Spott Check Consulting and Inspection Services

Susan Spott inspected my home’s seismic retrofitting work (for insurance). She was knowledgeable and got the work done, right away. I am happy to recommend her!

After being on the house hunt for months we were so excited when our offer on our first home was accepted. Come inspection time, a new set of worries set in… How will we know the right questions to ask? What if there are major problems?
Enter Susan Spott. Susan’s knowledge of home inspection and thorough professionalism calmed all of our concerns. She walked us through the process, step-​by-​step, entertained every single question we had and inspected our new home from the roof to the crawlspace for any possible issues.
In the end, Susan helped us put together a great plan for prioritizing our fix-​it wish list. And, to top it all off, she did all of this on very short notice! With her guidance, we feel completely confident that we know our new house inside out and we couldn’t be happier.

We have only great things to say about Susan! She showed up on short notice to inspect the home that we eventually bought. She was timely, professional, warm, and down-​to-​earth and a pleasure to work with. She answered our many, many questions throughout the whole inspection, and her explanations were always thorough and kind to us new home owners! She took the time to help us understand so many aspects about our home, about what to look for when buying a home, and about how to care for this kind of home… etc. Her expertise and experience was very comforting during this stressful process of home-​buying. The inspection itself was incredibly extensive, and she uncovered MANY issues with the house that the seller’s inspector did not take note of. Her attention to detail and care to do an excellent job helped us get a realistic picture of what we were getting ourselves into, and in turn informed us on how to move forward in the most educated and empowered way.
I will definitely recommend Susan to my friends!

OF COURSE SUSAN is knowledgeable, thorough and experienced. But in my opinion it is her special knack for providing perspective that sets her apart. The process of evaluating a home to purchase is nothing short of harrowing for many buyers, especially those under tight time pressure. Susan calmly points out a structure’s main characteristics — both bad and good — but does so in a way which makes it feel as though she is giving advice about home maintenance rather than issuring dire warnings of likely and imminent failure. In other words, she helps her clients see the condition of the property without ignoring its shortcoming and without planting fear in the heart. In our area (East Bay) we value old property and so must adjust to the reality that to own such property is to take on a project — but not a curse. She also warms to the individual charms of each house and shares the warmth in a validating way. I highly recommend her.

Susan was very knowledgeable and thorough in the house inspection she conducted with me. She did a great job of explaining her findings and clarifying which things were relatively minor and which things needed to be addressed more urgently. She made the entire process from our initial call to the delivered inspection process easy and enjoyable.
From a timing perspective, I was super impressed that Susan was able to deliver the completed report the same day as the inspection. (I had a 9:30 AM inspection and she sent me the completed report later that day at about 6:30 PM.)
In all of my interactions with Susan it was clear that she was service oriented and that she was an advocate for her customers. For example, before delivering the report she gave me a quick courtesy call to go over one element in the report that we hadn’t discussed as thoroughly during the inspection as she wanted to ensure that there weren’t any surprises as I was reviewing the report and to be able to address any questions on the subject if I had them.
There was one issue that Susan identified which will likely require an investment of over $ 10K to remedy. Susan went above and beyond her inspection duties by providing a supplemental letter that I could share with our realtor and the seller further describing this issue and her findings.
The monies invested in paying for the home inspection were worth every penny and I highly recommend Susan to conduct a general house inspection.

Susan was great at a quick response and helped us with our timeline
for having a Home Inspection. I would use Susan again due to her
level of detail and great attitude
Regards,
Cory

When you meet Susan for the first time you’ll realize that she is very different than the average home inspector. Not only is Susan a Certified California Real Estate Inspector but she is also a Licensed General Contractor! I have been lucky enough to work with Susan Spott over the last 10 years. She is my «go to» inspector for all of my properties. What I love about Susan is that she is incredibly patient, thorough, takes the time to explain what the issues are and explains how to fix any issue that might arise. Her reports are incredible thorough and if you have questions you simply pick up the phone, even years later, give her the property address and she’ll remember! Wow! 5 stars for Susan Spott!

