Paul Cornell & Associates

John was my inspector and did an excellent job. He was very detail oriented and took the extra time to answer all of my questions. I received the electronic PDF report the same day. I would recommend this company and especially John to any potential home buyers!

We have had two inspections with PC & Assc and they did a great job each time. We had Bill one time and John the other and in addition to being knowledgeable they were just friendly and very helpful with all our questions. Very happy with service provided.

One of my friends said that I needed to use Paul Cornell because his report helped him get an extra $ 50,000 off his home purchase.
Still, I called many inspectors to see my choices on who could do it on the tight schedule. One thing that I noticed was that most of them were nearly impossible to reach because they have no one working back at the office. Paul had someone to answer the phone, and on my tight deadline, that mattered a lot.
My prospective house is large — it was listed as about 7800 square feet with a 3700 square feet guest house. It has nine bathrooms and four garage stalls. The inspection price quote seemed steep at first, as I had another quote that was much less. After further investigating, there are four things that made me use him.
1. The lower price quote was going to send one guy for 3 – 4 hours and start at 1pm. He said that he didn’t take photos, but that that didn’t matter. I think photos matter to help the seller get a feel for why they need to address the issues.
2. Paul’s quote included two guys for 7 – 8 hours. That was 16 man hours, or 4x what the lower price was going to spend.
3. He has 30 years of experience and was also a builder and once ran a pest-​inspection company — so he would be able to see if there were pest problems. He is not currently in that business, so if you need a pest inspection for a mortgage, you still need someone who specializes in that.
4. My friend who recommended him is really smart, so if he was impressed, that is a good sign.
On the day of the inspection, they came early and had much of the outside done by the time that I got there, and walked me through explaining what they found. I got a huge 161 page report with photos of every problem. The sellers said that they had no idea that they had many of those issues, and so far are very open to fixing many of them before the closing. This should save me many times what it cost for the inspection. Even the ones that the sellers don’t fix for me, I am going to use this detailed report to get contractors to fix everything listed.

Paul Cornell and Associates inspected our soon to be house in March of 2014 and I could not have been happier with the service provided. Bill was incredibly detailed with the actual inspection. He walked through the house, every square inch of the house and covered every outside aspect as was. He pointed out not only big items but small things (this isn’t an issue now but treat it with this and it’ll last forever). I was pleased during the inspection and then I got the inspection report, 94 pages later I was bit a shocked. The level of detail, with pictures made the final negotiation on my house simple, easily defendable and saved us more money from the house price then the inspection (with water and radon testing) cost. Bill had arrived early to inspect the exterior of the house so was there for nearly 5 hours. And the report not only has what is wrong but what would make it right. He even took the electrical apart to check the wiring.
And for me, customer service is huge. Bill was very friendly during the inspection and prompt with the report. The two people I spoke with/​emailed in the office (Kasey and Shirley) were detailed, polite and fast to answer questions. I’ve done house inspection for past purchases and this exceeded by a long shot any expectation or experience I had in the past.

First, let me say that we did not actually use them for the inspection. I had conversations with office staff that were perfectly helpful and informative.
However, their price to do the inspection was $ 2,000 (yes, two THOUSAND dollars) more expensive than any other inspector I contacted! That certainly earns a 1 star rating from me.
I’m sure they are great at what they do – but that price was simply not even close to being competitive. The home we are interested in purchasing is huge, very expensive, and we need an extremely high quality inspector. We contacted several different inspectors and talked about the complexity of the inspection we would need. Most bids were in the $ 1200 — $ 2000 range, and Paul Cornell was going to charge $ 4,000. All of the inspectors could see the MLS listing of the property, pictures, etc., so we were sure they understood this was a BIG project.
I certainly hope we don’t regret our decision to go with another inspector, but I feel we did our homework to find the qualities in both the reporting and the inspecting we need, and are paying a lot for an inspection, but not $ 4000.

