Woman< yes your company did an inspection for us and our garage door is broken, the Spring is Broken and when we moved in recently it was very difficult. What are you going to do about it?
Me> Really, what was the property address?
W< address
M> Give me a minute and I will look that up. What does it say in the report about the Garage?
W< Nothing
M> really? nothing? Oh ya so and so street, (looking at report cover page of the house with the Garage door open). I am looking at the report now and see the house with the Garage door open??
Did you look at that? I also see in the Section on Garage that the door was working properly at the time of the inspection?
I am sure you said there was nothing mentioned in the report about the garage door?
W< Well I really cant tell from the pciture, and the report does not say the spring was broken. So what are you going to do about it?
> Not much I can do, the Garage door opened at the time of the Inspection and was working. Terribly sorry to hear about your broken Garage Door.
Silence…
dial tone…
Luckily she called me first and not some out of work inspector that might believe here story as she told it, and then wind her all up about who knows what.
Yep, all you can do is say " sorry about your luck".
It worked at inspection, now it does not!
At most I would go back thru file photos and sent additional pics if they wanted.
Sorta like a call when the lady said “the little red light on my stove takes too long to go out when I turn the burner off”
You know you are not convince her otherwise.
That is why I always take my Report cover photo immediately when I arrive. The door is almost always closed.
While performing the garage inspection, I open the door(s) and take a slab photo from outside.
I always take a photo of the garage door springs, to: 1) show if they are broken or not, and 2) to show if they have a safety cable or not (if they are the older style).
This shows that I viewed the doors in both open and closed positions. None of this “The doors were open when we arrived, and you never closed (or open) them to check” crap!
I am telling you guys right now that I always do a speed up video through the whole place to cover any pictures I may have missed.
You can always freeze frame if needed with a good HD video.
I bet most of us take the slab picture from outside just because It gives you a good Broad view anyway but showing door is open is another good reason.Glad it was mentioned by both of you.
I am just surprised to see that people come after inspectors after they inspected the home. I use they meaning they are inspecting to see what you broke?
Its through visual means and one should be taking photo,s or video’s ab BOB points out.
do they not understand that you have proof or is it the ‘‘blame it one someone’’ mentality, or the worst lets get something fixed for free.
I ask this because I own a facade restoration business, been in at least 1000 homes , bending, breaking and not once did someone come at me because they wanted to extract time, services or money due to something that broke in the home or places that I had been while on the job.
I will pay attention.
Bob further explain about the taking a video please.
I thought of the concept and was interested in what should I do and how much time ,every room, zoom in on what, and will you also take photo’s of important items say’‘furnace or electrical panel when front is off’’ for ability for better blow up or finer resolution.
What you did was fine, but there is another tact that you could have taken that might have left her feeling more like you were her advocate.
You could have explained that garage door lift springs do break periodically, usually without warning. When we inspected the house, we checked the door and springs and they were working normally at that time. If the spring was broken when you took possession of the house, you should talk to the seller. The seller is required to maintain the house and deliver it at closing in the same condition it was in at the time of sale. We know that it was working at the time of sale because your husband was with me when we checked it and we have photographs of it in both open and closed positions. If the spring broke prior to closing, the seller should have repaired it. If it broke after you took possession of the house, then it’s one of those normal maintenance items that comes with home ownership. If you like, I can stop by and let you know what needs to be done to repair it properly…
Sometimes they just want someone to hear them out and tell them what needs to be done. It’s always best to try not to leave your client unhappy - they will talk about you one way or another.
I often do a speed through inspection (video) at the end trying to remember as many issues as I can in case I forgot to note something in a picture as I use all photos for notes.
I go through all the rooms as it helps me remember layout and allows me to add that one shot from a still off the video. Saved by butt the one time I had a call one month after a townhouse as the Agent called and said the seller told him I busted something on the shower however I told him he was with me on the final video walkthrough and one could see that everything was intact on that video.
Never heard about it again.
The place had lots of issues and the seller was mad is all.
I also have little need to risk my life on many roofs now in days as my super high def video captures more than if I was standing on the thing.
I just pick my stills of really cool above chimney and great high angle cover exterior shots from my 28 foot window washer pole with camera mount.
Been doing this for over a year now and people love the shots.
Bob
I bought a HI DEF cam 5million mega PIC"s and also a tape-recorder and I am learning to use Dragon naturally speaking 10 so I do not have to type and it works with the tape player I bought.
Thinks its a good idea to cut time?
I bought the tape player to record notes on the inspection with great software and will be doing Mock trial inspections Monday coming.
Hell yes.
For the note taking thing you are best off with a smart phone that has i phone or Android.(unless doing the tablet thing)
Reason is with the smart phones you can talk and what you say types out so that you just need to copy paste or email your self. The new note taking apps are amazing as I have spent the last 2 weeks looking at each and every one to the point where I am an expert.
Dragon is great as I use it on occasion however have pretty much replaced it in some ways with a little known program called Active Words.
I just have an abbreviation for stored words and paragraphs that I type.
Easier than it sounds.
W = West or BV = Broad View and so forth.The program also allows short cuts for opening apps ,docs,sites , etc.
Great for captions on 200 plus pictures.
Lots of guys use cheap cameras and that is a whole other style of reporting ,so go with whats best for you.Experiment till it is right.I am still always looking at a new way to do things .
My perfect camera (not existing yet) would be one that allows voice dictation into text captions on photos as you take them.
Wish I was smart enough to invent it.
A few apps on my phone pretty much do it now but I guess not enough $$$$ for camera makers to follow suit.I do not use my 8 MP camera on the EVO to do a reports worth because the processor can’t keep up with that much info being processed.
Bob
Smart phone is covered but I find it to small to use the apps of maybe I am just not use to it yet,.I still have yet to understand its capabilities.
I still think of it as a phone ( I am old school that way.)
I am going to look at tablet and now using 15 inch laptop and my money is running short and I want to get out of the box before I go ****** broke.OR mother dies God forbid its allowing me time to study and do not want to build ( yet ).
Tried to keep exterior facade business open 2 years and many problems with mother, 3 strokes and now legally blind and I am only one in Quebec guess where I live?, paid insurance , and everything else lost close to 80 large in 2 years try to stay open,I only made my real money in Sept,till then it was for that years expenses, bill’s, gas, insurance etc. . I am get to old to build any more.NO PATIENTS FOR THE WHOLE THING. Going smaller and have someone building for me next year I take a percentage and over see job I guess like phase inspector.
Thanks, I will come to you with questions about how-to’s ,I love hose gadgets to.
Good idea with camera on poll ,still do not understand how you can see what you are panning at, you must edit out all the unwanted and keep what you need.
