Home Inspectors Journal  

The Arizona American Society of Home Inspectors educational conference has come and gone. As always, the ones who just can’t get enough education, stay awhile and talk over a few beers.

The last to leave the conference room, it struck me funny that those that need the interaction of the fellowship the most, the new entrants, sought out their education only from the classes offered. It has been my experience that going early and staying late has always been much more educational than the actual event. The lunches and the breaks are where I have personally benefited from a lot of good inside advice, well worth the admission.

In my opinion these events are more about creating relationships than they are about the class offerings. That’s probably a secret, whoops. While the classes may be educational, not showing up early and/or staying late to strike up conversations at these events is a huge mistake. If your the insecure type and just can’t get up the nerve to start up a conversation or step into a gathered circle, seek out some help before its too late.

Home inspection, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, is a relationship business.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: Coaching On: August 26, 2007: 1:35 am: By Bob Kille

This short essay is about initative and addictive behavior.

It just so happens that my sister is in the handcrafted soap business and is struggling to get it going. Much of what she sells is done through craft shows at a display booth. Like all the others, your at the mercy of the traffic flow past your booth. Any signage or hawking you can do to get a prospect to stop is what makes or breaks your day. Similar to your home inspection ad copy in any medium.

So on with the story, I’m on the phone speaking to my sisters signifigant other and he starts telling me what happened to him out at the craft show he did alone over the weekend. The show had a fairly light attendance and Ronny who is addicted to talking (just ask anyone) wasn’t getting anyone to stop at the booth. Ronny, I should mention is a Harley rider and looks the part, beard, tank top, chained wallet, tattoos and all. Yep, selling soaps and lotions at a craft show.

When an addict needs a fix he doesn’t stop to think about all the reasons why he couldn’t possibly get it, he just focuses all his energies in one direction. So here’s Ronny with no one to talk too and getting sore feet to boot. Then it hits him! Ronny had a recent heart bypass and takes along a folding recliner and foot stool when doing the craft shows. He could get it em out and rest his feet or…

He could sit the ladies down for a free foot massage using the featured lotions.

Out came the recliner and down sat the ladies. The booth quickly became a “giggle fest” as Ronny put it, that lasted the entire day. Other vendors came down to see what all the fuss and traffic stoppage was about and so did the local TV crew. The next day was the same and along came another TV crew for the nightly news. If this wasn’t enough, one of the other vendors has a local radio show and asked Ronny to come down to the station for a live interview for Misty Mountian Soap Company.

In my opinion the ladies just wanted a biker to massage their feet and bought the lotion as a souvnier. Just kidding Ronny.

Initiative and addictive behavior seem to have alot in common. Think about it.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: Marketing, Coaching On: April 4, 2007: 9:37 am: By Bob Kille

Know what the worst number in business is? It’s the number One. One product, one service, one marketing strategy, one key client, one key market, you get the drift.

Relying on the “One” is a setup for disaster and why diversifying not only your business model but the way you think is worth considering.

Most self-employed inspectors think only in terms of “Present Income”, not in terms of locked-in future income or equity. Think retirement. You need to develop a business strategy that takes “both” into consideration through to implementation. An example of this would be thinking of your business as a job, to pay your bills, instead of as a way to retire with multiple income streams.

Consider this, most home inspectors try to achieve whatever success they seek sequentially. First, they get an education. Next, a job or start a business. Next, attempt to make a good income. Next, after about seven years they start to think about savings and retirement. And so on.

Entrepreneurs who get wealthy, and I’d like to someday count myself as one of them, live simultaneously, not sequentially. This is both a different mindset and the use of a different set of practical skills. Developing new ways to make your home inspection business grow and resources to do it requires “Thinking”, “Next step planning” and action.

The “Thinking” and “Next Step Planning” are two distinct aspects of a project and both must be given equal continual attention. Anytime you have to do something again and again, the systems approach is best. A to-do list just can’t handle the complexities of several open projects.

So, to this end I’ve been setting up a system for a “Daily” routine that involves planning and review of my projects. I’ll post some of my thoughts on what worked and didn’t as the year stretches on.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: General Business, Coaching On: March 10, 2006: 7:43 am: By Bob Kille

Some times people just don’t get it, for whatever reason. Here I was at a re-inspection of a nice new big custom home at the pre-drywall stage. Our site supervisor is insisting that I shouldn’t ding him for a minor staircase imperfection of 1 inch in height difference between the risers.

