Houston is fairly competitive market in the world of real estate related websites, so SEO and SEM in general become factors in a marketing campaign. I wanted to share with you some projects that I am working on to hopefully help you with promoting your own home inspection business. I am sure that you may have taken some of these steps, but you may not have taken a few further actions to help. I have been going through examining (inspecting) results in search engines, to find factors that would help have a site be noticed, so here they are.
    You may have seen that Google is moving moe into the social media world. One basic feature is the Google profile (if you search for Google profiles you will find them). At one point, the profile page was showing up if you searched for your name, but that is not always the case at the moment. However, do not discount the profile. You can add a good deal of information to help promote your business there, including linking to your websites. Here is the interesting thing: if you link to your profile from your blog or other sites, the profile gains authority, which then can be passed onto your site. You should be creating links to your website, but you should also build-up links to your profile. Here is an example of a home inspector profile ;)
    In Houston and San Diego, Google has rolled out a new feature to promote/highlight your Google local business center listing. For $25 per month, they add a litle highlight feature of your choosing, like a link to your site. (This is an advertising link, so it will not count towards linkjuice). Since this was rolled out, I wanted to see what is happening with these listings. These are the lisitngs that show up in the Ten-pack (the businesses listed next to a map in a search) and the business listing  in Google Maps. First, I discovered that most firms do not have a complete profile. When I filled in information to make my listing 100% complete, I found that it helped me move up this list. Next, your proximity to downtown is still a factor in who is placed on top, but not always. Reviews help move your site up. The review can be negative or positive. I was surprised by the fact that businesses did not respond to negative reviews. Google will pull information from many sites to add to your lisitng, which you will have no control over. One of the sites that Google will pull information from is your posts to ActiveRain's Localism, so if you have not posted there, you may want to do so. The other weird fact about these listings is that you may end up in places where you had not intended. A post that I wrote about foreclosures three years ago has been popular in Google for the specific topic. I have been called by Realtors from around the country for advice, and newspapers have interviewed me. Although I do not list foreclosures as one of my categories in the listing, Google rates me high in the Ten-Pack for many foreclosure terms. Here is an example of a home inspection business listing.
    About creating links to your site from Facebook and Twitter: officially these are nofollow links, which means that Google's bot will not go to your site. However, a test was run where it was discovered that Google does follow links from Twitter. If you want you post on ActiveRain or your personal blog to be indexed by Google quickly, then post a link on Twitter. As for Facebook, I have not seen any test proving that the same thing happens. Typically, Facebook is called a "walled garden", since profiles can be private. My Facebook account is public, so anyone can view it. What I have noticed is that posts from public accounts will be picked up on Google Alerts. If the Google bot has noticed the post for an alert, it may also have followed the link as it does with Twitter. I should mention that simply because you have a website/blog does not mean that Google knows about what you have done. You need to be indexed. Once in the index, your page/post can show up in the search results.
    One last tip. If you have an offline ad, be sure to put your website's address in the ad. Most people do not enter the url into the browser's address bar. What they do is type the address into Google. This tells Google that your site is desired, which means that they make it easier to find for the keywords that your are targeting.
    Happy Marketing. I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter (Oh, and not to forget, for those celebrating Passover, I hope that you have wonderful celebrations too).

How do you get heavy equipment into a building, when you cannot get it up the stairs? A deadman's door is the solution.

Usually, builders have different methods for dealing with heavy equipment, and in commercial  buildings, this can be handled by a deadman's door. I wanted to post this photo, because I have never seen one in residential construction. If you have an office building with windows, workers will take out a window if they are doing demolition which has to be removed, or if they need to move heavy equipment into a certain floor. In residential homes, heavy items like the water heater and air heating equipment is moved into place before the roof and walls are installed. When the home is complete, and new equipment is needed, they will move larger, heavier equipment in through attic access points. (Older equipment could be left in the attic, when the crew does not want to deal with it). In commercial buildings with solid walls, you may see a door up high on a wall, and there are no stairs to it. These doors exist to be access points for heavier equipment, which needs to be installed after the building is complete. Movie theaters have them to allow the projectors to be installed. These doors are sealed to prevent anyone from opening them, but the term deadman's door comes from when you would open it and fall out.
    The door on this home may be meant to be used with a future stair and/or patio. I had never seen a deadman's door on a home before, so I thought this was interesting. The homeowner was constructing some rooms in the attic, and they were adding some heavy framing. This door became the solution for getting the items into the attic. Good idea, since their framing blocked the original attic entrance, making it harder to move larger items through that opening. Well, you always see something new on each home inspection. Your home inspector , Frank Schulte-Ladbeck

