Jim Katen

Yes. In the '50s, the architectural fashion was to have long, low houses with linear, horizontal windows that were generally high in the rooms. (Thank Frank Lloyd Wright for this.) Adding modern egress windows to a mid-century house will generally destroy the design.

The rules - if they apply - apply to all bedrooms, not just basement bedrooms. If this is boilerplate, you might want to clean up the spelling and grammar.

We call them "under-shingle intake vents" and they're getting more popular here as well, not just to meet fire codes. They avoid the occasional issue of steam rising up off wet walls in the morning and flowing into the attic via soffit vents. I wonder, though, how they perform in ice-dam country.

A "fixed double slider" could mean anything, including a cocktail.

In my area, it's been accepted. In fact, I had a city inspector suggest it to me at an inspection of my very own personal house.

I believe strongly that there's no "delicate balance" there. Serving my customer and limiting my liability are indistinguishable from one another. For decades, I've preached that viewing them as separate, conflicting tasks is what gets people in trouble. I summarize my philosophy in this maxim: If you cover your client's butt, you're will be covered automatically. You've completely deflected my point with an unrelated, if interesting, side issue having to do with an *incredibly* dopey home inspector. Doesn't matter. It's all about the perception. If you can see it happening, then it happens. Saying, "but wait, let me correct your perceptions" is not a very convincing alternative. The analogy is flawed because the primary doctor has nothing to gain from referring to a specialist who botches things up. A real estate agent, on the other hand, has something to gain from referring an inspector who is "soft" - even more so if he's the indemnifying type. That aside, I'll observe that by the time we get to a lawsuit, it's too late anyway - everyone has lost. My objection to the scheme is that it create perceptions that I'd rather avoid.

Any contractor who installs windows for a living should know what the requirements are. It's unreasonable to expect the homeowner to know these things.

Of those inspectors who use this coverage as part of their marketing to real estate agents, I'll bet that most, if not all of them do not advertise the fact to their actual customers. In fact, I'll also bet that they intentionally keep quiet about it. Look at it this way: if you were a home buyer and you knew that the inspector that your agent recommended was paying to indemnify that agent, would that elevate the inspector in your eyes? Would it make you think twice about the agent's motivations and the inspector's loyalties? In my experience all but the most credulous home buyers would view this as a "scheme" or perhaps as an "arrangement" that benefits the home inspector and the agent, but not the consumer.

Schemes like this have always made me feel uncomfortable. It's just a half-step away from paying a real estate agent for referrals.

I suspect that this initial message was spam. It originally contained a link that the moderators removed and the poster's IP address is in India.

I noticed the same thing. I reached out to Gary DeWitt in Burbank. He's not too far and used to be an active member of this board. He's smart & trustworthy.

My son's buying a house in Santa Clarita. I don't believe that I know any inspectors from that area. Does anyone here know someone there who doesn't suck?

Without really good pictures, this entire discussion is like a circle jerk.

Mark Cramer's Intelligent Reporter software share some of the characteristics of Inspectit. (I believe that Inspectit actually grew from an earlier version of IR.) Having used both, I greatly prefer IR and have used it for about a dozen years. It is *amazingly* flexible for someone who is facile with Word - I should probably rephrase that to say that you must be facile with Word. The thing is, I'm not sure that Mark is still selling it or supporting it for new customers. You might get in touch and ask him about it. Here's a little bit about the program: https://www.besttampainspector.com/Software

Where are you located? If you can make the finger drains run to the street, why not just pave the driveway and let the water flow to the street on top of the pavement?