Pre-Offer Consultations, Walk-and-Talk Inspections, Whatever - I Don't Like Them!

Let's talk about walk-and-talk inspections. Which, I will point at in the beginning, isn't really an inspection - it's the inspector blabbing away and hoping that the client is taking copious notes, a plentitude of photos, and understands what is being conveyed.

Can I get a show of hands on how likely that might be? Very? Or, nope?

These have become popular, especially among real estate licensees who hate written reports that require future disclosure. Pesky things, written reports. Discoverable documents.

Walk-and-talk inspections are popular with some inspectors as half a fee is better than none, and the inspector is not required to walk the roof, walk the attic, enter the crawlspace, take the cover off the electrical panel or furnace, or generally do anything that you might expect from an inspector.

All of them have contracts with disclaimers: "THIS IS NOT A HOME INSPECTION. GET THE PROPERTY INSPECTED BEFORE PURCHASING."

Which would be great except: a) the client does not get that inspection; and, b) the seller, on the advice of their agent, is not permitting a full home inspection.

To cap it off, in the heydays of the hot Seattle market, you only had a window of time to do the walk-through, a couple of hours on next Thursday so you might have ten parties all milling through the house at one time. The buyer has the choice of a pre-offer consultation (what they call these in Washington State) and bupkis.

Total chaos.

Surprises abound.

I HATE surprises.

Now, if it should sound as though I think this is a bad practice, you would be correct.

The eventual effect is that the worst inspector rules. He's the one that doesn't find anything and has clients who buy a house with either no idea of its true condition, or worse, a mistaken idea of its condition.

I know for a fact that I can get into crawlspaces that others can't - and it isn't always a matter of willingness. Being skinny is an advantage to an inspector.

I know, for a fact, that there are inspectors who will not bend over to get a better look at the foundation more closely. Who won't look up to judge the height of the chimney from the roof.

I know inspectors who will call an electrical panel (FPE) bad in Washington and call the same one in Idaho fine.

In a world where I am king, walk-and-talk inspections would disappear. But, then, I'm a curmudgeonly inspector who hates surprises - and hates to have his clients surprised. And, no, the government shouldn't pass a law. They do too much of that already.

I would like common sense and ethical behavior to fix the situation.

Sadly, walk-and-talk inspections are not going away any time soon.

Was Your Home Inspector Licensed? In 2021, Maybe Not

I want to stress this point at the start - MOST REALTORS ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE AND PROFESSIONAL IN THEIR CAREERS!

That said, let’s move on.

You have an accepted offer on a new home and now you need an inspection. Since you only need these on a once-in-a-decade basis, you don’t know who to use so, you followed your Realtor’s suggestion and hired a home inspector based on their favorable comments. You assume that the Realtor knows who is the best inspector, too. In many cases, that is quite true. They know the best inspectors, refer them, and expect them to perform to standard. You expect the same. You want the professional who gets it right.

That, unfortunately, does not always happen. There are bad apples in the inspector ranks, just as there are in any industry, but there is nearly no mechanism to remove them short of litigation which most people do not want to pursue. You would think the real estate agents would know who is a lousy inspector and they would eventually run them out of business.

You would be incorrect. There are bad apples in the ranks of the real estate agents, too. They don’t want a top-flight inspection. They want a deal that closes. Period. End-of-story. They go with the ‘easy’ inspector and hate the ‘deal-killer.’ They will, in fact, go so far as to prohibit a licensed inspector from inspecting a property in what appears to be a violation of their own contracts if that inspector is too thorough.

But even when they are good and honest, there’s a major flaw in the referral system in real estate.

How do you know the inspector is legally qualified to perform inspections in the State of Washington? If you think your real estate agent knows who and who is not licensed, I have bad news for you. They do not verify licenses. In fact, I have had exactly one request for proof of license. Mine is current, obviously. I am the longest-serving, continuously-licensed inspector in our area.

By my estimate, between five and eight percent of all inspections completed in Whitman and Asotin Counties in 2021 were performed by inspectors with expired licenses.

