Choosing the right home inspector can be a daunting task, especially if you have never hired one before. When you are finished with this article you should know what questions to ask when interviewing prospective inspectors.

Since all licensed inspectors are required to adhere to the same standards, many people believe all home inspectors are equal. Nothing could be further from the truth. If two inspectors were to inspect the same house, the inspection reports and findings could be quite different. Check out this link to hire the best home inspector.

Simply stated, some inspectors try harder, are more experienced, and are more thorough than others. For example, some inspectors examine the roof by walking on it, climb up into the attic, and into crawl spaces under the house while others don’t. This is why you should attend your inspection, to make sure the inspector is doing their job. Here are some other factors you should consider when choosing the right home inspector:

Home Inspectors Licensing– Verify the inspector is properly licensed. Most states require home inspectors to be licensed, check with your state’s real estate board to find out.

Home Inspector Experience– It may surprise you to learn that anyone can become a licensed home inspector and in very little time. While experience in the construction industry is very helpful, it is not required.

This may change in the future, but as of now, a person just has to attend the required hours at an approved home inspection school and pass the state home inspection test and they are considered a professional home inspector, although they have never inspected a single home in their life. The inspector you hire may be performing their first inspection ever.

Medicaid planning refers to arranging or transferring your assets to prevent or to minimize their use by Medicaid if it pays for your long-term care. This article explains how you can shelter some of your assets with an annuity while you or your spouse has Medicaid pay for your long term care costs.

Medicaid will pay for nursing home costs; but it does so only for those who are impoverished. Since Medicaid is a combined state and federal program, each state defines how little your assets must be before Medicaid will pickup your nursing home costs. Typical asset threshold levels are about $2,000 to $3,000. Find out more info here about Medicaid planning.

When you apply for Medicaid help, it ‘counts’ your assets to determine if you qualify for free assistance. If you have too many, it’ll charge you annual costs appropriate to your state that you must pay from your assets until you’ve spent down your money to your state’s threshold asset level.

You can’t simply transfer your assets to someone else to impoverish yourself before applying for Medicaid. Medicaid will attribute whatever you transferred as a countable asset -unless you transferred it some 5 years – called the look-back period – before applying for help.