I just went through the crazy process of purchasing a bank owned fourplex in Oakland. The time frame to make a decision was very short and Susan was great and extremely helpful. She made room in her schedule and met me at the property where we spent 3.5 hours going through it from top to bottom. She also arranged for a roofing contractor to meet us since that was a big concern.
She provided a very detailed report, and was available for a number of followup calls on concerns I had on the property. She has a great knowledge of construction and old buildings (this is 100+ year old Victorian). She did a excellent job of balancing, pointing out the issues, but not being alarmist. Whether your a first time home owner or experienced investor (I am somewhere in the middle) she is a great asset in the evaluation and decision process.
Overall a pleasure to work with!

Susan Spott was incredibly thorough, helpful, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I didn’t expect a home inspection to be such an enjoyable experience, but it was!
We lucked upon Susan when our agent’s go-​to inspector wasn’t available the day we needed them; it ended up being a very good thing for us. Susan really knows her stuff and was able to explain to us in official AND plain terms what she noticed, why it was important, and what we could and should watch out for in the future. As first-​time homebuyers we had a lot of questions, and she took the time to answer them up front and then show that she was really listening to our concerns by referring back to them as we went together through the house.
She was a wealth of knowledge and offered to help us find people to help us make the necessary repairs when we were ready. Her report was clear and thorough, and she completed it in the short time we had to submit. I highly recommend Spott Check Inspections — if I ever move I’ll call her again!

This is the first time I have ever written a review but I was so pleased with Susan that I felt it was important to become a Unilocal-​er to write in support of her.
My family has been trying to purchase a bank owned property; naturally it took forever to get into escrow, and then the bank only gave us 7 days to complete our inspections. Susan was incredibly understanding and flexible with her schedule (with the caveat that she only does inspections nights and weekends) and performed our inspection with only a day’s notice.
I found Susan on the BBB website where she has an A+ rating. She absolutely lived up to that excellent grade. She was thorough, realistic, and very professional — even with an incredibly talkative (annoying!) 6 yr old neighbor. She was very honest — even talked us out of a more expensive inspection joking that while she’d love the extra cash, we really didn’t need it. (She also had a great sense of humor if that matters to you).
She completed and emailed our report by the next day — complete with color pictures, bold easy-​to-​read headings and highlighted problem areas.
Susan was fun to work with, prompt and thorough and overall was so professional that even my contractor brother-​in-​law was way impressed.
i totally recommend her.

After my offer on a condo was accepted, my agent recommended to me a few inspectors, none of whom I felt comfortable with after a bit of researching. After reviewing the offerings on Unilocal,Spott Check was the only one that was available the next day, and I was comfortable enough with its reviews to try it out.
Paid off big time! My real estate agent, who’s been in the business for years, was wow’d by Susan’s thoroughness and wealth of knowledge, and I knew I was getting my money’s worth (she was not expensive!). She found a bunch of problems that we missed, and ended up giving me a 19-​page report full of diagrams and photos and list of problems and solutions — including an important tip about a potential fire hazard in the laundry room that we never would’ve considered. I was extremely happy with her service, and I highly recommend Susan (I guess Spott Check is a one-​man, er, woman operation?). For a home inspection, don’t go with a bigger company, go with someone who’s literally staking her reputation on her company’s name. Other inspectors might try to refer you to construction buddies of theirs whenever they find problems or offer repair services themselves. Not Susan, she was honest by us.

I hired Susan for a home inspection. She did the job timely and professionally. She knows her stuff. We had a particular problem that needed investigation. Upon asking her about it, Susan was very knowledgable and I could tell she is a very experienced inspector. She has a high level of integrity. What I also liked was her professionalism in communicating with me and keeping me current as to where the process was.
If you need home inspection services, I would highly recommend Spott Check and Susan Spott.

Susan Spott is knowledgeable, comprehensive, and compassionate. Spottcheck inspected two different homes for me during my home buying process and I felt very secure and informed throughout both inspection procedures. Susan was very patient answering my extensive questions and provided information above and beyond the required response time. She is highly experienced and her extensive knowledge about building code compliance was extremely useful in my decision-​making. It was clear she that truly cares about her clients’ satisfaction and the ultimate outcome of their home buying experience.

Susan Spott is a wealth of information and knowledge. It is apparent that her years as a building inspector for the City of Berkeley taught her all there is to know about a thorough home inspection.
Her reports are so full of vital information that I think any homeowner, property manager or real estate agent would see the value in her services.
I highly recommend Spottcheck!