Episode 57 - Performing Your Best Inspection
James Krumm of Colorado’s Best Home Inspections is one of the most successful home inspectors in the country. We invited James to perform his best home inspection for NACHI.TV. For years James and his multi-inspector firm have been busy, prosperous, even in these challenging times. We asked him to reveal some of his secrets and business practices that make his company so successful.
My questions and thoughts after watching the video are.
How many inspectors adjust the safety reverse by force on a garage door opener?
How many inspectors check every window in a home?
What if any is the height requirement at a window well to require a cover.
Thanks James thought is was a video well worth watching.
I gained some information and reminders when performing inspections.
Items I was refreshed on or did not know.
Clamp for disposal wiring.
Flex lines for water heater. (Still not to clear on this especially here in Ohio)
220 Plug changed from 3 to 4 prong and year it was done.
One day…maybe…Nachi will take the world to a home that has a leaky basement. Then the public could see how they handle those problems,what they say and recommend to homeowners. Sheesh, hope it wont be the usual knothead recommendations of raising and sloping the grade,filling in low spots,adding 500 mile long downspout extensions. And maybe theyll show them recommending the inside system cos to the homeowner, Johnny Bubb cant wait for that. Is it too risky fer ya`s to show us a thorough inspection of a leaky basement? Just remember, Johnny Bub is lurking…ready to fire away!!!
Home inspectors do not make recommendations to homeowners as to how to correct a defect in our reports. Not those of us who plan to stay in business for any length of time, anyway.
Since you went to the trouble to put the slider bar on the bottom, I wish that it actually worked so you we could adjust it more freely and not only a few seconds at a time. This problem is with all of the videos that I’ve watched.
Hear ya Mr Bushart, the smart ones wont. But quite a few do and apparently so do some HI ORGs and others like Mr Ken on Nachi Tv, episode 54 around the 13:15 mark. Paint/apply whatever on inside block wall(s). ](*,) http://www.nachi.tv/episode54 Then distributed some EDUCATIONAL fliers? And now a hero. LolOloolllL
Hey Ken, you want some real educational material on basement waterproofing,the Bubberman suggests you go to Nachi`s own structural board and click ‘something else to chew on’…click those pictures and links written by Army Corps Engs,Yoder,Faifax County VA etc. That is, if you really wanna help inform people on this subject sir. Got Milk?
How about the Nachi apparently recommending their inspectors/chapters have the inside goofs come speak and fill em full of insider-chit-chat crap. http://www.nachi.org/forum/f13/basement-systems-usa-willing-to-speak-your-next-chapter-meeting-22344/ What would Basement Systems want to speak about? Door knobs? Light bulbs? What kind of fingernail polish the old lady uses? How knowledgeable and honest Bubberman,Capizzo,EOF.Stremmy,Downriver Waterg is? I dont think so.
Whats this homeowner say?
Still leaks, got mold?
How about another ORG…NAHI.
1st paragraph it sure appears they want the world to visit Basement Systems website. http://www.nahi.org/public/department76.cfm
Why sooo much azz kissin applied from HI ORG`s to their butts?
Whats going on? Incompetence? Friends,money changing hands?
Something smells just like the lady in that video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq66EA8aKy0
Jim, didn’t you read your own diploma mill association’s own Standards of Practice 2.2.C.2 ?
Good luck in court with that goofy SOP!
Anyway, the legal question isn’t whether or not you (as an inspector) make recommendations to correct or not. I probably would verbally, in certain instances, if I felt I was knowlegeable enough about a particular issue to offer a recommendation. I certainly wouldn’t within my report like the goofy SOP above requires. The legal question is are you stupid enough to be a defendant in a courtroom and having to explain why you didn’t, even though you agreed to abide by your goofy association’s goofy SOP that says you “shall.”
In other words, you never want to belong to an association that requires you to do it, because you are then in breach if you don’t.
And you definately do NOT want to ever belong to any association that requires you to include in your report your determination of whether or not each and every single defect uncovered should be corrected or simply monitored for future correction or is in need of further evaluation.
If you belong to two or more associations, the plaintiff can hold you to the SOP of the association that most helps his/her lawsuit. Being a member of InterNACHI (only)protects you as InterNACHI makes it clear to your client that you are not responsible for providing such a determination for each and every single defect uncovered: www.nachi.org/sop.htm (3.2.V) and www.nachi.org/comsop.htm (7.12 and 8.2V).
ASHI’s SOP is so horrible that it is safer to be a member of nothing, than a member of diploma mill ASHI.
A “recommendation to correct” is NOT the same as a “recommendation as to how to correct”.
Home inspectors do not recommend to clients what action to take regarding a defect so as not to be linked to the outcome of such recommendation should it not succeed in remedying the defect.
As those who regularly view NACHI Tv’s errant videos advising consumers with improper remedies…such as to throw away four year old water heaters…much harm as well as unnecessary increases in liability can come from such recommendations.
