I recently had a homeowner yelling at me. We were literally the fifth inspection company to review this house. We go strictly Florida inspection guidelines. The homeowner repaired everything on every inspection prior to inspection we perform. We found a page and a half type of problems within this house.
The homeowner was pissed and asked us why all the other inspectors did not point out the stuff we found and were full of crap. My response was “maybe they suck”? 30 years I’ve been doing home inspections and we run this all the time.
I’d love to hear from people this has happened to also.
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We’d be interested to see the issues that the previous 4 inspectors missed! Could be a good learning opportunity for everyone.
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If Indiana Jones had the attitude that many other archaeologists had already looked for the Ark of the Covenant , he would not have bothered to travel the world inspecting documents and places and finding what all others had missed.
He would not go on to inspect for
the Sankara Stones, the Holy Grail, the Krystal Skull or the Dial of Destiny that others had not found.
Start an inspection with the attitude that you are better than average. Strike that… you are the best!!! Be like Dr Jones and inspect as if nobody else has searched before and expect that you may find what others have not.
Five guys didn’t find defects… Well Five Guys should stick to flipping burgers. Walk in like the GOAT and say “hold my beer and watch this”.
Seriously though, my response when my buyer’s realtor has related such a complaint from the seller is that not all home inspectors are equally trained/experienced and many do a quick inspection for a lower fee. Everything in my report is backed up with photo/video evidence, so I ask “what specifically do they disagree with?” The seller is upset that you were more thorough, but they can not shoot down any of your report items if you did your job correctly.
Notice, I’m not talking to the seller. They don’t know me, I don’t know them, and I’m not showing them my report. I work for my client.
The seller may be mad, but they are not mad and in my face.
The only thing I say to the seller if they are home during the inspection is “ thank you for your hospitality, Have a nice day”.
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Great analogy Bert!!
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Morning, Richard. Hope to find you well and in good spirits today.
Last week I did an inspection. It was for 2 units laundry rooms, in a multi unit commercial/residential building. I found a particular defective system that not one home inspector reported in over 18 years. Imagine that. The syndicate CEO was furious at me. This went on for 10 days. Even the buildings structural engineer soft reported my findings saying not to worry about KITEC plumbing pipes.
I’m curious as to what problems you found that others didn’t. Can you give us some details? I know from my experience that homeowners and realtors are often very ignorant of what the construction standards (i.e., codes) are. Just because the same contractor vented bathroom fans into the attic of all the homes in a subdivision does not make it right. Agents are often shocked I call out things that they have assumed were fine. Stick to you guns Richard. Other inspectors screw up too sometimes. Just follow your procedure and record what you see.
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Hopefully, you’re joking here, as that isn’t professional or helpful at all.
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That would not have been my response! I think I would have responded and have responded like this before:
“I have no idea why the items I discovered were not noted by the other inspectors. But, as you can see, I (we) have photos that show the issues that were discovered during our inspection. All of the items fall under our state mandated inspection standards.”
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Perhaps Harry Homeowner and his buddies created the other issues while trying to scab a fix in hopes of DIY and save some $$$$?!
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Man Brett what a great response, what a great analogy I love it still laughing
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Who’s Brett?
@rcacopardo what specifically did you find? Could you post a redacted report?
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My bad jj, it was Bert damn speak to text phones
Tray Raymond
Scottsdale Desert Inspections Inc.
480 345 9200
scottsdaledesertinspections.com
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If you could not deescalate the situation before losing your cool maybe you should have chosen to not respond at the time. I have had irate homeowners before and would never let them goad me into losing my cool.
I think it is all about how you choose to handle a situation. I have maybe had upset homeowners 2 times in 13 years and we are a Florida inspection company. It is all about people skills and how you chose to interact in a given situation.
I too would like to see what you found the 4 other inspectors did not.
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On a side note @rcacopardo, your website appears to be down.
Maybe that’s a previous company. This one is active in his neighborhood.
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I’m sure its many, many more than that! 
(You just don’t hear from them)
People when they are selling their homes are often anxious and it is all about how you deal with them. Mostly we prefer to conduct the inspection with only the buyer present. Many times, we will have the buyer, seller, seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent. You can always tell who the nervous party is, and many times is it is all of them. The inspector is not the bad guy, and it is about setting expectations from the beginning.
When I arrive at an inspection usually the buyer agent rolls their eyes or say Hi there Frank. I know it is because they really don’t want it to be me inspecting the home they are representing. Right from the beginning I set the expectation for the inspection. If there is an issue with the home, I will find it, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. If the seller’s agent knows it is me coming, they usually have already talked to the seller.
On the other hand, I get more repeat business from realtors and their families when they are buying a home. I also get a lot of repeat business from the sellers of previous inspections, and I always leave them my information. I have an inspection on the 6th for a previous seller that called us to schedule because we did a thorough job inspecting the home, he sold last month.
If you respond with a negative attitude, you lose the opportunity to turn an unhappy seller into a future client.
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If this was indeed the fifth inspection trying to sell the house, the seller was perhaps mostly just frustrated with demanding buyers, likely escrow failures, and/or the overall time it was taking to sell. That said, I think that the seller (along with most of us on this forum) are rightly frustrated with some of the wild inconsistencies between home inspectors. At least InterNACHI has established some standards… however, as an industry, we have much more work to do. This forum is very useful, but what we really need is a standards organization.
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I noticed that as well. I thought it may just be the listing not up to date. I think he is working on a new website. Found a listing on Bing for Dynamic Inspections but the website is under construction.