Don’t be afraid to be successful and hire good help to protect your brand. If you want to hire people to be productive and generate profit for your company, then be the boss you would love to have. Be a leader! A leader will: give a job description; set clear objectives; provide supervision/feedback; and recognize their accomplishments. If done correctly, your employee should make you way more money that it cost to acquire their services.
Essay on article for Code of Ethics course
Garage Trusses
A garage is a notorious location for roof structure alterations. Storage space is a premium in a garage. So it is not uncommon to see the space above the joist or in this case trusses altered to make room for additional storage. What is seen is flooring added, Purlin braces or web members removed, Notches and holes where there shouldn’t be and blocking removed. A common modification is an attic ladder has been installed. There you can find things like lower chords cut out, joist cut and lacking proper header doubling and now tail joist support. Not to mention the now loss of fire stopping by breaching the sheetrock to a common attic. The Garage is definitely a common location for major deficiencies.
I have abackground in electrical work and my client knows it. After inspecting the homeand citing several electrical problems, my client asks me to take a side joband fix the issues. However, it would be an ethics violation for me to do so.The Code of Ethics Course underscores the need for not only the home inspector to understand the professional obligations that are fundamental to being a home inspector, but also the ongoing efforts required to ensure your clients, and representing sales agents understand them too.
Managing your professional conduct to the highest of standards is the best marketing tool a home inspector has. Word-of-mouth is the most stable, and cost effective marketing approach you can take - guaranteed to pay you healthy returns year-over-year.
A client’s interests are always - fundamentally - first!
My hypothetical conflict of interest is as follows:
The home purchaser whom hired me for this inspection has requested that I include a total of $10,000 of repairs needed so they can use my report to reduce the sales price. This request was made without regard for the condition of the house and before the inspection had begun. A bonus was offered if I was able to document at least $10,000 in repairs needed.
I decided to read the article, For Sale byOwner: Pro’s and Pitfalls, because I may be looking to sell my home in thefuture. This really opened my eyes about a few things. The main thing thatstood out to me was legal disclosures for my area, and how if certain thingswere not disclosed I could be attacked later in court. My main take away fromthe article is that doing everything yourself can save a lot of money but youshould use a lawyer to make sure all the documents are in place and alwaysutilize your home inspector.Mold remediation can be done through abrasive blasting. This has some advantages over typical methods. It is often quicker and more efficient than usual methods. It can also be more effective on rough or hard to clean surfaces. The two most common abrasive medias to use are dry ice and sodium bicarbonate. A thorough clean up with a HEPA vacuum is required to ensure no mold spores are left behind.
A Conflict of Interest
A potential conflict of interest may arise between a home inspector and a realtor/buyer when the buying party may ask for you to add deficiencies to falsely depreciate the value of the property being inspected. Some buying parties may even offer to compensate the inspector for doing so. By abiding by the InterNachi code of conduct and ethics, the inspector should decline, and then decline to inspect the property for that client if the conflict persists.
Code of Ethics Essay
While inspecting the crawl space underneath a rental home. I noticed there were some damaged pvc piping that was used for drainage for the HVAC unit. The owner was there with me during the inspection, so I mentioned the pipe to him and he offered me some extra money if I could fix it for him real quick. As it states in the InterNachi code of conduct, I am not allowed to fix anything on the property within 12 months of doing the inspection, nor I am allowed to do anything extra to make extra money that has anything to do with the inspection. So I respectfully declined.
While inspecting a single family home during the escrow process, home inspector John discovers mold in the crawl space of an attic. The area affected by mold is minimal and is in a part of the attic that is not easily accessible. John is approached by the seller’s real estate agent who apparently is aware of the mold issue and offers John a “bonus” $100.00 to not mention the mold issue in the inspection report. John declines the money and advises the realtor he is bound to a Code of Ethics to include all findings in his report.
Research Essay – A Garage Inspection
For my essay I chose to research the Garage Inspection topic. In his inspection he noticed that the trusses were altered, which led him to do further research and traced one of the problems back to what was actually holding the trusses up. I’m very aware that drywall isn’t what you would want supporting your trusses. However I was not aware that when altering trusses, you had to get it approved by an engineer.
You have a very successful real estate broker who passes you a lot of work. Almost all of your work now is coming from His agency. He tells you he is a real financial
straight and your are his only way out. He just needs you to not inspect this one area of the house so he can close on this one piece of property, that will allow him to not
lose his business. You owe him. Besides that’s what you have insurance for right?
I reviewed the garage inspection for this assignment. In the process of the inspection, the inspector noticed the trusses in the garage were altered. When he researched it, he found that the connections where the trusses were attached to the wall had problems and had inadequate metal connectors and improper fastener. All of these combined factors was catastrophic structural failure. This is an important reminder to look carefully at structural connections.
Research Essay:
I reviewed the garage inspection for this assignment. In the process of the inspection, the inspector noticed the trusses in the garage were altered. When he researched it, he found that the connections where the trusses were attached to the wall had problems and had inadequate metal connectors and improper fastener. All of these combined factors was catastrophic structural failure. This is an important reminder to look carefully at structural connections
Ants. Oh how these pesky creatures can do such harm. Who would think that those small gaps in lines running into the house could be so taken advantage of.
It makes sense to inspect closer in those nice areas of mulch we have every around the house. Don’t forget all that firewood and lumber for those hobby projects.
Once those critters get in between the hardwood the felt paper they can be tough to notice until they have done a lot of damage. Be especially watchful at those hollow columns on porches, they like to climb.
I received a booking from one of the largest real estate brokerages in the area. At the inspection the broker and one of her biggest agents were present. They were nice enough and kept a little small talk going at first. They thanked me for making time in my schedule for this inspection, and started talking about the inspector they “just fired”. They let me know that they had been using Inspector X for a couple years and easily had him fully booked with an income of nearly $15K per month, but he just busted a big deal for them. So, they are looking for “a good home inspector who knows how to play ball and wants to make good money”. Then asked if they could count on me to keep the business “flowing in the right direction”, and if so, they would keep business and money flowing toward me. I, subsequently, finished the inspection I was paid to perform for my client and asked them not to call me again as I didn’t feel we would be a good match.
I am writing an essay for the Ethics course.
A local real estate agent has offered to refer his clients to me for home inspections for a small fee per inspection. He says that we dont need to inform the clients of the payment, that it is just between the two of us and it would not matter anyway.
If a Realtor was asking for money to send you better referrals. Another would be if the realtor wanted you to overlook certain items to make the sale go through.
I was reading on the Advantages of Solar Energy. Solar is a renewable energy that doesn’t leave as much as a footprint on the Earth as fossil fuels. The only true thing that may damage the earth are the practices used to make the panels, which is miniscule compared to that of other energy solutions.
The article I chose was Anti-Tip Brackets for Freestanding Ranges. In my past as a Realtor and handyman, I have installed many anti-tip brackets at the request of home inspectors and buyers/sellers. It always seemed like a simple item that shouldn’t require much effort for an installer to install, but also I never really understood the true significance. It is shocking to see that there were 33 deaths in 26 years from the lack of these devices, and also the financial trouble Sears fell into over these. Since, I started inspecting homes,I have always checked for them and reported when they weren’t present, but I found it hard to believe that this could really be an issue for people. Seeing the actual numbers gives a reason behind this part of my inspections.