Mark -
One other thing … Twice in the past 4-5 years I’ve had FRIENDS in other states call me and say their Son or Daughter was buying a house in the St. Louis area and the realtor told the kids that:
a) Because of past problems with other inspectors, the realtors couldn’t use ANYBODY but an ASHI member for the inspection (the parents wanted to know if I knew if this was a state or city ordinance or law, etc).
b) Because this RAISED such a “Red Flag” in the parents eyes, they then asked me if I would go to St. Louis to inspect the house for their kids (3.5 to 4 hour drive each way for me). I said yes. They then told the RE Agent they were sending me down from Kansas City and I was ASHI. The next day the parents called me back - the Agent had got on the web and, researched me a little; called another Agent they knew in KC and asked about me (I was told the Agent heard that I was a DK - nicknamed the hammer); and the Agent apparently looked us up on places like “Angies List”. Something the Agents heard or saw apparently spooked them And The END result was the kids were then told in each case THE Inspector had to BE a St. Louis ASHI member to “know how its done down here”.
I was really not that interested in driving 8 hours just to inspect a house, but was getting REVED UP thinking this might be good PR.
As most of you know if you’ve been on this Board awhile, one of my degrees was in Real Estate. In Missouri up until very recently most RE Agent took 45 hours of classes to get a license. I have over 600 hours of real estate courses with a lot in RE law. I had also done several TV exposes on bad builders, bad Code Inspectors, bad inspectors, etc AND been used on a dozen newspaper stories on the same.
I called the Agents involved, explained the situation and offered to make them a media STAR. After we talked (actually I talked - they listened), it turned out to be a total mistake. The kids had misunderstood the Agents, AND the Agents would be only to happy to let me inspect AT my convenience. When I got there, the Agent couldn’t have been more gracious AND neither house had any significant issues (which makes you wonder why the Agents were so **** to the kids to start with).
Last year I had the same scenario come up in Wichita Kansas (3 hours from me). The Agent would only let an ASHI inspector inspect the house. But wait Dad was an ASHI inspector from New Jersey. So then it could ONLY be an ASHI inspector from Kansas. I was asked to go down there and AGREED. Then it became ONLY an ASHI inspector from Wichita. I gave those kids an ASHI inspector I know in Wichita that EVEN I think is out in left field a lot (I don’t think he’s ever seen a house he can get out of in under 4 hours - and thats if its under 2,000 sf).
The Agents really flipped out on the kids when they got his name. After about 4 - 5 days of shuffling the kids dropped the Agent and house.
Makes you wonder why the Agents don’t have more fear about this kind of chicanery in our areas.