before we bought our home we hired a home inspector recommended to us by our real estate agent. he was a little worker bee he was. he puttered around the house, documenting everything, giving us the lowdown on where things could be improved. at the end of the day he broke down all those things into three sections of things that had to be dealt with immediately, things that were necessary to do as preventative measures against further or future erosion and finally things that we should keep an eye on.
he was very very efficient, and spent as much time as we wanted to answer any questions. in addition to the breakdown of upkeep on our home, he also included in his report a general amount that it would cost for each repair.