rkenney

Yep. 'Course that list is pretty extensive: Lawyers, Politicians, Doctors, Ministers, Professors, Teachers, etc. One could almost reach the conclusion that greed is human nature, I wonder? Pride, Greed, Envy, Lust, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath; let's not exclude anybody.

The idea that realtors are inherently unethical is childish. They are just people, and have the same ethical and professional considerations you do. Visit Real estate offices. give them a steady supply of your business cards. All you are doing is advertising your existence, there is no implicit agreement to 'whitewash' their sales and they do not expect it. Dress professionally, appearance may not be everything but it is all they can go by. If you look like you just changed your oil don't expect a response. Make sure your web page is listed on your card. No one reads the phone book anymore they search the web. Make sure your web site shows up in searches. Flyers (or cards) at public bulletin boards (groceries, restaurants, etc.), signage in front of properties you inspect (ask if you can leave them till settlement or whenever), advertise on your vehicle (magnetic signs are cheap) don't forget your URL. LinkedIn, Facebook, Google pages, etc. What works? Word of mouth! To get that you may need all of the above and then some. Good luck.

You may have answered your own question. 25 years is a long time for a piece of test equipment. If you bought the Extech and it lasted 10 years would the value be the same for 150 dollars less. What other test equipment have you seen that wasn't totally outdated, and had been replaced by 'new' models well before 25 years. Extech's MO260 mimics Surveymaster in design, so Protimeter must have done something right to capture that much of the market. Plus for your 150 dollar savings you don't get the deep wall probes, remote pin probes, calibration check, or replacement pins. They do the same thing; well that's the theory, it would be nice if there were some actual specifications for accuracy and such to be compared. Someone is just going to have to buy both and post the side by side comparison.

AO Smith (for example, others similar) water heaters can be wired for simultaneous element operation or not. This is done at installation with internal wiring. So, before you decide whether the circuit is correct or not you have to determine how the water heater is wired to operate. Beyond the scope of a home inspection. Note what you will in the report, but don't expect your call to be the final word. Download Attachment: ao.pdf 112.02 KB

LVL is available for exterior use and in some situtations even for ground contact use. BUT it depends on your application whether LVL will meet your exterior needs. American Pole & Timber distributes pressure-treated LVL.

Dryers also contain thermal fuses. Much like your coffeepot heating element. Be prepared, 1/4" nut driver, phillips screw driver, multimeter. If the fuse is blown drum rotates, blower blows - no heat. A blown thermal fuse is usually indicative of an obstruction in the vent system but can occur simply from age. Many dryers have multiple elements for different cycles.

230 somewhere. try 230.91

Never understood the PA law. E&O is required but I can't see a mechanism for using it. How would you collect on E&O?

So, you're a lawyer too?

Word press is the way to go. Readers 'opt in' by searching for a particular topic, so they are already interested. You need to use appropriate title tags and search terms to make this effective. There are many formatting tools available so you can give it the look you want. Include your web address for backlinks and to steer people (who are already interested) to your page. Topics can be anything you can pick up on the internet, they even have tools to help with this and google will even email you a daily news brief for any topic you choose. Add your social media 'follow me' links. Only down side is demographics. Its audience can't be targeted any more specifically than interest.

If you use Outlook, Easy Mail Merge (about 40 bucks) works well. Most if not all newsletters are HTML, so creating that is entirely a different topic. Easy mail merge allows you to create lists from contacts, CSV files, etc. It can send in batches that don't alert your ISP that you're a spammer. Consider using a free email account to send your newsletter. Unless you specifically had people opt in from a direct mail marketing campaign you may have many delegate your newsletter to the spam folder; at which point regular email from you is no longer received unless they go looking for it not a result you can track. Consider adding a read request, can give you some idea of who, at least, opened your Newsletter. Federal law requires you to post an opt out message on your email. When you remove people from your mailing lists its discouraging, but the numbers do help you assess marketing 'fails.' Bottom line is its all about numbers. No matter how insightful, informative, or helpful you think your newsletter is, many won't have the time or inclination to read it.

Many areas do not use the IRC for plumbing. Maryland uses the NSPC 2009 4.3.9 e. ABS and PVC Plastic Pipe: Solvent cemented non-pressure joints between ABS and PVC DWV piping systems shall be made with an ASTM D3138 solvent cement intended for such transition joints. Transition cement shall not be permitted to be used within buildings. Transition joints shall be a minimum of 3 feet outside of buildings. So it is wrong inside the building.

I haven't offered one; have you?

The original question that Marc posted was wether a central HVAC system was personal property or real property. HVAC is not personal property, but can be excluded from a transaction by the contract. You simply remove it. The entire structure is an improvement. Real property is the land. It can be conveyed with or without 'improvments' or you can purchase the improvements (structure) without conveyance of unencumbered real property (the land - as in 'ground rents.') If you were to install HVAC in a house without one be prepared for your local government to assess this as an 'improvement.' This is the hidden agenda to permits. It allows government to keep track of property values by improvements that will be re-assesed come tax time (as allowed by law.)

