What a Clever Negotiator!

I see it's been over two months since I've posted anything here. Things have been pretty quiet - busy but nothing out of the ordinary. Then just before Thanksgiving I got a call from a realtor who was booking the inspection for her client.

As it turns out the "client" was her husband. She made it very clear to me that she was NOT a party to the contract. (Something that is of no consequence to me - so I'm not sure why she thought it was important.) She also made it clear that her husband was an investor. (Also of no consequence to me unless she's about to ask for a quantity discount.) We set the appointment several days out since they were planning to be away over the Thanksgiving holiday. Even though she gave me the combo code, I still called Centralized Showing to schedule the appointment. We follow protocol here! If we don't have approval from Centralized Showing or the listing agent, we don't go. Too much legal liability, otherwise.

Oddly, I got the approval from the listing agent but then the buyer's agent called to cancel. The reason for the cancellation was that she had negotiated for the seller to pay for the inspection and that the sellers wanted to choose the inspector since they were paying for it.

Alrighty then! I cheerfully told her that I'd cancel the appointment and ended the call. But I remember when I bought this house 30 odd years ago and the seller paid for the termite inspection. The report said there were no termites here. Never had been! Wasn't that good news? Of course, within a month of my moving in, the termites were swarming outside the garage. The good folks who came to treat it (glad that chlordane was still legal 30 years ago) showed me the places where it had been spot-treated before. Which was amazing because according to the seller's inspector, no termite had ever set foot (or wing or whatever they have) on this property.

Seems to me that if you're going to have the seller pick the inspector, who may be his or her brother-in-law, you might just as well accept the seller's disclosure at face value. Why even bother with an inspection?

She may have been looking for a graceful way to cancel without appearing to be a cheapskate. (We do not claim to be the cheapest - only the best!) But she may have cleverly negotiated her husband (nothing to do with her!) into a position of not really knowing anything about the property he's investing in. Either way, good luck with that.

Expecting a Bonus?

Everyone likes a discounted price. Nearly every day I'm asked for discounts. "Do you offer a senior citizen discount? How about a discount for veterans?" People from certain ethnic backgrounds ask for discounts claiming their friends got a better price than the price they were quoted. (That's another issue altogether.) But the one that amazes me the most is the request for a discount that comes from a previous client.

They start off by telling me what a great job Mark did for them on the last house. They tell me how impressed they were with his report. And then, "Can you give me a discount since I've used you before?" Even if it was four or five years ago they still want a discount. Okay. Fine. I can give them $20 or $30 off as a goodwill gesture.

But what I'd really like to do is pose a question to these folks. What would you do if your boss said to you, "You know, you did such a great job on that last project! We're going to cut your pay on the next one."  

Most people would be expecting a bonus for a job well done. Instead it's "You did a really great job last time - I would like to pay you less this time."

Just think about it. 

Getting Your Money's Worth

An inspection is a snapshot in time. It reports the condition of the house on the day of the inspection. ON THE DAY OF THE INSPECTION! Not a week or a month later.

Here's the scenario. Mr. and Mrs. Home Buyer call to schedule an inspection. They were too busy to turn up to meet with the inspector and we only fielded one or two questions from Mr. Buyer. We assumed he read the report. There is now reason to suspect otherwise.

Now that he's moved in to the house (over a month after the inspection was completed) he has some issues. He can't believe that Mark didn't find these things. He doesn't feel that he got his money's worth. (Given that his agent was able to negotiate a lower price based on the inspection report, I'm not sure he's justified in feeling that way but let's move on.) The first thing on his list was the pool light. A quick look at the report showed that the pool light was listed as "not working". Maybe that should have been in all caps. He might have noticed it then. His next complaint involved the pool pump. Apparently the pump did not work when he moved in. Another quick check of the report showed that the pump was reported as "failing". It was overheating on the day of the inspection and Mark indicated that it would fail. Soon. Pictures were included yet Mr. Buyer was surprised that it was missed. When it was pointed out to him that it was not missed and was in the report he just moved on to his next point.

His next point was that there were any number of electrical outlets that don't work. Although he indicated that some of them had worked when he first moved in but stopped working when they had new carpet installed. Apparently the home inspector is a better target than a carpet installer. How on earth is Mark responsible for that?!?

