Home Inspectors

The Home Inspection Process is one of the most critical processes in the Home Buying process
in the United States.

I have all the skills needed to be a Home Inspector. I would NEVER want to be one.
NEVER. I'd destroy my referral network before I ever got it built.

If you ever have the need to hire one, try to find one that
1) has other income coming in and
2) is or was in the building trades for a significant period of time.

There is a massive, known ethical concern with home inspectors
that most grossly underestimate.

Ask any Realtor who's been in business long enough and they'll tell you.
They won't be proud to tell as I'm not either, but they'll tell you.

On a regular basis, Home Inspectors look past the items that can below deals because he or she will not be in business long by telling the truth.

There. I said it. Now. Do you know how bad it really is?

Truth be told, it's not remotely just Home Inspectors that are a problem,
but this is a good place to start....

If every student gets a 100 on a test where some should clearly have gotten less, can they be aggressively accused of Cheating? NO

If every student gets a 92% on a test where some should have gotten 100 and many more should have gotten less, but they all got 92% because they all missed the exact same two questions with the exact same wrong answer, can they be aggressively accused of Cheating? YOU BETCHA...

There are some types of mistakes that give away an unethical game that are
far worse than others.

When everyone is playing their own unethical games trying to get a transaction through not realizing others are doing the same, the end result can be an overload of FLAGS.

When that happens, the only thing left is to figure out who was conspiring with who on what,
if there was in fact any conspiration at all...

When the volume of errors and omissions started running from a few notes on page one to an overflow on page 4, it became apparent that there was no single strategist involved.

No one likes getting caught naked, but that's what happens when Cheaters don't coordinate.
That's also when everyone starts throwing each other under the bus....

I've been involved in buying, renovating, renting, managing and selling residential real estate since 1998....

The majority of the problematic process I'm describing here revolves around Home Inspectors more interested in reputation management with realtors than buyer and seller interests, Seller's Seeking to Hide Defects for one reason or another, and/or Seller's Agents willing to look the other way when information becomes apparent they are bound to disclosed but seldom do.

New and newer homes are a bit different. There is less manipulation there. The older ones however, are a far different story....

I'm a Licensed Contractor and a Licensed Real Estate Agent but I got those more for my own use than for doing work with and for others. I've purchased more than 20 homes for my own residences and investments. That's the part that makes me a bit more unique as an Agent and Contractor. There's lots of folks like me but we pale in comparison to the Full Time Agents and Full Time Contractors who have bought just one or a few homes for themselves over their life times.

As I got into the buying business more and more I came to meet more and more agents sitting on the other side of the table and honestly, with few exceptions what I ended up finding was not as appealing as most might have imagined. Once new agents get over the learning curve and the novelty of being a realtor, for some who do it full time with no real alternative income source to keep them honest, something seems to happen. Their goal shifts from helping buyers and sellers complete transactions to slamming transactions through no matter the factors OR getting people to walk away quickly from bad deals without caring who ends up losing their shirt after their own client walked.

I'm going to start this one differently than some of the others. I'm going to tell you the problems and issues before writing the story that might have made for a better read. Then maybe later, I'll come back and fill in .

Home Inspectors get their business from realtor referrals.
Few buyers will actively seek out a home inspector separate from that unless their agent is new and has no inspectors to suggest
Even if a buyer seeks out an independent contact, the Home Inspector is generally as much or more interested in pleasing all the Agents in the deal because they are the ones who represent future referral leads into perpetuity.
Sure. Inspectors can pick up referrals from buyers or sellers too, but that pales in comparison to a long term stream of leads from realtors who "like your work".

What does it mean if a realtor "likes the work" of an inspector?

Well, that totally and completely depends on the situation actually, and if you are currently a bit naïve buckle your seat belt and put on your crash helmet, as this might get a little jarring...

PRE-SALE HOME INSEPCTION FOR SELLERS

In the case of a "pre-sale" inspection, the Inspector should be told the EXACT PURPOSE for the inspection by the Seller and/or the Seller's Agent.

A mis-understanding in purpose can have catastrophic affects for the Seller, the Seller's Agent and the Inspector if suggestion and omission magic meant to provide a false peace of mind calms a Seller into believing he has a home that is far more ready for market than it really is.

