Stephen Home Inspection Inc.

Stephen Home Inspection Inc. is a Belmont-based inspection company run by Stephen Sala, who says on the company's site he has been in business for 30 years and holds a Massachusetts asbestos-supervisor license alongside the standard MA home-inspection credential. Google shows 4.9★ from 47 ratings, and the Better Business Bureau grades the company A+. Across 44 reviews running from 2018 to today, the word that keeps repeating is thorough — and buyer after buyer says he explains what he's finding as he walks the property, from the wiring down to the garage in one 2025 review, to the yard's shrubs and trees on a Concord house that same year. Several reviews describe him working around tight timelines: one 2025 review said he replied 15 minutes after a Sunday 9pm text to fit in a next-day inspection, and a 2024 review described him showing up the following morning on 16 hours' notice with a report back within 12 hours. In a 2026 review, one buyer said the inspection turned up few enough problems that its detail still supported negotiating financial relief before closing. What to know: in a 2018 review, a buyer said Stephen refused — twice asked — to check the heating system, citing the hot weather, and that the report never mentioned the rusted, steam-leaking hole later found in the boiler at the closing walkthrough; the buyer said reaching out on closing day got no response. It stands apart from the run of praise around it, but it's worth confirming every major system, heating included, gets checked and written up. Stephen fits a buyer who wants an explained, walk-along inspection and can work with short-notice scheduling — just ask directly whether heating and other core systems were tested and covered in the report.