I love to garden, and I have had dreams of being a cook in my own place. For me the two ideas have long been intertwined, so creating a new site made sense.

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I was writing an email to an inspector who teaches a green building class with a few resources that he may want to share, then I thought it would be appropriate to share them here.

Why would you want to know about green building techniques? Maybe you are not going to be an energy rater or a green building verifier, but these building practices are becoming standard practice. On two phase inspections recently, I saw the techniques being applied to make the air tight seal which is common in green building. In fact, one builder was moving further towards this standard. It might be to your benefit to be ahead of the curve. Here is what I sent. These two sites and the book pack a lot of information.

http://www.buildingscience.com has research papers and case studies on best building practices for homes in different areas. There is a focus on green building techniques.

http://www.wbdg.org is a site putting together the best practices for the construction of Federal buildings, but the information is shared with others to encourage better building techniques. Mainly there is a focus on larger building projects, but basics are applicable to home construction. Also discussions of new green techniques.

For inspectors interested in passive green designs, there is a book out which discusses how a home can be built in different climates. It is called The Barefoot Architect by Johan van Lengen. The first part of the book is probably more refresher topics for most inspectors, the remainder of the book has good material on how to build homes. It is meant for a general audience, so it does not go into too much technical details.

Of course, I might want o promote my own blog. On my site Inspected Thoughts, I go over various items, but I have a section detailing green home conversions which may help you out. Shameless self-promotion I know, but you may enjoy the site.

A recent comment by me on Facebook prompted an acquantince to ask me to justify  how I determine the average amount of time spent on an inspection. This was published on my blog, but I thought it may be good to share here.

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A report from a local NBC news affiliate raises a few concerns for home inspectors and Realtors. The story in a nutshell is Realtor A is selling a home. Realtor B takes Buyer C to see the home. Buyer C likes the home, and hires an inspector to examine the home. The inspector happens to be a “termite inspector” as well, so he produces a WDI report too. It also happens that Realtor A and Realtor B work for the same brokerage. The inspector states that there are no termites in the home. Buyer C begins to remodel the home to find that a bedroom wall has extensive termite damage, and that there is an active infestation. This happens in the first month. The inspector denies any wrong doing, but the state board overseeing his Pest control license finds that he did not do his job properly, which by state rules gives him a warning on his file. In the mean time, several other recent home buyers file the same complaint. In one case, it appears that the same situation between a Realtor seller and buyer's agent from the exact same brokerage existed.

Why would this be a concern for a home inspector, when I am talking about a termite inspection? Well, the news report focuses on the termite inspection, but it does mention the home inspection aspect of the incident. The real problem develops in that the second inspector sent to check the home for a WDI report found obvious evidence of termites. One area he mentioned was opening an access panel to examine underneath a tub. As home inspectors in Texas should know, we are required to report if there is access to work on the valves for a shower and tub. The only way to be sure that a panel provides this access is to remove it. I have found in many of my inspections that these panels are placed on walls, but that there is no hole in the wall to look under the tub. This inspector did not perform an inspection that meets the minimum standards of practice by this fact alone. From the news article, the inspector appears to feel that he did nothing wrong.

