This realtor went off on me on the phone today as you all have heard you scared the hell out of my client you blew the deal.
He wasn’t there most of the time to hear what I was saying.
I told my client calmly that the balcony was not safe and I wasn’t going to walk on it. had Indoor outdoor carpet & I could tell the floor was rotted.
The balcony was leaning & the support was rotted.
The realtor yells at me on the phone that he jumped up & down on the balcony & he weighs 260 lbs. I tell myself he is an a** & he is lucky he didn’t get hurt.
The garage was about to collapse, the roof needs replacing, the new electrical was only the panels. Which are only 60 amp each for a double. The exterior, garage, SEC and older K & T needed updating.
All of the windows are either broken, painted shut or have broken sashes.
Basement leaks.
I just stated the facts and was polite as possable to the realtor. I understand he now has to work to earn his money.
What got me is that he was blasting home inspectors before I even started tells me how good I am and next thing he goes off.
You need to have thick skin in this industry but one day someone is going to make me go over the edge & it may result it some thing I hopefully don’t regret.
The front porch columns were not attached as you can see.
The garage slab was displaced and the framing and walls were bowed. The picture doesnt show how severe the problem was.
I give the realtor credit he climbed threw a broken window with jagged glass to open the locked garage door.
Dave, let me take a guess, was it rental property?
I had the same thing happen to me 2 months ago but you know what, my client told me I saved him from bankruptcy. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue and move on
It was a duplex. I was suprised I was so understanding and polite to him. I guess I am getting used to the disgruntled realtors. Normally I would start yelling back at him.
He would scream & swear & I would be calm & try to explain I was provinding my best services to his client.
Dave…on one occasion, I told a realtor to go to hell and have fun getting there, and I’m serious.
I had one women who thought she was the inspector, after numerous times trying to explain she didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, I calmly said “Hey you dumb bastard, I’m not working for you, so get out of my face and go to hell”
Irish temper gets the best of me somedays…
I could care less about ignorant idiots like that.
What are they going to do?..besides run for their lives…
While your demeanor can make-or-break a deal, I doubt that is what killed this one. Sounds like the realtor didn’t set realistic expectations or refused to adjust to reality. The 260 lbs *** killed the deal while you did exactly what you were supposed to- good job! http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_1_113.gif
I hear you with those self-righteous type realtors. There are too many of them around here, most of them think they know so much about what home inspectors do but in reality don’t know jack ****. I had one the other day where I basically saved the deal by taking as long as I needed to thoroughly evaluate all the concerns of this certified House of Horrors. The client knew the house was a dump; he hired me so that he could prioritize the renovations he had in mind. Dispite that the buyer is moving forward with the deal, the ignorant realtor calls the next day complaining that I “took too long” to inspect the property. The client and I had all day, there was no need to leave the vacant property at a certain time, most of my findings found that the “bad” stuff was practical to address and the client told me that he was immensely greatful for time I took to get the job done right. I explained that to the self-proclaimed home inspection expert but he just couldn’t get it through his thick skull that my acts saved the deal while creating no harm. What is with these realtors and their superficial expectations? http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_2_204v.gif
When I skim through the realtor advertisements in the newspapers, I notice a clear pattern. It’s only the newbie and the unsuccessful Realtors that are representing this rotten type of property, such as is pictured in the original post. The truly skilled and seasoned Realtors aren’t messing with this sort of property. As a result, the realtor complaint is in all likelihood coming from a guy who not only doesn’t have much of a clue about home inspections, but about real estate sales, in general.
I am with you 100%. The successful agents I deal with wouldn’t touch a property like that. I certainly wouldnt lose any sleep over that agent being pissed off, as you will feel alot better about it when he is taking your order at Applebees 6 months from now. :mrgreen:
Mr. Shunk made a good point. Low ball Realtors are the ones that sell
most of the low ball houses to low ball Clients.
If you raise your prices, you are less likely to get stuck with all the
low ball Clients looking for low ball Inspectors.
Raise your prices and you will find that better Clients will desire
your services and you will be inspecting better houses… on
average. Most of your Clients that find you on the internet
will also be a more educated class… and will want to pay for
the best Inspector they can find.
John is exactly right. We weeded out the junk realtors over the years and as a result, most of the homes we inspect are middle to upper class nowadays. Those clients dont care about saving an extra $25, they want quality. Those clients also dont tend to have to be tracked down for payment later(we allow alot of clients to pay at closing).
Now dont get me wrong, we inspect some junk too, but we try to limit that as much as possible. If you do not cultivate your business to deal with higher end housing, you will not get many of those inspections. Those circles run pretty tight around here and we still havent broken in as much as I would like because we simply did not market to that crowd in our earlier days. I dont know how everyone else feels, but I much prefer inspecting a 6,000 sq ft mcmansion over a 20 year old 1400 sq ft rental Heck, thats the only way I will ever set foot in one of those houses anyway unless I hit the powerball lol.
If a Realtor were to call me and start running their mouth about negative aspects of a particular home inspection, I wouldn’t even hesitate to hang up.
For the last six months, since I created my WALK inspections, I was choosing not to inspect those types of properties either. I never said “No” though. I simply gave them an unrealistically high price or an unrealistically long lead time. That way they said “No” and moved on. I was much happier doing WALK inspections that have no report and no report liability and doing STANDARD inspections on properties built since 2002.
Usaully when I get a call like that I ask the realtor if he has the report in front of him. If he does not I tell him to call me back when he does have it. Then I ask him what in the report is wrong. The pictures go a long way into making him look like an ***. At the end of the convearsation, just for fun, ask him if he would let his mother buy the nome knowing the condition. If he says yes you know you are dealing with a real idiot.
Would depend on the price. Buying a home that has a significant amount of deferred maintenance or other problems does not make one a “real idiot.” It does, however, quite often make one a property investor. Been there, done that.
They are truly worth a thousand words, aren’t they?! I think I “squandered” an opportunity to pick up the buyer’s agent off of an internet-generated inspection because he couldn’t refute the “new” problems that I found nor could he convince them that they “weren’t a big deal”. But like I would have landed him when there are a handful of the Dime-A-Dozens in this area (he tried to sway these clients to one of them) who go soft on the property, finish in an hour flat and provide a polarizing checklist that is 8 pages or less.
Yes, the realtor has your best interests in mind …:roll:
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dont sweat it Nick, you definitely have the right mindset. ps- checked out your site, looks great! Nice to see another young gun in biz my brother is 31 and I am 34. When we hit seminars it seems most inspectors are 45 plus.
When I was in my early 20’s it was pretty tough for buyers to take me seriously. I think some gray hair gives extra credibility lol.
Heck, thats the only way I will ever set foot in one of those houses anyway unless I hit the powerball lol.