His next issue was bare wires and missing insulation in the attic. Mark reviewed the video tape and these conditions did not exist on the day of the inspection. The most likely explanation is that the previous owners caused a bit of damage while disconnecting their home theatre system, but we're not into blame shifting so we offered to show Mr. Buyer the video tape.

His response? Basically that we could show it to the judge because he was fully prepared to pay the $60 to file a suit against us and that it would be cheaper for us just to give him his money back than to waste time preparing evidence for a court hearing. (Gee, you think he's done this before?) Then he started hinting that he'd be looking for us to reimburse him for every dime he'd spent since he moved into the house.

But sadly, he's right. It took several days just to review the report and the video tape to have a discussion with Mr. Buyer. We have other things to do besides prepare for a day in court, even though I'm relatively certain we'd win. So he's probably going to get his money back - even though I know we didn't miss those things he says we missed. It's just going to be too time consuming to prove it and it generates ill-will.

But it's changed the way we do business. Clients who do not turn up to meet with the inspector will need to schedule a phone "presentation" so we can be assured that they know what is in the report. And future complaints will need to be in writing. We will no longer have these "discussions" on the phone.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

One of the advantages of being married to a home inspector is that when something goes wrong around the house, he can almost certainly determine the cause of the problem and he'll know how to fix it. (Even if he's not able to fix it himself, he'll know who to call.)

So Saturday as I was cleaning up the bathroom, I noticed that the tap on Mark's sink was really hot. I'd never noticed that before. I needed to have Mark take a look.

He was busy reviewing reports but came upstairs to investigate right away.

"Hmmm. You weren't running the hot water?"

"No, I wasn't running the water. See? Feel the one on my sink. It's cold."

He looked at both sinks. He looked under his sink. Nothing appeared to be wrong and he wanted to avoid trampling the insulation in the attic which would be required to look at it from the other side of the wall. We were just going to keep an eye on it.

I went back to cleaning the sink. The tap was still hot. It was "burn your hand if you hold on too long" hot. I went back into the office.

"I think you need to get out the infrared camera and look at it. It's really, really hot."

Dutiful husband that he is, he got out the infrared camera and took it upstairs.

He scanned the area. "Look, the hot water pipe is hot, the cold water pipe is not. Just what I'd expect. Are you sure you weren't running the hot water?"

I was positive. Maybe. But given the fact that the tap cooled off and felt the same as the other one, in a relatively short period of time - I'm going to have to assume that it was "user error". I can only surmise that I was having so much fun cleaning that sink that I didn't even notice I was running the hot water. Thank goodness I didn't call a plumber!

Thank You, Thank You Very Much!

Some people have a very strange way of expressing gratitude.

A year or so ago, a broker who used to encourage her agents to recommend us called to say that she had an issue with one of her rental properties in a neighboring town and asked if Mark could take a look at it. Mark did - at no charge I might add. She wrote a testimonial stating how Mark had saved her thousands by finding the problem. But before the year was out, she stopped recommending us. I wanted to meet with her to find out why, but was told by her assistant that she didn't have time to meet with vendors. Thank you!

Another broker-agent always called us to schedule inspections on behalf of her clients. Last fall she called because she had a leak in her master bedroom and the roofing contractor she'd called couldn't seem to find it. Could Mark take a look at it? Mark went and found the source of the leak. Again, he didn't charge her. We haven't had a referral from her since. Thank you!

But here's the one that really annoys me. Another broker-agent who used to give us referrals sent Mark an email to ask if he could do a pro bono inspection for one of her sellers. I was acquainted with the seller's situation, and Mark agreed to do the inspection at no charge. Because the house had a pier and beam foundation, a pool, and was nearly 80 years old, Mark would have charged a paying customer nearly $1K to inspect that house. She was getting it for free. To top it off, on the scheduled day, she wasn't home. She called back to reschedule a week or so later. She laughed off the fact that she wasn't home on the scheduled day and explained that she'd always been a little "ditzy". Absolutely no appreciation of the fact that not only did Mark not earn any money from her that day, but he didn't earn any from anyone else because she took up the time on his schedule. And then we had the privilege of not earning any money another day when we rescheduled her. We truly didn't mind doing it at no charge - although we're not likely to volunteer to do that again anytime soon. What we did mind was that she told me she was soooo grateful that her agent had found people to make the needed repairs who would wait and get paid out of escrow. Getting paid at escrow was never offered to us as an option. I don't know whether the broker reduced her commission or not. We never heard from her again and that was in January. It's been a busy year in real estate in this part of the world. Can't believe these people haven't had any clients. And I can't believe that neither the client getting the freebie nor the broker who requested it ever bothered to say "Thank you".

