Some were built over 80 years ago. Others have just finished construction. Some sit on the valley floor. Others rest on the slope of Lookout Mountain. This kind of variety makes our city special, but it also means a basic, checklist-style home inspection isn’t enough.
We’ve seen it all. And we’ve learned that a proper inspection in Chattanooga must match the home.
Older homes hide older issues. Neighborhoods like St. Elmo, Brainerd, and North Shore are full of charm, but they often come with aging plumbing, electrical work, or hidden leaks. These aren’t things most buyers can spot during a showing. But they’re the kind of issues that show up after move-in, when it’s already too late.
New builds come with new risks. Even new homes in areas like Apison or Ooltewah can have hidden problems. Sometimes it’s rushed work. Other times, it’s overlooked details like missing insulation or drainage issues. We don’t assume a home is perfect just because it’s new. We inspect everything.
Waterfront and mountain homes are special cases. If you’re near water or on a hillside, expect extra pressure on foundations, more moisture, and different types of wear. These homes need an inspector who understands what to look for, because not all damage is obvious.
Why are our inspections different? We don’t just run through a checklist. We look at the type of home, where it sits, how it was built, and how long it’s been standing. From historic bungalows to smart homes, we tailor the inspection to the property.
We’ve worked with families, investors, first-time buyers, and sellers who just want a smoother sale.
If you’re not looking under the surface, you don’t really know what you’re buying (or selling).
You’ve built the home. You’ve lived in it. You’ve cared for every detail.
But the moment it hits the market, the focus shifts—from everything you’ve done right, to what might be wrong. That’s the reality of today’s real estate market—and it’s exactly why pre-listing inspections are no longer a luxury. They’re becoming the standard.
The Hidden Pressure of Today’s Home Sale Whether you’re a builder handing over a brand-new project or a homeowner saying goodbye to a place you’ve invested in for years, the selling process brings real pressure. Not just financial pressure, but emotional, reputational, and logistical. Here’s what happens without a pre-inspection: • A buyer falls in love with the home… until their inspector finds something. • You’re asked to cut the price, fix it fast, or lose the deal. • Confidence fades. Trust breaks. Everyone scrambles.
It’s not that you did something wrong. It’s that you weren’t in control of the timing.
What is a Pre-Inspection? ( And why is it a smarter first step? ) A pre-listing inspection is a professional home inspection done before your property is listed for sale. Rather than waiting for a buyer’s inspector to uncover issues during the contract phase, you get ahead of the process and control the narrative from day one. But the real power of pre-inspections today isn’t just early insight. It’s the message it sends: “We have nothing to hide.”
Why Sellers and Builders Are Leading This Trend 1. It protects your PRICE Buyers love leverage. If their inspector finds a problem, they’ll use it. Pre-inspections give you a chance to fix what matters or price accordingly so you don’t lose thousands in surprise renegotiations. 2. It speeds up the SALE Informed buyers make faster decisions. If they can review a trusted inspection upfront, they don’t have to pause to schedule their own. That means quicker offers and fewer delays. 3. It puts you in CONTROL You choose when the inspection happens. You decide what to fix and what to disclose. You prevent last-minute chaos and take the process back into your hands. 4. It builds buyer TRUST When you share a third-party inspection upfront, you disarm suspicion. You shift the conversation from “What’s wrong with this place?” to “How soon can we close?”
GOOD FAITH INSPECTION PROGRAM: Pre-listing with a purpose At Thornton Home Inspections, we’ve seen too many good deals fall apart because the inspection came too late. That’s why we built the Good Faith Inspection Program (GFIP)- a modern, transparent way to do pre-inspections that: • Costs you nothing upfront • Gives buyers access before they offer • Keeps the report out of your hands so buyers know it’s real • Refunds you fully if 3 or more buyers purchase the report Whether you’re a homeowner, seller, or builder, GFIP lets you lead with confidence and eliminate the guesswork that slows everything down.
The Bottom Line: Waiting Comes at a Cost Buyers don’t want uncertainty. You don’t want surprises.
And no one wants to renegotiate after the paperwork starts. Pre-inspections aren’t just a smart move anymore. They’re becoming the new norm. And in a market that rewards clarity, trust, and speed, the earlier you lead with truth, the better your results. If you’re planning to sell, ask yourself this: Would I rather control the conversation or respond to it under pressure? Let’s put the facts on the table first.
If you’ve ever had a buyer walk away after a home inspection, you know the frustration: The listing looks great, interest is high, and then—boom. A surprise repair or negotiation sends the deal into a tailspin. But what if you could get ahead of the inspection… without paying upfront?
What if buyers could purchase your inspection report… and you might even get your money back? That’s exactly what the Good Faith Inspection Program (GFIP) was built for. The Problem: Post-Inspection Fallout For many sellers, the home inspection feels like a ticking time bomb.
Everything can seem on track until the buyer’s inspector uncovers issues that: Trigger repair demands Delay closing timelines Lead to renegotiation Or worse, cause the buyer to walk
It’s stressful. And often, these issues weren’t even deal breakers — just surprises that came too late in the process. The Solution: The Good Faith Inspection Program GFIP flips the script on the traditional inspection process by giving sellers and agents a smarter, more transparent system—before the listing goes live.
Here’s how it works: The home is inspected before listing Sellers pay nothing upfront for the inspection. Buyers scan a QR code at the property They can instantly purchase a discounted report to review. If 3 or more buyers purchase the report The seller is refunded 100 percent of the inspection cost. Buyers feel informed and confident They make offers with fewer surprises and less back-and-forth.
Why It Works GFIP was designed to remove friction and build trust across the board:
For Sellers: No upfront cost. More leverage in negotiation. Better odds of a clean closing. For Buyers: Early insight into the home. Fewer surprises. Optional walkthroughs available. For Agents: More confident listings. Fewer fall-throughs. Shorter closing timelines.
