Most homeowners we meet assume the permit is a formality their contractor will handle or skip, and that either way it doesn't affect them. It affects them at exactly one moment: closing. A home inspector who finds an undocumented structure attached to the house will flag it, and the buyer's agent will ask for documentation that doesn't exist. Now you're negotiating against a deck instead of selling with one.
The inspection itself isn't mysterious. In Limestone, Morgan and Madison County the checks are substantially the same, and they're the things that make a deck safe rather than pretty.
Footings come first, and they're inspected before any concrete goes in the hole. The inspector is checking depth, diameter, and that the holes are where the approved drawing says they are. This is the one stage you cannot build past — pour before the footing inspection and you may be digging it back up.
The ledger is the next thing, and it's the detail that causes most catastrophic deck failures nationally. The inspector wants to see through-bolts or approved structural screws in the correct pattern, not nails, and flashing that keeps water out of the band board behind it. A ledger nailed to siding is the classic failure, and it fails all at once, usually with people standing on it.
After that it's guardrail height and the gap between balusters, stair rise and run consistency, handrail graspability and returns, and hardware rated for contact with modern treated lumber. Older galvanized hardware corrodes fast against today's lumber chemistry, which is why hardware selection shows up on the inspection at all.
We prepare the drawings, file the application, schedule both inspections, and meet the inspector on site. It's included in our price, not a line item, because to us it isn't optional. What you end up with is a structure that's documented, and a folder you can hand a buyer.