Helter Shelter for July

[Scottpat]

This is Walters newest:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville ... id=1656390

If Walter seems a little down on the profession and the State license program the following might explain it.

Page 4 http://tn.gov/commerce/pdf/disaction/di ... urrent.pdf

[Nolan Kienitz]

Begs the question: If WJ is no longer running his inspection business why would the State of TN place such a fine?

I'm certain that I'm missing something.

[Marc]

From the article, it sounds like he did quit the business but the govt wasn't aware of it for some reason, noticed the lack of insurance coverage and levied the find without even contacting him. 'You can't quit! You can't quit!'

Marc

[Inspectorjoe]

From the article, it sounds like he did quit the business but the govt wasn't aware of it for some reason, noticed the lack of insurance coverage and levied the find without even contacting him.

You got that from the article? Could you point out where?

The article sounds like sour grapes to me. A lot of the barbs he throws are deserved of course, but he tars all home inspectors with the same brush. The overall tone I get is there's just no point in hiring a home inspector any more, because since he retired, there's nobody up to the task.

Please [:-yuck]

[Marc]

It reminds me of the scene in Miss Firecracker, when Tim Robbins' character, Delmount Williams, a government worker assigned to picking up road kill, refused to cut up and haul away a horse carcass. All the while, Delmount's co-road-kill-picker yells from the cab of his government truck: "You cain't quit! You cain't quit!"

Got to be a reason why he put this in his article. He's a good writer. Just a little pissed.

Marc

[Bain]

Walter has friends, here, and my respect for them prevents me from saying anything terribly negative about him, but when he posted here, he did indeed paint with a broad brush when discussing how blatantly stupid and worthless he felt HIs were as a group. This article he wrote is kind of funny, kind of true, but also kind of a hatchet job on what we do. Some will say, "Oh, but he's talking about the majority, not the really good ones like me." But that's not how the article reads.

When he was a HI, Walter didn't walk roofs, enter attics, or do other things most of us include in our repertoires, so maybe the standards by which he judges others are a little skewed.

[inspector57]

Me thinks he is a good writer but maybe that is his strength at the expense of the more mundane HI qualities.

[Tom Raymond]

I miss his contributions here, but after reading this latest article I think it's time he forgets about inspectors and writes about music.

[Neal Lewis]

Well, I knew his opinion on walking roofs, but to not go in attics. Shit!

BTW, didn't he used to say that we should be writing on an 8th grade level, or something like that?

[Jim Katen]

Sadly, I don't see a single word in his article that I disagree with.

We're working in a profession that's largely populated with dumbasses. It's an uncomfortable truth, but a truth nonetheless.

Bill Loden put it best, "Don't tell my Mama I'm a home inspector. She thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse."

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Marc]

Sadly, I don't see a single word in his article that I disagree with.

We're working in a profession that's largely populated with dumbasses. It's an uncomfortable truth, but a truth nonetheless.

Bill Loden put it best, "Don't tell my Mama I'm a home inspector. She thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse."

- Jim Katen, Oregon

There's a lot of fine inspectors in this profession and each and every one of them has the potential to improve and become proficient. We're not going to get anywhere by criticizing our own. None of us were born an inspector.

Just my opinion.

Marc

[kurt]

Oh, I don't know about that. I think criticizing our own is just fine. Professionals not criticizing their own is how the medical profession found it's way into HMO land. Professionals not criticizing their own, and circling wagons, is the surest way to hell.

C'mon, we operate in a profession largely populated by morons and idiots. Of course there's competency; it's how all of us stay in business. But, how many folks in this business do you know that can't form a complete sentence? Or, any sentence?

Heck, I'm happy for all the morons; they make my sorry ass look good. If I was forced to compete with a bunch of supernovas, I'd be in trouble.

[Tom Raymond]

Sadly, I don't see a single word in his article that I disagree with.

Same here. Well, except maybe the part where he says to hire a contractor instead of a home inspector. That's a little bitter, even for Walter.

Tom

[Jim Katen]

Sadly, I don't see a single word in his article that I disagree with.

Same here. Well, except maybe the part where he says to hire a contractor instead of a home inspector. That's a little bitter, even for Walter.

I don't see where he says that.

What he says is, "Hint: If you need to know stuff about your house, hire an individual with building skills and knowledge, and at least a junior college education. And make sure that he — or she — has been in business for at least 10 years."

I think that's pretty good advice.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Jim Katen]

Sadly, I don't see a single word in his article that I disagree with.

We're working in a profession that's largely populated with dumbasses. It's an uncomfortable truth, but a truth nonetheless.

Bill Loden put it best, "Don't tell my Mama I'm a home inspector. She thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse."

- Jim Katen, Oregon

There's a lot of fine inspectors in this profession and each and every one of them has the potential to improve and become proficient. We're not going to get anywhere by criticizing our own. None of us were born an inspector.

Just my opinion.

Marc

I might be wrong. Maybe I travel in circles that attract the dumbasses. But from what I've seen fine inspectors are few. Very, very few.

