THE BIG BLACK HOLE

As we creep slowly through this hurtful so called recession and housing mess, I find, as I’ve mentioned before, that the majority of the Home Inspections that I’m hired to perform are for people purchasing short sales and foreclosures. But another trend that I’m beginning to see emerge more and more is requests from home owners of almost new homes that are finding defects or other adverse issues involving their ‘new castles’ and they are getting the ‘cold shoulder’ or ‘silence treatment’ from their Contractor that built the home when they bring these issues to the Contractors attention. This sort of situation, unfortunately, immediately separates the Contractor that stands behind his product and wants to maintain high quality and a good reputation by providing good customer service from the one that was just ‘in it’ for the quick buck and doesn’t want to hear about ‘your’ problems.

During the building boom of the 90’s and especially the 2001 through 2007 time frame, the demand for new homes was incredible. Forget regular families wanting to buy homes for themselves, investors would rush in and buy homes in various areas that hadn’t even been started yet because they were counting on the value of the home to increase 10% to 50% by the time the home was actually built! This behavior put immense pressure on the construction trades to pump these homes out as fast as they could. Construction workers were in a severe shortage and many construction crews were filled out with illegal aliens and other workers of questionable experience. Language differences made communication barriers a daily dilemma and a detriment to making sure what the project foreman wanted accomplished actually occurred. Sadly, this scenario has, at least in my mind, created a huge black hole of substandard or defective structures in our housing inventory. This is thousands, if not millions of homes and other structures that will be problematic and a maintenance pain for years to come. This will cost us all way more money than we can ever imagine. The lawyers will get involved and there will be lawsuits until hell won’t have them. People that paid good, hard earned money to have the home built right the first time will find themselves in a predicament where they have to pay again, only more, to have it repaired, but this time done properly. What a waste!

So, what to do? I used to promote “11 month” inspections for people with new homes because the industry recognized warranty period for the builder was one year. But most people just scoffed at me saying: “Why should I spend good money on an inspection of a brand new house? You will never find anything wrong; it’s brand new. What could possibly be wrong, it was inspected numerous times by the local building department?” Well, I wonder what these same people are thinking now that they are discovering and having to live with or repair at their expense all of these defects as they unfortunately begin to discover them? Most Contractors really do care about the product they build and also care a lot about their good reputation. Let’s hope those builders that receive complaints have the wear-with-all to properly take care of the issues and protect and stand behind the big investment and trust their customers made in the homes they built.

HOW DO YOU COMPARE APPLES TO ORANGES?

One of the things that I find myself doing on a regular basis is speaking at length over the telephone with prospective clients. I find that this can ‘eat up’ quite a bit of my time, but I also find that these conversations can be very interesting and rewarding in many ways. First, it never ceases to amaze me how little people know about the home buying/selling process. At times, it seems like I’m the only person willing to take the time to answer these people’s questions and explain in fair detail what they want (need) to know. I mean, buying a piece of property and home is no small, insignificant purchase so you better have some grasp of the process or you very well could end up with a serious case of ‘buyers remorse’ after the close of escrow!

Almost with out fail, the first question I’m asked over the telephone by a prospective client is: “What does your inspection cost?” That tells me immediately that I’m talking with an individual that has little to no idea of what a Home Inspection or Structural Pest (termite) Inspection is all about and what they (the inspections) are meant to accomplish for the person requesting them. It also tells me they have an ill conceived perception that there is little to no difference between one inspection and report and another, as well as between one Inspector and another. Nothing could be further from the truth! In other words, they are, at their financial peril, comparing ‘apples to oranges’! The very LAST question that should be asked is what the amount of an inspection fee will be! After all, isn’t the reason you are looking into ordering an inspection mean that you need some in depth and detailed information concerning the property you are contemplating purchasing and want to feel reassured that you are making the right decision? If that is the case, then asking questions to determine that you are hiring the most experienced and qualified Inspector probably should be the first that you ask. Second probably ought to be just what the Inspector is going to inspect and to what detail. Then your questions probably need to turn to what you can expect for the content and format of the report and how you will receive it. It also would be nice if the Inspector invited you to be there at the time of the inspection, even if you could only make it towards the end of the inspection so that any issues that may have been uncovered could be gone over right there on the property at the locations of the issues.