With a big smile on my face and my head moving slightly left to right I waded in with the motor skills studies that determined why risers can be no more than 3/8ths difference in height.

His argument back to me was that the tile floor was not yet in place and that should bring up the lower riser by about 5/8ths of an inch, which by the way would put him at the 3/8th inch maximum tolerance from highest to lowest risers.

That sounded logical until I asked if the stairs were going to be left bare, without a floor covering of their own. To this he replied that, the carpet would be minimal in thickness and shouldn’t really be considered because it would only put the risers out of maximum tolerance by just a bit.

So if my math is approximately correct, carpet padding is about 1/4″ and the carpet itself even if on the thinnest of sides would measure at least 1/8″ in thickness, leaving a 5/8th difference in riser heights. Just a bit over the max of 3/8ths, a bit being 60%.

I received the same story again on how expensive it would be to start over to fix the slightly over tolerance issue. My first suggestion to him was to let the sub contractor worry about that and his first concern should be to the safety of the occupants. I could tell that I’d lost him on the safety concern so I put it another way.

Imagine, after documenting the safety hazard at the stairs you fail to do anything to correct it and someone get hurt using the stairs. I wouldn’t want to be the one explaining to a judge that it was just a “little bit” over tolerance would you?

Well, I thought I had em, but site supers can be tough minded and this one was no exception. His reply was that the boss wasn’t going to make him fix the dang stairs anyway as an accident is unlikely, so let’s just move on.

I paused a moment, and asked what’s going to happen when the house is resold and the home inspector declares the stairs a safety hazard? It’s clearly out of tolerance and the Registrar of Contractors Workmanship Standards would clearly dictate that the stairs be made safe, i.e. reconstructed.

Add attorney’s fee’s onto whatever it costs to reconstruct the stairs at that late date and your boss will probably see the wisdom in calling back the sub contractor to fix it now. “Whatever” is the educated response mumbled my way as he saunter off clearly disgusted with me, not wanting to discuss the rest of the list.

Funny how things work out. Not one hour after leaving the site I got a call to do a home inspection on a brand new home in the same neighborhood, same builder, different staircase, same stair problem. Yep, a 1″ difference at the first riser on a real nice all finished wood winding staircase, sides wood paneled with a nice custom Newell post at the first tread.

Whatever happens, and it won’t be coming out of my pocket.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: Coaching, New Construction On: March 3, 2006: 10:33 am: By Bob Kille

Those of you who read my posts generally know my business philosophy of paying out for any compliant, whether valid or not, up to a point of course. When you do a lot of inspections the addresses and clients are mostly vague memories so when you get the question, “do you remember the job you did at such and such, for Mr. & Mrs. blankety blank about 3 or 4 months ago?”

Well, I got that question as I was getting out of my car from the realtor, who happens to be by the way, one of my better sources of referrals. One of the reasons he uses/recommends me is that he knows I’ll take care of his clients without question. What I mean is, without “PROBING” questions.

Here’s why probing questions are out, and it’s a funny thing. When you start to question, you’re mind, unknown to you, is really just trying to justify why you shouldn’t be held responsible for the yuckety yuck problem. And in asking the probing questions your voice betrays you by sounding a bit indignant.

Questions with this tone, and its not one you can easily refrain from, also puts the realtor who brought up the questionable oversight on the defensive. What you really want is them to feel relaxed with the impression that they’re helping you with your relationships. i.e. (your customer base, and don’t forget the realtor is part of your customer base).

To combat this unconscious indignant tone and to put the realtor at ease I say, in an upbeat or apolegetic way, “So what did I miss?”. Thereby taking the position that whatever the problem is that comes out of his mouth is my fault, and the questions that I ask are ones geared to fix the condition while assuring him that the bill can be sent to me.

Whatever you do, make sure to thank the realtor for bringing this to your attention. I try not to offer any assitance in resolving the matter outside of an offer to pay, as quite often I’m never contacted for payment and I’ve still made good on my word to take care of any compliants.