It used to be relatively easy to verify the license status of an inspector from the Department of Licensing site. Now, they have instituted Secure Access Washington which adds quite a few steps to what was a simple process.

Of course, you can always ask - and always should. I carry an electronic version of my license with me to all inspections. It’s not that complicated.

As for what can be done if you think your inspector wasn’t licensed, your options are limited. If you reach out to me by phone or email, I can confirm the information for you. Note that I will not put that information online publicly. You can search the DoL information yourself.

If you discover that your inspector was not operating with an active home inspection license in Washington State during 2021, I recommend contacting the Department of Licensing. RCW 18.280.140 allows the DoL to issue a civil infraction and fine for operating under an expired license.

You should also probably tell your Realtor. Please be nice to them. They were trusting the inspector to be honest, too.

Sensing a Pattern

Seventeen years as an inspector and never had this happen once, much less twice.

I don’t care if he’s only a foot or 18” long. I don’t want to share my crawlspace with a snake.

On the plus side, I did not shriek like a little girl when I found him.

Is the Wall Moving - Or is the Floor?

Commercial inspections, known as property condition assessments or PCAs, are a totally different beast from a residential inspection. The standards are very different with commercial work much more focused on the document record and future expenses.

Some problems are common to both residential and commercial work. Foundation issues can obviously affect both and this commercial job was one of the more interesting that I have encountered.

Here, the owner who commissioned the PCA thought that he had a problem with the masonry walls of his building moving so, I naturally started there, examining the exterior foundation and wall assemblies.

Lo and behold, no major movement. There was minor cracking in the mortar joints of the masonry system but nothing that suggested a major failure.

Inside, I had considerable wall separation so I understand why the owner thought the walls were moving. However, I am simply not willing to take things on face value. I investigated further. As it turns out, the exterior walls were plumb. They weren’t moving. That being the case, I turned my attention to the floor. Now, I know, everyone expects the floor to be flat, almost by definition so that seems just silly. I checked anyway. I started tapping on the tile and found hollowness underneath. Time to break out the level again. The floor was not flat.

“Hmmmmm,” he thought.

So, what was going on?

If you look at the this picture, you'll see soil subsidence at the water meter and the fire hydrant. The obvious question to ask is "Do we have a major water problem at the curb?" Is there a leak on the water main? At the hydrant? Maybe the storm gutter for the street is failing?

Now, I'm guessing that you are already ahead of me here. Yes, the building is DOWNHILL from this apparent leak. My best guess was that the water flowed under the building causing a combination of erosion in some areas and soil expansion - clay soils can expand greatly when hydrated. That would explain the hollow areas AND the up-raised edges.

My recommendations? First, find and correct the source of that water. Second, they need an engineer to determine how badly the structure is damaged and how to repair it.

I'm glad the owners called me when they did - water problems such as this NEVER get better with time.

Welcome to the Great Hunkering Down

What is the Great Hunkering Down, you ask?

It is a term I invented to describe the current real estate marketplace. We have, at the moment, next to no inventory in a time of year where we normally see houses hitting the market in droves. And we’re not alone in this - it is a national phenomena.

The reasons that I see - and feel free to disagree - that there is great uncertainty upon the land. We’ve just come through the traumatic shock of Covid, we had violence in the streets in many major cities, inflation is at levels not seen in four decades, and the war drums are beating. On top of that, you are trying to buy a home which is highly stressful all by itself.

I don’t know about you, but my crystal ball is totally fogged. I have no idea how any of this plays out in the next year and the next decade.

Human nature is such that, when faced with this level of anxiety and stress, human beings tend to shut down. It is a survival mechanism left-over from our days on the savannah. We focus on the core necessities of the moment. Long-term planning, creativity, and deep thinking are all effected.

But, we are not being threatened by a lionesses salivating over the tasty morsel that we might be. That kind of threat triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response that we know so well.

Instead, we have a bunch of perceived threats combined with no means of adequately influencing the outcomes. We don’t know if flight is better - though the mass exodus from certain cities shows that is some people’s answer - or fight is better.

