Jim Morrison

Well, this isn’t exactly the proper forum to go on bragging about your father, but then… impropriety & me a long history, so I’ll indulge in a little sentimentality. Thanks for the kind words and the opening, Les. In 1982, my father was a 47 year old civil engineer; an underpaid, upper middle manager in the Federal Dept. of Transportation. His secretary had just bought a 3 family investment property in Lynn, MA and told him how helpful her home inspection report was. My Dad grew up fixing things with his own hands and had by that time he’d bought and fixed up two 100+ year old homes in which to house his wife and seven hungry children. He’d never heard of a home inspection before. She brought her report in to the office and showed it to him and he said: ‘You paid $100 for this?’ In August of 1983, he hung out a shingle and became a home inspector. I was 13 years old and paid almost no attention to his new interest. He heard about ASHI and started going to local chapter meetings with Phil Monahon, Mel Chalfen, Tony Galeota, Bill Sutton, and Werner Carlson. He still refers to those men as the ‘long ball hitters’ and was always pleased if he was mentioned in the same breath as them. These days, he isn’t, but professionally he was irascible, intransigent and incontrovertible at all times. He is very bright, has an unparalleled devotion to family, and I’ve never heard anyone accuse him of speaking a dishonest word. He would often laugh to me in the truck after a job and say: ‘I may be wrong, but I am never in doubt!’. He never refused a fellow home inspector a favor and helped many get started in the business. He brought a 40 foot aluminum ladder to every inspection and handled it himself until he was 68 years old. He never once dropped it or fell. I can’t point to any single act or accomplishment of his that changed our profession, but I can say that for a long time, he was the standard by which a lot of home inspectors in MA are compared. This is starting to sound like an obit, but it isn’t. Al’s got some of the semi-serious health issues associated with spending 76 years on this planet (2 of them in the 1950’s Marine Corps), and he suffers from dementia, but he is happy and hale. He still kisses me every time he sees me and refers to me as: ‘the second best home inspector in Massachusetts’. I introduce him as ‘185 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal.’Most of his brothers and his kids live within an hour of him and he has visitors about 4-5 days of every week. My Dad is a (retired) two-fisted, truth-tellin’, pog-mo-thoin home inspector who honest-to-goodness-loved helping homebuyers. Anyone working as a home inspector today owes a little something to guys like my Dad and many, many others. Thanks for letting me brag a little. We now return you to Les' thread, which I've hijacked at least three times by my count.

I've spent a fair bit of time in South Central PA and I believe Yuengling (sp?) is that state's oldest brewery. Maybe the oldest in the country? Anyway, I agree good beer, reasonably priced. Much better than the Keystone Light I drank in college. If there is a more watered-down, tasteless beer in America, I've yet to encounter it.

I brewed a whole lot of my own beer in the 90's and am not ashamed to admit I'm an unapologetic beer snob. Still, there's nothing like a few cheap-ass, icy cold PBR talls after a long summer day of whitewater canoeing. They just go together like peanut butter and milk chocolate.

I'm 41 and have had enough beer with my Dad to float an aircraft carrier. We've drained 'em in countless places, a dozen states, three countries, and two continents. Air, sea, and rail. I'm sure I didn't appreciate them all, but i never took one for granted. Anyone here remember Ballantine Ale? Schlitz? These days, he's kind of tame, smiles a lot, and like to laugh at old times. Sorry to hear you can't have one with your Dad, but you're welcome to join us if you're in the area.

Hey Brother Les, I'm picking up what you're putting down. Most of us don't have co-workers to commiserate with. We all deal with a buttload of stress and every last sinner among us is underpaid. One of the many valuable things about this site is the ability to vent our frustrations to a bunch of like-minded folks. My Dad retired a bunch of years back. He taught me most of what I know about this gig and he always thought of himself as a sort of 'Lone Ranger' for homebuyers. He really took the ethical portion of this job to heart. Clients loved him for it, and so do I. It's a tough job for anyone with a medium sized brain and worse if you have a big heart. Still, it's what we do. When I get frustrated I remember one thing my Dad used to say about us home inspectors: "Think for a minute what the housing stock would be like without us." Think of all the problems that got repaired, all the disasters that never happened, all the injuries that never occurred because we did our job. Now that you mention it, I'm going to pick him up at the Nursing Home tomorrow and take him out for a beer. Feelin' sentimental, Jimmy

There's a geezer in every crawl space I enter.

I think that if it never rains or if the wind never blows, it'll work just fine.

(Coolsigns) Jim, You took some harsh criticism in this thread without getting defensive. I admire that. Keep asking questions & studying until your education outpaces your enthusiasm and you'll do well in this field. Jimmy

Epilogue: I just got back from the inspection. Lovely people. All's well that ends well.

True dat, but I believe that in the English Department, they refer to that as: 'Fiction'

Will I be sorry I took this one on? Will it be worthwhile?

I will put myself out there a little further and accuse you -for the first time I'm aware of- of being understated. The very best jobs are the troublesome ones you pass on. Unquestionably. I'd happily trade 20 lucrative inspections for 1 troublesome one. Thing is: How do you ID them on the front end?

Also, did I actually put the other guy down? She never named him, and I haven't any idea who he might be. Libel per se? per quod? A left handed compliment? Not quite a put down, but maybe poor form? Would you have crossed that line?

