When the client runs from a house for good reason…
Its just not fair to the general public that we have no way to publish warnings on the houses with major defects that are barely visible or defects that can covered up and hidden from the next inspector. I actually have permission to discuss all of my inspections with whoever I wish but the general public has a choice of a few hundred inspectors around here…
I will decline to inspect this certain house ever again.
Who wants me to send a job their way if I get another client for this same house?:shock:
Its sad isnt it?
I recently had an inspection with MAJOR foundation structural issues, and the buyer walked. The asked me not to disclose anything. Im not even sure the owner know about them. I hate leaving this one hanging.
Guess things are different in other places. I love going back to these jobs. I have do so about 10 times in my career and I walk in and right away, eyes get BIG when they see us. I asked if they fixed the XXXXXX and if they had receipt or if I could personally talk to the licensed contractor that repaired the defects.
When they begin to stutter, I then just look at the client and say " I was here XXXX ago and found many defects in which I sure the seller disclosed on the legal disclosure form (they never do). I then look at the Realtor and they know they are busted.
I then ask my client for guideance as what they want me to do. I do accordingly at full price. If they tell em to leave. I charge them and leave. If they want me to inspect, I do that as well. Most of the time they are so damn mad, they stop the contract.
Until we make a stand at being ethical and demanding only ethical people, then it will never work. Try selling a house without a Real Estate license! OMG…you will get crucified, but some realtors would care less of the Inspector is licensed or not.
Just out of curiosity, why would you NOT inspect a home that you inspected before with major defects? Seems like you would be in the best position to protect your client. Who knows, enlighten me…
Have any of you ever fired a Realtor? We fire them about 1 per month and they just can’t get over it. They tell me they never heard such a thing. “You don’t want my business” and we tell them NOPE, you aren’t going to have a business to much longer and when the lawyers get involved we don’t want to be anywhere around. Try it sometime its an awesome feeling for them to be exposed as unethical people.
I recommended that this house be repaired by someone other than the builder/subs due to the complexity of the issues. This will not happen, it will get patched and will have more major issues in the future. It would be hard to convince another buyer of the potential issues after they have hidden the evidence. I had some good pictures of major structural rot to get the attention of this client. Don’t forget, we are supposed to report facts and not guessing at potential issues so it would be a tough report to craft without having witnessed the tearout and rebuilding process. The builder did the buyer a favor by responding so poorly since they knew that was a major red flag. Had he acted like he was sorry and “going to throw all available manpower on it” the client could have been possibly fooled as many are. There is more to this story that I am not posting so believe me, this is one house I never want to see again.
I’ve often wondered how a listing Realtor can get away with not disclosing to next person. There’s been many I’ve inspected with major issues, buyer’s walk, & then I see it’s sold later. Legally, wouldn’t the listing Realtor have to disclose information?
In most association cases, there are time frames. When a POS home gets inspected, it can go off the market for, say, 90 days, and come back on with no disclosure, or a new one, and the next buyer is not informed about the defects.
Just one reason I told many lawmakers at hearings back in 2008 for Kansas licensing that if you license home inspectors, you should make inspections mandatory for any home that is put on the market.
Recently, I wrote a letter to Governor Brownback, telling him of the thousands of jobs that can be created when home inspections are mandatory on any home that is being marketed for sale, due to the many home defects that should be repaired, not only for safety, but for liability.
No response.
It is also sad that in 10 years of doing inspections, you drive down the street and think of “that” home you inspected months, or years ago, and see the same defects that were never addressed. Bottom line, it is the real estate agents that control the transactions; not the buyer. They love control; just look at home inspection licensing, especially in Texas and Florida. The ultimate strong-arming.
Yes but maybe not if they “don’t remember” that house.
Maybe it is asking too much for them to keep track of all the POS’s
Awhile back, nn agent in Charlotte hired three inspectors to do the same house secretly and saw the vast difference in issues reported. From an agents viewpoint there is no exact list of issues possible.
Mandantory home inspections will bring prices way down due to all the driveby inspectors it will attract. I think a house should have certain things inspected before being put on the market to prevent all the issues that come out of the beautiful homes with major issues. But this will not work in practice because the listing agents will get the ones that write soft reports to do all of them.
Bruce… we (contracting business) are actually looking for homes that have major issues of which most people don’t want to touch…obviously price and location is key…feel free to send me any ones you think might fall into that category.
I was in a home a few weeks ago that I inspected two years prior. The first time I found vermiculite in the attic. I disclosed it to the buyer and they got a price to remove it. The seller took 10,000 off the price so it could be removed. You will never guess what I found this time?? Same vermiculite. The look on the sellers face when he opened the door was priceless. He told me right off the back that it was still there. I enjoy looking at homes I have looked at before to see if they actually fixed the items I brought up.
