Over the next few days, more likely weeks, we will transition from the 25 year old Chris D. Hilton and Associates Home/Building Inspections to the new Black Cat Inspection Services LLC. We will do that without missing a beat taking care of your home and commercial building inspection needs on the fly as we transition. Ending one company and starting another, from scratch, is a relatively simple transaction. Keeping one operational as the other becomes operational in a piece by piece handoff and not so simple. You may notice some unusual happenings such as you may receive something from the o ..read more

  Our team’s Christmas present to you. Out of 50 years of construction and inspections in North Carolina, in January of 2024, a new company will be born, Black Cat Inspection Services, LLC, with more inspectors, added territory and services, and new website. The 25 year old company www.chrisdhilton.com will be transformed into a different, new, and better entity, with a much longer shelf-life to carry on as The Old Man fades into the sunset, over the next few decades, as younger, brighter, faster, more agile, and intelligent inspectors take the reins and carry on. Merry Christmas from o ..read more

  Check our our Inspection Team Chris D. Hilton and Associates Home/Building Inspections Celebrating over 50 years in Construction and Inspections in North Carolina From left to right Joshua Hedges NC License 4658 Soon to be licensed in Virginia ASHI Gold Certified Inspector InterNACHI Certified Professional Inspector Emily Cabrera Castillo Bilingual in English and Spanish NC License 5716 IACS Certified Mold Inspector ID:IAC2-94353 Mold and Radon Technician ASHI Associate Member InterNACHI Certified Professional Inspector Christopher D Hilton NC License 1069 IACS Certified Mold Inspe ..read more

Fire prevention in your home from our own personal Firefighter/Home Inspector Doug Simmons. Check out Doug’s bio at the bottom of this page. Doug discusses some basic fire prevention measures you can take to better protect you, your family, and your home.  Smoke Detectors One of the most basic, but most important measures you can take to protect your family from a fire is to have working smoke detectors in the proper locations.  Smoke detectors should be placed in every bedroom, in the hall outside of every bedroom, and on every level of your home, and preferably be interconnected ..read more

Sorry I am running a little late announcing our June winner. Life gets in my way.  You say, "Have I not seen that lovely face here before?" Yes, you have. Lisa Hill, our top all-around home inspection referring agent of all time, won this gas card for last November of 2022. At the end of every year we throw all off the hundreds of eligible cards away and start over. Every time we perform a home inspection for an agents clients we place a card in our bin to draw from. Therefore during a given year an agent can have multiple cards to draw from but when one wins we throw the card drawn aw ..read more

 We typically seldom encountered face nailing of vinyl siding until recently and now we are encountering it repeatedly on new construction. We are even being told that some code enforcement officials are saying that it is acceptable and not a problem. Contrary to popular belief, when it involves manufactured materials, the code, and the code enforcement officials, are not the authority, the manufacturer is. A manufacturer not only trumps code, but if issues concerning their product are not adequately addressed in code, their instructions and recommendations literally become code. SURPRISE ..read more

Seeking to conduct home inspections in the "Luxury In All Price Ranges" market? Might be wise to have a relationship with "The First and Only North Carolina Broker" member of The Billionaire's Club and have the "Mitch Approved" red wax seal on one's advertising. Check it all out here. Can you find "The Old Man"? The Mitch Approved seal? Our Director of Agent Services, Nora Akers"? How about my lovely bride, GrandPam, at the Seattle, Washington Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate 25th Annual Awards in September of 2022?  Desire to be the best in your marketplace, then one needs to mix with the ..read more

    Winner of our $100 Gas Card Drawing for April  Realtor Ricardo Harley with Pioneer Realty Kernersville Our inspectors love working with Ricardo and his clients. Ricardo is old school kind, respectful, courteous and generous with praise for our work. I well recall our first experience together and the discomfort we had to overcome. Starting with a new, untried home inspector can be stressful.  We have had a few which didn’t go well. He handled that like a champ, moving on to other options with additional inspections for us. Ricardo places what is best for his ..read more

  Unethical is a huge dangerous word. Interestingly, I don’t recall ever being referred to as unethical until I entered the home inspection business. I am now referred to as unethical by a large number of disgruntled real estate agents. Sorry to surprise you but there is a very large number of agents who don’t care for me, anything I do, or how I do it. I am sure that occurs a great deal in private conversations but it is beyond evident when some action trips their trigger and they begin comments in a large public forum, typically with indisputable, unethical actions, comments and sugge ..read more

  Our Home Inspector, Josh Hedges, conducting a one year warranty inspection on a new construction home. Apparently, this mason had a little too much liquor as he was working, didn’t have his level with him, didn’t possess one, or didn’t know the meaning of the word PLUMB. These should have all been torn down and built correctly. They still need to be. This is the way new construction is supposed to look. Right?  www.chrisdhilton.com ..read more