Your Opinion Please!

We are seriously considering turning down requests to inspect "new build" houses. You might wonder why because with no furniture in them and everything being in "new" condition, it would seem to be an easy job. If only!

Here are the problems:

1. The client typically calls to schedule the appointment weeks in advance. The appointment goes into the calendar and the builder representative is called and informed that the client has requested we do a third party inspection. The builder is asked to notify us as soon as possible if the home is not going to be ready.
   • Often the builder's representative's voice mail box is full making it impossible to leave a message, which means I have to keep calling back until I get someone or until they clean out their voice mail.
2. A day or perhaps an hour before the scheduled time, the client or the builder will call to say that the house isn't quite ready. The appointment is rescheduled (sometimes more than once). In the meantime, I have turned down other business that could have been scheduled for this time. If I'm given 24 hours, I have a chance of filling the time. It's pretty rare to fill it with an hour's notice.
3. The other scenario is that no one calls and Mark goes to the property and finds that:
   • It is locked up and no one is at the model.
   • It is not ready. There are no appliances and/or the gas and water are not turned on.
   • The place is buzzing with tradesmen. Three or four different crews are doing their best to complete the house. - Which presents two problems. 1. The house is technically not ready and 2. It's not practical to try to set up high-tech equipment when it's going to be in someone's way and you can't hold them responsible for breaking it. But we're still back to the place where other work has been declined because there was already an inspection on the schedule.

So, what can be done? We've tried to explain this situation to buyers who agree in principle that if the inspector has to make more than one trip there will be a charge for it. But in practice they either refuse to pay it or whine that it wasn't their fault. We agree, it wasn't their fault. It was the builder's fault, but we can't make the builder pay for it.

We take a great deal of pride in the level of service we provide. We want our customers to feel that they got the best possible value for the money they spent. We want them to give us a stellar rating without any reservation or hesitation. And lost opportunity costs aside, there are expenses every time Mark leaves the driveway, so multiple trips to do the job seriously eat away at the profit margin. (That's right! This business is run "for profit"!)

I'm not convinced that turning away business is sensible. But I'm not sure what to do. I'm very interested in hearing how other inspectors have addressed this problem. I'm also interested to hear how potential clients feel about it. As a home buyer, what are your expectations? And if any of you are builders - what is your excuse?