Finding leaks that leave no visible evidence

The above image is a great example of a roof leak that appeared during an inspection on a rainy day. This leak had no visible evidence because of how new it was, however, the thermal imaging picked it up easily.

This image saved the buyers thousands of dollars in repairs that they did not have to pay for.

The reason it works is that water coming through a roof doesn’t stain a ceiling right away. It soaks into the decking and insulation first, and it can sit up there a good while before anything shows on the drywall where anyone would notice. What the camera picks up is the temperature difference, because wet material holds and releases heat differently than the dry material around it.

Telling active leaks from old stains

In an opposite scenario, when used in a home that already has stains, thermal imaging is able to pick up areas of high moisture indicating that the stain is still wet and that the leak may still be active. Or confirm that repairs have been successful and the area is dry. This one comes up a lot, because a ceiling stain on its own tells you almost nothing. It could be an active leak, or it could be something that was fixed properly six years ago and just never got painted over. Those two situations are worth very different amounts of money in a negotiation.

So to answer the question, If the inspector is using thermal imaging the rain can help the inspector see any newly formed leaks and verify whether or not existing stains are active leaks. If they aren’t using thermal imaging they are likely missing these problems.

This is why Panther Inspections uses thermal imaging on all of our inspections at no additional charge to our clients. There’s a fuller breakdown of what the camera can and can’t do, including its limitations, on our thermography page.

If you are curious to see more of what thermal imaging can do check out our other posts here.

If you have water stains and want to know more about them, a thermal imaging consultation could be the solution for you.

If you or a friend are looking for a great home inspection with the added peace of mind that thermal imaging provides and a whole host of other options, look no further.

Updated July 2026

The post How Does Rain Help Inspections first appeared on Panther Inspections.

Disconnected Items

During a home inspection if something is disconnected it won’t be inspected or will have a very limited inspection. This can mean a sink, appliance or air conditioner doesn’t have any visual defects, yet does not function correctly when reconnected and operated. That’s the part worth understanding. A disconnected item isn’t a passed item, it’s an unknown, and it stays an unknown until somebody plugs it in and runs it.

Utilities Are Off

If utilities are turned off it will affect how much of many different systems the inspector can evaluate. For instance, if the gas is turned off to the home many different appliances like the water heater, furnace, and oven can’t be tested. Therefore, limiting the inspector’s ability to find issues other than those that are visible without operating the unit. Furthermore, any issues not found during the initial inspection have the potential to cost the clients lots of time and money in the future.

This one comes up most often on vacant homes and foreclosures, where the power or gas has been shut off for a while. If you know ahead of time that utilities are off, it’s worth asking whether they can be turned on before the inspection rather than paying for two visits.

Check Completed Repairs

Lastly, re-inspections are a great way to check to make sure any repairs performed after the initial inspection were done correctly. These inspections also typically cost a fraction of what the original inspection did and are an unbiased professional analysis of the completed work. A receipt from a contractor tells you money changed hands. It doesn’t tell you the work was done properly, and we do find repairs that were done wrong or not done at all.

Re-inspections fill in any gaps left from the first inspection and check any repairs that have been made. So, the next time you or someone you know get an inspection, consider a re-inspection if any of the above items apply. We at Panther Inspections offer re-inspections and have flexible scheduling to ensure our clients get the info they need to make informed home purchases quickly. You can see what’s covered on a full inspection on our what’s inspected page.

Updated July 2026

The post Why Are Re-Inspections Necessary first appeared on Panther Inspections.

Builders Make Mistakes

All builders use subcontractors to complete a home quickly. Many times even having to share these subs because of the high demand for housing here in the Austin area. These “subs” are many times in a hurry, under pressure, and minimally paid. So, mistakes are made in every home. The builder’s representatives monitor and revise construction but they too are typically overseeing more homes than they can handle. That means any mistakes made, go unnoticed or are forgotten.

Remember also that each trade covers up the work of the trade before it. Framing gets hidden by insulation, insulation gets hidden by drywall, and drywall gets painted. A mistake that would have taken ten minutes to correct at the right stage becomes a much bigger job once it’s buried.

Builders’ Inspectors Miss Things

Yes, many builders have their own inspectors or contract them. These inspectors are usually paid bottom dollar for their services and perform as many as 10 inspections a day. That is not enough time to thoroughly inspect a home. All this means it’s easy for them to miss problems with the home. Furthermore, since they are paid by the builder, they are liable only to the builder, not the buyer.

The same goes for the municipal inspections. Those are checking the home against code, which is a minimum standard, and they aren’t checking whether the systems actually perform the way they should for you.

Clients Are Ultimately Responsible

When reading the paperwork from the builder, the buyers must pay very close attention to where responsibility lies. Many builder’s contracts put the liability of ensuring the home is properly built on the buyer, who many times is not equipped to do so. We can’t all be experts on homes after all, so the best thing to do is call a third party inspector. An expert inspector of your choice will take the time needed to completely evaluate the home.

One more thing worth timing correctly. Most builders offer a warranty period, commonly a year, and an inspection shortly before that runs out is one of the more useful ones you can get. Anything found is still the builder’s problem rather than yours. That’s a different visit from the one at closing, and both are worth doing.