Without a clear course of action for the majority, we freeze and consolidate our resources. So, if you have a home in an area that is not threatening to you, you stay put, hunker down.

When it happens on a scale this large, I think capital letters are warranted, thus the Great Hunkering Down. If people are not moving, up-sizing, down-sizing, right-sizing, selling their homes, we get the constrained inventory supply that we see today.

I’ve seen a version of this before. In 2008, we had the financial crisis that brought “too big to fail” into our lexicon. Then, like now, great uncertainty invaded our mostly happy world. The biggest difference was that was a sudden event in the news. Today, we are dealing with a rolling litany of negative news.

The good news is that this too shall pass. For all the frustrated buyers out there, be patient, take deep breaths. As with 2008, everything runs in a cycle, the pendulum continues to swing, and you will find that home.

The best of luck to you. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know - even if it’s a question you need answered instead of an inspection job. I’m a fount of information and have a wealth of answers for you about homes and home inspections,

Holding The Line On Price

Reading the news has become a somewhat depressing event - almost as bad as grocery shopping and getting gas. Yep, even without the headlines, I could see inflation surging on the stuff I buy.

Most businesses are responding by doing the logical thing - they are raising prices. Again, I understand. My E&O insurance went up, my credit card fees have gone through the roof, gas prices are up everywhere, and all the little incidentals have nudged higher. Profits? . . .

Depressing. (pun intended.)

To all of you buying houses today, the prices are up and interest rates are headed that way. Likewise, my competitor’s prices increasing.

Mine aren’t, not now, not until July at the earliest.

I have traditionally been the highest priced - and the best! - inspector in the region for home inspections based on my surveys. Now, competitors are raising their prices and I’m somewhere in the middle.

I’ve never been inclined to try to take advantage of my customers. I discovered in the first year of the home inspector business that I wasn’t particularly money-motivated.

I’m a craftsman - I want the best possible inspection for my customers. This often puts me at loggerheads with Realtors. Too bad for them (though a group of them in Moscow have now started blacklisting me. I’ve got the documents to prove it.)

So, the prices on my website today will be the same ones in place on June 30th.

So, to the home buyers - the best of luck to you. I hope that you will find your dream home and I hope that I can be your inspector so you know exactly what you’ve purchased.

Does Your Inspector Get Into the Crawlspace?

I have maintained for years that property inspection is a equal mix of knowledge and effort. As one of the most knowledgeable inspectors in the industry (I've held six different code certifications, served on the Washington State Home Inspector Licensing Advisory Board, been certified as a mold inspector, an asbestos inspector, a thermographer, chimney sweep, and a licensed drone pilot), I have a base of information as wide as the Pacific. Those millions of bits of useless information tend to prove quite useful at surprising times. 

None of that counts though if the inspector is LAZY.

Your inspector needs to be willing to put forth effort - even when it is uncomfortable. The picture included here is a crawlspace opening. That's a skinny little opening to fit into - and many can't. I can - I don't like to - but I do. 

And, because I did, I found that water intrusion had eroded the pad footing on the center beam causing the whole interior line of the building to sag. 

Effort. It is arguably more important than knowledge in my industry. I apply it to every job, every day. I walk roofs even in winter (if safe), I crawl under the house, I take apart electrical panels, I walk or crawl the attic.

Do I get into every space? Nope, I don't but it's not from a lack of trying. 

Your inspector needs to put forth the effort. 

And being trim and fit generally helps, too.

Home Inspections - with Conditions, now allowed in Washington and Idaho

Both Washington and Idaho have created paths forward for home inspections.

The rules are a bit complicated. If you have questions, call and we’ll talk them out.

A link for the change in the Shelter in Place order is HERE.

Be safe, everyone!

Home Inspections and Coronavirus Covid-19

I wrote the following for one of the local associations. Sharing here . . .

Good morning, everyone. Wow, are things moving and changing quickly. From a home inspection perspective, I'm implementing the following protocols to protect your sellers:

1. All tools, especially my phone, will get cleaned with an anti-bacterial wipe prior to entering the home. I’ve taken the phone out of the otter box protection since that’s almost impossible to clean.