As you pointed out, we “recommend to correct” the defect. As the contractor is in the process of correcting the defect, he will often change his mind as to the proper remedy once he removes drywall or other visible obstructions…and gets a better view of the conditions than what the inspector had in his non-invasive inspection.
There is no need to turn this into a NACHI vs ASHI thing.
No prudent home inspector will recommend in his report the action a client should take in order to correct a defect.
A plaintiff is permitted to interpret an ambiguously authored SOP to their benefit.
Nevertheless, read ASHI’s 2.2.C.2 again slower. There is nothing ambiguous here. ASHI members are burdened with an impossible requirement. That being to make a determination for each and every defect discovered… that the defect should be corrected or need only be monitored or need further evaluation.
I thought the video was done fairly well, informative, went pretty smoothly. I respect the point Jim Krumm made about presentation and communicating with your client. Even though at the present time your working for them, it’s their future references to family and friends that will keep you in business.
Doing something for your clients that you haven’t agreed to do is good business. If you are competent to make such a determination or recommendation, by all means, do it.
Telling your clients that you do this for each and every defect uncovered is nuts (from a legal standpoint). And nuts is what you have to be to say you abide by ASHI’s SOP.
One association (InterNACHI) tells the consumer that its members don’t provide such determinations.
One association (ASHI) tells the consumer that its members SHALL provide such determinations for each and every defect.
What this isn’t… is it isn’t about what some comment made by some manufacturer’s representative while being live interviewed (without script) on a NACHI.TV show. Disagree with something he said? Write him. Our camera men don’t mind. Your continual pointing to but one comment made by one guest on one long, unscripted interview on NACHI.TV speaks much about the quality of its guests… but nothing about InterNACHI’s SOP and ASHI’s SOP being 180 degrees opposite on the matter at hand.
I thought the Video was good almost to a tee what i do with a few exceptions.
1.The second latter on the roof was too dangerous to show on a video.
2.There was no drip leg on the gas line for the water heater.
3.I fill the sinks 1/2 way to check the traps. Just running a little water will not show leaks at the trap or trip lever assembly.
4.Why wasn’t the missing crawl space insulation on the floor joists called out?
No association tells its members to recommend fixes for defects…aside from a few of the NACHI Tv episodes you produce. It is an ill-advised act that will increase the inspector’s liability with no financial return.
Even when getting the contract, good contractors will tell a client in certain instances of the possibility that more problems can be discovered once the work has started and more of the defect is revealed…thus, increasing the cost.
With the exception of the people in your videos, most home inspectors in all home inspection associations…and, additionally, most home inspectors in NACHI…refrain from recommending the remedy to the defect in their reports.
Your continuous false publications that ASHI’s SOP support the actions reported in your infomercials does not make it true. ASHI does not require its inspectors to recommend a fix to a defect in the report.
I do exactly what the SOP states…I recommend to the client that he correct, or that he monitor for future correction, the defects found in the report.
Look around your building…find a second or third grader…and have him help you to understand what these SOPs actually require. Maybe that will help.
Your interpretations are either conveniently false and intentionally misleading…or a result of a reading disorder…that I recommend that you correct, immediately.
dang, i missed this event, Century aka Basement Systems
maybe Bubberman could listen in on next meeting. Is there free beer?
Last paragraph… Craig C who does Bsmt waterproofing…
Or closer to home,Great Lakes chapter… HomeSpec?
Homie does…Home inspections…AND Basement Waterproofing. LOL!
Talk about a freakin conflict of interest, r u people kidding? ](,)](,)](*,)
They do inside systems,of course…just asked them on phone.
The install junk like the Beaver-Cleaver system which does NOT stop
freakin water from entering. Home inspections AND a supposed basement waterproofing expert? Speaking at Nachi chapter meetings. ](,)](,)](*,)
Homeowner in Roseville MI got BS`D into this, had 2 walls bowing in,cracks all over,leaks,mold. Had da Beaver system put in and all it did was DIVERT ‘some’ water that continued to enter to 2 floor drains.
They tried to sell house,couldn`t…nobody gonna buy the piece of chtt w/walls bowing in,mold and crappy inside system etc…was a WASTE of MONEY,period!
Nick…I don’t think the readers of your message board are as influenced by your desperate hate for ASHI as you are…that they will fabricate the same message from the SOP that you do.
We “mere home inspectors” know what we are talking about and know what we should and should not put in an inspection report. We do not need vending associations like iNACHI or others to read documents to us to know that the advice put forth in your videos is wrong.
Home inspectors should not…and most of us do not…recommend how to remedy a defect in our reports. It is wrong and it is wrong for you to suggest it. Just as your misinterpretation of another association’s SOP is in error.
This is an issue that affects “mere home inspectors”, anyway, and has nothing to do with iNACHI.
I refuse to join in with your self promoting hyperbolic arguments regarding how your association compares with others.