If you or a friend are buying or building a new home, the home inspection experts at Panther Inspections are fully equipped with the latest technology and techniques to help ensure a new home is performing as intended. There’s more on what’s covered and what isn’t on our what’s inspected page and our home inspection FAQ.

Updated July 2026

The post Why New Homes Need Inspections first appeared on Panther Inspections.

Basically, anything that gives a termite a covered path from the soil to the wood of your house is a conducive condition. They don’t like being out in the open any more than we do, so a fence picket or a stack of firewood against the siding is exactly the kind of bridge they’re looking for.

The ones that are easy to fix

Most of what we find falls in this group, and the fixes are usually a Saturday afternoon rather than a contractor. Trim any fence picket that touches the house back about an inch. Move the wood piles off the wall and up off the ground. Cut back the foliage and tree limbs that are resting on the siding or the roof. For a high soil line, remove enough dirt that you can see a minimum of 4 inches of visible concrete for masonry cladding, and 6 inches for wood siding and trims, while keeping a good slope away from the structure so rainwater still runs off.

Wood rot is its own thing. Rotten wood is softer and usually damp, which makes it easier for termites to eat and easier for them to live in, so it’s worth replacing the deteriorated pieces and then keeping everything sealed and painted going forward.

The ones that aren’t

There are a couple that we can’t really do anything about. Conditions like a slab joint from an addition, which is virtually impossible to remove, or a very low deck which would have to be torn out to resolve the condition. For these, preventative treatments are recommended to make infestation less likely. Nobody is going to demolish a deck over a maybe, and a treatment plan from a licensed pest control company handles it for a lot less money.

Why your lender may care more than you do

This is the part that surprises people mid-transaction. Many lenders, especially on a veteran assistance loan, won’t approve the loan until most or all of the conducive conditions on a structure are rectified and a clear WDI report is obtained. So a wood fence touching the house stops being a maintenance item and starts being the thing holding up a closing. Finding them early in the process is a lot less stressful than finding them a week out.

Your termite inspection is already included

Worth knowing before you go shopping for one separately. On any home more than a year old, a wood destroying insect inspection comes with our home inspection at no extra cost, and it’s issued as its own separate report. Conducive conditions get noted on it whether they’re active problems yet or not, so you’ll have the list in writing. You can see everything that’s covered in a base inspection on our what’s inspected page, and there are more answers on our home inspection FAQ.

The bottom line is that most conducive conditions are cheap and quick to correct once you know they’re there. The expensive version is the one nobody looked for.

If you are concerned about conducive conditions on your current home or the one you’re buying we can help. Give us a call to schedule a consultation or a termite inspection today.

Updated July 2026

The post What Are Conducive Conditions first appeared on Panther Inspections.

Save Time

A normal inspection will take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours depending on the size of the house and what is being inspected. A consultation generally being only an hour or so limits the amount of time needed to get the desired info. The inspector will check any specific items in question and advise the client verbally on the outcome and recommendations, on site. Therefore eliminating the wait time associated with a full inspection or the headache associated with calling many different contractors.

Get Only The Info You Need

Sometimes a full home inspection isn’t needed. A consultation focuses only on getting the client the answers to the questions they have. The inspector arrives prepared to use all of their knowledge and tools available to them (including a thermal camera) to investigate any areas of the home in question and consult the client on findings and next course of action.

The thermal camera is worth mentioning on its own here, because a lot of consultations are about moisture. A stain on a ceiling, a soft spot on a floor, a room that never gets comfortable. Those are exactly the things an infrared scan is good at narrowing down. There’s more on that on our thermography page.

Save Money

A consultation is billed by the hour, and most only take one hour, so there is a large money savings compared with a normal inspection. Clients get the info they need to move forward without costing a small fortune. For current consultation rates, use our quote page or give us a call.

Lastly, not all inspectors offer consultations. So the next time someone you know has questions about a water stain, a hot room, or any issue with their home and they don’t know who to call, Panther Inspections can help.

Updated July 2026

The post The Benefits of a Consultation first appeared on Panther Inspections.

The air conditioner

The first one is the air conditioner. On days that temperatures are below 60°F the air conditioner likely won’t be tested, because operating the unit at those temperatures can damage it. Instead, it will be visually inspected and any deficiencies found noted in the report.

Here’s the part that catches people out. Central Texas winters swing around a lot, so this isn’t a whole-season thing, it’s a that-particular-morning thing. A December inspection at 70°F gets a full cooling test. The same house the following week at 45°F doesn’t. If the cooling system is a big question mark on a house you’re buying, it’s worth watching the forecast when you schedule.

The roof covering

The other item is the roof covering. At low temperatures and wet conditions, ice and snow can make a roof very slippery. Therefore an inspector may have no choice but to inspect the roof from the ground or with another method instead of walking on it, for their own safety. We don’t get many of those days around here, but we do get them, and a wet roof on a cold morning is not worth anybody getting hurt over. On those days a drone usually gets us most of what we’d have gotten on foot.