Thank you very much.

Reassurance

"We got your name from our realtor, but we hired someone else to do the inspection. We paid him a LOT of money, but he didn't do everything. I just need someone to check a few things. I need a termite inspection and he didn't go under the house."

He also didn't put a sewer cam down the sewer line, measure for voltage drops, or measure the foundation. But why tell her that now? Not inspecting the crawl space could be a big deal. Many inspectors just flat out won't do it. I explained to her we didn't do termite inspections but that I could organize it, or give her contact details for someone who could do it. I also explained that it wasn't likely that Mark would go under the house she's buying unless he was doing a full inspection.

"If no one will go under these older houses, how are people supposed to get them inspected?"

I explained that many inspectors and termite inspectors won't check under the house. Mark in fact does, but it's not his favorite thing to do and he only does it as part of a full home inspection. If he did inspect it, I would have to charge her the full fee. Since she'd already paid the other guy a LOT of money, she wasn't too keen to pay us an additional LOT of money.

"The inspector we had said he couldn't get under there, but I went over there last night and I went under there. So I know he could have."

Aha! I suspect she no longer trusts the other inspector because she thinks he hasn't been truthful with her about the crawl space. I explained that there are several reasons why a home inspector might not enter the crawl space. For example, Mark won't go in unless there's 18 inches of headroom. That's a safety requirement. He also won't go in if he believes it is wet. A loose wire meeting water can electrocute you from 30 feet away. It's not worth the risk. Another reason Mark won't go in is if access is obstructed by boxes, bicycles, or other property that belongs to the sellers. But Mark always tells the buyer if he didn't go in and why. And if they've paid in advance, the extra charge for the crawl space is refunded.

The remark about electrocution seemed to strike a chord. She told me that it had been moist. Wet enough for mud to stick to her jeans. What did I think?  Also there was a mound of some kind under the house. Did I think it might be termites?

We are now way outside my area of expertise. I have no advice to give. Which is what I told her. It was outside the scope of things I know about. I can answer questions about scheduling and the various techniques and technologies that Mark uses, but I have no idea about the condition of a house.  Period.

Then she asked me to confirm that we lived in the same town as the house she's purchasing. I thought she was going to ask me to discount the price since Mark wouldn't have to drive very far. Instead she asked how long we'd lived here. Mark has lived here about 10 years and I've lived here over 30 years. And then she asked, "What do you know about the house?"

Nothing, really. All I can say is that I don't think it's being flipped. I don't know the owners and I've never been in it. I know the house she's talking about because I saw the realtor's sign out front.

"I think all the sewer lines have been replaced because when I was under the house, I saw PVC instead of iron. The guy who remodeled it did it for his parents. Surely he would have done a really good job if he was going to have his parents living in it."

You would think so. But now I'm being asked to pass judgement on the moral character of someone I don't know. We are moving farther and farther away from my area of expertise.

All this woman wants is reassurance that the house she's buying is a good, solid house. But it's her inspector's job to provide her with that. We can only do it if you hire us instead of the other guy.

How to Sabotage the Inspector

There is plenty of advice on the web on how a home inspector can help you understand what is wrong with the house. There are also sites that inform (misinform might be a better choice) you how to get the "most" out of your home inspection. Sadly, there are no sites with tips on how to sabotage your home inspection. With Mark's help, I've compiled this list. Use these tips to ensure that you have an inspection that lasts as long as possible (you want to get your money's worth!), and misses important issues but (this is key!) makes you feel that you are in control of the process.

