thebkfr

I can't tell you all how much Jack and I appreciate your input and your stories of experience. As far as risk, falling through or off of a roof or exposure to various unsavories in crawlspaces, to us, is different than causing major damage to a home (or your face) by turning on water to cracked pipes (not crack pipes) etc.! We try our best to go above and beyond for our buyers, but at the same time are attempting to firm our structure and have some guidelines. I've been in customer service for over 15 yrs so am used to being a doormat, but Jack is not too good at it! And obviously he is the one out there in the field! So again, I appreciate you all helping out to establish and re-establish what we are about. Keep em' coming if you have more stories! Thanks guys!

Hi Guys, Thanks for all your feedback. We are definitely learning fast. We are prepared to "lose" referrals if it means we don't compromise our standards of both the inspection and reporting process and risk reduction! When "learning the marketing model" through franchise HQ, it seemed that going to and working with agents was the main approach, so we have been doing that, but again we are learning fast! We have already (Jack has been doing inspections for just over a year) "lost a couple agents" because they didn't like how much Jack knew and what was passed on to the buyer, but the buyers LOVE us! And that's our goal. I was just curious what is happening in your markets and whether you guys turn stuff on. Losing agents (big deal) is not the issue, it is making the inspection process go smoothly for our actual client (the buyer) and doing what we can within reason to help. Any more feedback? ?? Thanks so much! - Brandi

As many other markets, ours here in Denver Metro is saturated with foreclosed/bank owned homes. With this increase in vacant property inspections, we are frequently presented with utilities not being turned on to the home. If the buyer is lucky enough to get the utilities turned on, we are then faced with pilot lights not lit, breakers not flipped on and main water valves not on. Our training and advice from our franchise HQ and ASHI indicates that all items need to not only be on but also made functional inside the home prior to our arrival, and that the inspector should not, due to liability/risk, perform these activities. So far, the agents that we have dealt with have been less than supportive to the extent that "another inspector will have to be referred if they can't get someone else out there to ready the property for inspection." I actually prepared pre-inspection checklist forms that I email to our buyer and their agent when they schedule, in addition to the verbal discussion, but they don't seem to be helping. Please, any and all feed back regarding utilities, liabilities, your experience, your standpoint etc. , what you will or won't do and why...will be most appreciated. Thank you! Jack and Brandi Beagle