buyers Hiring Contractors to do Home Inspections

General Inspection Topics General Inspection Discussion
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As an example, here’s the prices on three of my comparable inspections for a 1750-SF SFR:

STANDARD - $499
TECH - $1,499

So as of today (prices change on a daily basis due to third-party costs, such as gasoline), my TECH inpsection costs $1,000 more than my STANDARD inspection. With my STANDARD inspection, I used to send out two inspectors on that size property. With my TECH inspection, there would be one inspector as the lead, and electrician, plumber, roofing contractor, chimney sweep, and HVAC tech as the subs. After all the subs have been paid, I take home about $549, whereas if two home inspectors did it, I charge $499, so I make about $50 more for the TECH inspection. I set it up that way just in case it takes one of those subs a little longer to do something. It’s worked great for the two years I’ve been doing it.

Yes, and no. The Team always includes at least one home inspector as the lead contact person.

Any market will handle the $1500 inspection if one markets it properly. Will you make enough money off of those for a comfortable living? Probably not until you have 20 years of experience and so many customers that you can choose just to do that type of inspection. Jerry Peck in Florida was a great example before he retired. He’s the one who ultimately convinced me that the market here, which is so price-sensitive, could handle them. And it can. One just has to know how to market them. Of course, first one has to develop them. If one is stuck in the “one inspection fits all” mode, one’s probably not going to be successful in making a good living just doing that one type of $1500 inspection.

That’s exactly the problem that I had during my first three years in business. The first two questions the subs asked me was, “How long have you been in business?” and “How many inspections do you do each year?” Not until I had three years of experience and thousands of inspections were the subs even willing to talk with me.

Those are exactly the right type of people to approach, and they are the easiest to work with. They are just thrilled that someone, anyone, still wants them and their knowledge at their advanced age. Many societies throughout the world treat their elders with respect; we retire them, so to speak.

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So that seems to indicate that we have at least two companies that cover subcontractors, Lloyds of London/Business Risk Partners and Allen.

I also list my subcontractors, and they have their own insurance, and I’m listed as an additional insured. There are many ways to work with subcontractors in our industry. You, your attorneys, and your insurance provider just have to develop the best way for your city, county, and state. A great real estate attorney can get you started off on the right foot.

43

You say I have no friends? Well among the Realtors I suppose you are right…why? Because I do a good job and they know it. If you want proof ask my past clients they praise my work. The deal with Steve Barry, well he did hire me first (word of mouth only) then he later told me how you told him I had lack of experience, did not belong to the local chapter that you belong to etc. Steve had some mental problems and I figure he was easily swayed. I did call you about that and you even told me that I needed to learn to get along with Realtors and that I had to learn to walk a fine line…something of that nature. OK when I first got in the business I tried to use PR with Realtors I was naive back then, but I found out real quick they do not like good home inspectors. They tried to get me to cut my fees, indirectly tried to get me to go soft on inspections. Down the road I got yelled at because I found record levels of radon here in Ponca City and the Realtor thought she would loose her deal, but she did not. I have been doing radon testing ever since and I feel like I am providing a service that may save people from getting lung cancer. The high levels of radon even made the local news, and it even quoted there was another local inspector that said that radon was a none issue. I wonder who said that?

OK it is not a crime to be married to a Realtor, but there can be a lot of temptation to cater to Realtors since you are married to one, and a potential conflict of interest.

You say you have more inspections than me and that speaks for itself? To me it tells me that you get along better with Realtors than I do and I already explained why.

You say there are two Real Estate companies here that only use contractors because of me? What? I did not know I had that much power over companies. Well to set the record straight, for one thing Realtors should not be using anybody. Their job is to sell the house, they are sales people they have no business in the inspection procedures, that is what is wrong with the world today. There is an inherent conflict of interest when Realtors are allowed to have that power. Go to Dennis Robitailles web site and read! **www.independentinspectors.org **

Dennis is a hero in my book he has stood up against Realtors and was instrumental in getting laws passed in Massachusetts making it illegal for Realtors to pick home inspectors. We need a law like that here in Oklahoma and all across the country. Realtors should never and I mean never pick inspectors or contractors for the buyers!!!

You went to court against a Realtor well good for you. I have moved on also and do inspections all over the country.

