Deal Killer by Barry Stone

[Ted Allen]

http://www.housedetective.com/column...ml?storyid=533

[Brian E. Kelly]

We should ban Barry he takes Steroids.

[Michael W. Gault]

Very good...

[tneumann]

Very nice....

[Brian E. Kelly]

Like most Barry articles I did not like it. Barry paints with brush strokes that are too broad for my liking. He pretty much claims that most Realtor are not ethical. He says that if you are reccomended by a Realtor you are not a good inspector. He says that every defect overlooked by marginal HI's is a lawsuit waiting to happen, broad strokes again. OHHHH scary, Barry.

If people bought only one home in their lifetime and only had contact with Realtors and HI's once or twice in their life Barry's premise may hold water. But that is not the case anymore. People buy many homes and often use the the same Realtors services more than once. Why, because the Realtor did a good ethical job for them. Many good realtors are also in the referral business, as are many HI's.

[mcraig]

Brian you are so right. I don't often enjoy Berry's writing but I only read it for the comedy.

[Russel Ray]

I read all of Barry's columns, and they are required reading for all of my employees, even those not doing home inspections. Why? Because the questions come from people having interaction with home inspectors. And those questions do a very good job of indicating those same people's problems with home inspections and home inspectors.

Barry's answers sometimes are hit and miss, but the questions he receives are excellent. So read all his columns and answer the questions as you see fit. Then see if your answer matches Barry's answer. If not, do as I do. I write Barry regularly concerning his column, and we sometime have some quite interesting discussions via email.