slinger2k

1944 Eloise Ln, Edgewood. Buyers are CQ and An. CQ talks very quickly. An will be on title and the loan only. Either will call you shortly. Thank you. -D

Bad areas everywhere JD - its all relative. I need an inspection for one of my buyers. Small REO townhouse in fair condition. They intend to close on Mar 18. Are you game?

All hail Bawlmer. I sent you a message earlier....do you happen to inspect up in Edgewood?

Wow Kurt, that is quite the disparaging remark. I'm a Realtor (I'm also a broker that owns his very own real estate company). I have neither lied nor spoke to something without having the knowledge to back it up. My clients, in fact, feel better prepared for a real estate transaction knowing their agent had professionally inspected over 4,000 homes. When I discuss the home buying process with my family, friends and referrals, I offer polished negotiating skills, a broad knowledge of the immediate market and a tireless representative who has THEIR best interests at heart. Earning a commission is only the manner in which I get paid for my expertise - just like you get paid for yours. Check your anger at the door dude...

John- gimme a call 443.336.7689 and I will find a vehicle for you and your son.

Radon Abatement Services 301.718.6200 or as someone else suggested DIY...its a piece of cake.

Just be careful. Every time you enter a house using the key - you are letting a number of persons know that it was YOU that entered the home. If YOU didnt bother getting permission from the listing agent or set it up thru CSS, then YOU may get yelled at by a buyer's agent, an annoyed homeowner, the Anne Arundel Assc of Realtors, etc. Gets easier as you make a name for yourself around town and agents recognize who you are and what capability you have as far as getting in and out of properties. I picked up a Supra key after our first inspection 7 years ago. Any key is handy and just removes that much more hassle from most agent's workloads (he/she doesnt have to let you in to retrieve radon equipment, e.g.) and that turns into referrals. Good to see you are doing well in a tough market.

John, Depending on the type and format of your report, you may be able to utilize parts of your report. We still use a Word doc broken down into the different components of the house. Each component page has a checklist and narrative info below the list. I just cut/pasted the checklists onto a blank piece of paper (actually 5 pages) with room below (bout half the page) to jot all the notes down. Those checklists are on a clipboard which is glued (actually Velcro'ed) to a laptop bag turned tool bag. We generate our reports from the checklists/notes. I probably said it before, but the most successful people I know are not necessarily the most creative, however, they are the best at exploiting a system or systems. You need to develop, modify or just mimic a system that you believe you help you succeed. Our first inspection was of our father's house. My brother and I stood outside for about ten minutes trying to figure out how to look at a house where we had the least break in focus. Then we did the same thing inside. Then we set out inspecting, felt comfortable inspecting the areas we assigned each other and ironically finished at the same time. We found our system and havent run off course since.

Tell ya what, John. You just dipped your toes into the pool and now you want to pull the plug down at the bottom. You are just starting out, have little experience, I'm guessing you don't have an endless budget for advertising/marketing and you are proposing to collapse a potential lead conduit for your business. I have inspected homes for only 6+ yrs and <40 yrs old, however, when I started out I immediately recognized who my target market was....buyers of homes. Who best to contact to reach those "buyers of homes".....the agents of the buyers of homes. Coming into a market that was entrenched with inspector lifers (i.e., the AmeriSpecs, Pillar to Posts, Boswells, Highlands, etc), I was determined to grab just a small share of the inspection pie. We ramped up very quickly and figured we captured nearly 10+/-% of the market (immediate county) by the end of our second year. Happy to say 90% of those inspections were the result of a buyer's agent recommending my company (usually with a couple others) to inspect the house. A referral network between complementing industries is INVALUABLE!! I would regret the day big gov't poking its nose into an all to common business practice. JMHO.

Good quality and relatively affordable...Silver Line (ironically owned by Andersen).

Whomever fed you the line should reconsider saying it anymore. He/she is only fueling a long-standing fallacy (the agent and the client are nearly one and the same - any disservice you provide to the client only falls back onto their representative, the agent and vica versa). I don't believe I could tell you the difference between a real estate man and a client man. Personally, I have never met an agent who would stake his/her reputation and career on simply pushing through a deal with help from a home inspector. All Realtors are held to many of the same standards of business practice as we inspectors are. Real estate agents are customer service professionals, not "snake oil salesman". I have also never met an inspector who has knelt before an agent to "wash his/her feet" for the sake of future referrals. We, too, are customer service professionals. I would venture to guess nearly all agents and inspectors conduct their relationships in a manner that provides current and future success without sacrificing ethical and professional behavior. I do, however, know of a few inspectors who are very dramatic with their position and seem almost "confrontational", i.e., "Just look at that roof, it MUST be replaced," or "Do these owners know where to find a maid, this is ridiculous!". You are not only putting yourself in the position of being a knucklehead, but you are not doing the job that was asked of you. My understanding is that as inspectors, we are hired to inform to position someone else to make an educated decision and that is pretty much it. If you do that, everyone concerned will be happy. I got way off topic didn't I? I like what Dok said.