Back to the statement that I defer everything to contractors is not true, but we have the right to do so read your training manuals. People will always need the contractors after our inspection is done for cost of repairs, bids, and finally making the repairs needed. Realtors are the ones whining and bitching, they want a fast and easy sale. They love pass and easy inspectors that will whore out to them.

You say I should stop whining and get off my butt and market myself…what??? I do market, through internet, cards to people I meet, yellow pagesand I get busienss through word of mouth. But I do not market Realtors and you know why. I will not say all Realtors are bad just about 95% is all. It has been my experience and the experience of my clients all across the country that Realtors are worse than used car salemen. They even fight among themselves. It is all about greed!!! It takes a real man and gut’s to stand up against their empire and do what is right for the clients. No one is looking out for the client or buyer except us home inspectors and if we compromise or sell out we have just helped add to the corruption.

44

Are you trying to make me feel old RR?:wink: Many of the Semi-retired tradesmen who have moved to the Coeur d’Alene area are in their mid 50’s or so, they have good 401k’s or other good retirement income, and they have sold their homes in much more expensive areas, paid off everything, and slapped down $300K or so cash to purchase a home here in Paradise, now they want just enough work to keep them busy when the fish aren’t biting, the water in the lakes is to cold for swimming/skiing, hunting season is closed, the Ski Lodges aren’t open, etc. Most don’t want to be so busy as to have work interfere with the “Important Things” any more.

The median price of a home here is around $240K, but there are pages and pages of homes in the $750K+ range in the local Realty magazines, many of these are purchased by out of state buyers as second or third homes, and in my opinion, would be a good target market for a Tech Inspection, many of these homes, including many multi million $$$ places are older homes with outdated systems and/or “questionable” former remodels. If I do start doing this type of Inspection, I may do them as a GC, not an Inspector, that’s what I was doing in 04’ when I broke my leg and spent nearly a year recovering, along with becoming more than 1/2 inch shorter on one side.

I just finished a project that began in Feb., a buyer from Maryland wanted me to inspect two different properties, using Licensed Tradesmen as needed, and then to submit bids on the cost to repair each house, he ended up buying the one that was more expensive to “repair”, that was just what I used to do as a GC, but then I did what work on different projects that I could do myself and supervised all the other repairs or upgrades. These two Inspections were far outside of NACHI Standards so I didn’t consider them to be Home Inspections, I also ended up checking and scheduling the work of the tradesmen doing the repairs, it was Very Good Money for the time and effort involved. It was not a “project” you would see very often as an HI.

A question for our “Ethical Leadership”, can a subcontractor such as an Electrician performing his portion of a “technical” Nachi Home Inspection involving several licensed professionals working as a “team” bid on and perform repairs to the systems he inspected?

45

Be careful here. Some carriers will not insure you for re-inspections. The reason being that if the problem along with the liability has been deferred to a specialist, a re-inspection can put the liability back on you should something go wrong.

For those with E&O, check with your insurance provider.

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Your better off not having to deal with a possible “situation” where the “lawyer” uses the laws of the state to take issue with you.

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Very true. And very non-sensical. That makes about as much sense as not insuring us for doing an inspection on a brand new structure that has never been lived in. After all, everything in the house was done by specialists with oversight by an specialist, a general contractor.

As Ben at FREA pointed out in a previous thread about that topic, what I said made perfect sense and he had no answer to it. However, he did say he would work with the company(ies) that FREA brokers for.

I believe that if one approached one’s E&O provider with all one’s ducks in a row, one could get approval through a rider to provide coverage on a complete home inspection that includes re-inspection. After all, if that specialist did not do the work right, we are the only ones who are going to tell our Clients that, just like we would in a brand new structure. If we’re not insured for following in the footsteps of a specialist to determine if he did the work properly, then we should not be inspecting any structures until after their builder’s warranty has expired. And I think we all know that that is disingenuous, at best.

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You say there are two Real Estate companies here that only use contractors because of me? What? I did not know I had that much power over companies. Well to set the record straight, for one thing Realtors should not be using anybody. Their job is to sell the house, they are sales people they have no business in the inspection procedures, that is what is wrong with the world today. There is an inherent conflict of interest when Realtors are allowed to have that power.

Larry I did not say because of you I stated because of your reports.

