Les

we are getting close to 33% that agent not present or sits in car. Many refuse to even talk to us directly. We are in a very eclectic market here in mid-Michigan.

little thread drift - How many inspections do you do with no agent present? Not an actual number, just curious if you are seeing more instances where there is no agent. We are seeing many more during the past two years. Mostly the agents do not care if we inspect interior or do not inspect interior of panel. We care.

Agents generally do not give any "permissions". We just note that we did not open. Usually we will go back for a small charge or no charge if they give us written permission or cut and gouge on their own. We actually go back less than 1% of the time and never for apartment buildings.

We treat them much like attic skuttles that are painted closed or nailed. Our market would "eat our lunch" if we cut or gouged.

John, I agree with you abt the interior. But, when they are painted in multi-family units they almost always are painted to the wall. We will not pull them if painted. We don't need to be painting walls after the inspection.

Hey Mike, when we do apartment bldgs we write painted or damaged covers. we also have learned to write all (as many as seen) damaged switch and outlet covers. Usually we make a blanket statement. As far as I know covers are not to be painted and fasteners clean and clear. EDIT: we write them because they are painted to the wall, fasteners filled in with paint, etc. not the fact they are just "painted"

While I agree with the code suggestion, I would caution that it is a knowledge base that requires close attention in implementation. If you go out in the field and start with "the code requires this and that" you will have some difficulty. Code knowledge is essential. How to implement that knowledge is where some get into trouble. The NHIE is essential. Do it asap. It will tell you lots of things about the scope of your knowledge. One of the senior members here, John Dirks, has lots in common with you. He will be checking in and I am sure will have some insight!

I joined coupe of the Facebook pages and tried to participate now and then. Found out I was not worthy of the respect I seem to get here! One of two of the newer inspectors thought it would be "funny" to question most responses, so I quit responding. "Never do business with a snake" come to mind.

Welcome back John! It is nice to see everyone back and participating. There is never anything to loose by stopping by and putting your two cents into the conversation.

this was common problem abt 12-14yrs ago around Michigan. Installers used brad nailers for installation. I agree that it is "toast". Some may disagree.

There certainly is a place for mold testing and evaluation. If we could get people to recognize that mold is everywhere and not always toxic, most of this goes away. Telling them water is the issue never seems to satisfy them. They want it more complicated and need someone/something to blame that is more exotic.

Jim K pretty much is spot on. I would emphasize his recommendation to burn the mold for gold report. Go after the water/moisture and the problem is solved. Actually that report is pretty bad. There has to be another 15-20 pages of crap about mold.

not so unusual for interior rusting here in Michigan. We typically have partially conditioned basements and half full tanks. Not unusual to pull several fluid oz of water out of tank at start of heating season. This is a pinhole in my opinion. Empty tank, clean area, apply Teaberry chewing gum. Seriously, I would write it as needing attention.

Marc may have known, but I did not. Now I do. Of course, at my age I may have known it sometime in the past!

$300 used!

Underwood Speed 65, manual. Damn Selectrics are not dependable and require electricity to even operate!

I still use a candle and a bit of tin foil.

how is the vacuum affected by the bypass?

I do trust you are being sarcastic. Regardless, it does lower my respect of you. It is not my nature to place people in tiny boxes.

I learn something every day! And, I do forget a few things.

I am not jumping onto Marc's bandwagon. I have the greatest respect for him, but he does have a bad attitude about real estate agents. All real estate agents are not "bad". Marc often makes statements that do not reflect the entire inspection profession. Not that they are always wrong, just not fair nor balanced. Every real estate agent does not want a poor inspection done. Every real estate agent is not in the business to screw people. As soon as this conversation turned from aluminum wire to statements about real estate agents and bad inspectors, you lost me. I do not care who buys what or when or for how much. Never have and likely never will. I love conversations about housing trends, but abhor statements that are emotional.

there are times you guys "kill" me. disect that John!

Jim's post is worth reading again. Maybe the best post of the year. I like Bill K's post too. "bad milk" took me to Walter Jower's writing and reminds me how much I miss him.

I know what you are "saying", but it can be cleaned up a tad. I would write: (using your example) I saw signs of mold growth on the roof sheahting at the north side of attic. Mold is typically a result of trapped moisture vapor that may be entering attic from the living space below. I recommend the attic be properly insulated and ventilated. Be sure exhaust fans terminate outside of the house. Furnace humidifiers often do more harm than good when overused or improperly set. Be sure to address cause of mold before any remediation work is done. The EPA website has good information regarding mold and remediation. I don't like to be as specific as "14" of blown in cellulose... " I don't like sentence #4, it makes no sense to me. Remember you did ask!

I kinda looked it over, but did not have the discipline to read it. Forget about the format of report, repetition, poor grammar, etc. Did the inspector meet the expectations of his client? Likely no he/she did not. Some of the comments are not understood by me, a home inspector, so how can a client understand it? I remain in the school of short and sweet for reporting. Do not explain the defect, just report it. Lightening can strike anywhere. the nonsense about client personal protection is crap; you can trip and fall anywhere and die! Find it and report it. Have the confidence in your own ability and knowledge to make "pronouncements". The electrical system is unsafe, bad, crap, etc. Get an electrician to fix it. No I did not spend all day making a list of the defects. No, I will not tell you how to re-wire the subpanel. I have problems with inspectors that think they are saving the world one client at a time.