Ooops!!! Congrats pal. Might not be a flip - current owner has been in it for 2 1/2 yrs as principal residence. Looks nice cosmetically. The basement is finished as a rec room/utility room. Typical Cville house - upper level bath at the front of the house (when you walk through the front door look up at ceiling - will probably find a patch or some older water stains). Nice that the mechanicals have been replaced and updated. The roof is shingle (so you can climb on it) - most rowhouses 'round here have furnace and water heater flues feeding a masonry chimney (check the connections at the bottom in the basement and up top at the flashing). Poke around as much as you can - you'll do fine. It'll be fun.

If you had the chance to cruise from '02 thru '05 or '06ish, it now feels VERY slow. Bound to happen....real estate market explodes, new agents flood the market, new inspectors flood the market, new agents jive with new inspectos, new inspectors taking bites out of the seasoned agent pie (we ALL don't operate a "referral" business), relationships and trust are built, real estate market deflates, agent count declines (especially those agents who have < 5 yrs of experience and with that so does a lot of business), newish inspectors are starved. Much can be said for being "diversified" in your career(s) - I don't know very many thriving inspection companies in MD unless they've been practicing their craft long before the boom of '01. The rest of us needed to look ahead and prepare for significant changes (did anyone think that the market could sustain the head of steam it did - pullout your economics textbook). If you're brand spanking new - you have your work cut out for yourself. Marketing, marketing, create a niche, marketing and more marketing. Good luck.

BTS - whatever they had on their menu, e.g, bac, bac/chem, fha/va, etc. We have the ability to perform yield tests, but usually it is too labor intensive and time consuming.

Anybody performing water testing as part of their HI arsenal? What lab are you using. The lab I have been using for 7 yrs has dropped the ball one too many times recently and I'm primed for some change.

A recent "Good Morning America" investigation finds that government building inspectors are often overworked and sometimes lazy, incompetent or corrupt. Sometimes? Funny how they narrowed it down to building inspectors - I see it across the board!! (no harm intended to those who know people languishing in the public sector - I'm definitely not PC).

Yes...markup is usually 300% over lab costs. Helps alleviate the cost of diesel! LOL

3,500 Lbs. of Bat Guano Found in Attic Email this Story May 3, 9:45 AM (ET) BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (AP) - An upstate New York couple didn't think a few bats in the attic were much of a problem when they were buying a house last summer. Months later, they found out how wrong they were when they discovered more than a ton and a half of bat droppings up there. Nick LaBoda and Jenna Caputo say a home inspector informed them about the bats. They called an exterminator, who told them to wait a while before removing the bats because the babies were too young to fly. Then they forgot about the bats until they smelled a foul odor in January. When they checked the attic, they found dead bats and piles of guano. An exterminator says hundreds of bats had been living in the attic, leaving behind 3,500 pounds of droppings. It cost $25,000 to clean up the mess, and the couple's insurance company wouldn't cover it. They're fighting it out in court.

Happened to catch this....both are probably useless unless you have a shallow well column and reasonably low replinishment (less than the well pump rate). Well yield is time-intensive and unless you are fairly gifted mathematically & know stuff about head pressure, its not worth the hassle. Most master plumbers or well drillers will test for yield rates for 3 hrs, recording at 15 min intervals.

I dont think backstabbing is universally accepted anymore...12 AWG wire would damage the spring clip that held the wire in place leaving you with a loose connection. 14 gauge I guess doesnt damage the clip but using the screw terminals seems to be a better method - IMHO.

Anyone who peruses this forum have thermal imagery equipment - central Maryland area? Thanks.

anybody catch Lost tonite...John Locke is one of the proud and few...a home inspector! thats all

Not really a "vintage" (well, if it were a real A/C then it would be vintage), but this has been my brother's (co-owner of company) dream for quite some time. Funny what someone can finish (two yrs in the garage) when his plate runneth over. And for the speed freaks on the board.... http://www.wimp.com/fiat/ Download Attachment: driver2.JPG 100.66 KB Download Attachment: front2.JPG 95.83 KB Download Attachment: rear2.JPG 97.88 KB Download Attachment: rear3quarter2.JPG 114.42 KB BTW - thanks to hausdok and his wealth of knowledge....I like the image resizer link from another post

1971 Toyota Corona. My dad worked at a naval contracting shop and when they moved in, there was faded yellow car sittin in the weeds. When I got around to driving age, he said "Son, if you can get it to drive home, its yours." Invested a whopping $350 and had it running that weekend. Typical hot rodder with no coin....slot mags, self painted metallic blue paint job, rocker panels and floor boards rusted thru replaced w/ sheets of aluminum formed on a bender and riveted to the car, a Kraco radio, those stupid fuzzy dice hanging from my rearview and a lot of shag. Liked to do "donuts" in the school parking lot. Sold it about 6 months later for $500. Later found out the gentleman couldnt find a shop to pass it thru inspection. So goes life.