Scottpat

I will do the same as Chad. I win and you win!

I find it comical at the money folks throw at SEO folks to get their site up in the rankings. I have not done anything but to add good content to my site and it remains on the first page and in the top 1-3 under the paid for spots in the areas that I want to work in. I don't have a pretty site but it works.... Keep good content, have good links, good meta tags, good page titles and a domain name that has a little age to it and your site will do just fine.

I have a 5 year old Goodman system in my home and it works fine. The case on the condenser unit is what makes most of the racket with my unit. I replaced most of the screws on the outside cabinet and I bet that reduced the racket by 75%.

Yep, best fire starter you can have!

I kind of admire or is it a bit of jealousy for folks who complete their report on site. I would say that I have about 75% of the report done before I leave an inspection as I have input much of my findings while I'm at the home. Who am I to say which method is better? On-site delivery of the report or delivery of the report a few hours after the inspection? In the end the client will have the report to make a more informed decision on the purchase of the home. The delivery method is kind of a moot point when you are only talking of a few hours or less difference. Out of the thousands of inspections I have done I really can not recall any instance where the report was needed immediately after the inspection. I give a review of my findings to the client at the end of the inspection. I tell them that I will send the report in a few hours or less and everyone goes on the merry way. I do agree that it would be nice to not have any homework, but I would then have more time on my hands to do more chores and honey dos! []

My report and agreement have exactly what Jim and Kurt said. " I did not inspect the irrigation system, have the owner show you how it works." Even though I do not inspect irrigation systems, I still look for the backflow preventer or other items that might impact the home or its systems. A good example of something I would comment on would be an irrigation head that is shooting water on the house or the condenser unit.

The crystal ball is a little dim this morning! My best SWAG is that it fell out and is outside the house buried in the snow and you will find it in the Spring....

Dierks Bently's newest album is all Bluegrass and is pretty darn good. We are able to see many great Bluegrass acts just about anytime we want, one of the perks for living in Music City! A few weeks ago we were able to see the Stringdusters, Sam Bush and Old Crow Medicine Show over a weekend. Sam Bush was playing with his dobro mandolin and put on a killer show.

About the only thing we really have control over in our profession is time! Time management is the key to a productive and profitable home inspection business.

On a normal 3/2 home with few problems I can have the report completed and emailed in about thirty minutes. This includes uploading a few photos. On a normal 3/2 home with a bunch of problems I can usually have the report emailed in about forty five minutes. I feel that I can complete a report in an hour or less on most average size homes I inspect. I just completed a report on a large (6,000sf) with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths with a good number of problems and a few that were kind of involved. It took me a little under two hours to complete the report and email it out. How do I do my reporting in this amount of time? For starters I input the problems I find in my program while I'm at the inspection. Right now I use a PDA for the small homes and a netbook for the larger homes; I then sync to my main computer at the office and upload photos and finish the detail information on the report. I do not include links and I do not copy or include the serial numbers of the systems in the home. I have never really understood why folks do this anyway. It is time consuming...... My reports do not have fluff or fodder. I inspect by systems (Roof, Plumbing, HVAC, Kitchen, Bathrooms, Interior, Exterior, Foundation, etc...) I report what I find, and what needs to be done. I only include photos of the problems. I use 3D for my reporting software. It is a narrative type report and I send it out in a PDF or if the file is too large for my client I can upload to my website for them to view and download as they need. Most of my files are under 1Meg. The large home I just did was 1.2 Megs and it was 28 pages in length with a 4 page summary. On reason that the Inspect Express files are so large is that it is WORD based. I have been doing it this way for about 10 years and it works pretty darn well for me.

Tom, I agree...! A couple of weeks ago I inspected a $380,000 home that was going FHA! Lower down payment and lower interest rate is why they did it, or so I was told. And, that's the part I don't get about FHA. If a "first time home buyer" can afford a $380 K home, why do they need special considerations or help? I just don't get it... They were not first time home buyers, they just did not have the money(5%) to put down for a conventional loan and then the three months of reserves(3 months of house payments in savings or in the bank) that they require you to have. FHA requirements are much more relaxed.

Tom, I agree...! A couple of weeks ago I inspected a $380,000 home that was going FHA! Lower down payment and lower interest rate is why they did it, or so I was told.

This Saturday we closed on the refinance of our home loan and I learned something that kind of shocked me from our loan officer and the closing agent. It seems like the powers to be are lowering the required credit score for an FHA loan from 640 down to 560 in an attempt to generate home sales and loans. This little bit of news came from Wells Fargo, and our loan person even showed me a copy of the memorandum that they just received. The interest rate is going to be higher and the down payment will be a little higher. The launch date for this program is Jan 18 with Wells Fargo. Isn't this how we got into this mess to start with! Has anyone heard anything about this??

I agree with Perlite.

I looked at the ADT/RHW/RecallCheck and after really looking at the pages and pages of the contract and what the implications might be with the entire thing, I decided not to do it. In the long run the home inspector is being used to generate sales leads for ADT and the home inspector gets the short end of the stick and does the majority of the footwork for the dangling of the little carrot. It just did not have a good feel about it, so opted not to do it.

Erby, it looks like they sized the HVAC unit for the main floor and did not take into consideration the basement or the basement was unfinished by the builder and the owner later finished it off. I have found this a few times when the owners finish the basement after they move into the home. I use the same SF numbers for the "rule of thumb" measurement.

Good comments Richard... Thank you for your input.

It backs of the data but not the program files. So if you have an OOPS you will have to reinstall the programs and then the data will load.

I will be at InspectionWorld as well, I'm staying at the Hilton. Maybe we can have a TIJ get together! I'll be the big, bald middle age guy! Well, that might not work I just described about half of the attendees!

I'm in till I get kicked out or it no longer benifits me. The referrals just outweigh the cost of membership for me,both from the Internet search and from folks I have made friends with over the years.

I have to agree with Terry...

It had termites and beetles as well as rats, birds and chipmunks! I'll post some additional pictures when I get some time tomorrow.

Is this the first year you have noticed the condensation and frost on the windows?

That is not always a sign of a dirty air duct. The cool/warm surface around the duct acts like a magnet and attracts the grime in the air and it sticks around the registers. Same principle as "ghosting" that we see on walls and ceilings.

I'm of the no cleaning school, unless it is all metal duct work. This is a picture of some flex duct after it was cleaned! Click to Enlarge 57.57 KB