And here’s the best part: If your buyer wants to do their own inspection later, they still can. GFIP just gives them a head start.
Inspections don’t have to mean uncertainty. With GFIP, sellers and agents can approach the process differently—calmly, openly, and with no upfront costs.
It’s a practical way to keep your deal moving forward.
Curious if GFIP could make your next sale smoother?
When looking for a home inspector, it’s good to know what to look for. Every home inspector claims to be the best and offers the best service. But actually finding the right inspector is and can be the most challenging part of the home buying process. When choosing an inspector, the first thing you want to do is evaluate what the home inspectors offer, the price point they charge, and the reviews that they have.
When looking at the services a home inspector offers you want to make sure that they offer more than just a generic run-of-the-mill inspection. Instead, you want to make sure they offer a wide variety such as sewer/septic tank inspections, pest, mold, water, foundation, and radon testing inspections are some inspections you might want. It’s important that the inspector you have is qualified, and certified, and offers the ability to inspect what you need.
The next thing is to look at the price point. You want to make sure you are paying a market competitive price for the square footage you need to be inspected. This could be as simple as getting a quote from other inspectors, or just using an inspector that is highly reviewed and trusted in your area. Either way, anywhere from $400-$1,200 is what could be expected for a reasonable 1,500-square-foot home inspection.
The last and most credible part of choosing an inspector is looking at the reviews. You want a company that has a high number of reviews and a high star rating. Anything over 4 stars is ideal and if they have more than 200 reviews, then you’re off to a good start. You can find the highest-rated home inspectors HERE if you need a reference of one we love and trust. One last note is to not use the home inspector your realtor recommends. Oftentimes, realtors will pay or use inspectors that will help the house sell, rather than find all of the details wrong with the house.
Radon mitigation is any process used to reduce radon gas concentrations in the breathing zones of occupied buildings, or radon from water supplies. Radon is a significant contributor to environmental radioactivity. Mitigation of radon in the air is accomplished through ventilation, either collected below a concrete floor slab or a membrane on the ground or by increasing the air changes per hour in the building. Treatment systems using aeration or activated charcoal are available to remove radon from domestic water supplies. Because high levels of radon have been found in every state of the United States, testing for radon and installing radon mitigation systems has become a specialized industry since the 1980s. Many states have implemented programs that affect home buying and awareness in the real estate community, however, radon testing and mitigation systems are not generally mandatory unless specified by a local jurisdiction.
According to the EPA’s “A Citizen’s Guide to Radon, the method to reduce radon “primarily used is a vent pipe system and fan, which pulls radon from beneath the house and vents it to the outside”, which is also called sub-slab depressurization, soil suction, or active soil depressurization. Generally, indoor radon can be mitigated by sub-slab depressurization and exhausting such radon-laden air to the outdoors, away from windows and other building openings. EPA generally recommends methods that prevent the entry of radon. Soil suction, for example, prevents radon from entering your home by drawing the radon from entering your home and venting it through a pipe, or pipes, to the air above the home where it is quickly diluted and EPA does not recommend the use of sealing alone to reduce radon because, by itself, sealing has not been shown to lower radon levels significantly or consistently according to the EPA’s “Consumer’s Guide to Radon Reduction: How to fix your home.
Ventilation systems can utilize a heat exchanger or energy recovery ventilator to recover part of the energy otherwise lost in the process of exchanging air with the outside. For crawl spaces, the EPA states, An effective method to reduce radon levels in crawlspace homes involves covering the earth floor with a high-density plastic sheet. A vent pipe and fan are used to draw the radon from under the sheet and vent it to the outdoors. This form of soil suction is called sub-membrane suction, and when properly applied is the most effective way to reduce radon levels in crawlspace homes.”
The most common approach is the active soil depressurization(ASD). Experience has shown that ASD is applicable to most buildings since radon usually enters from the soil and rock underneath and mechanical ventilation (MV) is used when the indoor radon is emitted from the building materials. A less common approach works efficiently by reducing air pressures within cavities of exterior and demising walls where radon emitting from building materials, most often concrete blocks collect.
In hot, humid climates heat recovery ventilators (HRV), as well as energy recovery ventilators (ERV), have a record of increasing indoor relative humidity and dehumidification demands on air conditioning systems. Mold problems have originated in homes that have been radon mitigated with HRV and ERVs have an excellent record in heating climates.
A recent technology is based on building science. It includes a variable rate mechanical ventilation system that prevents indoor relative humidity from rising above the present level such as 50% which is currently suggested by the US Environmental Protection Agency and others as an upper limit for the prevention of mold. It has proven to be especially effective in hot, humid climates. It controls the air delivery rate so that the air conditioner is never overloaded with more moisture than it can effectively remove from the indoor air.
It is generally assumed that air conditioner operation will remove excess moisture from the air in the breathing zone, but it is important to note that just because the air conditioner cools does not mean that it is also dehumidifying. If it is 14 degrees or less, it may not dehumidify at all even though it is cooling.
Factors that are likely to aggravate indoor humidity problems from mechanical ventilation-based radon installations are as follows and an expert radon mitigation/building scientist will check for and correct any and all of the following when he or she performs radon mitigation procedures:
Air conditioner duct leaks located outside the breathing zone, such as in the attic.
Excessive exhaust fan operation
Oversized or over-capacity air conditioners
AC air handler fans do not stop running when the air conditioner compressor stops running.
Delta, which is the amount that the air-cooled as it is passed through the air conditioner’s cooling coils. A good delta performance figure for home air conditioners is about 20F in comparison, automobile air conditioners deliver delta performance of 32 to 38f. A delta of 14f will dehumidify poorly if at all.