So make sure that on cold days you check with your inspector on whether or not they could normally inspect these items so you are comfortable with the level of information that you or your clients have about the property. If something did get limited by the weather, that’s a good candidate for a re-inspection later on.

If you or a friend are in need of a high-value inspector, Panther Inspections can help.

Updated July 2026

The post How Do Inspections Change During Winter first appeared on Panther Inspections.

What actually differs

In short the only real difference is the type of issues or deficiencies your inspector will find on a new home versus a resale home. In new homes improper installation and poor materials performance are the most common issues. Where on an older home the most common deficiencies are code updates and maintenance issues.

Think of it as new problems versus worn problems. A one-year-old home usually hasn’t had time to wear anything out, so what turns up is something that was put in wrong to begin with and has had a year to start showing it. An older home has had everything work correctly for years and is now just getting tired.

How the inspection is performed

In regards to how the inspection is performed, every company is a little different. We at Panther Inspections believe there should be no difference in how a recently finished home is inspected in relation to one that is older. We treat the warranty inspection the same way as a resale or pre-purchase inspection so that comparisons can be made between the home inspections and proper performance of each system is ensured.

Timing the warranty one

The one thing that really matters on a warranty inspection is when you book it. Builder warranties commonly run a year, so the inspection needs to happen with enough room left for the builder to actually come back and fix what gets found. Leaving it until the last week of the eleventh month is cutting it close. A month or two of margin is a lot more comfortable, and it’s the difference between the builder paying for a repair and you paying for it.

There’s more on why new construction is worth inspecting at all in our post on why new homes need inspections.

So, whether you or a friend have a home coming up on its first birthday, and need a thorough warranty inspection or are buying a resale home and need to have it evaluated we can help. Call us now to book your inspection.

Updated July 2026

The post The Difference Between Resale and Warranty Inspections first appeared on Panther Inspections.

Vacant homes

As far as the inspection goes, it’s generally better to have a vacant home. This is because the inspector has full access to the home and all of its interior and exterior surfaces. However, vacant homes see more intrusion of insects and rodents because there is no one there making the normal noise of living to ward them off, putting down pesticides, or calling a pest control company. They also can be in greater disrepair since no one is there constantly seeing what needs to be repaired. For these homes, a thorough home inspection coupled with a termite inspection is recommended.

The other thing to watch on a vacant home is whether the utilities are still on. Power and gas often get shut off once a house empties out, and anything that can’t be powered up can only be looked at, not tested. That’s worth sorting out before the inspection rather than after. We wrote about that in more detail in why re-inspections are necessary.

Occupied homes

Occupied homes, on the other hand, have many belongings and furnishings that make inspecting some areas impossible and others difficult. Things not inspected could include some windows, many outlets, large areas of flooring and walls. They do, however, tend to be better maintained and show fewer signs of pest inhabitation.

None of that is anybody’s fault, it’s just what a lived-in house looks like. But it does mean the report will have some items marked as inaccessible, and it’s worth reading those rather than skipping past them. A wall behind a bookcase isn’t a wall that passed, it’s a wall nobody saw.

Whether a home is vacant or occupied, new or old, no home is perfect. So, every home needs a great inspection to identify any major issues. If you or someone you know is buying a home and would like even more peace of mind, Panther Inspections has many inspection types to make the home buying process a little easier. On any home more than a year old the termite inspection comes with it at no extra cost, and you can see the rest of what’s covered on our what’s inspected page.

Updated July 2026

The post Occupied vs Vacant Homes first appeared on Panther Inspections.

The reason it matters is that an inspection report is a long document full of photos and terminology, and it lands in your inbox at one of the busier moments of a transaction. Plenty of people skim it, spot the scariest-looking item, and worry about the wrong thing. Twenty minutes of somebody walking you through it fixes that.

For first-time home buyers

First time home buyers often need extra explanation about some of the materials used in a home or the proper function of a system. With a presentation, these buyers get the extra explanations they need to fully understand the report and the home. It’s also where we can separate the “this needs a licensed electrician this week” items from the “this is normal for a house this age, keep an eye on it” items, which is a distinction that doesn’t always come through in writing.

For experienced home buyers

More experienced home buyers benefit by getting the info they need about the home as soon as it’s available and have any specific questions and concerns addressed on the spot.

For home sellers

For home sellers, they get access to an inspector with experience in what issues buyers are most concerned with on an inspection report. This gives them the ability to focus on making repairs that help the home sell.

For agents

Agents get something out of it too. A client who understands their report is a client who negotiates on the items that actually matter, instead of handing over a repair list with forty things on it and stalling the whole deal over a loose doorknob.

While a home inspector can’t answer all questions, they can answer many questions that clients may have about the home they are purchasing or selling, putting them in a more educated position.

At Panther Inspections, all of our inspections include a report presentation giving our clients extra insight and knowledge about the home they are buying or selling. Reports go out the same day, and there’s more on how that works on our home inspection FAQ. So, if you or someone you know could use that extra insight call us now to schedule an inspection.

Updated July 2026

The post Benefits of a Report Presentation first appeared on Panther Inspections.