Second Look Property Inspections

Update:
This is the second time Jen’s helped us move in Austin. As expected, we had a great experience and are confident in her report.
Choose Jen and Second Look if you’re in Austin!
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I highly recommend Jen and Second Look. I booked an appointment through her website and had an inspection done within 48 hours. I received my report the same day.
Jen is professional, thorough, and went above and beyond to make sure that we understood everything that was covered. Even my realtor commented on how great she was.
I’ll only use Second Look as long as I’m in Austin!

I typically buy and sell 10 – 20 homes per year and increases year over year, I have worked with Jen several times now to inspect clients homes and condos in the Austin area, very detailed great connection with clients. Will recommend and will continue using her when I can. Thanks Jen!

We’ve worked with Jen two times now. Both times she was very informative and easy to talk to. She made a detailed list of every potential issue she could find, from wood rot to HVAC safety issues to missing doorstops. She goes over the inspection report in person, but also supplies a PDF with her photos and notes for later review.
The first time, she saved us from buying a home with major roof issues.
The second time, we felt well-​assured that the home we were about to purchase would be a good investment due to the lack of issues.
It’ll hopefully be a long time before we need to get another home inspection, but when we do, Jen is the first person we’ll turn to!

We had a regular home inspection without termite inspection. Jen was amazingly nice and professional, she showed us pictures of anything she saw that needed to be looked at, and then took us around to show us where those spots actually were. She even explained many of the things to us (we are first time home buyers) and she was very thorough and informed and patient. She answered any questions we might have had and always asked if we needed to know anything else. Super friendly, I would recommend this to anyone who needs their home inspected!

Jen was 100% professional and totally lovely to work with. Our schedule was SO up in the air, unfortunately. We had numerous closing dates, and despite all the craziness for us, Jen was a constant. She was so willing to work with our situation and despite being completely booked on the day that we needed her (so as not to put off closing one more time), she came back to do a re-​inspection of our property (meaning she’d already done a great inspection the first time) and seriously helped us out.
Jen gave us a great report to take back to our builder and really helped us put into words what we needed to fix and have done to the house! Jen’s best asset, as least from my point-​of-​view, was that she is there to be on the side of the buyer. She’s there to give a pointed and emotionless critic, true, and she does! But everything is for your benefit. Even our builder said he thought her wording was «harsh», and that, to me, sounds like an inspector working for the buyer (I just need to go on record here to say that Jen has very specific verbiage she has to use. While she can’t say the good things in her report, she does point those out, too! It’s good to have the feeling that your builder use high-​grade materials, and where that’s applicable, Jen will point it out!)
I know there’s a bit of a disparaging 1-​star comment, here, and while I know nothing of that user’s experience, I have to say that in my experience with Jen, I feel like she gave us the best of her time, tested everything that needed to be tested (and everything she said that she would), quoted her rates and stated, explicitly, what those fees covered, walked us through the inspection after it was completed, sent a report less than an hour after everything was done, gave us wording to use with our builder (for fixes), and left me with the complete confidence that if anything should go wrong, she’d be more than happy to come back out and warranty her work.
If you want to skip everything I’ve written and go straight to the heart of it, I felt Jen was great. We were so thankful to have her.

Jen was easy to schedule with and came to me at the recommendation of my realtor. Buying your first home is tricky, and there are a lot of questions you may not think to ask. Jen’s inspection was 41 pages of information and she took over 2 hours reviewing the notes with me. I would recommend letting Jen be a part of your team, asking an abundance of questions and use her knowledge to drive your negotiations.