So to get to the meat of this post, in being so ready to take responsibility with just a vague memory of the property, I had just agreed to fix the sellers problem. Turns out the realtor was the listing agent and the seller was renting back the property. When they were fixing to disconnect the washer at move out but the valve was stuck open. They complained to their listing realtor (the realtor in question) that the home inspector should have caught the condition so they shouldn’t be responsible because after all, it wasn’t their house anymore. Now, doesn’t that make sense?

I know, I know, there’s lots of good reasons why this shouldn’t be my problem and that just goes to show you why you shouldn’t go down that bumpy road with your voice betraying your real feelings all the while souring your relationship with the realtor.

You’ve got to know what the lifetime value of a good realtor is, so that this all makes cents. Yes I mean “cents”. Last year I performed over 30 inspections for this realtor at approx $300 each or $9,000 dollars worth of gross income. To make him feel any other way than that of helping me when he presents his sellers dilemma would be foolhardy at best.

My only problem now is to figure out how to get a wavier & release form signed by my client to make the payout. Company policy is never to payout without a signed wavier & release. Had I know from the start before I agreed to pay, whom I was paying, I could have at least requested that my client make the request. Now that it’s akward, by that, I mean to go back to the realtor to explian all of this, I’ll probably let it go and just pay the seller.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: Marketing, Coaching On: February 25, 2006: 11:58 pm: By Bob Kille

Of all the things I could be writing about from my experiences at the NAHI & NACHI national conferences I pick this one experience cause it just sticks in my craw. I can’t decide if I’m just getting old and boring or if there’s a bigger cultural reason for rudeness.

All right, I’ll set the scene and you decide. I was with a new group of friends that I’d met at the vendor booths. We were all standing in the lobby waiting for a table at the local Olive Garden. Among us was a nice young girl who says she can’t order alcohol because she’s only nineteen.

Lets just call her Packy for now. Packy wants to know if I would be so kind as to order her a drink from the bar to which I respond, what will you have. Sex on the Beach or a Blow Job she replies with a straight face.

Not being much of a barfly in the last decade I wasn’t sure if she was putting me on or not. I’d be embarrassed to drink it yet alone order it, but here I go up to the bartender to ask for a Blow Job.

Yeh, it was embarrassing, the bartender didn’t know how to make one and I sure as heck wasn’t going to say I knew so the bartender points his finger at me and starts telling the patrons that the drink I ordered is called a Blow Job, did anyone know what’s in it. Turns out, someone did.

When I returned to the group with Packy’s drink and a slightly flush face I notice that Packy was busy with her phone, look like text messaging. So I’m standing there with her drink in my now cold hand chatting up and laughing with the others for a few minutes.

Curious to how someone could text message for so long on a phone I asked her who she was talking to, without looking up she states that she’s playing pac man on her phone and is nearly finished.

Now I don’t know about you, but as far as I can remember whenever I stood around with a group of friends talking and joking, none of them were playing pac man on their phone like the rest of us didn’t exist.

So I gota ask myself, were we that boring or is there a generation x/y thing going on here.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: Coaching On: February 12, 2006: 2:18 pm: By Bob Kille

As promised, the rest of the “Worst Inspection Report”.

In the last post on this topic I eluded that the report format was basically a check box with some arcane letters standing for a particular condition. When a notable defect or condition was encountered the inspector added a corresponding color-coded comment. The rest of the text of the report was mostly disclaimers and minor adjuncts as to how the inspection was performed.

So, what happens with this type of report is that, the reader quickly surmises that all he has to do is read any colored comment and he’ll have assimilated the germane issues of condition prior to escrow. What you have to remember though, is what effect color and font type/size has on the reader. The buyer as most realtors recognize is already in a state of buyer’s remorse and is looking for either a confirmation that the choice was a good one or an easy way to keep looking without explaining his fears. The (RED) color coding may not seem like a grievous error on its own but added together with the rest of the mistakes makes mountains out of mole hills.

The rest of the mistakes? Well, I didn’t spend too much time unwrapping this story but in the few moments I did leaf through the report the following small errors caught my eye.

First thing I noticed right off was that the summary was at the end of the report and in the same red ink to further inflame the buyer’s psyche. These along with the small italic text (10pt), which can only further frustrate someone who’s anxious and has poor eyesight.

