mgbinspect

Daytimers have indeed always worked well.

It seems to me that the only redeeming values of an electronic calendar are ease of input (if one is a good typist) and the ease of moving an appointment (no erasing and re-writing). I used to be pretty darn fast on my old SideKick thumb board, although as most here can attest, my spelling and typos were unforgivable. The Droid took me, from a keyboard reasonable similar to the real thing, to a three row keyboard with everything in the wrong place and a tiny space bar that is easy to miss - hitting a speed key instead. I'm already over the Droid...

Well, I've now owned an Android Phone for about forty-five days now. I hoped it was going to be an invaluable resource and time management tool. Instead, I've finally come to the sobering realization that it's the absolute black hole of valuable time (Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!). Maybe, it's actually a plot - a way to mesmerize the masses into a stupor, (as they walk into light posts and oncoming traffic or drive off the road, while reading the little screen and punching the little keyboard) ripe for a hostile takeover. [}] All joking aside, I've completely retreated from any notion that the Android phone can help me save time. To the contrary, in the time it takes to open a task list and punch in the task, one can write it down and be off doing something else. When a task is done one can DEFINITELY scratch it out faster than the whole drop-down menu exercise. Similarly, such things as mileage can also be documented with a pen in probably a third of the time it takes to enter it on a phone. Yesterday I finally stopped by the local office supply store and bought the old trusty leather bound journal and a few various sizes of post it notes. On the today page of the journal, I write down incoming appointment info (rather than run off the road trying to type it in), return call phone numbers, mileage, and miscellaneous notes that I want a permanent record of. On the opposite page, I put post it notes for "To Do List", etc., which can be easily removed and pitched at the end of the day. In the front and rear of the journal are large post its with such things as Missions for 2011, and Short term goals, outstanding client payments (to be scratched out, as they pay up), etc. The only thing I use my Android for is: the calendar and contacts (which sync with Google and Outlook, via a great little desktop program called CompanionLink); necesssary emails from the field; and on the fly internet surfing. When possible I wait to do tasks, which I could fumble along to do on my Android, on my desktop at blazing speed. Even when it comes to entering stuff in my calendar, I merely "hold" the time on my phone calendar and enter the infor later on my desktop. Sometimes it's easy to loose sight of what is an efficient use of our valuable time. Often, the true champion to speed, efficiency and permanent record keeping remains the gool old pen and paper - SHOCKER!!! [:-idea] Obviously, there are business related tasks that we all must do. So, in the interest of reducing our mutual lost valuable time doing the mundane talks of operating a business, what's proved to be an ultimate time saver for you?

There are few things as rewarding as when our kids make us proud.

Nice call, Randy. [:-thumbu]

Yeah, it resembles a material used for relining fireboxes in oil-burning furnaces and boilers, and the fiber immediately makes me wonder about: 1. the composition and 2. a product misapplied. I'd probably recommend further evaluation - testing?

I have for years, and clients have always been wide eyed when I have them before the door and ask what will you do in the case of a fire? I don't word it as an action item that the seller must remedy (I just see something like that as "crossing the line" - "not cricket"), but I do have it on the summary as a safety concern, so it is in the buyers face. And, when I demonstrate the gravity of the situation to them I always encourage them to take care of it immediately. There are a lot of things like dead bolts that the buyer needs to know, but I don't feel the seller is obligated to address. Similarly, Richmond used to have a lot of security bars over windows. About five months ago, a lady here actually lost her life because fo them, due to fire.

Yup. I've been through that too. I cut right into the serice entry line just BACKING OUT a course thread screw, with the same result. It sounded like an arc welder on the 4th of July. What we do is hazardous.

Sure you do, Randy. Over the years, especially in the beginning, those ocassional calls from disatisfied clients helped increase our understanding. And, as we get older and more experienced, we don't get those calls anymore, because we actually DO know what they want. There definitely is such a thing as too much information. "WOW!". Then, they'd take it home and never use it again - funny... You can say that again. Software is a love/hate relationship.

