One of Those Days

Yesterday was one of those days. Both the morning and afternoon inspections were small, minimum charge inspections. One in Dallas, the other in Fort Worth. Mark got to the first one and called me because he didn't have the code for the gate. No one had given me the code for the gate. I called Centralized Showing and they had no record of the inspection. Then I remembered, they'd had me call the listing agent to schedule the inspection. I looked at my notes. This was the agent with the weird number. It didn't ring on my phone, but apparently it rang on his and when he answered it, he couldn't hear anybody. I hoped he would call me back, but it didn't happen. In the meantime, Mark was able to tailgate his way through the gate only to arrive at the condo to find that the combination on the combo lock did not work. I would have to try the agent again. And he advised me to get the gate code because he was going to make a run to Home Depot while he waited and the odds of following someone in a second time were slim. After another failed attempt to phone the agent, I sent him a text message and phoned the buyer's agent's assistant. Every agent should have an assistant! She always has the information I need! I got the gate code and the correct combo code and was just about to phone Mark back when the agent called. I was able to tell him that I now had everything I needed and thanked him for responding. I gave the information to Mark. Then he called me back 30 minutes later. The power to the unit was not on and there was a guy there shutting off the water. The guy said the water would be turned back on at 4:30 in the afternoon, but he didn't know anything about the power. You just can't do a proper inspection without power and water. There are just too many things that can't be checked.

Mark called the client and the client's agent. The agent rolled with the punches but the client buying the condo was a bit upset. He was currently out of the country, but was a bit rude, suggesing that we should have known the power and water were off. Really? We're good, but we're not clairvoyant. Besides, all we really wanted to do was let him know that it wasn't going to happen today and why. I made another call to the listing agent to advise him of the situation with the power and the water. I could tell him that the water would be turned back on at 4:30, but I knew nothing about the power. Neither did he. He would have to call me back.

The listing agent for the afternoon inspection had not yet called back to confirm the 1 PM start time even though I'd phoned him on Tuesday. (I really prefer dealing with Centralized Showing.) I phoned him and he told me that it was approved but that I would have to call the office after 9 AM to get the combination code. When I called back, the gentleman who answered the phone was confused. He thought I said Kate instead of Pate. He didn't realize the inspection had already been approved and advised me to call the listing agent and the owners. I assured him that all I really needed was the combo code, which he finally gave me.

When Mark arrived at the house, he could hear a dog barking. He knocked but there was no answer, just barking. He called me. "Is there a tenant in the house?" (Let's just say that this property was not in the most desirable area of Fort Worth.) The owners were not supposed to be home, but no one had mentioned a dog. "I just don't want to open the door and come face to face with a guy with a gun and a dog." Nor did I want that. I would have to call the office again. (Do you see why I like Centralized Showing?) It turns out the dogs are crated, not that he waited for me to tell him that before he opened the door. Poor little guys were just scared.

But Mark said the neighborhood reminded him of Soweto and I encouraged him to finish and leave as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, I got a call from this afternoon's scheduled client wondering if we could limit the inspection to just the pool and the termite inspection. "Yes, of course we can do that, but I'll still have to charge you the minimum charge. And I'll have to charge separately for the termite inspection because it's a separate company and I only pass through the charge." And because he niggled around for a discount when he scheduled the inspection, (imagine, you're spending over $400K on a house and you want someone to give you $30 off the inspection) the total only came out to be $70 less than doing the entire inspection. He had decided to cancel because the seller had provided him with an inspection report but it didn't include the pool or information about wood destroying insects. Well, it's not my job to fix dumb. And people who rely on reports that were produced for someone else are dumb. I know of one realtor who insists that people who decline having the house inspected sign a paper that says they are stupid and will not blame him if anything goes wrong. Smart man. And I really wasn't going to be upset if Mark had an afternoon off. I keep my honey-do list for just such occasions. (But as it turned out, someone called this morning and was delighted to have this afternoon's time slot.)

Then I got the call from this morning;s appointment advising me that Centralized Showing hadn't made it clear to the seller's that this was an inspection and not another showing. (Did I say I liked Centralized Showing??) We would have to postpone the inspection until next Tuesday. Not a problem, it gave Mark time to go back and do yesterday morning's inspection without being rushed.

So after all that, we were going to Randy's Steakhouse for their monthly wine dinner. What could  be better? As it turns out, just about anything. The appetizers were a bit bland, the first course of avocado and shrimp had turned a bit brown in the overly tart dressing, the gumbo was too thick, and while mine had meat in it, Mark's didn't and the filet was too salty. If we'd ordered it outside the wine dinner we'd have sent it back. To give them a bit of credit, the chocolate mousse was perfect. However then we got the bill. These days restaurants are fond of adding a 20% gratuity. (Really? Give your employees a raise if you don't think a 15% gratuity is enough.) Anyway, the bottom line is that it was too much money to pay for food that wasn't up to the usual high standard.

Thank goodness today was a new day!