The most common "requirement" in my experience that most Realtors look for in a home inspector is not overstating defects. Now it is our job to find current or potential problems and report them to our client and offer some type of recommendation in order to resolve the issue. However it is not a home inspectors job to dramatize or over emphasize a problem.

The information from the home inspection should be presented in a professional manner. It is our job to explain what we discover and know to some degree the possibilities of not resolving the defect. The information should not be stated in a "the sky is falling" manner. This does no one any good.

I have felt for quite sometime that home inspectors who seem to scare their clients deliberately are most often looking for a second or third job from the same customer. What better way to reinforce the clients trust than to "save them" from buying a money pit.

Of course I am speaking here in generalities and the majority of home inspectors I know personally are good and fair in the way they conduct their inspections. Every home inspector has been called a "deal killer" at some point and in the majority of cases, it's just not true. However there are those few that feel it is there job to make the Realtors' miserable.

My advice to Realtors is to look for inspectors who are knowledgeable, conscientious and take the time to look the home over thoroughly and explain their findings to their client. Fast home inspection are not good home inspections.

James Quarello

JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC