Paranormal Home Inspectors

Paranormal Home Inspectors is an interesting take on the paranormal investigation genre. It employs the traditional premise of the ghost hunting reality TV show and adds a small twist—introducing a “Certified Home Inspector” to the paranormal investigation process. This takes the idea of ‘debunking’ paranormal phenomenon to a different place, employing someone trained in identifying physical issues with habitable structures that could be misconstrued as paranormal.

It’s as good as it sounds.

The investigation team is comprised of three main members:

• Michelle McKay—Paranormal Investigator & Researcher
• Brian Daley—A home inspector
• Nadine Mercey—Intuitive healer

Each of the team members play a specific role on the investigation team and fit with the formula of the show: Michelle interviews the property owners and performs a night-time investigation, Nadine encounters the spirits at the location, and Brian explains all fo the phenomena away as structural issues that need to be fixed.

Paranormal Home Inspectors takes the debunking we’ve grown accustomed to on shows like Ghost Hunters and tries to give it a more professional, authoritative position with the “Certified Home Inspector” investigating the complaints. If you’ve ever bought or sold a home, you know that a home inspector can find issues that you didn’t even know existed. Creaky floors? Doors swinging on their own? Strange shadows in the night? A home inspector is going to point it out and at least propose a reason for why it’s happening (and how urgent it is to repair). The show follows, fairly strictly, a three part structure: the introduction, the investigations (three of them!), and the reveal.

The Introduction

At the beginning of each episode, we open with the narrator (with what sounds like a fake English accent) introducing us, the audience, to the property owner and the problems their facing—through a combination of testimony and dramatic re-enactments (also starring the owner). During this process we’re also introduced to Michelle as the team’s researcher. Throughout introduction, we encounter Michelle interviewing the property owners and doing research on the computer, in front of microfiche machines, and in the local library in footage that feels more like a montage from an 80s movie.

The Investigation(s)

With the background research and interviews completed, we move into the meat of the show—the investigations. These follow a prescribed order: property inspection, medium walkthrough, and paranormal investigation.

Brian – The Home Inspection

Brian’s involvement with the show is what makes Paranormal Home Inspectors different from the other paranormal investigation shows, as a “Certified Home Inspector”, he’s there to find physical explanations present in the structures themselves that explain or coincide with the complaints made by the property owners. If you’ve encountered a home inspector, it should be no surprise that for his investigation he walks through the house inspecting the floors, doors, ceilings, plumbing, and basements for anything that could shake, squeak, or go bump in the night.

Quite often, Brian will attempt to give non-paranormal explanations for the complaints even when there isn’t an issue with the structure being inspected—for instance suggesting the homeowner simply forgot they turned on a bathtub tap or did so while sleepwalking since he was unable to find an issue with the taps themselves, much to to annoyance of the property owner and likely a few audience members (like myself).

At the end of his investigation, which can run up to two days (according to the show) depending on how much there is to inspect, Brian comes away with an explanation for just about every complain the property owner has and is confident that there is nothing out of the ordinary going on .

Nadine – The Medium Walk-through

In the second investigation we’re introduced to Nadine, the team’s medium. A familiar part of paranormal investigation shows, the medium walk-through takes us through the location as the medium encounters—or attempts to encounter—the spirits residing there.

Nadine’s walk-throughs are extraordinary. As a medium, Nadine picks up on the energies and presence of spirits or entities in the locations she visits, in some cases receiving information from them and in others communicating directly with them. At every location there are a surprising number of spirits or entities, most either being malevolent or having tragic, emotional stories. During her walk-throughs, Nadine often feels upset—either due to the information she’s receiving or taking on the feelings or emotions of the entities—and on occasion has to pause or take a break from her investigation.

At the end of her investigation, there is no doubt in her mind that the location is haunted and in many cases, that the location’s owners are under attack.