Also included in the report were pages such as “Crawl Space” when none existed. And weird comments such as “Did not walk flat roof – viewed from ladder with binoculars”

The next objection I had was that some of the comments had two recommendations listed instead of one. Comments should always follow the: Observed, Warning & Recommendation sequence for the observed condition condensing any recommendations into one statement such as: “Further review is recommended for a better understanding of repair/replacement costs and/or present condition”. Recommending how to fix or repair something should be avoided.

I only know the following because I was asked to perform the same inspection just days after this inspector made his appearance. The inspector missed broken seals at 3 large thermo panes and an improper roofing tile installation at the ridge.

Try to make your reports follow a logical sequence in plain type large enough for the average 60 year old with as little red ink as possible. If you include a summary, be sure its placed at the beginning of the report. The sum of the parts always adds up to the whole, and if the whole experience of using your service isn’t outstanding in the opinion of both the buyer and Realtor, your days are numbered.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: Coaching, Inspection Report On: January 22, 2006: 3:37 am: By Bob Kille

It’s the new year and already I’m counting my chickens before their hatched. You see, today is my day to put together the report binders for the comming year. The first thing I do is to figure out what each binder is worth given the average price of a home inspection and then as I’m putting them together the chicken count starts up in my head and even tho its supposed to be bad luck, I can’t stop.

But seeing as last year and the year before were banner years and the same ritual took place I’m start’n to think that having a positive outlook is working for me. Some would argue that the set number of binders made up on this day would limit my belief system as to how much more is out there.

Not true I’d argue, as in the closing days of 2005 I landed a quality control contract for the new year with one of larger custom home builders in my neck of the woods and no binders required. Just a quick summary nailed to the wall of the garage and I’m out’a there.

I guess the point of this post is to suggest that you stay open to other avenues of growth. Try to get another pillar under your inspection bussiness so that a downturn in one aspect is softened by strength in another.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and your chicken count just might be higher than you thought possible. Happy New Year!

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: General Business, Coaching On: January 1, 2006: 11:44 pm: By Bob Kille

This is the next installment of the “Least Restrictive” article in which a fellow home inspector was heading for court over the word “few”.

It’s Friday evening about dinner time when the phone rings and a message is left. Dear home inspector, I just wanted you to know that I’ve sent out a letter detailing my demands for payment in the amount of $5,400 for the damaged adobe bricks on the yard wall.

This is a non-negotiable amount as it is considerably less than the $8,700 estimate in my possession for the total work needed. If agreement on this matter is not satisfied by next week the matter will be taken up in civil court, not in mediation, as you seem inclined to believe by virtue of your contract.

Well, have a nice weekend.

Yeah, right. I think that any communication back to him should be in the same manner, at his home phone Friday evening so he can mull it over the weekend.

If you haven’t read the previous post, the client in question is a shyster-lawyer. My theory about how all this is going to go down is one step closer to happening. The Theory? That the lawyer wants our good man to submit the claim to insurance so he can collect an easy $5,000 by merely writing a letter.

Most attorney’s know that insurance will settle almost immediately for sums of $5,000 and less because to get any type of defense set up and ready will cost at least that with no confidence in the outcome.

So what’s my advice to our hero?

Our home inspector has a lot going for him and I’ll just list the positives; mediation - arbitration in the contract payable by party taking action, fence is outside the scope of a home inspection - commented on as part of the pool barrier and listed in satisfactory condition for it’s age, inspection report recommends further review by expert on the effected “few” bricks. Total of 200 bricks with minor deterioration at the face per experts report.

Now the negatives; client claims that an adobe wall partitioning his property line is not a fence but a barrier and that it is in the scope of a home inspection, client claims that he relied on the word “few” to mean 3 bricks thereby negating the need for further review, client maintains that the condition or absence of the clear sealer for the adobe brick was not reported on and that its absence would have been germane to the sale price, client claims about 275 badly deteriorated bricks per expert.

So here’s the scoop as I see it.

Lay out the case in terms of money and lost opportunity costs and offer something reasonable as relates to his bottom line to make it go away.