As long as is necessary to effectively convey the deficiency and its cause and cure. For me, it usually takes between 3 and 5 hours. Agree. "Take care of the customer and the customer will take care of you." Marc It's funny, over time our understanding of what a customer wants and will appreciate, becomes clear. We have a tendency to give them what we feel they'd want instead of what they actually want. During the years I spent vending to other HIs around the country on weekends, it became clear that sometimes we are more in touch with other HIs than the public, and get bogged down in the time consuming development and delivery of stuff home buyers didn't ask for, expect or really appreciate. Such concentrations seem to become an obsession. There's been a lot of truth shared here that will prevent us from casting pearls before... well you know. Time is precious and we DO owe our customers a Cadillac job - their idea of a Cadillac, not ours. Learning what other home inspectors believe and do is helpful, but learning what our clients are looking for is paramount. I believe Zig Ziglar said it best: "We get what we want, as we help others get what they want."

Richmond is back on the top ten list of places to do business. When I moved here, it was due to a fellow sales rep that said, Mike, when Washington's got pneumonia, Richmond's only got a cold." That, has proved to be true. I won't leave here until I'm done trying to make money.

[:-thumbu]

Heat Pumps have always proved to be an interesting subject. Home owners in general have out-dated opinions about them (Not that you guys do). I know that when I changed out my 1984 heat pump for a new one in 2005, it cut my electric bill literally in half. That's how far they had come in eleven years. And the register temps are within a few degrees of furnaces. It would be interesting for someone to actually crunch some serious hard numbers about them in comparison to furnaces. I'd love to see the results, come what may.

It's vey common here in Richmond (2x200 and 2x150). Why? I don't know.

A lot depends on location Mike. I'm not sure that would hold true for Frostbite Falls, MN. True, but a few years ago here I state they'd be in Canada soon. Folks said I was nuts. Now they're in Canada. They've come so far. Wouldn't it be worth having one, even if it only provided heat 25% of the time, as cheap an add as it is? Just wondering...

Any time my clients replace an AC system, I always tell them that they're pretty much crazy if they don't spend the few extra bucks to have a Heat Pump. It's essentially all the same components with a few more thrown in. Don't miss such a super opportunity. You can do that and your furnace will go into retirement as back up heat - barely ever working.

I ask the right questions, but don't actually document it: I'd guess my numbers are more like: ASHI – 2% (that's about right) Other – ? Relocation Companies – 20% (yeah, the pay is lacking, but it's nice to work with reasonable folks that speak the language. Unknown – Brochure – zip. I haven't been in a Real Estate office in probably five or six years BNI – nill Internet / Web Page –15% Previous Customers – 5% (That's a tough one, since most folks stay an average of five years. Many folks come back) Sellers - 5% (Folks call and say I want you to inspect my new home the way you inspected the home I sold!) Realtors – 53% (10% of that is probably FaceBook generated) I honestly don't actively market (except via FaceBook where I just try to maintain a presence in the community) - relying solely on reputation. And, I suppose I'm slowly moving in the direction of a relaxed semi-retirement phase - just taking the work as it naturally comes in.

I think you may be missing the point. Most are saying "Record the numbers with a photo". Keep the photo in your records. Don't waste time including the information in your report. Don't waste time including links to all the recalls and user manuals. For what it's worth, having done so many inspections over 17 years, I've inspected a lot of homes twice or behind a previous partner. We used to use the HomeBook - a humongous binder filled with everything one ever needed to know about a house and forgot to ask. Each time I saw one on the shelf, I'd pull it and look at it. The sad truth, through observation and by the admission of HomeBook owners was that they NEVER referred to it. We're lucky if clients read our report in total one time. Considering it a reference, is not likely. Links to manuals sounds like a nice gesture, but I feel you're probably wasting your time, with the very best of intentions. It's a noble effort, but I'd concentrate on things that clients are more likely to actually notice, utilize and appreciate.

Not a siesmic zone, although we did experience a tremble a few yeasr ago.

Yes, the flue went straight up and out through the garage ceiling. The photo creates a bit of an illusion, because the wall transitions from interior to exterior wall right behind the water heater. There is no setback in the wall, but the water heater is mostly protected (according to code) by the arrangement of the OH door. But one must turn hard left to enter the garage which makes hitting it with a car more likely than usual.

True of life in general as well. [:-thumbu]

Home built in 2003. This setup slipped through the building process and a previous home inspection: Click to Enlarge 81.32 KB Click to Enlarge 50.09 KB Click to Enlarge 50.62 KB (water heater serves as impact protection for the impact protection barrier?) [:-tophat]

Uh huh... [:-thumbu] [:-graduat

FOUL! (You lucky dog...) [^]

Erby raises a time tested method. If you don't flow through a house - systematically walking all wall lengths, you'll end up walking all over the home a bunch of times, which just isn't efficient use of your time.