Here is the thing; all inspectors make mistakes. We are human. The moment that you believe that you are perfect is the moment you are not doing your job right. I am always trying to find ways to improve how I do my job. I discover ways to include checks and balances to ensure that I catch any problems or issues in a home. On an inspection last week, the Realtor stated that he loves my reports when he represents the buyer, but he hates them when he represents the seller. He turned to the buyer and said “he is so meticulous”. I was not sure how to take that, but at least it validated that my methods were heading in the right direction

Yesterday I was chatting with another Realtor about various topics, and he mentioned an inspection report that he had seen. The inspector had a long paragraph explaining each finding, making for a very long report. He mentioned that it scared his client. That is part of the balancing act that inspectors must carry out when writing a report. We never know which item will be important, so everything needs to be given equal weight. I believe that one mistake that could be easy for us inspectors to make is to over emphasize one issue by longer explanations, while others are just mentioned. A question does arise here: did this inspector tailor his reports to make the Realtors happy? When my wife heard the news report, her comment was “remember when that Realtor wanted to dictate to you what you should put in the report?” It happened many years ago when I was green, but I had refused, so I did not work with that Realtor again. I bring this incident to the attention to the Realtors who will read this piece. You could be setting yourself up for a liability if the home inspector says that you were pressuring him/her on what should go into the report.

A final question is should a relationship between a home inspector and Realtor be so close that the Realtor recommends no other inspectors to their buyer? Some Realtors have told me that this is against Texas law. It is not. In fact I heard a lawyer from TREC (the Texas Real Estate Commission) state that it might be better for a Realtor to suggest only one inspector who they really trust. Most brokerages do have a rule though that states Realtors should have a few inspector names to give their clients. I think that the lesson from the news report should be is to discover if your inspector really is as good as you think he is. The inspector in the news report is well established in areas in the north of Houston.

Well here is the link to the report if you like to see it for your self: http://www.click2houston.com/news/21168973/detail.html What are your thoughts? Liked the post? Maybe visit me at http://yourhoustonhomeinspector.com .

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This past week the Houston Association Realtors announced its initiative to help Houston's HOPE program by listing those homes for sale on the MLS. I know many Realtors have been involved with this program, but it is nice to see this renewed commitment by the real estate community in helping to improve our neighborhoods.

HOPE focuses on rebuilding neglected neighborhoods while helping families into homes. The program is open to first time and low income home buyers, and there are additional incentives for teachers, fire fighters, and police officers. When you couple the money you could receive through HOPE and the tax credit for home buyers, this turns out to be an extraordinarily fantastic deal. One of my favorite aspects of the program is that it teams up with builders to produce green homes for these families. These are not homes where the builder slaps on the green label to make them attractive to buyers; the homes meet Houston's Green Building Initiative, which follows the guide lines established for building a green home as laid out in the ANSI 700 and the International Residential code.

If you wish to read my thoughts on the program in further detail, you can see what I have written about Houston's Hope program, which will provide you with more information about taking advantage of it.

I have been writing a bit about converting an existing home to include green features. I have seen where my posts on this topic inspired others to take my ideas to discuss on their own. I think that this is great. If you are not buying a home, you should consider how you can add green features; hopefully this past Earth Day may have inspired you. Yesterday, I posted an article that looks at the solar lights that can be used to brighten spots around your home at night. This post has already been read by quite a few people, so you may want to check it out. If you are interested in finding some of those lights, CSN Lighting has a good selection, with great customer service from my experience. Soon I will be buying the solar light that can be turned on and off for my garage. (I was working on taking some solar light panels apart to see if I could make my own, then I found one there, which will serve my needs in the garage and shed).

Have a little HOPE in Houston, and go green in your home.

It is early morning and I have my cup of coffee, so it is a good time to sit back to reflect on the past year, along with my birthday wishes for the next year. I may not have been sharing these meanderings, but fortunately Dale Barker was kind enough to remind me to create a post for the Texas Birthday Group.

Having a birthday close to Thanksgiving has always placed me in a mood to consider what I am thankful for on this day. It may be easy to take a negative outlook though. I am still dealing with repairs to my home due to Hurricane Ike; business is not great; my stock portfolio seems non-existent; and I could go on. However, it is important to note that all of those concerns are temporary.

