OT Floor joist revelation... Sheesh!

Re: OT  Floor joist revelation... Sheesh!

Keith Newton

Dang, Is there someone that has to test inspectors before they get a license, and regulates the trade? I think your friend ought to contact them.

Re: OT  Floor joist revelation... Sheesh!

Larry Edinger

Sounds Like He Doesn't His A-- from A hole in the Ground !

Re: OT  Floor joist revelation... Sheesh!

walta

Not to offend anyone but in most states no license required. Anyone with $20 and an internet connection can perform a wedding, make your pig a service animal or inspect a home.

This one seems to be working harder than most if he entered a crawlspace by more than an arm’s length.

The truth is her is paid to find minor problem with big price tags used to negotiate a lower price. If he finds real problems that kill deals the realtors stop recommending him.

Walta

I was a Home Inspector for many years....

Barry Irby

And Walta is correct on many points.

It's been a long slow trip to getting Inspectors licensed. I worked on it for about ten years, helping the state to set up the guide lines. It was long and befuddling process. In the end, they decided Inspectors had to be 18 years old and have the equivalent of a High School education. They got hung up on actual inspection training because they were not willing or able to set it up. They wanted to have existing Inspectors train new ones in what amounted to an apprenticeship program. Those of us already in the business did not want to train the competition.

Realtors are another problem. The joke is that they put Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder on the short list. If you have an excellent reputation for being thorough, it is very difficult to get on the short list unless the Realtor is selling a house to a family member. And many of them know almost nothing about a house and are little more than consignment salesmen.

Buyers did not seem to know enough to demand a thorough inspection and only wanted to move it along with a minimum of disruption.

And, I had several clients who thought I missed something and thought I should not just give them the fee back, but should give them the entire purchase price of the house and let them keep the house.

OTOH, this guy is state licensed and is a poor representative of the profession.

After the deal closes we may report him to the licensing board but they are less knowledgeable than the Realtors and will do nothing.

Re: OT  Inspectors... Sheesh!

kneale brownson

Idiot who inspected our Utah house for the buyers said the furnace wouldn't fire. The thermostat was set to cool, not heat, and the desired temperature was set to several degrees below the ambient temperature. What idiots. He also found a roofing tab next to the house, where it had blown off the neighbor's house and floated next to ours. Different color. Idiot needed a full roofing investigation. The roofer found fault with the downspouts for rain gutters not carrying water farther away from the foundation. Never a leak in the 20 years of the arrangement.

Re: OT  Floor joist revelation... Sheesh!

Michael Wilkins

After working in insurance claims for 25 years, I got to see the results of obvious missteps from so-called home inspectors. Rotted floors, roof shingles well past their replacement time, etc. That's why when my wife and I purchased our home, I did my own inspection by checking the crawlspace and having a pro check the HVAC system.

You have to understand that the inspector is hired by the realtor, and it is in the realtors' best interest to not find any concerns. If possible, hire a licensed contractor to check out a potential home you are interested in for any problems. Nothing like a pro who knows what he is looking at.

Re: OT  Floor joist revelation... Sheesh!

Barry Irby

Michael, I had to stop and think about the Realtor Hiring the Inspector. I was an Inspector for over thirty years and was always paid by the buyer. Always made it very clear I worked for the buyer and In fact said I was the only one in the transaction that was unbiased and worked for the buyer. Everyone else depended on the deal going through to earn their fee. I got paid whether the deal closed or not.

OTOH, giving it further thought I can see why you say the Realtor hired the inspector. It was often the case that the Agent recommended the inspector, IE hired him, even though the buyer paid him.

Since I retired I have flipped a number of houses. Had several them inspected by two different inspectors after the deal fell through. I was amazed, Could not tell they inspected the same house, the lists of defects were very different.

Things have not gotten better. The state has licensed Inspectors and it has the effect of lowering the overall quality of the inspections and the inspectors.

Re: OT  Floor joist revelation... Sheesh!

John in NM

Unfortunately, that is often the unintended consequence of requiring licensure in a profession. By defining expertise as a collection of checkable boxes (test passed, requisite hours worked) we open the door to those who can check the boxes, get the paper, and pose as an expert when they are not.

You get that whether there is licensure or not - the inexpert "pros". The argument against licensing is that in an unregulated marketplace it is harder for them to defend their lack of expertise in their profession - with no license to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy they must stand on the quality of their work.

Neither side of that debate is 100% correct of course - debates about real life are never so cut and dried.

Re: I was a Home Inspector for many years....

Brad Chenoweth

Hi Barry,

I know that you were a home inspector from previous posts.. No disrespect intended, but here in Ohio, most home inspectors are a joke. My dad, brother and son were professional carpenters. They always said that most home inspectors were guys who couldn't make it in the trades. My experience with an inspection of I house I sold was similar. The guy listed a half dozen items that were eventually determined to not be an issue. Did cost me some extra money though, for example, having a chimney guy check out the chimney for the gas furnace, only to determine the first guy was dead wrong in his assessment.

walking through a minefield

David Weaver

I didn't know much about home inspectors until after I'd used one. Mine got me the documentation that I needed to have $10,500 of costs land in the sellers' laps after I'd already negotiated the price of the house.

My realtor is no longer in business - she was conscientious and probably too honest (or maybe she moved). She allowed me to pick a home inspector, and I followed online reviews to a guy who spent two solid hours here looking at everything in the house and picking at things that I thought were minor, but he found two major things and gave me in writing enough to put those things on the seller or walk.

Shortly before that, a friend used a home inspector in the city that his realtor recommended. The guy spent about a half hour on site and talked down an unstable chimney as being something one should only worry about if they shouldn't be looking at older houses.

it accelerated its self-disassembly two years after he bought the house and he was left with about the same cost as I saved. Nothing in my house was as bad as the issue his inspector blew off. But his realtor got the sale done faster, and I guess that's what counts.

I learned a lesson about plumbers, too - one of the issues found in my house was a drain that was still going to the sewer - in the garage. Someone didn't do a dye test that they claimed they did with the prior sale 6 years earlier. It turned out to be the same plumber that the seller hired to fix the issue 6 years later (when I bought), and they expected some deference (or the plumber taking some responsibility). The plumber blew off the last test "we may have missed something, but we're not responsible for it" and then tried to charge the owners $7,000 for a half day's work for a plumber and two helpers. (knowing that the prior owners were in a bind trying to sell). They "settled" for taking only 3500 for the work and installed about $300 worth of equipment. nice guys. Instead of paying a going labor rate, they pay the site plumber a commission on all work done (presumably on top of a reduced rate).