inspector skill(s)

[Marc]

Of the several skills involved in HI work, you can argue which is most difficult to acquire but I'd suggest they're all equally important to the finished product, just as each link is to the chain.

It's reporting that I think is currently the weakest link of all.  Ezra's school of thought might be one where the report is merely a reiteration of the onsite verbal report.  Mine has the written report also containing photos, excerpts and links to authoritative sources that exceed, even entirely replace, the verbal report.  It's the report of record.

Everything's up for discussion, of course.  Without discussion, there is no advancement.

[Jim Baird]

Focus on the job at hand.

A couple I met recently bought a house last year that was fairly new.  Their concerns were more about location and value etc., the kinds of things that realtors tout, incidental to the idea of the building as a "machine for living", as some have defined it.

They let the realtor handle the inspector selection and booking, and they got one of those companies the realtors love.  The recent buyer said to me, when I told him I was an inspector, "Our inspector was not having a good day when he was there."  To my raised eyebrows he went on to say that the inspector's phone would not stop going off, that he kept stepping away to answer calls and that he got into some protracted arguments with some people the buyer thought were from his home office.

Despite the low level to which my jaw dropped while the buyer explained, I was still able to bite the lip while gritting the teeth and suppressing my urge to ask, "You paid this guy when he was done?"