Meet The Face Behind A To Z Home Inspections
I’m Hendrik Hymans, proud owner of A To Z Home Inspections.
I look forward to sharing my story. I hope that you will enjoy getting to know me better.
While we were shopping for a home in Ottawa, we hired a home inspector to inspect the house we placed an offer on. This inspector was very ‘low touch’ and was in and out of the house in about forty-five minutes. He gave us a generic binder and when we browsed through provided minimal information which was not enough to make a buying decision. We ended up buying the house only to find more deficiencies after moving in. While some of these faults were minor, collectively they added up to a few thousand dollars. I knew with my construction background and proper training, I could do a better job to help people make an informed decision on one of the most significant purchases of their life.
After this disappointing experience, I decided to start my own home inspection business in 2008 and have been going strong for ten years. It is a fantastic milestone to achieve. Over that time, we served many clients and performed thousands of home and building inspections. Some of the clients we serve are buying their first home and need to know a lot about the systems that run their prospective home. Our other clients include IKEA for thermal imaging of their building. We also serve a lot of buyers who are buying their second or third home as well as those looking for a real estate investment.
We first began operations with a binder and proceeded to add customized comments so that people would easily understand issues with their prospective purchase. We then added a DVD of photos to the report, and many people found that very useful when sharing the report with their agent or partner. Now, we create a custom report that includes captioned photos, videos, marked up photos, and custom comments and observations that are delivered in PDF format and easily shared with our secure MS One Drive platform. Everything, including videos, is uploaded to our client’s secure folder online. Our clients now receive a home inspection deficiency report at the end of the inspection, so if time is short, they have a home inspection summary they can consult right away.
We meet with new clients and repeat customers every day. Real estate is a people-oriented, ‘high touch’ business and clients are always looking to make informed decisions. Our business model caters to that. We enjoy spending time informing our clients about not only the deficiencies that we find, but also the positives, so they gain a better understanding of what they purchase or invest in.
Often, at the end of an inspection, clients thank us for our thoroughness and for taking the time to explain things. Buying a house can be a stressful process, so we take the time and energy to make our clients feel comfortable throughout the inspection process.
On my journey towards becoming a certified master inspector, I gained sufficient education and inspections to meet that objective. It takes a combination of over a thousand education hours and paid inspections to obtain that designation. When I finally qualified, it was a feeling I will never forget.
Our business philosophy can be summed up in our promise of service. We are committed to diligently investigating the major systems of your prospective home to inspect, identify, and report on areas of neglect, maintenance issues, safety concerns, structural integrity, home energy performance standards, plumbing electrical, and heating systems to give you the best information possible to improve your home buying decision.
Honesty and integrity are critical values our business holds close. Our slogan, ‘Inspecting what matters’, encompasses those values. Honest inspecting and reporting backed with integrity are what our clients deserve. I believe we deliver that.
Running this business takes is time-consuming. However, between on-site inspecting and at home preparing reports for clients, I spend time with my six-year-old son and renovate our home. We live close to the river, so we have nature right in our front yard. That is something we enjoy every day. The bike path and the Ottawa River Parkway with its beaches and vibrant shoreline make it a fulfilling day-to-day experience.
I have enjoyed sharing my story about the things which matter to me and how they influence the way I do business.
If you or someone you know could benefit from my expertise in home inspection in Ottawa, ON, I invite you to get in touch. Please visit my website at www.atozhomeinspections.ca.
Sincerely,
Hendrik