Well, it worked out for me this time around. I hope it was an interesting exercise to see played out, though. I would still love to hear more constructive criticism from you all. Here is the last correspondence: Yen, Fantastic. I look forward to meeting you both on site. Jim On Jun 20, 2011, at 5:00 PM, Yen xxxx wrote: Hi Jim, xxxx and I have decided to stick with you. We will take a chance that having a good, thorough inspection with someone who was recommended to us will be worth the extra cost. Our realtor will be at xx xxxxxx in Natick at 8:30am, this Thursday, to let you in. We will try to get there as soon as we can. Thanks, Yen cell xxx-xxx-3256

Oftimes this is correct, but not always. Sometimes making a tiny concession wins you a lucrative contract. Other times it works the other way. Great salespeople (I'm not one) recognize the difference. Hindsight in 20/20. Consider this: The entire cast of Gilligan's Island was just thrilled to be working and happily signed away their syndication rights to that show. No one would have predicted that they'd be cancelled after three years and fewer still would predict that it would be broadcast around the world for the next 45+. Go big or go home? 1/2 a loaf is better than none? Is there a wrong answer? Who do you want to be? Will I be sitting at home posting on Facebook & TIJ on Thursday, or earning a little scratch?

Because these days, Atlantic salmon are farmed and more often than not fattened on corn (IOW: McSalmon). Bleech! Further bulletins as events warrant.

Interesting early returns. I also ran this past my wife, who is a negotiator par excellence and she said: 'Nice email. You should have offered her a $50 discount at the end, though. It's a negligible amount (>6%) and it would have left her feeling like she'd gotten something.' Excellent advice. Good negotiations leave both sides feeling like they 'won' something. I will report back when I hear more.

But it is kind of interesting and may even be a little bit of fun. A woman called me the other day asking me to inspect a 20 year old, 4 BR house in the burbs. She currently lives in a condo in the city and she was impressed with the work I had done for one of her neighbors. Her biggest concern was the fact that neither she nor her husband could take off time from work for the whole inspection. They wanted to show up at the last hour and have me walk them through the highlights. I said I'd prefer not to, but I'd accomodate them as best I could. Below is our email exchange (first email last, last email first). First question: Will I get the job? Second question: What should I have said? Hi Yen, Thanks first of all for the high compliment of not canceling outright and giving me an opportunity to defend my fee. I am very sure that the inspector who quoted you a fee of $350 is a fine judge of his worth, so I won't offer further commentary. For myself, I will only say that a 3 hour inspection (depending on what we find, it could be longer), with 90 minutes of report writing time, roughly 2 hours of travel (with luck), telephone calls, emails, administrative tasks et cetera represents an 8 hour day. I only do one inspection per day, so you have my full attention. I won't be rushing to get through to my next inspection. No one who charges $350 can subsist on one inspection per day. But you aren't just paying for my time. You're also receiving the experience I've garnered over 24 years inspecting houses in New England, the reference library I've developed over that time, not to mention the teams of experts in my network whom I consult regularly as needed. If you've been to www.almorrison.com, you've seen my bona fides. The smartest, most experienced people in every field charge more than the other guys. I understand that budget is always an issue for all of us and I respect whatever decision you make, but I felt obliged to give you a few of the reasons why I can't lower my fee. Please let me know what you decide as soon as you're able. Many thanks, Jim On Jun 20, 2011, at 12:27 PM, Yen xxxxxxx wrote: Hello Jim, Thanks for getting back to me. Your inspection fee of $795 is more than twice as high as another quote that we recieved from another inspection company ($350)....is there any way you could bring the price down at all? Again, we thought you were very thorough with our neighbor's inspection and would love to use you but the price seems a bit high. Please let me know if you can flexible on the fee. Thanks, Yen From: jamesandrewmorrison@gmail.com Subject: Re: confirming home inspection next Thurs Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:57:22 -0400 To: xxxxxx@msn.com Hi Yen, I am still free Thursday AM. My fee for a home that size is $795. Please let me know if you want me to confirm your appointment. A sample copy of my contract is attached to this email. Please look it over, let me know if you have any questions, and be ready to sign a copy on site. Best, Jim Morrison 978.851.6315 Morrison Home Inspections, LLC "Each house tells a story. We write 'em down." Empowering homebuyers with information since 1987 On Jun 18, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Yen xxxxxxx wrote: Hi Jim, Just wanted to confirm our appt for next Thursday, June 23rd at 8:30am. Our broker will meet you at 40 xxxxxxxx St., Natick at 8:30 to let you in. I'm still not sure when we will be able to meet you but it won't be any later than 10:00am. Could you also send me a quote of what the inspection will cost? Thanks, Yen xxxxxxx cell xxx-xxx-3256 Dave xxxxxxx cell xxx-xxx-6827

I've considered this issue thoughtfully for more than a day and while I fully concede that it's (lower case w) wrong, I can't imagine a world in which I'd devote more than about 45 seconds to the entire affair. I think that it's worth noting, but not worth fixing. Good call, Neal.

We kid. We kid because we love. Jeez, guys, we've got to toss a few bombs at each other every so often just to keep things light, don't we? Admittedly, the loincloth was a guess, but an educated guess. Kurt IS the undisputed Dean of the University of Sexual Perversity, after all. Your brother from another mother, Jimmy

I see our personal relationship has progressed to the stage where we feel comfortable commenting on each other's personal appearance. How nice. I've been looking for a way to gently tell you that short sleeves aren't flattering on men with little girl arms for at least the past ten years, but until today, I've been letting good manners hold me back.

Agreed. I see it every so often, but never quite that bad.

I use 11 point Arial. It aint pretty, but it sure is easy to read and I don't want a client to have to work too hard to read my reports.

Brandon quite rightly points out that most of us are self-employed and that OSHA and it's rules do not apply to us.

What is that? It's somebody's best shot at keeping water out of the house. Unfortunately, that somebody wasn't a decent roofer.