Inspection Confusion

Let me tell you a story about an Inspector who did right, but, was done wrong.  The worst call an inspector can get is from an upset client or realtor.  One day I’m sitting at my desk contemplating my business plan and the phone rings. “Hello”, I say in a friendly manner. “Hi Blake, it’s Rebecca Realtor, how are you?”. Then it starts.  The Rebecca tells about a client whose house we inspected, and that the homeowner’s insurance company is denying coverage due to hail damage on the roof.  “I’m sorry to hear that, let me pull up the report and see what it says.”, I say.  When I pull up the report, I see our inspector reported hail damage, wind damage, and other deficiencies.  Our inspector recommended at 4 different places in the report that the roof be evaluated by a professional roofing contractor.

I mentioned this to the Realtor and her response was the inspector did not stress this enough in the verbal report, so they did not call a roofer.  My response, “I am not sure what else we could have done.”.  Rebecca Realtor informed me that she would no longer send us referrals.

We try to disseminate information to the client in a matter of fact manner.  In this situation, I believe the Realtor was embarrassed that she told the client the roof didn’t need further evaluation and passed the blame on to the Inspector.

I try to look at every situation and ask, “What could we have done differently to make this a better experience for the client and Realtor?”.  Even though I do not believe the inspector is to blame, We are reviewing our verbal presentations to ensure major items that need repair or further evaluation are stressed to the point of saying, “You need to have the item further evaluated prior to the end of your Option Period.”

The moral of the story is all recommendations within the inspection report need to be seriously considered by the client, especially when it concerns the roof, foundation, HVAC, moisture intrusion, plumbing leaks, and pests.  Above all, read the entire report.