2. Only those tools necessary will enter the home and only when they're needed. Once used, they will be returned to the tool bag outside the home.

3. I will be cleaning all surfaces that I touch with an anti-bacterial wipe - door knobs, windows, bath fixture, all of it. For more information on cleaning, see the CDC Guidelines.

4. I'll be trying to avoid touching my face - as you know, that's a hard one, so . . .

5. I'll be washing my hands - a lot. I'll bring my own soap and a clean towel.

6. On the exterior of the home, in the attic, in the crawlspace, I'll be wearing surgical gloves. They will be disposed of immediately after use.

7. If you are the listing agent, expect a text or phone call to see if your seller wants me to wear a mask. While the government suggests they aren't necessary for healthy individuals, the goal is to make your buyers and sellers feel as safe as we can. If wearing a mask aids in this, I'll do it.

8. Traditionally, I've taken my shoes off to avoid making a mess. I'll be switching to disposable booties instead.

9. I'll be maintaining social distancing - this one is easy for introverts like me.

10. I will be adding even more video to my reporting. If buyers wish, I can Facetime from the home.

If anyone else has suggestions, please send them along.

Be safe.

UPDATE On Covid-19 Home Inspector Protocol: March 20, 2020

After a week of working with this protocol, I found a couple of spots that needed tweaking. A big one is customer management. Once the buyers get to the property, they have a natural inclination to touch things. Not making a value judgment on this, but facing the reality of the situation. So I’ve added a final step of cleaning every surface that they touch with sanitizing wipes. If it sounds as though I’m following behind them with a wipe in each hand, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Another change is in my outdoor protocol. With the warmer weather we are experiencing, I can set up my cleaning station outside, so I don’t need to glove up there. I do the exterior of the home, wash thoroughly and resume the rest of the protocol.

If you are a Realtor reading this blog entry, may I suggest that you and your broker have each home inspector provide you with their protocol for the inspection process?

Changes in 35R Inspection Contingency Forms Not Helping Buyers

One of the changes that the Washington Association of Realtors has made as of July of 2019 is to change the rules (their’s, not state law) on how inspection deficiencies can be relayed to the seller. Quite literally, the seller can refuse to look at any of the inspection findings. You, the inspector, find a Federal Pacific Electric panel? Put it in your report, but know that the seller can stick his or her fingers in their ears and refuse to hear anything. Ditto with pest damage, a foundation that has failed, a catastrophic roof leak. Under the current guidelines, none of that can be reported to the seller, even if the buyer wants repairs made unless the seller agrees to accept the findings in the report.

This has huge implications for the buyers in Washington State.

Let’s use the pest damage I mentioned above as an example. I, the inspector, go into the crawlspace. Not just any crawlspace, but through an access hole that I have to enter one arm at a time, suck in my gut, and think skinny thoughts. The kind of crawlspace a lot of inspectors don’t even attempt. I do, and I manage to get myself in. (Getting out can be a bit trickier,. btw.) While there, I probe the wood and note that it is significantly damaged and appears to be structurally unsound with a main beam failing. There are also mud tubes everywhere and, when I break one, little brown bugs scrambling.

In short, this is a big deal. So, in my report to you, the home buyer, I note the following:

1. That there is substantial damage to the structural framing of the home. The framing should be evaluated by a structural engineer for design of remedies to replace all damaged wood with sound materials. Once the remedies have been designed, a contractor should complete all work recommended by the structural engineer.

2. That a Pest Control Operator should be retained to determine the full scope of the pest problem - evident by the damaged framing, the habitation tubes, the presence of insects, and frass - and design a treatment plan to remedy the intrusion.

Along with these notes, which would be more extensive in practice, I would include pictures. Maybe even video. None would be transmitted to the seller unless they authorize it - in writing, no less.

You, the buyer, want these problems fixed and, since it isn’t your house, you would like the seller to absorb these costs.