SCENARIO 1 -- The inspection is for the "seller's information" so the seller can gain an honest understanding of their home for repair, pricing or marketing purposes

SCENARIO 2 -- The inspection is for the "seller's marketing purposes", in which case the inspector will gloss over things to the same lessor or greater degree they may do if they were doing a soft buyer's inspection. The goal? Provide an initial first impression to a buyer that the home is "in pretty good shape" even if that is far less than forthcoming.

Suggestion and Omission magic has a very nasty back channel when the EXACT PURPOSE of the inspection is not understood between the Seller, the Inspector and the Seller's Agent. Magic meant to work on the buyers may accidentally be inflicted on others and the "POOF" up comes the curtain with nary a stitch of clothing to hide the genitalia.

NOTE about #1:

If the inspection is for #1, the best way to do that is likely with a "consultation" with a Home Inspector and it would be best if only the Home Owner or someone that is going to help them with the work be there. Having the Seller's Agent that can and will jeopardize their ability to stay neutral in the event they learn of property problems the seller decides not to repair or disclosure properly. The "consultation" is the right way to go, because if you ask the Inspector to write it all down, that becomes a written document that you may get in deep water for not sharing as part of the disclosure process when you are ready to list the home.

NOTE about #2:

If the inspector glosses over inspection items for the same reason they all do, the inspector better hope and pray that the buyer is not slammed into a transaction where they were forced to waive their standard buyer's inspection and rely on a glossy overlay for a decision. While that may have worked for the past few decades, that shit is going to get very painful one of a half dozen ways in the very near future, if not just karmically alone. And every one of you knows exactly what I'm talking about..

If the inspector has been hired to do a pre-sale home inspection for someone interested in selling the home, the Inspector, the Agent and the Home Owner need to be on the same page. It's imperative they are on the same page or else something like I just experienced can happen and it's going to get so ugly it's beyond silly...

As unethical as this sounds , if a Seller or Seller's Agent doesn't do the following with clarity with a Home Inspector, the Seller can end up in a world of hurt if the Buyer's inspector is in on the game, or worse yet, the Buyer is a Contractor buying the home for his own residence...

Realtors only make money if a deal goes to completion. The largest single hinderance to a deal getting to completion is a Home Inspection which returns surprises or information the buyer and buyers agent weren't expecting, unless of course a pre-sale home inspector got crossed up in which case the Seller's Agent may be almost as shocked too, with nary a place to hide once the volume of FLAGS are tallied...

A Home Inspector who blows a deal or few will quickly learn. If they want to remain in business, nobody likes a deal blower. Not the Sellers Agent OR Buyers Agent.

So what do they do? They learn to write reports so dazzling almost nobody can find their tale (tail). With "almost" being the key word there...

Can you SEE just how bad this ethical dilemma is related to a starry eyed young person sold on the dream of becoming a Home Inspector for a career as opposed to becoming a home inspector because they had the experience to do it and the skills to fall back on if they pissed off too many agents?

Many new Home Inspectors had no clue of the issues they'd hit until they get into the carnivorous world for a while. Then they realized just how carnivorous it really was. At that point they had a decision to make and many have no other skills to fall back on that can pay nearly as well once they figure out "the game".

Who started losing then? Only the Buyers and I've been watching this play out over and over again for 20 years with only a few healthy exceptions. I did what I could when I could. I coached others to pursue correction but most are too busy moving one to their next transaction to be bothered.

Never did I imagine such a hurricane of insulation and rat poop might be tossed my way without nary a warning. The minor poop in the pantry was a backfire. A spoon full of sugar has no affect when all attics and crawls were not properly disclosed by those who's job it was to paint the picture soft.

It's Simple.
Because those that accurately call out all the defects will NOT get referrals
long term from Agents,
and they won't stay in Business...

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The Home Inspection Process is one of the most critical processes in the Home Buying process in the United States.

I have all the skills needed to be a Home Inspector. I would NEVER want to be one. NEVER. I'd destroy my referral network before I ever got it built.

If you ever have the need to hire one, try to find one that 1) has other income coming in and 2) is or was in the building trades for a significant period of time.

There is a massive, known ethical concern with home inspectors that most grossly underestimate.

Ask any Realtor who's been in business long enough and they'll tell you. They won't be proud to tell as I'm not either, but they'll tell you.