’s an over-protective father-in-law who’s convinced the house was “built better back then.”

Sometimes it’s the brother-in-law who’s “been in construction for years” and has an opinion about absolutely everything.

Kids usually ask great questions.

“Whatcha doing?”

“Can I help?”

“What’s in the attic?”

“Do you inspect dinosaurs?”

The contractor relative, on the other hand, often provides a running commentary.

“I’d never do it that way.”

“My buddy can fix that for fifty bucks.”

None of this is a problem—we enjoy educating buyers and answering questions—but conversations have a funny way of turning a two-hour inspection into a four-hour inspection.

5. Smart Homes That Aren’t Feeling Very Smart

The lights are controlled by an app.

The thermostat requires a password.

The garage door only works from someone’s phone.

The front door has facial recognition.

The dishwasher needs Wi-Fi.

Technology is wonderful…until nobody remembers the login information.

6. Hidden Electrical Panels

The electrical panel is one of the most important parts of the inspection.

Finding it shouldn’t require GPS coordinates.

Common hiding places include:

• Behind shelving
• Inside closets
• Behind hanging coats
• In finished storage rooms
• Behind holiday decorations from 1998
• Behind approximately 400 cans of paint that someone is definitely going to use someday

Sometimes I feel less like a home inspector and more like an archaeologist.

7. Crawl Spaces Designed by Hobbits

Technically…

Yes…

There is a crawl space.

Realistically, it’s a twelve-inch opening leading into what appears to be the first scene of an adventure movie.

Every trip requires:

• A flashlight
• A camera
• A respirator
• Knee pads
• Optimism
• The hope that today’s not the day I meet the family raccoon.

8. Attics Filled with Forty Years of Christmas Decorations

The attic hatch opens. Great!

Except someone thoughtfully stacked every family heirloom directly underneath it. Boxes… Artificial Christmas trees… Suitcases… Baby clothes… Wrapping paper dating back to the Reagan administration.

It’s amazing how often the only way into the attic is blocked by everything no one wants to throw away.

9. GFCI Receptacles Playing Hide-and-Seek

One bathroom outlet doesn’t reset.

Because the reset button is…

…in the garage, behind the spare refrigerator.

Or behind the basement freezer.

Or outside.

Or protected by another GFCI that’s protected by another GFCI because apparently someone wanted electrical nesting dolls.

Finding the right one can become its own treasure hunt.

10. Burned-Out Light Bulbs

Is the switch bad?

Is the fixture defective?

Is there no power?

Or…

…is it just a burned-out light bulb?

Unfortunately, the only way to know is by investigating further.

One inexpensive light bulb can easily steal several minutes of troubleshooting.

11. The Mystery Switch

Every house has one.

You flip it. Nothing happens.

You flip it again. Still nothing.

Twenty minutes later you discover it controls a single outlet hidden behind the guest room dresser. Mystery solved.

So… How Long Does a Home Inspection Take?

For most homes, you should plan on two to four hours for a comprehensive home inspection. Larger homes, older homes, homes with multiple heating systems, detached buildings, or simply homes with a lot of the features listed above may take even longer. And that’s a good thing.

A quality home inspection shouldn’t be rushed. You’re making one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, and your inspector should take the time to thoroughly evaluate the home’s major systems—not race to the finish line.

So if your inspection takes a little longer than expected, don’t worry.

It’s probably the casement windows.

Or the ceiling fans.

Or the mini-split remote.

Or Uncle Bob explaining—for the seventh time—how he’d “fix that in an afternoon.”

We’ll smile, nod… and keep inspecting.