With the changes in the 35R promulgated by the Washington Realtors, you are out of luck. Not only can you not tell the seller what is wrong with the house, you have to pay to determine the scope of needed repairs on a property you don’t even own. That’s accomplished by having your inspector recommend additional inspections which you will have a total of five days to complete. Legal counsel for the WR has stated that your inspector will be happy to do that.

And pay you will, because engineers and contractors are going to charge for the estimates. They have to as their time is worth money, too.

Who benefits? The seller, clearly. Legitimate expenses that should be born by the seller who has a property significantly defective can have you , the buyer, pay some of his expenses. Even better, from his standpoint, is that he wants you to spend your time at a point where life is ungodly hectic, to meet with the contractors. By the way, he doesn’t have to accept delivery of the estimates, either. If they do take delivery, the legal counsel for the Washington Realtors is suggesting that they not fix the items in question but negotiate a change in price or other terms so the repairs won’t be complete when you take possession.

And, if you walk away from the deal, the seller has no legal requirement to disclose the dangerous condition of the crawlspace. After all, so far as he knows, it’s in great shape.

And, if the next inspector isn’t as skinny or dedicated - and I have a reputation for both and for getting into crawlspaces that make other inspectors and a fair number of agents nervous - well, that dangerous condition won’t be discovered, probably until it’s too late and someone’s bank accounts get drained. Worse, someone gets badly injured.

My hope is that most reasonable sellers will opt to receive the report information, will agree to work with the buyers to have repairs made where necessary, where information flows freely, to the best and balanced interests of consumers. We’ll know in about five years..

On the plus side, I’ve already been busy designing solutions so my clients will get exactly what they need to trigger the Additional Inspections contingency period..

It's Swarming Season

It’s an unwelcome sign that spring is here, but swarming season has begun. If you spot these winged reproductives, call you local Pest Control Operator.

In Idaho, I call them carpenter ants. In Washington, due to regulations, they are ‘suspected wood destroying organisms.’

In either case, they’re trouble.

How Old Is This House Again?

I was having a discussion with Chip Kenny, the inspector at Inland Northwest Home Inspections, about a house he was inspecting. The visuals - type of foundation, etc. - didn’t match the age of the home listed in the public sources.

I have run into this three times in the last year. The easiest one was a house listed as a 1965 building in a neighborhood in Pullman that was newer. The house had engineered trusses in the attic and the concrete foundation appeared to more modernly formed. When I opened the electrical panel, I found an inspection card for 1985. That fit much better, and I adjusted my report accordingly.

This structure was listed as a 1953 home - but the framing says 1900-1920.

The nastiest one had the listing agent blow a gasket and shriek at the buyer’s agent. This particular Clarkston house was listed as a 1974 home but none of the features matched the vintage. The attic was sheathed with dimensional wood, the attic framing was 2x4 rafters, the number of outlets was low, the foundation system was funky. It didn’t feel like 1974.

When the buyer’s rep showed up, I asked her about this. She commented that the seller had put a 1955 date in the disclosures. I ran with that and suggested a video sewer scope of the main drainage line. As it happens, the material was Orangeburg pipe and was in lousy condition. Given the extreme over-reaction of the listing agent, I wonder if she already knew that the line was questionable. Hmmmm?

Anyway, to the point. How does this happen? How does an old house get listed as a newer home?

The answer is not that the real estate agent is deliberately deceptive (usually!) What happens is that the house undergoes a major remodel, so much so that the home is nearly new in a functional sense. The owner applies for, and gets, a new certificate of occupancy from the municipality. The records get updated with the new C.O. When the house gets listed again, anyone (or any computer algorithm) will locate the last certificate of occupancy and that date gets assigned to listing.

This is not a 1974 attic space even though that was the listed age of the home.

The only time we used to see this happen was when a home was moved. With tighter controls coming into play at the municipal level, I expect to see more of this sort of mischaracterization occurring. The home inspector community will need to be aware of the potential for the actual vintage of the building to be different from the documentation. Unfortunately, with so many new inspectors arriving on the scene that lack the thousands of houses of experience to recognize the oddities, this likely will get missed.