Michelle – The Paranormal Investigation

The third, and final, investigation is the overnight paranormal investigation. Consisting of Michelle and an assistant (in the first episode, the assistant leaves the production during filming and, according to Michelle, never returns), the paranormal investigation looks exactly like any other ghost hunting show—taking place overnight with the lights, filmed in night-vision or infrared. During their investigation, the move from room to room, asking questions while hoping to collect EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon), hear strange sounds like footsteps and disembodied voices, and seeing movement out of the corner of their eyes.

Throughout the paranormal investigation process, the show will highlight certain elements, enhancing noises and replaying potential orbs flying through the room. All standard fare as far as paranormal reality TV is concerned.

The Reveal

The final segment of the show, the reveal leaves something to be desired. This portion of the show consists of Michelle sitting with the location’s owner, showing them footage of the three different investigations. The stated purpose of this is for the client to see everything and take away their own conclusions from what they’ve been presented with. We don’t really receive much in the way of analysis from Michelle, just some comments by the client stating how they agree or disagree with different aspects of the three investigations. Most of the time, this involves the client being offended by Brian’s conclusions as they explain the stated experiences as the result of a physical issues with the property. Most clients are content with some of Brian’s conclusions, while they discount others completely—and sometimes rightly due to it expanding beyond his expertise as a home inspector.

The main issue with the reveal, though, is that while there are three distinct investigations that the client receives information from, two of the three investigations end with the conclusion that the property is haunted. Since the client views the investigations in the same order as the audience, the last piece of information they receive is the their property is definitely haunted, even though there are a good number of non-paranormal explanations for at least some of their experiences.

The Verdict

Frankly, after watching Paranormal Home Inspectors, I’m more afraid of the terrible build quality of the homes being investigated than I am any paranormal activity that’s been reported. Some of these places seem like they’re falling apart while others are fine aside from the kinds of things that you would expect from moving into an old home.

In the first episode, our intrepid home inspector brings up that the homeowner of the potentially haunted property owns a cat and he explains one of the strange events—a closet door opening on it’s own—as the cat possibly pawing to get into the closet. As a cat owner myself, I can confirm that cats will try to get into anything behind a closed door.

Later in that same episode, I do get rather annoyed with Brian when he goes to investigate an issue with bathtub tap handles turning on. For this item, he says that it’s sleepwalking. What annoys me is that Bryan is a home inspector. He’s not a doctor. He’s there to explain why things are happening based on his understanding of home construction. Sleepwalking is just not in his wheelhouse. Stay in your lane, Brian.

Another thing that becomes more and more apparent as we move through the season is that Brian tends to find something that fits the bill for the reported activity and checks it off his list often not recreating the circumstances that he uses to explain the activity. While I know that home inspectors are generally supposed to be non-invasive in their inspections, so it makes sense that he’s observing a possible solution and committing to it, but it would be nice if he could actually test and recreate potential activity to ensure that he’s found potential causes.

Beyond the issues with the home inspection, it surprises me that there was not one instance where Nadine or Michelle don’t find evidence to support paranormal explanations for some of the cleint’s complaints. It seems too good to be true for there to be multiple spirits and corroboration of paranormal phenomena at every single location they arrive at. At least once I would like to see either of them come up empty handed or not be able to corroborate something.

My personal favorite example of this comes in the second episode where there are some markings on the bedroom walls near the ceiling. The client complains of “writing” appearing on their walls, which Brian explains away as wallpaper glue not being cleaned up after painting the walls or old paint bleeding through. When Nadine arrives and sees this, she immediately concludes, based on her experiences in the room, that these markings are writing being formed on the walls by the spirits in the home. Brian doesn’t try to wipe it off to back up his findings, as well as test to see if the markings return for some reason. Nadine has no incentive to not connect this with spirits in the home. Michelle’s investigation does’t really touch on this.

If you’re looking for entertainment, you’re in the right place. If you’re looking for a serious paranormal investigation, you’ll want to look elsewhere. This is one of the best, worst paranormal reality TV programs I’ve come across, having watched through their single seasons at least three times. If a second season were filmed, I would watch it in a heartbeat. That being said, you’re not going to get any convincing paranormal evidence watching Paranormal Home Inspectors.

Paranormal Home Inspectors originally aired on Investigation Discovery. You can find the show on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.