Your home is a major investment, and you want to make sure that you buy with all the information possible. You don't want to be numbered among the people who bought Oakville homes, Mississauga town homes, or Brampton Victorians only to find out a year down the road that extensive repairs were needed to vital home systems.

The best way to avoid this occurrence, and the resulting expense, is to have a home inspection done. But, here again, there is a matter of information deficits. Sure, the advertisement in the Yellow Pages looks good; that doesn't necessarily mean that the home inspection company will render a full and accurate assessment of that home for sale in Markham you have been looking at.

There is also a matter of price. Buying a home is an expensive process, and a home inspection may seem like just a drop in the bucket, but money is money. How can you be sure you are paying a fair price to the inspector you hired for that Toronto townhome?

Well, your most reliable means of information on both fronts is going to be word of mouth. While you may not have had a home inspection done on any Rosedale homes before, you can rest assured that someone in your real estate circle has.

The first place to inquire is with your real estate agent. Be careful here, because you need to keep in mind that unless there is a specific agreement otherwise, an agent will be working for the seller. Agents make their commissions off the sale of Toronto Beach homes and other pieces of real estate. Although they will still be honest, part of the expectation on a listing agent is that they will do their best for the seller. Therefore, an agent not working directly for the buyer may not be able to recommend a good home inspector (of course, this isn't always the case, don't give up before you ask!).

An even better source of information will be friends and family who have had home inspections done before. They can let you know exactly how much the inspection cost, and how they felt about the entire process.

If no one you know has used an inspector before, you can always try cold calls on clients suggested by the inspector herself. Keep in mind, of course, that these are not likely to be anything less than glowing, or they wouldn't be forwarded to you. However, an inspector with a lot of solid references is usually one you can trust!