What are the odds

[paul burrell]

I inspected a home for a customer last week that contacted me off the internet. This week I got a call from an old Realtor friend that wanted me to do a home for him which I did. The home I did for Him was for sale by the same person I did the other home for last week that she is purchasing? This all happened by chance no one passed my name to anyone.

Metro Atlanta has a population of between 4 and 5 million with literally hundreds of HIs.I think the odds of this happening again are slim to none.[?]

Paul B.

[hausdok]

That is weird but it happens.

I've had more than one buyer tell me they hoped to hell that I wouldn't be inspecting the home that they're selling and then right afterward find out that I was. In one case, I inspected a home for a buyer and the home turned out to be owned by the folks that I was going to be doing an inspection for the next day.

kind of nudge it along here by leaving my card in every home I inspect. It's funny, sellers go into shock and cuss me up one side of the fence and down the other and then they save my card and call me to inspect the home they find.

Atlanta is large Paul but the inspection community is small. It'll happen again.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Focal Point]

I went to a local dealership to buy a new inspectormobile the other day and come to find out, the salesman was one of my clients I never got to meet as he was overseas. (Marines)

He stopped being so pushy when I told him " you know, I dont know if I ever got paid for that inspection"

I love watching car salesmen squirm...

Anyway, I told him I was only kidding, however I didn't buy anything from him.

I might have to dig up the old "Inspectormobile" thread and update my ride.

[wingfoot]

That is very weird Paul.

At my inspection today as I was walking through the kitchen, I noticed one of our company's blue binders that we used to handout with the report in it. I opened it up and saw that it was November 2004. It was the sellers old report from one of our inspectors.

By the way I did my own inspection and did not refer to it. I know ya'll would be wondering.[^]

[Phillip]

This week I did a house that I inspected 2 year ago. The owner still had the report I did for him. The buyer had seen it and called me to to the inspection. I looked at it after I did the inspection. The bad thing was that he had not done 95% of the repairs I wrote up for the first inspection. If he had fixed the insulation on the ductwork in the crawlspace he would not had the wood fungus I found. and if he had replaced the damaged plumbing vent flashing he would not have the wet ceiling and walls.

[hausdok]

Wingfoot wrote:

I noticed one of our company's blue binders that we used to handout with the report in it. I opened it up and saw that it was November 2004. It was the sellers old report from one of our inspectors.

Yeah, that happened to me once too. In fact, it was the beginning of the end of the relationship with the franchise I used to belong to.

When I saw the report, I took a minute to glance through it and found that the fellow who'd done it had used 100% boilerplate comments from our software - the same comments that I'd chucked because they were so poorly written in inspectorspeak. What I found comical was one of the "positive" comments about the crawlspace that said that the crawlspace could be used for storage, because it was deep enough to walk around in, was very dry and shelves had been built along one wall. "Kewl!" I thought.

When I finally got around to inspecting the crawlspace, I discovered that it barely met the minimum clearance requirements and had barely enough room for me to roll over while lying prone. In addition to that, the vapor barrier was dislodged, there was water ponding down there and portions of the rim joist were rotting from accumulated moisture, because the foundation vents were all blocked. After that, I didn't think too much of my colleague's abilities.

A few months later, an old army buddy called me from the east coast and asked me to inspect a house for his son. He said that his son already had an inspector, but since it was the one recommended by the realtor he didn't trust her and wanted to know if I'd do it.

Normally, when another inspector is already booked I'll turn these down because I don't want to get into a brouhaha with another inspector. In this case, it turned out to be my fellow franchisee - the one who'd reported the positive crawlspace above. I took the job. The realtor thought I'd be an RLH like the other guy, but when she realized I didn't intend to obey the 'code' she was sending me, she got P.O.'d and began interrupting me with assinine comments designed to minimize my findings. I finally had to tell her to go sit down and read a book.

I'd told the father why I'd taken the job and he'd shared that with his son. After the inspection, the kid told his irate realtor why he'd hired me and why she should consider not using the other guy. That went over like a screen door on a submarine because she was definitely from the realtorzoid school of minimalization of inspection issues.

Within a couple of days, I got a letter from HQ. She'd dropped a dime with the other guy and he'd whined to HQ. They were threatening to terminate my contract for "unprofessional" behavior. The upshot of it was that I put my business up for sale within a week and less than 2 months later became an independent.

Yep, always interesting to find the "other" guy's report.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[kurt]

I've had several combinations of seller/realtor/buyer intermingling in the schedule. Seems odd, but not really; we work in a relatively small bubble.

[Richard Moore]

My inspection tomorrow is on the same house I did 5 weeks ago. First client (evidently failed to qualify) was a referral, the new one found me on the web. I pulled up the MLS listing while on the phone and had a DejaVu moment. I informed the new client of this and and we both agreed it was one hell of a coincidence. I also explained that I would be doing a complete, new inspection because conditions may have changed. No problem...but it's a first for me and just a a little weird.

I keep the MLS flyer with my records and noticed that the asking price has dropped $7K, so I suspect the Zinsco panel and all the other problems are still there. I'd guess that I'm going to be able to just copy 90% of the old report...we'll see. It feels a bit like cheating, but it would be just stupid to pretend I hadn't written the stuff already.

Hopefully this client's realtor won't call 1/2 hour after the scheduled time to tell me he was 15 minutes away and then finally show up to let us in an hour later (1 1/2 hours late) without as much as an apology to me or the client. That happened on the original inspection and was a memorable first too. Friggin amazing! I really wanted to vent at the time but bit my tongue for the client's sake. Wasn't her fault, and I felt she didn't need the distraction. But...Grrrr!

[hausdok]

Hey Rich!

If your guy buys it and is going to replace that Zinsco, try to get your hands on it. I've got the guts out of a little 50's Magnatrip in a container in my truck. Whenever I have a zinsco panel and I need to make them understand why it's bad ju-ju, I just pull it out, snap out a breaker and show them the arc-pitted and scorched buses.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Richard Moore]

Hmmm...the Mini's "boot" is kind of full already! Think I'll have to stick with just the scary verbal, print and link stuff.

[Richard Moore]

Turns out I don't get to get to do the same house twice. New "client" cancelled this morning, 1/2 hour before I was about to leave. His "reason" was that the sellers were suddenly disclosing all that was wrong. Yeah, right! I smell a loose copy of my first report. He then started mentioning specfics like the "old fuse box", at which point I politely told him I couldn't discuss a previous clients inspection, wished him good luck, and hung up!

Maybe I need a cancellation policy? Nah...it really hasn't been an issue up to this point. There must be something evil about this house and I'm probably better off without this particular client.

Oh well...I like my days off. Back to stripping my 2nd floor for the big remodel.

[wingfoot]

Richard,

That ticks me off and it's not even my inspection. I would say you are right, you're better off without that client.

Don't feel to bad, my morning inspection cancelled late last night. It's been on my schedule 3 different days for 2 weeks now and has finally cancelled. No telling if that blocked 3 inspections from me or not. What are ya gonna do? Just one of the many aggravating things we have to deal with.

[paul burrell]

I did a home and a few days later I got a call from another buyer to do the same house when I told him I did the inspection a few days before and knew the house very well. He would not let me do it for him. Only thing I can figure is he did not want me to make the easy money by driving over looking at the particulars and giving him a new report with his name on with indicated changes to condition if any, as needed.

Some folks minds just do not work right and money (greed) is one of the biggest problems.

Of course natural born self interest is a predominate human condition that we all have and is a good survival tool.

Paul B.