Also, maybe Ben encouraging inspectors to break things on his Instagram is sending mixed messages to real-world applications?
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Remember, Ben is selling and maintaining new inspector membership enrollment.
Kinda’ like the ‘sex sells’ mantra!!
I’m sure he will show up here soon to feed my ass to the wolves.
Oh well. Won’t be the first (or last) time… I promise you that!! 
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In my opinion you found concealed/hidden damage. I wouldn’t fix anything. It’s probably too late but I would say you poked it with your finger upon suspicion which resulted in the hole in the rotted wood.
I have done the same thing you have many times, at the same location, no problems yet with stupid sellers.
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Right, and I am certainly not trying to call him out here for growing his business.
I am just confused with the different approaches to this situation where it seems that most of the inspectors who have responded to this post tend to agree with my employer that causing cosmetic damage is generally a thing to avoid at all cost. Meanwhile, I have been left with the impression that probing and showing photos of the ubiquitous screwdriver buried handle deep is industry standard.
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No!
That’s only by inspectors that have something to prove, usually because they got nuthin’ else to show!!
“Hey, lookit me. I found some rotted wood. I can stick my screwdriver all the way in to the handle. I am one badass inspector. Youse won’t finds anyone gooder than me!!”
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Fair enough.
Looking at the after picture, it’s likely that even pushing on that firmly with your finger may have resulted in the same scenario. Keep doing what you are doing, you just happened to come across a Karen seller. It would have taken them less time to touch it up themselves than it did to call your employer and complain.
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We all realize the molding was patched up to conceal wood damage. The seller knows this very well, so does the agent, and so does your employer.
However, it is important to consider that failed under “normal” use, like turning up thermostat or flushing a toilet, is not exactly the same as taking a screw driver and driving it into a wooden molding. That is not a “normal” use of the molding! The seller can easily argue this point. If you take a hammer to a roof shingle to “determine” how it would perform under a hail storm, and punch a hole through the roof or damage the shingle, you’re going to be responsible. Some food for thought 
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Too cheep to purchase a Infrared thermal imager?
I guess those termite tubes are not included in your visual inspection or reports? Hm.
Destroy wood to look for termites. Hm.
Bingo!
As well, not included in the sellers declaration.
More hot air from a liar caught lying, Eric.
cheep cheep cheep gos thee WAFI
Your’re WAFFLED reasponse makes as muchh cents as thiis
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My screwdriver is only for probing unfinished surfaces (crawl space, attic, etc.). Anything painted/visible just gets a light finger, if anything at all. As many have said, it’s usually obvious just from looking. As inspectors we need to leave no trace that we were there.
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I concur, other than a report that implicates damage:-)
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This owner is just plain taking the wrong approach.
You’re in your rights and responsibility to report this defect to the buyer, where it will impact the sale and sale price, far more than if Mr. Buyer just got someone out to fix it.
Now all attention will be on what is frankly – just a rotted door frame.
And what’s likely to happen is he’ll cheap ass the fix and make it worse.
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Slight of hand! What is he distracting the eye from? What did the inspector miss? Hmmm??
You are looking at around a grand in repairs.
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Perhaps that is the parameter for the client to be able to walkaway!
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The cost of the repair is immaterial.
This is a disclosure/discovery issue: and the entire point for the entire home inspection industry.
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On unfinished surfaces, yes. Painted/finished surfaced? You’ll get crucified every time a seller notices it. And, honestly, I agree with the seller. It’s not your house nor the buyer’s house (yet). Like your grandma told you - leave it as you found it or better. I’m not saying it’s okay for a seller to conceal damage with paint, etc. There’s just the fact that as inspectors we are not to damage the house.
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I’ve never understood the need to probe these areas. I see these kinds of rotted trim areas around doors all the time. It’s easy to tell when a seller has painted over them. Just take a pic, call out the rotted trim and move on. I’ve never had a seller or listing agent argue that it wasn’t rotted later. (not that I would care if they did). There’s just no need to probe. The problem with probing is that now you’ve just opened up new holes in the material which will allow water intrusion and potentially make it worse. I would avoid probing in most cases.
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