The last two days have involved arranging and working with home inspectors. Talk about the business changing for agents, it has really changed for home inspectors. The days of the "good old boy" home inspector network is all over. Those "good old boys" have all gotten too fat to get into crawl spaces, their knees have gotten so bad they are all recuperating from surgeries or walk with such stiffness that it pains you to watch them, or some of them are so red and puffy from too many drinks the night before that when they show up clients are sure they are going to have a heart attack right there on the spot.They show up in wrinkled shirts spotted with breakfast or dinner leftovers, barely reaching over fat stomachs with skin showing between the shirt and their kaki shorts that look like they have laid on the floor of their bedrooms for days on end and their cell phones tacked to their ears talking and laughing about their favorite college football team scores while they are being paid to do an inspection. The seat of their pants looks like they pooped themselves. I am sure I am not the only realtor who has been mortified when these guys show up, watching their unprofessional behavior and trying to make small talk with the client while the inspector disappears to the back of the house or his truck to finish some childish conversation and meanwhile this inspection is stretching on and on! These are the guys who were fired from jobs for too many long drinking lunches and couldn't find another position , or, guys who had spent time in Mexican jails for selling dope or guys who just had so many issues that this job made perfect sense for them. They could print some business cards, post a name on the side of their truck, start going to open houses and flirting with women agents to try to get them to refer them to their clients and they were off and running on their next "con". Nothing was required of them then - not even a test. Can you imagine? What was the State thinking when they required no tests/no nothing for these folks - buyers relied on them, realtors relied on them (oh, the power they had over realtors), lenders relied on them, appraisers relied on them, etc. What a power trip for these losers. Most of them started during the last 15 year real estate boom and most of them made lots of money and laughed all the way to the bank - until now when the market and the more educated public with a much broader forum are finally going to wash these guys out. That is what is great about a down market - it clears out all the really crummy realtors, the really crummy lenders and the really, really crummy home inspectors.I loved it the other day when I read a blog from a furious home buyer here in Portland, Oregon who was swindled by one of these local good old boy inspectors and wants "the world" to know it and has the way to do so with the internet. It's hard for these boys to keep the secrets like they used to when they settled before cases went before the CCB or to small claims. These are mistakes that many times were paid for by the real estate agents e&o insurance because it was the only remedy for thousands and thousands of dollars in repairs to roofs, siding, windows, etc. I remember one inspector who missed 15 or so bad expensive windows in a house - can you imagine? Missing one bad window - that's one thing, but 15 or so? I am just glad to see this come to a screeching halt. I like it when the professional inspector shows up with state of the art digital photo and computer equipment, a resume of credentials/licensing, a professional demeanor and dresses like someone who is proud of what they do and proud of their industry, someone who knows how to communicate with knowledge and genuine concern for the client. Finally this industry is going to get cleaned up!
Chris Balmes PC
Chris Balmes Properties
503.427.0372
Comments(1)