… you are a one man operation, you’ve been up all night taking care of your sick child, have 2 phase inspections the next morning/day which need to happen that specific day and you have to stay home since it’s going to be hard to find a babysitter at 4:00am for 3 hours from then?
How do you handle the situation?
I know what I do, but would like to see how others deal with it.
Tough one, I’ve been lucky, wife either takes a sick day, or I moved stuff around. I wasn’t inspecting when my kids were real little, I was contracting and had a crew.
mine are 14,15, and 18 now, those scenarios dont really arise lately for me. There was a time when they took care of each other if need be…I did once make my oldest stay home from school to watch the youngest so I could work.
I love it 
Mine are 4, 2 and one on the way. I don’t think my wife would let me come home if she found out I left the 4 year old in charge 
(or the dog…)
Yeah i did it when he was about 14/15…Better find another plan…Or just go out for the day, and consider not returtning.
you better have a back up plan for when this happens. Typically a grandma… Sounds like your personal life will put some major dampers on your abilty to perform home inspections. People dont really care “why” you cant complete something, just that you let them down.
Get a colleague you trust to do the inspections.
+1
You need to have a few folks that you can trust who might be able to squeeze your clients in when you have an emergency.
I have been fortunate in several thousand inspections to have never had to miss one due to illness or an unplanned event. However, I have about 5 people that I can contact to possibly fill in in an emergency. These are the same folks that I regularly refer my overflow clients to, so we have a reciprocal arrangement. I have filled in for others in emergencies on several occasions, even juggling schedules of my clients when it does not create an inconvenience for them.
You are fortunate to be in a a large market where there is no shortage of excellent, trustworthy inspectors whom you can work with.
Thanks Chuck, Mike, Robert and Marcel for your input.
Backup plans are a must, especially when you are a one man show.
I, as well, have a handful of trustworthy inspectors. I also have no problems calling the client (depending on the client and situation) and asking if we can move the inspection by a few hours in order to find a babysitter or a solution to whatever emergency I have.
My situation yesterday got pretty hectic for a bit and was fortunate that both jobs were phase inspections (1 pre-drywall and 1 final phase) and the builders had a few days before moving onto the next phase.
The real tricky one was the 1st inspection starting at 9:00am.
At 7:00am, I called 2 inspectors closet to the job site (I would have called a couple others but they live way out there, in the woods…) and 3 babysitters. Nobody could make it :shock:
Now, I was down to plan F.
Fortunately, my clients sent me an email at 7:15 informing me I needed to send the report to a different email address. Knowing they were awake, I called them at 7:20 (I know its early, but you gotta do what you gotta do, plus it’s not like I bothered 5 others people prior to them) asking if it would be a big problem to move the inspection by a few hours.
I ended up doing the inspection in the early afternoon.
Life is like a box of chocolate…
Chuck, how did you deal with PIAs when you bailed out other inspectors?
Glad it worked out for you.
I handle it just like any other inspection. I only require PIAs be executed before the report gets released so it doesn’t prevent or delay my doing the inspection.
The inspection gets done under my name and reported using my report style. The only difference is that I will honor the other inspector’s rate, whether higher or lower than my own. This prevents the client from getting stuck with an unanticipated, higher fee and doesn’t create a price based preference.
I have on many occasions referred clients to others for phase inspections when the schedule was tight and I was not available within the window. Sometimes I have “lost” clients who elect to stay with the referred inspector at other times I have “gained” clients who I filled in for and wanted to stay with me. Trust is important, in that neither inspector should ever try to steal clients.
BTW: I referred someone on the south side to you earlier this week.
Thanks for the info and thanks for the referral(s). Was it a guy who wants to buy an investment property?
That’s probably the one.
I never (cross my fingers) miss for being sick but if to busy will refer one of my Inspection buddies.
We are like that around here.
One hand washes the other.
Just referred someone today as a matter of fact.