1. Make sure your entire family is present at the inspection. This includes children, grandchildren, parents, and grandparents. The more the merrier. It provides the maximum level of distraction for the inspector.
2. Be sure that you and your extended family follow the inspector everywhere he goes. You will provide the maximum level of distraction in places like the attic.
3. Split your family into small teams. Have them go through the seller's closet. They should pull out a garment so they can discuss it before putting it back in the wrong place. This is sure to get the inspector excited. Going through the dresser drawers, cupboards, or refrigerator produces a similar effect.
4. If you don't have time to attend the inspection, ask an elderly relative to attend on your behalf. For full effect, this relative should not have a good grasp of English. This way they will be able to distract the inspector for extended periods of time trying to make the inspector understand what they have found wrong with the house.
5. While the inspector is working, make sure to get his attention and lead him away from what he is doing to show him something you want to comment on. This is a very effective way to destroy his concentration. It is particularly effective if he is outside and you take him inside, or vice versa.
6. Present your inspector with a list of items that you found. This type of distraction works best if you can't spell or have illegible handwriting.
7. When the inspector removes the front of the electrical service panel (breaker box), gather the family around, hold hands and point at the wires in the box. Get as close to the wire as you can. This gets the inspector really excited because at this point, you still haven't paid. But his excitement should provide the maximum in fun for you and your family.
8. When the inspector is summing up his findings, bring out your list of items that you want added to the report. The inspector will be happy to note that there is dog poo in the yard, or that the paint is old, or that the cupboard doors look worn. These things will distract the inspector from telling you about the failing foundation.
9. During brief periods when the inspector is able to elude you (trust me, he is trying his best), make use of the time by sticking blue tape on items you feel need repair. This is especially effective in an occupied home. The inspector will get really excited when he sees your efforts stuck into every nook and cranny of the house.
10. And last, but not least, ask the inspector how much it will cost to repair the items he has found. This is an area where an inspector has limited expertise because the cost depends on the quality of the repair you wish to make. Something you know, but he does not.

You'll be pleased to know that every tip on this list has been tested on a home inspector during a home inspection. These actions were found to break the concentration of the inspector and make his job at least ten times harder to do! You might like to know that despite the evident expertise you have demonstrated by asking penetrating questions about what you have seen to distract the inspector he is not as impressed as you think he is.

You Can't Lose Something You Never Had

We got an email earlier this week from a realtor who was dissatisfied because Mark didn't wait for him to arrive at the house. He told us that we had lost the recommendation of a good realtor because he would never recommend us.

Here's part of the email I sent in response:

The time window provided in the confirmation email is an estimate and typically allows more than enough time for the inspector to complete the inspection and answer any questions the clients might have. It does not mean that the inspector will remain on the property until the time window is exhausted.
 
Since he had finished the inspection and walked through the property with the clients, answering all their questions, he left. Many realtors do not attend the inspection and unless he knew you were planning to be there, he would not have waited. If he had known you were planning to be there, he would have called you prior to completing the inspection. 

If you or our clients have any questions about the report, he would be happy to discuss those with you. Please phone the number shown below.

We are sorry that you are dissatisfied. Our primary goal is to provide a complete and detailed report of the condition of the property. To the best of our knowledge, the clients are satisfied with the service we provided.

I did a search on his name in our database. It came up one time - as the agent for the buyers on the house he wrote to us about. He hadn't recommended us. This client found us on Angie's List. You can't lose what you didn't have. I guess nothing has really changed.

There are Limits

When we are away we have someone answer the phone. Much better than a recorded message and she can actually schedule appointments for Mark so he can hit the ground running when we return. If something comes up that we need to deal with sooner than later, she sends us an email.

These emails vary in urgency from just a "heads up" to "you need to contact this client ASAP". While we were gone last week, we had an email requesting that Mark call someone ASAP.

Here's the story. He had someone else inspect his house. He had the house tested for radon. The radon reading was high. He wanted to "pick Mark's brain" for possible causes of the high radon reading. Note that we do not do radon testing.

There's good news and bad news here. The good news is that Mark has a reputation for his problem solving ability and his willingness to help people.

The bad news is that we were on another continent. And as much as we're willing to help people who are not our clients resolve issues that we don't deal with, we're just not willing to pay international roaming charges to do so. There are limits.

You Want to Split That?

The primary purpose of a home inspection is to discover things in the house that need repair. Sometimes the repair is needed immediately. The thing to keep in mind is that the inspector discovered the problem; he didn't create it. (Unless he stepped through the ceiling, and then he created the problem and is obligated to fix it - which is why Mark will not step off the service boards in the attic.)

Last week Mark found what he initially thought was a leaking water heater. The homeowner called a plumber immediately. When Mark returned to the property to retrieve a level measure he'd left behind, the plumber was just leaving. It turns out it wasn't the water heater at all, but a broken pipe in the wall behind the water heater.

So we were really surprised when we got a message from the buyer's agent. It seems that the buyer's agent had paid close to $450 for the repair because it "seemed like the right thing to do". (Why would that seem like the right thing to do?) And he wanted to maintain "goodwill". (Whose goodwill? The seller's? This woman let the inspector, the buyers and the agent into her home and didn't disclose that her son had the flu until they were leaving. She interfered with the inspection more than once. She wrangled the money for the repair of a "pre-existing condition" out of the buyer's agent.  No amount of money could buy this woman's goodwill.)  Now he wanted us to reimburse him for half of it. (We had a bit of a chuckle.)

It was a broken pipe in the wall. The inspector detected the leak. He did not cause it. Neither the inspector, nor the buyer's agent was responsible to fix it. Paying for it was the agent's choice. And while he wanted us to pay half the cost of a repair, he never once offered to split his commission with us. Now, does that seem fair?


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Apples and Oranges

I often get calls from people who are price shopping. That's fine. If "lowest price" is their primary concern, we're probably not the inspection company for them. Wednesday I had a call from someone who wanted us to give him an additional discount. When I explained that the bundled price was already deeply discounted, he said he wanted to speak with Mark about how the zip-level worked. (What he really wanted was to see if Mark would offer him an additional discount.) With no additional discounts forthcoming he said he wanted to shop around. He found out what I already knew - no one else was offering him the option of the fiber-optic sewer line inspection or the foundation level measurement. He called back to get on the schedule.

Then yesterday evening I had a call from a gentleman who wanted to schedule an inspection on a property that he was buying. He wanted to include the fiber-optic sewer line inspection and the digital foundation level measurement. I had already contacted centralized showing and the listing agent and was waiting for a confirmation when he called back.

"I have made a few calls, and you are priced almost $300 more than other inspectors."
"Yes, but the other inspectors are not including the fiber-optic camera in the sewer line and they are not measuring the foundation. Those two items add $350 to the cost of your inspection."
"No, they are doing all of that, too."

Well, I'm pretty sure they're not. I am confident that no other inspector in this area has invested in a sewer-cam - at least not yet. (I know that one is telling clients that you have to have a special license to use one. - Nonsense! And I know of another inspector who is considering it. - He's called Mark to ask advice on different models and pricing.) There are also very few in the area who have the necessary equipment to measure foundations. So the likelihood that there is an inspector who is going to put a sewer-cam down the line AND measure the foundation, and do it for $300 less than we charge is pretty slim.

The client supposes that all inspectors are the same and that they all have the same equipment. You can't convince someone who's already made up his mind. I also sensed that this was my big opportunity to offer to lower my price to match the other guy. But I know the difference between apples and oranges. So instead of offering to lower the price, I responded with "Well, alrighty then. I assume you want to cancel."

I hope that works out for him. 

What Did We Miss?

A week or two before Christmas, Mark inspected an older home that had been remodeled. From the pictures I saw on line and from all reports, it was absolutely stunning. But like many people who are flipping houses, they focused on the things you could see and glossed over the things you couldn't see. Mark found that this house needed to have the sewer line replaced. He also found that one of the supporting piers was at a 45 degree angle. There was a hole in the roof. The moisture levels in the hardwood floors were three times what they should be. Those are just a few of the 84-item list of call outs in Mark's report.

I know the property was on the market for upward of $700K. I also know that the buyers were willing to negotiate on price and repairs. But the sellers weren't, so that listing agent (we'll call him Jim) missed out on a pretty good-sized check.

But I'm not sure why he sent the following email:

"After your Company's Inspection at X Street, I would never refer a Buyer Client to your Company!"

Assuming that as an agent, he is focused on his client's best interests, I can understand that he wouldn't be pleased to see us as the listing agent. But buyers?? Really, Jim? I can only assume that we missed something.