Jen,
You are right, I didn’t realize your sophisticated hand held device needs to have a 3G or LTE capability to send your recordings to store in a server sitting somewhere in the cloud.
Hmmm, let’s see. your typical inspection run’s for 4 hours and you charge $ 400+ something, and for any follow up’s that’s an $ 100 extra. Based on the Unilocal working hours you will be working from 9 AM to 5 PM four days a week and I am sure you don’t have any assistant that will be working on your appointments or schedules. With that said, I am sure the device we saw for more than 2 hours was your recording device.
Coming to actual work, I didn’t see any ladder and the attic that we have has no inbuilt ladder (BTW, Pulte was the builder) how did you get up on to attic? did you even cared to check for any leaks or seals? If all you do is checking the gas connection, Temperature and Water connections, a 5 year old kid can tell those things just by turning on and off. All I am asking is try to do the justice for what you are hired for and charging us, the things that a first time home buyer can’t understand till he lives there for sometime or till experience something like this.
I am not having any issues with the builder. We are under warranty and they are trying to make everything they can to fasten the process and thanks to you, I learnt my lesson, this time I am going to hire a certified inspector and I am going to be there for the entire time.

Very thorough and professional inspection. Jen did an amazing job explaining key issues, concerns, and suggestions. Very much recommended.

I was able to schedule an appointment online with Jen within 36 hours, and she worked directly with my realtor to ensure a smooth inspection. She was prompt and professional, and the digital report I received from her is seems very detailed.
*EDIT 4 mo. later — changing my rating. Since buying the home, we’ve found a large number of very apparent problems with the home that Jen failed to discover or document. She refuses to perform in-​attic inspections, and instead settles for popping her head into the access hatch for 30 seconds. Two secondary inspectors I’ve brought in since Jen’s initial inspection both laughed at that. Jen’s service certainly is convenient, but given the amateurish and roughshod job she did on our property as well as her fees, I will actively recommend friends and family against using her services.

Jen inspected a property for us about three weeks ago. She was prompt, efficient and thorough. My dad, an engineer and experienced home renovator, also thought she did an excellent job — and he’s not easily pleased! She went over her findings in great detail, and her tone made it clear for us what she considered minor issues vs. what she was really concerned about. I would also add that she was very clear on the limits of the inspection process: what she could (and did) check, and what she’s not allowed to check by law. She was also very patient as my toddler came along and I had to keep him occupied while we talked. I would definitely hire her again!

Jen was recommended to me by my realtor. Before scheduling our inspection, I checked Unilocal reviews to see what everyone’s experiences had been like. I was encouraged by what I read, and very satisfied with Jen’s work. Jen arrived to the inspection on time. She was efficient and professional. At the end of the inspection, she sat down with me and went over the major bullet points, one by one, and promised to have the report delivered the following morning. Instead, she emailed it out that afternoon! Her attention to detail, politeness and professionalism won me over.

I will use Second Look every time I buy. Or sell, if I need to. Before the inspection even happened, I was impressed with the ease of scheduling and paying on the website.
Not only is Jen competent and thorough, but she has a kind but professional demeanor that is perfect when you have to hear a mix of good and bad news. She explains things very thoroughly and made us understand the ramifications of everything she found. I felt like I learned a lot about our house and what it should have, both immediately and in the future.

I purchased my house in Austin and used Jen to inspect it. She provided an incredibly comprehensive report with written highlights as well as photos and was available several times when I had questions about specific aspects of the report /​house after she completed it. She was also super fast about getting back to me when I had follow up questions more than two weeks after the inspection was complete and ensured me that she was there to help answer questions during the entire process, not just on the day of my inspection.
Scheduling and paying were both super easy, and Jen was quickly available by phone and email. I would happily recommend Second Look Property to anyone and readily use her again for another inspection!

Jen was referred to us by a coworker who had recently looked at an older home, much like we were interested in. The house we saw was built in the 50’s, but completely renovated. Yet, she still found plenty of «defects» throughout the property!
We were able to take the information to the seller and knock a tad off (not much though, but not Jen’s fault). At the very least, I now have a thorough and really well documented «stuff I gotta fix» list.
She was pretty detailed, and didn’t mind taking the time to explain things to us. At the end we got a nice PDF version of the report via email, and she was pretty clear pointing the locations discussed out in pictures with arrows.

Right on time, thorough, friendly but professional. What more do you want? Oh, you want fast turnaround on your inspection report? She did that, too.
Book her for your next inspection, you won’t regret it.