Central AC is an 'improvement' to real property and is typically included in any transfer of ownership. Improvement to real property means "a permanent addition to or betterment of real property that enhances its capital value and that involves the expenditure of labor or money and is designed to make the property more useful or valuable as distinguished from ordinary repairs." Integrity Floorcovering, Inc. v. Broan-Nutone, LLC, 521 F.3d 914, 917-918 (8th Cir. Minn. 2008)

In case anyone forgot, The question was, "Should appliances be part of the SOP?" I have no idealistic/CYA point of view; whatever that is? I was trying to point out the difficulties and encumbrance that occur from making appliances part of the SOP. So which is it Marc? First you said NO, now it seems like your saying YES. I don't care what you actually do. Tell me why it should be or shouldn't be part of the SOP.

I am in total agreement with you. I do the same, the question then becomes if you include it as part of the SOP where do you draw the line. Can you actually trust buurecrats (intentional spelling) to adopt a 'reasonable' standard. With all the variables involved what is 'reasonable.' The other factor is customer expectations. At this point we are exceeding the standards of practice, when brought to their attention most clients appreciate this and value it. As soon as it becomes a standard it will elicit less appreciation and may in fact become something of which they are more demanding. You have raised their level of expectations. Having changed the dynamics at what level will this become impractical, not cost effective, or downright burdensome? Will you charge more?

Here's an article that is closer to the original thread. Slightly more informative. http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/news/opi ... _216900999 As for the second question: Should appliances be required. My vote is no! The reason is simple, there simply is not enough time to explore ALL the functions of All the appliances that might be included. On/off is not an adequate test. Case in point: Jenn Air Convect bake Oven Range (mine - electric). The first problem that occured was a blank digital display. The oven worked just fine (with the exception of the self cleaning function) but would not display the temperatures or time. Display board was about $200. Actual repair cost was about $0.89 (capacitor on the display board.) Ok, you would probably have seen that and reported it. Some time later (years) I noticed that it took a long time to preheat the oven. Now preheat on an electric oven usually involves both the bake and broil element with baking only using the bake element after temperature is reached. Are you prepared to test both the bake and broil operation during the home inspection? Repair, for those interested, was a $39 bake element. Now, with all that said and done, the self cleaning feature still does not work. Self clean requires both elements to heat the oven to 500 degrees and above, burn of the crud, and typically (lightly soiled) takes about three hours: this process strains both elements and leads to rapid element failure. I am definately not testing that feature during a Home Inspection and generally advise people not to use that feature for the aforementioned reason. Mom's Gas range: All burners light except one (the most often used). You can, however, light it by lighting an adjacent burner. The switch for that burner is obviously bad (all igniters fire at the same time.) You need to test ALL the burners. Calls you can expect if SOP includes appliances: "I can't set the clock on my...microwave, oven, etc." "My oven doesn't ... self clean, broil, bake, whatever" "My icemaker, water dispenser, doesn't defrost.... "My dryer won't work on permanent press, gentlecycle..." And of course every call will be preceded by a request for a refund. Good luck with that!

Why give them cake? They only wanted the icing. When one is vague and then confronted with the facts, the reply can always be, "well I didn't say that." Such a reply is always truthful considering there is no substance to what was said and therefore can be construed to be misunderstood. My personal favorite, when confronted by a bold faced lie is to say: "I misspoke." As if your tongue and lips conspired against you to form speech without your consent.

Type SE style U has a concentric grounding conductor, with individual strands wrapped around the insulated, current-carrying conductors. Click to Enlarge 17.88 KB

As pointed out in another post, taping wire nuts is usually done in a situation that encounters excessive vibration, but some sparkys do it habitually. As far as taping around the switch, this is usually a good idea when the box is mounted with 'drywall' hangers because the ears of the hangers fold over inside the box. Plastic box, no problem (although I've never seen one mounted this way); a metal box could short if the hangers flexed back and touched the hot lead screw (box shifting occurs overtime with this mounting method).

All I know is if you use a sniffer around an ungrounded object it will go off. Even in a home with ungrounded outlets the sniffer will go off an inch or so away from an outlet. I have no idea why or how it works but it does. The grounded outlet is effectively 'shielded'. The sniffer can not detect the presence of an electromagnetic field. An un-grounded outlet or ceiling fan or whatever has no such shielding, it will trigger in close proximity to the device. The thing to consider here is "proximity". Different testers will respond at different distances due to their sensitivity and calibration.

I was waiting for someone to point this out. Knopp has been making the K-60 continuously for 40 yrs. (according to their web site) I like 'em because they're easy on my pocket. They actually employ capacitive coupling. A moot distinction to most, I'm sure, but one that is pointed out in Fluke's own Tech Notes. http://www.fluke.com/fluke/usen/communi ... orUses.htm Click to Enlarge 5.65 KB Click to Enlarge 4.91 KB

Need you say more? Just tell em how to fix the moisture problem.

Seems like a lot of hardware to accomplish a fairly simple task. First I've heard of them, so. . . what do I know? 'Course it'd be interesting to re-configure and get ice water all summer long. Now, where are those plans for my better mouse-trap?[:-party]