My wife has presented me with the most wonderful gift recently: the birth of a healthy baby girl, Sakura Erika (ten days ago). Why a Japanese first name? My son has a friend with this name, which means cherry blossom, and he thinks it a beautiful name. My two and half year old daughter, Katya, has been running around the house trying to help us with the newest member. My favorite moment is when I explained to her that the baby was hungry. She ran off to bring me all of the items my wife surrounds herself with when breastfeeding. Ok Papa, ready? It was an experience explaining that I did not have that capability. After finishing with work on Sunday morning, I spent the afternoon in the park with my son and toddler. That was a great gift to watch a teenager and toddler playing. I am ever so grateful for my family.

I have not been Active in the Rain recently, but I am thankful for this community. A little over a week ago, I encouraged a newly minted home inspector to come to this site. It has taught me so much, and I have made many great connections here, but, yes, it is not really part of my business plan at this time. This space has been the best ground to develop various skills, and I feel that there is more to learn here, so I cannot see fully giving up on this community. I just have to cut back to look at the broader picture.

I am thankful for my life, and the fact that I am in the business that I am in. I worked for years in a job where I could not be part of family events, or to see friends. I worked sixty or more hours a week as a senior manager, but I felt that my efforts were not providing me with the life that I wanted. Sure the home inspection profession has not been great, but I am making ends meet, and I have been pursuing paths to improve this work in these trying times. The challenges encountered are actually fun. Finding new ways to make it last and grow in difficult periods is a joy. We will see what happens in the coming year, but it will be good.

As most home inspectors in Texas should be aware by now, the new SOP and report form go into effect in February 2009. There have been changes made that we need to be aware of, and that we need to include in our reports. I took a preliminary version of those SOPs to create a simple checklist for our inspections. The requirements are listed on the form, and then spaces are left for notes. In some cases, I put down Yes/No answers which can be circled.

I based it on the SOPs so we would have a quick reference guide to ensure that we are meeting these requirements as we are getting used to them. I also included space at the beginning for some basic information about the job to have on hand. I included reminders to write the serial numbers down for appliances. This is not a requirement, but it is a good practice. You can then say that this is the specific piece of equipment that was examined, in case a unit was changed out, and there is an issue with the new unit. If you come up with any ideas on how to improve this, let me know, so I can update this file. I created this one fairly quickly, so I probably will be making changes to it soon. I was having fun creating a report form in HTML, but I am still working on it. I want to be able to save it as a pdf that would be clear when printed.

Here it is in pdf format:

New Checklist

I was performing a home inspection on the West side of Houston when I came across a method of creating air flow in rooms that was a bit unusual. I thought that I would share it with you as a continuation of part 3 of this series, but I am not sure that it really works too well. My simple test did not show much air going through it.

I noticed that there were a lot of return vents when walking through the rooms then in the hallway. Pictured below is two large returns in the hall, and then below that is a picture of a room. On the ceiling of the room, you will notice two vents that use a cover typical for registers. One is a register, while the other is meant to be a return.

Great, I thought. They have no ceiling fans in this house, so they are trying to get the air to flow by using ducts attached to the return plenum in each room. I noticed that one of the hall returns did not have a filter in it, and this should have been my first clue to its true purpose. I then go up into the attic. While wandering around, taking in the sights, I find two plenums above the returns in the hall ceiling, but something looked off.

I checked the duct work to see that the ducts from one return were going to the return plenum on the HVAC system, but the other plenum had ducts going to the returns in each room. I wondered if this could work. The drawing below is demonstrating what was meant to be happening.

The air goes through the returns in each room to the vent in the hallway. When the return in the hallway draws air, it is meant to suck air from this vent connected to the room returns. They could have hooked those ducts up to the plenum created for the return air since it was right there.

I took some tissue paper to the returns in the rooms to see if there was any air movement when the air conditioning came on. There may have been a little, but the tissue was not pulled by any suction, like it was at the actual return. This method may cause some air to move, but I doubt that it helps much. I would just take the fake return ducts, and attach them to the return plenum.