New Advertising

Miscellaneous Inspection Topics AskNACHI.org Questions
1

I need help with the title for my new advertising campaign.
• Home Inspector comes clean
• Home Inspector admits issuing sub-standard reports
• Home Inspector just stupid
• The Home Inspection scam
• Home Inspector protects Real Estate Agents
• Home Inspector makes sure homes go to closing

Any other titles would be appreciated.

This is from a public forum:

Mike Parks
loves reading craigslist. Do you think this co. pulls permits? “Electrician needed no need to be licensed but need to have the ability to do basic wiring in at main panel. full time position, with benefits, working for the largest basement finishing company in town.” I find un-permitted work all the time on my inspections. Your HI does not know code.
http://columbus.craigslist.org/trd/2683410642.html

Mark Roe
Mike, are right to a point on this… But I would appreciate it if you would not lump all home inspectors in your comments. There are a lot of us home inspectors that DO know code but due to the laws, we do not use them in our reports. Any besides that… Home inspectors I know do not isnpsect per code because there would be a lot of homes that would never make it to closing. Have a great day with many happy inspections

Mark Roe
Sorry spell check… lol inspect

Mike Parks
“ Home inspectors I know do not isnpsect per code because there would be a lot of homes that would never make it to closing. Have a great day with many happy inspections” That has got to be one of the funniest things that I have ever read! Great advertising for me. You must not know that EVERY home must meet the code. This went into eff. 2 Jun 2006. So what the Home Inspectors you know do is give a sub-standard report?

Mike Parks
PS. At least you are honest about the ‘soft’ reporting that goes on!

2

I will grant you that there are many home inspectors who have no business performing home inspections and many of them are deeply dependent upon referrals by real estate salesmen and write soft reports. Consumers should take great care to select a home inspector and should never use a home inspector that is recommended to them by a real estate agent.

There is nothing new or unique in that observation.

Where you completely miss the mark is your confusion over the vast difference between a home inspection and a code inspection.

As an AHJ who conducted code inspections, I saw some real crap that I had to pass because there was no specific “code” adopted by my jurisdiction to prohibit it. Many areas still use the 2000 IRC and electrical codes that have since been upgraded six or seven times. Even when better and safer methods are common and advisable, code inspectors are handcuffed to whatever ordinance is in effect at the time of his inspection which might take all of fifteen minutes.

Then, the codes themselves represent only the very basic minimum standard. “Meeting code” is not like getting an “A” on your report card. It is, at best, a “C minus” in the majority of applications … and only represents the very minimum that a contractor must perform — of which anything less would be considered to be “illegal”.

“Meeting code” is no indicator of excellence by anyone’s stretch of the imagination and any home buyer who seeks such a minimal inspection (when they are already provided “free” by the city code inspector) is throwing their money away, IMO.

Home inspectors, on the other hand, do not have such limitations that city code inspectors do and are free to advise their clients of present conditions and ALL (not just those in the local ordinance) resolutions that could provide a safer and more sustainable home.

Yes…there are home inspectors who have the potential of blowing their own brains out with a flashlight and have no business performing inspections. Most of these types are concealed from consumers by state licenses or other meaningless “credentials” that mislead and misrepresent competency to consumers. But performing “code inspections” and limiting a home inspection report to the most basic and minimal level of building practices that is barely above what would be illegal to do … does not serve the consumer, either. Accordingly, I must disagree with you and agree with Mr. Roe.

Consumers should hold their cities accountable to ensure that codes are complied with and adequately inspected by those who are paid with tax dollars to do so. They should also carefully interview and select the professional full time home inspector who they can trust and be assured will provide them with a complete, accurate and unbiased description of their home and an evaluation that is not simply limited to the basic minimum standards that are represented by “codes” but, instead, by the very best that the building industry has to offer.

3

Well…lets comment on the thousands of “Licensed” electricians who don’t know code…or would not know a code book if it hit them in the face. I educate thousands of them and you would be surprised at a majority of them don’t know anything about code other than what they have been failed for in the past.

HI’s do a honest and valuable service to our industry. Not all are created equal and some “like many electricians and Electrical Contractors” are dishonest…but we can’t hold a profession hostage to the lack of education of a select few.