Home : Blogs : Russel Ray, San Diego home inspector : Russel's blog

Does initial happiness have a cost associated with it?

Summary: If we all play nicely in the same sandbox, we can help each other, get a lot done, and make a pretty nice living. Realtors should read the inspection report and follow the inspector's advice. Clients should also read the inspection report and follow the inspector's advice.

Most things in a home are intended to be used for a specific purpose. When homeowners modify or adapt things for purposes for which they were not intended, there probably are consequences, sometimes financial consequences.

At my inspections, after inspecting utilities to make sure they are on, the dishwasher is usually the next item I test because the length of the dishwasher cycle can determine low long the inspection takes, especially if the property is just a 350-SF studio condo. Figure 1 shows a dishwasher at an inspection several years ago:

Dishwasher storage Figure 1

My inspection report noted that the dishwasher was being used for storage, which was not its intended purpose. Consequently, I could not see the interior of the dishwasher or the racks to report on their condition, nor could I test the unit for its ability to run through a cycle, fill up and drain properly without leaking, and determine whether or not the heating elements were working. In fact, I couldn't even turn it on for just a few seconds to see if there was electricity and water to it. I recommended further evaluation and testing once storage items had been removed but before close of escrow in case it needed to be replaced.

When my Clients moved in, they called to tell me that the dishwasher didn't work and that the least expensive dishwasher they could find would cost $650 installed. I think they were hinting that they wanted me to pay for it, but when I read the report item to them, they were stunned into silence. They admitted that they didn't read the report, relying instead on their Realtor to create a list of requested repairs. They were just happy to get the home at the price they paid in the neighborhood they wanted, that initial happiness.

The list of requested repairs did not include the dishwasher since, uh, how can you request something be repaired that wasn't even tested in the first place? Good point. NOT!

Visit my other helpful blogs (you can get all your daily comments in right here, right now!). You can find quick links to all of them by using the widget just under my picture at the upper right.

Posted by Russel Ray, San Diego home inspector on 08/09/2008 04:01 PM

Comments (5)

Home Inspections in the ActiveRain Channel

dishwasher, home inspector, home inspection

Post is included in group: LGBT Referrals
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: San Diego Real Estate Q and A
Post is included in group: Services for Real Estate Professionals
Post is included in group: Southern California Real Estate Forum

5 Comments on Does initial happiness have a cost associated with it?

AUG

2008

I love that picture, I enjoyed your insight into a business I refer to all the time as a buyers agent...

How right you are. What is the point of employing a professional to get advice on the condition of the house if you do not read the report.

I always meet my buyer at the house and go over the report with the inspector at the home. That way the inspector can show the prospective buyer what he found and there is less confusion when the report is received.

I also feel that it is a good idea to meet the inspector at the home and have the client go over the report with the inspector. Yes, it takes a little more time but you get better results that way. If the client can not do that then I make sure that they have read the report and go over those troubled areas with them.

Another interesting post, Russel. Out of curiosity, do you prefer to have the buyer there during your inspection or not?

The problem I see with giving them a verbal summary is that if you miss verbally stating anything, you are sunk. Clearly people aren't reading the report for themselves. Coming out of the home building industry, I am used to having people sign off on everything. As a Realtor/Broker, I would want the buyer to sign off that they have received a copy of the home inspection and have read it for themselves, and are not relying upon the agent's verbal or written statements concerning any items in the report. This clearly puts the burden back onto the buyer to read what they have paid for.

Additionally, if you have a list of 67 items on an inspection report, which I have seen and am sure you have as well, you would have to rearrange your whole schedule to stop and tell the buyers your recommendations for all 67 of those items.

I opt for a meeting between buyer and agent and a phone conference with the inspector. I think it provides the inspector better time management and we keep more on point.

Thanks for another great post reminding us to dot those i's and cross those t's. We are in a litigious world and always need to remember to disclose, disclose, disclose.

Hey, Deborah.

I virtually demand that the Clients be at the inspection with me, from beginning to end. Out of the thousands of inspections I've done since 2001, I can count on two hands the number of Clients who did not show up, and that was usually because they were deployed to Iraq (I have a lot of military Clients) or were in Europe or re-locating from the East Coast. When I make an exception it is because I have a long business partnership with the Realtor, which basically means that they must have referred their Clients to me 30 or 40 times, or they have to have been a Realtor for a decade or so. I want to make sure that all parties understand the possible ramifications of me not getting to meet my Clients and not having any possibility whatsoever of establishing any type of rapport with them.

My own real estate attorneys tell me that the great supermajority of lawsuits against home inspectors, which usually name the Realtor as a co-defendant, are from Clients who never got to meet their home inspector, never saw the work he did, never saw him get up on the roof, never saw him get in the attic, never saw him crawl under the house, etc. Another problem is that even though the Realtor sometimes comes to the defense of the home inspector, there's a perceived conflict of interest because items noted in the home inspection report could cause the current deal to be canceled. So Clients, Judges, and Juries sometimes claim foul if the Realtor and the home inspector are the only ones there, regardless of how nitpicky the report actually is. Perceptions matter a great deal in this litigious world of ours.

I try to do several things as far as the inspection and report are concerned:

I ask if there are any concerns that are already on the Clients' minds. If there are, we'll address those first because they obviously are anxious about them and we don't want to forget them.
My service agreement has certain phrases, sentences, lines, and paragraphs in bold red text for emphasis. Then I'll go one better and use a yellow highlighter to highlight them again. Then I'll go over the agreement with my Clients before I ever start the inspection.
When I finish the inspection, I provide a verbal wrap-up of major items of concern. I skip the hole in the screen window, the hole in the wall caused by the doorknob, the loose hinge on the hallway cabinet, and like stuff. Major items typically mean something that would require a licensed professional to come in after me (note that California has no licensing for home inspectors; that's a blog for a different day), e.g., licensed electrician, licensed plumber, licensed roofing contractor, licensed chimney sweep, licensed structural engineer, licensed landscaper, etc.
Excepting rare circumstances, within 24 hours I provide a computer-generated narrative report with color-coded text and appropriate pictures (no pictures for the sake of pictures!).
I follow up 3-5 days after the inspection or after the written report was delivered.

In the case of the dishwasher here, since the dishwasher is started within the first 15 minutes of the inspection, when I found this one, I showed it to my Clients and explained to them the extent of my disclosures and that I would be disclaming it and for them to have it tested before close of escrow. "Okay. Thanks."

At the verbal wrap-up, I reminded them that we had already discussed the dishwasher and to have it tested before close of escrow.

The picture was in the report, along with a third reminder to have the dishwasher tested before close of escrow.

I truly have very few problems. In fact, every problem I've had occurred prior to April 1, 2003. On that date I implemented a new reporting system that I developed on my own. I called it my Interactive Report System (IRS) because it had links to web sites and documents to arm my Clients with knowledge. IRS has since morphed into my Real Estate SOLUTIONS library which is on my web site but only accessible to my Clients via links in their home inspection reports.

I will be using many of the documents in my Real Estate SOLUTIONS library for informative blogs here, so stay tuned.

I specialize in education. I guess I should have been a teacher, but I didn't think teacher salaries in Texas could support the standard of living that I desired.

Thanks for your question and interest.

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?