Finally, the time has come to ask about the fee for the inspection. But, by then you will be either feeling very comfortable with your prospective Inspector or you will be ready to rule him or her out. You also will start seeing how much time, effort and expertise your prospective Inspector is going to be putting into your project. By then, too, you probably are realizing that the fee for the inspection is less than ¼ to ½ of 1% of the cost of the property you are looking to purchase. That’s an incredible bargain for the peace of mind and confidence you will have to go ahead and close escrow on the property. Click on the “How to hire an Inspector” tab else where on my web site to access a complete guide to help you adequately and safely hire the Inspector that will protect your interests. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of “comparing apples to oranges”!

GEEZZZ, EVERYBODY IS ‘GREEN’ TODAY’!

If you spent any time at all on my web site, you probably have seen the page that describes why my web site is hosted by a solar powered company and the interest I personally have in promoting and trying to live life in a more sustainable manner. If you missed that page, it is easily accessible by clicking on the ‘box’ that says “Sustainable Website” and is located to the lower right hand side of most of the pages of my web site. Some people would characterize this as “green” activities. I have to tell you, I really don’t like the word “green” when used in that manner. I feel those activities are just plain common sense and I justify my attempts to implement them into my life as best I can because they can save me money, attempt to keep me from being wasteful, help me live a healthier life and just may be positive for the environment at the same time. Wow, a win – win!

However, what is disheartening and very distracting is how many businesses try to promote their sales of products or services by trying to tell us that their service or product is ‘green’ or environmentally good, when in fact it is only minutely so or even not at all. This is what is referred to as “green washing” and is very deceiving, not to mention destructive to the sustainable ‘movement’. It’s like some of the auto companies that ‘crow’ in television ads how their ‘such an such’ vehicle model is “green” because it gets ‘X’ number of miles per gallon of gas. Give me a break! If it burns gasoline, it ‘ain’t’ green no way! Earlier this year I attended a daylong learning event for continuing education to maintain my Structural Pest (termite) Inspectors license, which was put on by a major industry trade organization. Almost every class had some presenter trying to tell us how “green” their products and processes are. Come on, if you apply substances that are man made that eradicate (kill) insects, it ‘ain’t’ green, no way!

So, lets not talk ‘green’, but lets talk sustainable. Sustainable makes sense. Sustainable is a word that explains exactly what its’ true meaning is. You can’t hide behind or pervert the word sustainable because, to be sustainable, something (product or activity) either is or is not! Simple! How do you feel about this issue?

WHAT’S ALL THIS ‘BUZZ’ ABOUT ‘SOCIAL MEDIA’?

I keep hearing all of this ‘chatter’ about ‘social media’. Twitter this, face book that, my space, your space…what the heck, my head is spinning! What is all of this ‘hoop-la’ about anyways? As it is I was thinking that I was pretty much tapped out time wise just trying to keep up with my email, web site, telephone and, oh yeah, my job, inspecting homes and preparing reports. What more could these ‘new’ forms of media possibly add to my business that wouldn’t be lost in a bigger way by my wandering around with my head looking down in a daze and my thumbs drumming away on the keys of a cell phone? Plus, I would be forced to learn a new code/language in order to ‘play the game’. Come on, give me a break! How is any of that going to help my client know more about the home that he owns and is selling, or, is purchasing? How is any of that going to help me do a good, thorough inspection and explain to my client in detail any issues that I may have uncovered during that inspection?

Call me a dinosaur, but I feel the best and most accurate way to communicate is face to face where physical gestures, facial expressions and voice inflections help us convey the message far more clearly than some chopped-up alphabet soup of letters that make up some sort of strange, obscure code that one is never really sure that they have gotten the proper meaning from. And, what the heck is the big hurry? Time may be of the essence, but that is carrying things to an extreme that is totally unnecessary! Being that ‘wound-up’ tight and in such a rush is probably even bad for your health due to all of the stress involved. Maybe I’m missing something here, but I don’t think I am. But, if you can explain it to me and have it make some true sense, hey I’m all ears!

PROFFESSIONAL/TRADE ORGANIZATIONS

Because I perform several types of inspections involving homes and businesses, I’m faced several times through out the year with the decision to renew/continue my membership in various Inspector organizations that pertain to those different inspection types. Each membership is usually several hundred dollars and it is always a mental battle of mine whether I can justify, especially in these tough times, cutting a check to stay a member in the group at hand. I usually start out each decision process taking the easy way out and tell myself that there really is no reason to be spending that kind of money on something of such little value and I set the renewal invoice to the side. This, of course, leads to the inevitable reminder renewal notice a few weeks later, which starts the thought process all over again, only now with some urgency as I’m about to be dropped from the organization for non-payment.