Scott Molander spent over 3 hours inspecting our soon to be new house. I had a report before I went to bed the same night, complete with plenty of pictures. He was very thorough — he tested every single plug, opened every single drawer (and indeed found one that wasn’t installed properly), and opened every single window.
He took the time to explain to us what was important and what was not as important. His eagle eyes spotted where birds were starting to nest. He even gave us detailed maintenance tips like how often to change filters and how to clean the jacuzzi tub so bacteria doesn’t grow.
I would go with Scott again, best money I ever spent!

We had Scott Molander from Cornell and Associates. He did a very thorough job and found lots of stuff that allowed us to negotiate with the sellers to either lower the price or have them fix. He was very friendly and informative during the inspection (how he manages to keep that up over 4 hours is beyond me) and very detailed in the report, which arrived within 24 hours and was easily accessible through their website.

I hired Paul Cornell and Associates for 2 home inspections. Both inspections were performed by Paul and Bill.
Paul and Bill are FIVE STAR home inspectors. They are extremely knowledgeable in all areas of home construction.
They take the time to explain how things operate as well as answer any questions and concerns. I never felt rushed in any of the inspections.
I think their reports are very informative. In my opinion, they should not be used strictly as a negotiating tool during the home buying process, but also as a reference guide (i.e. less expensive issues/​maintenance) by the new homeowner after they take possession of the property.
I also believe it’s important they document any and all defects discovered during the inspection process. Even Items such as wallpaper or carpeting is fair game. Peeling wallpaper may indicate a moisture problem. Or wallpaper in older homes may sometimes be used to hold old plaster in place. Dirty carpeting may aggravate respiratory issues like allergies and asthma.
The home buying process is overwhelming enough. It’s good to know you have an objective eye looking at all the finer details that, often times, are overlooked!
I would strongly recommend Paul Cornell and Associates.

We had Paul Cornell & Associates be our inspectors for our dream home. Scott Molander was our inspector and he was TOP NOTCH!
Scott was there early (before 8am) and we didn’t leave until 12:30! It was a very long and thorough inspection we got an email with the report the next morning. Yes the report was 61 pages, but it contained A LOT of information. He spent the whole inspection telling us how to fix things the proper way and how things worked in our new home. The report had lot’s of pictures and explanations pointing to the areas of concern.
Scott was very professional and knowledgeable — not just about the house but also about the area. I would recommend this inspector in a heartbeat, and if we every buy again, we will be using them as our inspector.

Paul Cornell & Associates came highly recommended from our real estate agent. They were a little more expensive than some of our other options, but 1) we wanted someone to be really thorough because we were looking at a fixer upper and 2) we were very impressed with their credentials/​experience.
Scott arrived right on time and was as thorough as promised. We knew the condo needed updating, but imagine our shock when he found a rats’ nest under the tub! Disgusting!!! I’ll spare you the details, but just know that the sale fell through right then and there. I know our money was well spent. A few hundred dollars yesterday saved us thousands of dollars and pain down the road.

I would like to preface all of this with saying that I have been in the real estate business for almost ten years and have sold many homes, thus have attended many inspections. I recently attended a home inspection and Paul Cornell Associates was the inspection company and Scott was the inspector. He was very nice and pleasant. The house was an older home so naturally it will have some items that probably need attention. To make a long story short when the buyer received the report (62 pages long) it was forwarded to me. There was alot of information in the report, much of it what I call boiler plate. In addition there were items that were mentioned that I have never seen in a home inspection report such as comments on the décor, meaning that the wallpaper which of course is not in style (but the buyer really liked) was noted as needing attention. Commenting on items such as dirty carpets and the fact that there is wallpaper does not affect the structural integrity of the home and probably should not have a place in a report in my opinion. The inspector took alot of time taking photos etc. but did not spend an awful lot of time explaining to the buyer how things operate and how to maintain them in the future. If I were working with a buyer and needed to recommend a home inspector I would not choose this one. I have had far better experiences with other inspectors that really take the time and have an interest in answering questions along the way.