Oh By the way did you write the young lady that you started this thread about; a two page Nasty Gram?? I think she mentioned something about send a copy of it to the State Lic Board

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Guys -

I’ve never lived anywhere that some dimwit, know-it-all of a real estate agent, lawyer or relative didn’t frequently try to tell a buyer they were better off hiring specialists like: an electrician, a plumber, a HVAC contractor, a roofer, a licensed PE (in my area almost every licensed PE calls himself/herself - a structural engineer - even if their background is in farm agricultural engineering, etc). So what!!

A huge amount of the mistakes we find in a house are put there by “licensed contractors”, cause thats the way they’ve always done it.

Don’t get me wrong - We’re not always right, but we’ve never lost a pissing contest with a roofer, electrician, plumber, engineer, stucco installer, HVAC contractor, etc. Most of you are probably the same you just don’t know it.

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Deal killer is a generic term applied to home inspectors by people trying to find a reason for a deal having problems. We (inspectors) can contribute to that however you will still get the label from time to time. You can reduce the negative image several ways. For example www.dealkiller.com . I am a NACHI member and I rep this product. Back to dealkiller and contractors.

This business is full of half empty glasses. You need to focus on the 1/2 full ones. Expand your coverage and market yourself. Do not cut deals or join teams. Just work for the customer, tell the truth simply and let the chips fall. When someone rains on your parade just move on and forget it. You cannot change that.

Back to your client. If a client asked me to do structural only I would decline. My product is home inspection. Its that simple.

IF an attorney had called me to check my credentials I would have asked if they were representing my client. If yes then I tell the attorney I need to get permission from my client to speak to them and say goodbye. I would then call the client to verify and then tell them to send their questions to me for a reply. Until that was done I would cancel the job. They will never call you back or send their questions.

There is lower hanging fruit. Expand your market; be positive and build relationships.

Don’t worry about the contractors. It will not catch on. Once they realize their liability they will not do it anymore.

51

Dan your statement is very correct and I for one am very aware of this but there is some dirty laundry here on the other side of this story that does not need to be in public. I prefer to let the public do their own cleansing.

52

So you causing trouble again, Charley?..:stuck_out_tongue: :wink: How’s the horses doing?

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Deal Killers - In 28 years of inspecting I’ve never heard a commissioned used house sales person say anything like:

“My seller failed to disclose …, and the inspector found it. The buyer wasn’t willing to accept the house with this condition unless my seller corrected it, and my knot-headed seller refused to do so. To top that, I wasn’t a strong enough sales person to hold the deal together so it flipped”.

Its never the seller, them or the house, its the inspector …

I try to be comforting and understand their pain for not being as good at what they’re doing as I am at what I do!

DL

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Hi Pat; Horses doing fine; Yes I like to stir the pot occasionally
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Dan when I turn in a real tough report lots of repairs I just smile and say; lets see how good of a negotiator your real estate agent is. Some are some are not that is life.

My wife the real estate agent is one of the best negotiators I have seen and I am not saying that because we are married. I have seen her cut her commission because the buyer and seller would not agree on cost repairs and the deal was going south. Her feeling is some commission is better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick.

56

I forgot to ask you the last time we talked, are you stabling and/or have any Mustangs? I believe the US Govt. DOI were trying to offload wild mustangs they had rounded up I believe from Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming about 10 to 15 years ago… I know a few ranchers and farmers around here picked up some of those horses to breed…just curious if you were…

57

No Pat no Mustangs to much inbreeding I think that is called incest???

I raise my Appys for show only Gotta go Busy week

58

That’s excellent. ROTFLMAO, even in Toronto. :margarit:

59

If one is to have good chili, one absolutely must stir the pot occasionally. :margarit:

60

What Planet are you living on contractors are my biggest competitors.

They operate under the security of their own Licenses and in this area they are Hungary will inspect to the strict code looking for any possible work available.

I have a confession I told Mr. Lake a little white lie when I stated that I filled his gap. I was just jerking his chain. That was true but was after the fact; his supposedly client called me after talking to him and she never stated that she had talked to another inspector just wanted to know If I could do a whole house inspection. My phone protocol does not let many prospective clients get away without booking. I did not put two and two together until I saw this thread start up. When I delivered the inspection report it was to my clients office she is a Sec. for an Attorney that was why the Attorney called Mr. Lake about his Credentials. And by the way the Attorney did not call me and ask for Credentials. I booked two inspections as the result of that one phone call. My best advice to Larry Lake would be to learn how to hold a conversation on the phone and not ram inspections down their throat.

Just trying to clear the air here; this reads like a soap Opera. The days of our lives or As The World Turns