The Dryer Vent is Obstructed Why?

A classic example of something done almost right . . .

Don't Make Excuses

I am loathe to make excuses for why I couldn’t accomplish my job though it does happen. The 2016-2017 winter was so brutal that I didn’t climb a roof for two months. This year’s more mild winter has been much easier to deal with - but there are still occasions where your inspector has to extend some effort.

Garage Door Safety Sensors - What Height?

Little things count, too. There is actually a standard on the height of the sensor at the garage door and for good reason - set the sensor too far up and a small child can be caught under the door even with an otherwise fully operational safety system.
So, what is the maximum height?
6 inches.

Why Are Heat Pumps on Pedestals?

Ever walk past an a/c unit and wonder why it had 'legs' under it? Okay, maybe not, but there's a reason that some due and some don't. Watch to see what clues those legs provide us.

360° Pictures are Here!

Want to show your parents, your kids, your friends your new home but finding the photo options limited? 

Safe@Home has a solution for you! We've invested in new software and cameras that will allow us to put 360° pictures into your report. We're excited about this new feature and are offering it without any additional charge! All you have to do is ask!

Momento360 | View and share your 360 photos and 360 videos, on the web and in VR

Things that Inspectors Find

Old houses are always a treat for inspectors since they've had plenty of time to accumulate oddities. In this case, I manage to squeeze into a tiny crawlspace and wormed my way around underneath this house in Eastern Washington.

I did not expect to find an entire tree stump under there. I took some video because it was fun but I have to apologize - the lighting conditions were not really terrific.

For those of you curious, yes, it is mandatory for the inspectors to enter crawlspaces if it is accessible and safe. Obviously, accessible is a relative term. I get into a lot of spaces that others simply can't because I'm a touch on the skinny side.

Angie's List Super Service Award Winner

If you look to the right-hand side of the front page, you will notice that I have a new award. In my first year with Angie's List, Safe@Home Inspections won their prized Super Service Award for 2017.

These are the sorts of things that happen by accident. It requires an enormous investment in giving my clients an outstanding inspection along with great service before and after the inspection.

Personally, I'm incredibly pleased. I'm also looking for ways to do even better this year. 

My thanks to all the clients and their agents that placed their trust in me!

Three Questions to Ask Your Home Inspector - The Answers May Surprise You!

You can find a dozen sources for questions to ask your home inspector. Let me add a trio that most lists won't have.

Do You Have Relatives Worrking in Real Estate? 

The answer may well be yes. Our region has a surprising number of inspectors who have close relatives working as Realtors or other related industries. In an ideal world, this would be disclosed whenever a conflict may present itself. In the real world, things are more gray. Ask. If the spouse or siblings aren't involved in any way, great. If so, you know and can make your own judgment.

Do You Perform Repairs for Concerns You Find?

Most inspectors will answer 'No.' Most, but not all. While I was still on the Home Inspector Advisory Board, I had an inspector call to complain about precisely this conflict in the Tri-cities area. From the rumor mill, it's happening in just about every region despite the fact that the Washington standard prohibits work-for-hire for one year post-inspection. 

Your inspector should not have a financial interest in finding concerns. The inspector's job is to observe and report, accurately. That's it.

Does Your Inspector Follow One Standard?

This seems like an odd-ball question since inspectors obviously follow a standard. The complication comes in with the fact that most inspectors in this area work both sides of the state lline. Washington State has a very well-developed Standard of Practice. The problem comes on the other side of the line. Idaho has no requirements, so some inspectors use a different standard there. 

I recently saw a seller blind-sided because his inspector two years ago failed to identity a potentially hazardous electrical panel. Why? Because it was not require in Idaho though is was in Washington. He knew the panel had a lousy reputation and failed to inform his client.

Your inspector should use one standard, the most restrictive. Here, that's the Washington SOP.

So there you go. Three extra questions to ask. It's okay to spend time on the phone with an inspector getting a feel for them and the way they do their job. Take you time, ask lots of questions, and good luck with the inspection.