Jen was a pleasure to work with. I called her to do a pre-​inspection on my house before putting it on the market. My goal was simply for her to find all issues. However, she went a step further by waiting for me to show up to the house after she completed her inspection and walked me through the results so I could gain a better understanding of which items truly needed to be addressed.
I will be using her for all my inspections going forward. Overall, she was very knowledgeable and took the time to fully explain each issue she discovered.

Did a great condo inspection for me and was very informative and nice. I’ve worked with her twice so far with two different condos and everything with the inspection has gone perfect so far!

Jen did a spectacular job of inspecting our soon-​to-​be-​purchased home. She was thorough and knowledgeable, providing detailed feedback both during the inspection itself and after the fact in the form of a fantastic inspection report. I appreciated her saying that, if she’s done her job well, we should leave feeling like she «gut punched» us. As we’ve been through the home buying process multiple times previously I didn’t feel gut punched, but I appreciated her candor!
One quality I especially enjoyed about Jen was that she clearly cared about both being thorough in her inspection and in ensuring that we clearly understood the issues she’d found, how worrisome they might (or might not) be, and any additional steps she’s suggest we take before proceeding with the purchase. Happily, in our case she found relatively little to concern us aside from mostly understandable wear-​and-​tear on a 23 year old house, but we were definitely reassured that the likelihood of her missing anything big was slim-​to-​none. She was very careful to go over all of the findings in her report one at a time, from the minor (many) to the significant (few, thankfully).
Highest recommendation: top notch, professional, and friendly. A+

As a new home buyer, I didn’t really know what to expect about the inspection process. I had tons of questions and really just needed a lot of guidance. I was referred to Jen from my realtor, and I could not be more happy with my decision to go with Second Look Property Inspections.
First, Jen has a warm and welcoming personality, which is extremely important since I was faced with a daunting and intimidating task. She made me feel comfortable to ask any question, and she answered all my questions very directly and explained intricate details that I was unfamiliar with.
Jen was also very detailed with her work. She asked questions to my realtor, the seller, as well as myself, to make sure that she had the most accurate information as possible. Her report was also incredibly detailed and specific, but was displayed in a way that made sense to both people who had the knowledge and vocabulary of the real estate industry as well as people who didn’t (like myself). In addition, she was very clear about things that she noticed but could not comment on, but recommended other people who could provide better insight and feedback because it was their area of expertise.
Even after I did numerous walk-​throughs of the property with friends, Jen was able to find things that I had not even seen or thought about. Due to Jen’s detail-​oriented and diligent work, I was able to renegotiate with my seller and ended up dropping the sale price by a fair amount. As such, I would highly recommend Jen and Second Look Property Inspections to anyone who is looking for a dependable, prompt, and thorough inspector.

I just got the keys to my first home — a brand new home! It was a scary process for me, but I have to say that I found great peace of mind after having Jen of Second Look Property inspections look at the home I was about to buy.
She got started while I was at work (though she’d offered to do a weekend inspection — they do that?!). When I met up with her later, she was able to sit with me and go over her findings — good and bad. She managed to explain the ins and outs of «my» home — even showed me pictures of places I would never go — in an easy-​to-​understand, yet non-​condescending way.
She pointed out important details that I would never have considered. I had some questions about the a/​c system and she explained and followed up, as promised, with a pdf that gave more detail. In all, she made me aware of some important issues, but also made me feel confident about the structure, overall.
By the time I returned to my office, Jen had already emailed me a copy of the report on the house.
Oh! Another thing. Not a HUGE deal, really, but still. I noticed she’d taken her shoes off while inside my home. That’s how she was when I arrived. Whether I wanted her to or not, I appreciated the consideration to take good care and respect the property.
Hands down, Jen is a magnificent and thorough inspector. I highly recommend her on the quality of service she provided. That stands on its own, but I will confess that I felt more sure about doing business with Second Look when I learned there was a woman at the helm. No disrespect to the others, but you know when a woman wants something done right, she does it herself. ;) OK. I’m joking … sort of. ;)
SO, yep. Thanks to my realtor for the recommendation. A female home inspector that works on weekends? Good deal. If I had a slew of houses, I’d keep Jen a secret and all to myself, but alas, I don’t … so, I’m spreading the word.