Our lawyer wants to go to civil court - 1/2 day at $250 per hour = $1,000
Court remands the case back to mediation as per contract, lawyer pays the $500 mediation fee, losses 1/2 day at $250 per = $1,000

Mediation unsuccessful as lawyer wants the un-negotiable sum - case moves to arbitration per contract, lawyer pays the $500 arbitration fee, losses 1/2 day @ xx = $1,000

I happen to be a certified AAA mediator and I can tell you that neither party will get what they want in mediation or arbitration. So worst case for our home inspector is 225 blocks @ 12 bucks each = $2,700 + $600 for sealer = $3,300

At this point our hero and our lawyer have about 2 days into this if you count the prep work. So our lawyer is out the court and mediation costs, plus the time off @ $250 per hour. That adds up to, lets see…. $5,000 and change.

H’mm, doesn’t sound so appealing now does it?

Our home inspector also has some lost opportunity cost which add up to about $1,200 for the two days and possibly some legal advice amounting to $500 bucks, figure two grand. And don’t forget the possible worst outcome of $3,300 for a total of about $5,000 and change.

Arbitration is binding, but if the worst case happens to our lawyer and he gets a pittance he may take you go to civil court anyway to throw out the binding settlement agreement, 1/2 day @ = $1,000 If there’s a reasonable settlement @ about $1,500 - $2,000 your both still out your opportunity costs. Which in his case out weigh the settlement for a loss and that’s why he won’t take this the distance.

As you can see the math just doesn’t work for the lawyer unless there’s an easy settlement.

My advice was to put this all down is a similar fashion but without the specifics or admittances and offer up a one time offer of $1,500 to let him save face and get this nusiance over with. A little laungage about seeing it through to the end if the offer is declined wouldn’t hurt.

It will be worth watching just to see if my theory is correct. I’ll post more news as I get it.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: General Business, Coaching On: December 19, 2005: 12:08 pm: By Bob Kille

Not long ago I was giving some advice to a new inspector after an ASHI meeting, seems he was having trouble like most new inspectors getting business and he was losing money. I gave him some of my best stuff (raise your prices) and at the end of the conversation he asked me if I would look over one of his reports and let him know what I thought.

Well, I just had to say yes as he had been telling me all about how much this report cost to put together ($26.00). Yes, that’s American green backs. A small fortune if your doing any kind of business, to give you an idea it would cost me $15,600 just for reports if I was to use what he’s put together.

Time just kinda slipped by and I didn’t get to his report in the fashion I had envisioned. Here’s what happened and I hope you pay attention to this poor guys mistakes.

I received a call from a realtor I hadn’t heard from in a while, she was a good for three or four inspections a month in the past and I was really happy to hear from her. Thought that I’d lost her. Happens.

She wanted me to come and inspect a property that had just been inspected by another inspector, who by the way killed the deal. She now had a new buyer and wanted to make sure that a repeat of her last experience was not forthcoming. She also wanted to discuss the last inspectors report as it seemed very out of the norm to her.

So I’m at the house and see the last inspection report on the counter (guess who’s) and I ask how it was that the home inspector in question got the job. Turns out that he joined the local chamber of commerce, sat in on a meeting, won a door prize of $50.00 in gas coupons from our realtor. In a stunning moment of clarity he promptly types up a $50.00 off your next home inspection coupon and mails it to our realtor with a note of thanks.

As you can imagine, she was very impressed and thought she’d pass the coupon on to her buyer. Basically, she was going to give our new home inspector a chance to get her business. And boy did he BLOW IT! Not even a pretty binder was going to help him now.

Fresh from school or perhaps an inspection conference, our new home inspector has come equipped to evaluate the homes electrical circuits with a new fangled device called a Sure Test Circuit Analyizer. Somehow all of the circuits in this 5 year old tract house were faulty and the house was a fire hazard waiting to go up in smoke at anytime.

At least that’s how the red inked comment that took up one full page made the house look to the buyer, and to me as well. A full page of red ink, might as well been his own blood for what it cost him.

No, it’s not over. This is just the start of this inspectors woes. Tune in to my next post and we’ll continue with our worst inspection of the year award.

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Kille. To read other home inspection related articles or to view home inspection software and book publications by Mr. Kille, click on this link. www.inspectorsuccess.com

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Posted In: Marketing, Inspection Report On: December 17, 2005: 10:49 am: By Bob Kille