Let’s start with the obvious, banks are in the business of lending money, not building homes.  With that said, there is a certain course of action for a new home to be built and ultimately become marketable or safe for occupancy.  There are phase inspections on the construction that are to be conducted by the local municipality to ultimately earn the home what is called a Certificate of Occupancy, or a C.O.  This certifies that all minimum building code requirements have been met and all inspections have been completed.  More and more our Atlanta Home Inspection  company is inding this not to be the case.  Homes are getting their C.O. but a lot of minimum requirements are not being met.  Here are a few:

Missing Outlet Cover

Above is a photo of a missing outlet cover over a receptacle in a cabinet.  While, in theory, this is a minor issue there could be significant ramifications as a result.  Imagine shoving a metal handle pot up into this kitchen cabinet.  Yikes!

Window installed over a tub.

 These windows are required to be tempered safety glass and are not.  This is a very simply deficiency to point out that should have been addressed prior to issuing a C.O.  The issue is that the tub surface can be a slip hazard and if your hand or body part were to break the glass, it would break into large shards as opposed to small pieces if it were tempered as required. 

Now let’s address some of the more significant items we have seen recently. 

Missing draft stop around water heater flue pipe.

No clearance for servicing furnace

Sometimes this upsets folks as they see we have ladders with us and the obvious technical ability to perform such an easy task, right?  Not really the case and there are several reasons for this.  Our inspectors are sometimes doing 3 inspections per day and that comes out to about 500 per year.   Now imagine changing bulbs in 50% of those inspections, and more often than not, multiple bulbs in a house.  It really adds up.  Another issue is the repair factor.  We really aren’t supposed to be dismantling, disassembling or repairing during an inspection.  How many times have you seen a bulb break off in a fixture?  This is simply a liability that we cannot take on.  While I understand that it may be frustrating to some that we just point out that a light bulb is probably blown, we cannot take the responsibility of changing bulbs or taking light fixtures apart to make sure the lights are functioning.  I’d be interested in hearing other opinions or suggestions that might work to alleviate such concerns.

This is kind of an albatross in our industry for several reasons.  The first caveat is what do we charge?  Clients often expect this service to come for free as part of our initial inspection.  This is still a scheduled appointment and even though the inspection may be limited our time is still occupied and we aren’t able to be out doing other work to generate income.  The second issue and, in my opinion the biggest, is the liability perspective.  Here’s a great example:  our initial inspection uncovers a leaking drain line in a bathroom sink.  The purchasers ask the sellers to repair and then they have their inspector back to review the work.  The drain line looks fine, but the drain line in the other bathroom is gone now because they used it to repair the leaking one……..True Story.  During a reinspection, we don’t go back through the whole house and that puts us at a disadvantage as inspectors. 

The Third problem which is pretty much a given on every home reinspection, is the issue that we are at the house on Thursday at 6 p.m. to do the reinspection prior to the closing scheduled for Friday at 8 a.m.  The repairs are incomplete and/or done incorrectly.  At this point, we have the selling agent, the buyer, and the seller upset with US  for pointing out that the repairs were not done correctly or not done at all.  Not fun for any of us. 

In order for us to do a reinspection on a home, we require the following information.  Receipts from a LICENSED contractor for the work being done; an itemized list of what repairs we are there to specifically inspect; a document that outlines what the warranty period will be for the work being performed.   It is my opinion, that if all of these items have been secured then the buyer’s money may be better spent elsewhere.

The purpose of the class was to give agents an opportunity to see what we, as inspectors, look for during the inspection process.  We had three of our inspectors at the house and pointed out what some of the common issues we come across might be as well as why they are important.  We also went though the ASHI Standards of Practice to give the agents an idea of what our requirements are.     

There has recently been some confusion as to whether or not this could violate the RESPA guidelines.  In my opinion, offering a continuing education course is not a cost we are absorbing that would otherwise be incurred by a real estate agent.  To offer a course costs us nothing.  The objective is to demonstrate how knowledgeable we area and in hopes, a real estate agent might feel comfortable passing our name along to those in need of home inspection services.

We have learned that such a statement leaves the purchaser as well as the real estate professional involved scrambling for estimates to determine if they would like to go through with the transaction.  Although it is in our scope of work to only point out deficiencies, this seems like we are doing the client a disservice and giving them more work than they had when they hired us. 

We are committed to provide excellent service with every home inspection, every time.  After extensive training and research our inspectors are now going to provide cost estimates with every inspection.  We will include this service at no additional cost to our loyal customers.   The objective is to give a home buyer an idea of what they may be looking at in terms of repair costs and help decipher between a major and minor item.   

We believe this addition to our service will be an incredible value to all of our customers.  Even in the traditional resale, we hope to give buyers an idea of what repair costs will be.  We also think this is an excellent tool to use for budgeting purposes.  For example, the water heater in the home may be functional but existing beyond its average life span.  We let the buyer know they should budget for repair and give them a general idea of what they should expect in terms of cost.

Some will argue that we are opening ourselves up for additional liablility.  While I do not disagree, I believe that the biggest way to limit our liability is to provide the best possible service we can.  We will continue to put our customers first and take excellent care of our referral sources.

The fact is this is an old house.  It is not the best looking and never will be.  It will always be less than perfect.  Any buyers need to understand that if they want a new house, they should buy one!!  I really don’t understand this mentality.  Should we make it a criteria that no one over the age of 65 be able to visit a doctor? 

The whole house appears to have rewired.  The dead outlet was excluded from this process probably because it is in a location where an outlet is not likely to be needed.   There was a receptacle in the home that was not working and this was the insepctor’s response.    

I would suggest to the buyer’s agent that he/she will lose many deals over time using an inspector that cannot discern symptoms from problems and always suggests the most expensive possible repair.  Looking out for your buyer and looking out for your own derriere is not the same thing. 

In a less than perfect home, to ask for perfect solutions is to kill your own deal.     

These are excerpts from his closing para. 

I typically pride myself on being pretty thick skinned and very rational in most instances.  I suppose you would have to read the whole letter to understand the animosity but above is a good example.  What do you think?  Am I too sensitive?