Because there are many Inspector organizations out there vying for my participation and money, I have been very selective as to which ones I felt would benefit me and my business model the most. Actually, the underlying question that I must have an answer to is: Which Inspector organizations will benefit my clients best interest and my particular business model. To me, it is all about quality education opportunities provided by the organization and support of the Inspector for information when needed at a moments notice. Many organizations are really just glorified marketing and referral services for their Inspector members and is their main reason for existing as they are profit generating machines that care little if at all about the home selling/buying public. The organizations that I have searched out and have finally decided to join and participate in are the ones that do offer me every chance to participate in continuing education and learning events that allow me to constantly be honing my inspection skills to provide my client with the very best, most thorough inspection and report that I can give them. I am sure that I spend in excess of a hundred hours a year in partaking of continuing education to better my service to my client. I am extremely proud to be the member of the Inspection organizations I am involved with and always end up renewing my membership as a result.

Which brings me to the question; have you ever thought about the efforts people you deal with on a day-to-day basis take to better themselves and their service/knowledge to serve you as a client? Have you ever asked the people that you do business with and put your trust in to do a good job or supply you with a product to you actually keep themselves abreast of all of the new advances and methods that are constantly being ‘uncovered/discovered’ so that you feel confident that you are getting the best there is for the dollars you are spending? Or, do you just listen to the sales pitch and ‘hope for the best’ because you don’t want to put out the effort to do the ‘hard’ question asking. Today, more than ever before because of the vast array of information (misleading many times) available on the Internet, slick ads and tricky TV spots, a person just has to put forth more effort than in the past to make sure you will get what you have been lead to believe you were to receive. Most of the time that means developing a good one on one business relationship with those that you are going to spend your hard earned money with. I’d like to hear from you how you go through this process!

A SORRY, SAD SITUATION

Almost all of the inspections I’ve been making over the past year or so have been on foreclosed houses or ‘short sales’ on homes of owners in financial distress. Although I appreciate the work (inspections), it is very depressing thinking about the shattered dreams and lives of those that have lost their beloved homes to the foreclosure monster. It really becomes apparent what kind of stress these people were under and pressure to move out when, as I methodically go through my inspection regimen, I open a cabinet door to find the interior of the cabinet stuffed with either food stuffs or personal belongings that were overlooked in the rush to get out. At that point I have to stop, take a deep breath and then ‘power up’ my stamina and try as best as I can to over look the obvious sadness and move on with the inspection process as I know that all of my attention and abilities must be brought to bear for my deserving client who is purchasing the home and hired me to make sure that they are fully informed of the condition of the large investment they are about to make.

As with every dark cloud, there is always a silver lining if you look close enough. Of course the silver lining in this mess is that first time home buyers who were completely priced out of the market two or three years ago, can now afford to buy a home because the price reductions have made the homes affordable again. These new home purchasers are well-qualified buyers, as they must meet some pretty tough standards to qualify for the home loan. I find that these homebuyers are also, for the most part, very wary and selective about the homes that they put in an offer on, and have previewed many homes before doing so. But, unfortunately, I find that most of these prospective home purchasers still fall into the age old trap of allowing their realtor to choose which, if any, Inspectors are to be engaged to provide information to the purchaser to help them feel comfortable in their decision to actually close escrow and buy the home.

This is a most unfortunate circumstance as the prospective purchaser is lulled into a false sense of security thinking that the realtor will take care of every little detail and it will be with the purchasers’ best interest at heart foremost. Although there are a few exceptions, that line of thinking is far from the reality of how the process usually unfolds. First, a realtor is paid ONLY after escrow closes. So, a quick and easy path to that close of escrow is always desirable, but probably NOT in the purchasers’ best interest most times. Second, the homebuyer has no ‘one on one’ connection to the Inspector, as he or she didn’t ‘hire’ the Inspector. Most of the time the Inspector hired by the realtor is one that they (the realtor) have used on a regular basis and the out come of the inspection is ‘predictable’. A predictable outcome has no place when it comes to an inspection, as a REAL inspection is obviously not being performed. Besides, how can an Inspector serve two ‘masters’ at once; The realtor that sends inspections his way continually, or, the buyer who didn’t actually hire him and the Inspector will only be involved with in this one instance. I can go on and on including one nightmare example after the other, but I won’t. But I will say that I think that a realtor should never be allowed to choose the Inspectors that a buyers needs to make their purchasing decision; No not even giving the purchaser a list of Inspectors to choose from! What do you think about this situation? How do you handle your ‘due diligence’ when purchasing a home?