The vast majority are illiterate, poorly informed, and not suited to the job. While I agree that each & every one has the *potential* to improve, one of the hallmarks of the dumbass is that he lacks the *ability* to improve -- usually because he doesn't think it's necessary.

As for criticizing our own, it's the only way that we're going to get better. Who else is going to provide such criticism? If agents do it, we chalk it up to a conflict of interest. If customers do it, we call them cranks. If "the market" does it, the inspector just goes out of business -- nothing learned there.

Before things can get better, we have to acknowledge that they need to get better. Every so often someone like Walter has to point out that the emperor is nekkid.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Brandon Whitmore]

I travel in circles that attract the dumbasses

Ouch.

[hausdok]

Huh,

I thought Walter gave up the HS column a couple of years ago.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Marc]

The vast majority are illiterate, poorly informed, and not suited to the job. While I agree that each & every one has the *potential* to improve, one of the hallmarks of the dumbass is that he lacks the *ability* to improve -- usually because he doesn't think it's necessary..

- Jim Katen, Oregon

Shame on you Jim. That's the lowest I've ever seen you go.

Marc

[Terence McCann]

Off to bed with you Jim, no cookies.

[Bain]

Well, but whether someone is impugning one of us, or a small portion of us, or a huge bloc of us, it brings EVERYONE down. One of the basic tenets of marketing is that negativity should always be avoided. You'll never hear, "Burger King makes you fat! Taco Bell is a heart attack in a wax wrapper! Ah . . . but McDonalds . . . we prepare dinner exactly the way your mother does."

There are plenty of horrid, incompetent HIs in my area. I lose business to them because they undercut my fees and buyers honestly don't know what questions to ask or how to differentiate between who's the real thing and who's the pretender. But there are also knowledgable, honest people who do everything they can to look after their clients.

I believe in capitalism. Those who are competent and energetic will succeed. Those who are hacks will eventually be forced out of the food chain, but perhaps more slowly than seems reasonable or just.

What Walter wrote pretty much slaps all our faces, and paints us as a merry band of buffoons. Is that what anyone wants? I certainly don't.

[gtblum]

Well, but whether someone is impugning one of us, or a small portion of us, or a huge bloc of us, it brings EVERYONE down. One of the basic tenets of marketing is that negativity should always be avoided. You'll never hear, "Burger King makes you fat! Taco Bell is a heart attack in a wax wrapper! Ah . . . but McDonalds . . . we prepare dinner exactly the way your mother does."

There are plenty of horrid, incompetent HIs in my area. I lose business to them because they undercut my fees and buyers honestly don't know what questions to ask or how to differentiate between who's the real thing and who's the pretender. But there are also knowledgable, honest people who do everything they can to look after their clients.

I believe in capitalism. Those who are competent and energetic will succeed. Those who are hacks will eventually be forced out of the food chain, but perhaps more slowly than seems reasonable or just.

What Walter wrote pretty much slaps all our faces, and paints us as a merry band of buffoons. Is that what anyone wants? I certainly don't.

[:-thumbu]

[kurt]

Huh,

I thought Walter gave up the HS column a couple of years ago.

OT - OF!!!

M.

They invited him back because people in Nashville like Walter, and the Jowers family.

Walter excites emotional response in folks. Always has.

By and large, I think his informing is accurate, not precise, which is his prerogative as a writer. He's not far off base on this. And, it's funny for the most part.

Who in here has a gig as a columnist? Anyone else.......(?)......

[hausdok]

Who in here has a gig as a columnist? Anyone else.......(?)......

I once built a few custom porch columns. []

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Nolan Kienitz]

Who in here has a gig as a columnist? Anyone else.......(?)......

I once built a few custom porch columns. []

OT - OF!!!

M.

Badda - Boom !!

[JohnC]

I have read many of Walters’s columns over the years. Some I liked some I didn’t, but that's true of all columnists’ and he’s probably a great guy. But I also have followed his writing on this board and years ago on ashi’s forum. Now Walter would probably put me to shame with his command of the English language in report writing. But he always struck me as someone quick to disparage someone as a moron for a few and okay sometimes more then a few grammar mistakes without acknowledging that at least the inspector had the facts right and was on the right track. Most people on this board have thick skin. When a few inspectors criticized him a while back he appeared to me like someone with very thin skin and took his ball home like a little boy saying he wasn’t going to play anymore. The funny thing was I didn’t think the criticism was all that harsh. I’m really not much for writing on forums but I have observed over the years guys like Jim, Kurt, O’Handley, Tom Raymond and Bain can definitely mix it up with the best of them and have vast inspecting knowledge. I can’t begin to tell you all I have learned from this forum thanks to guy's like I just mentioned. I do agree grammar is very important but so is inspecting correctly and verbally communicating the issues to your client. I believe in actually walking on a roof, going in an attic and what I hate the most entering a crawlspace-and I have said many times to myself while crawling in a very tight nasty crawlspace that this job sucks(usually about at the halfway point!), but I always do it if at all possible. While he’s great with prose, in reading his writing's about his different inspection technique's over many years I personally would not let him inspect my shed never mine my house.-just my opinion. As far as the guys I just mentioned (and there are more I didn’t name) buyers would be so lucky if they hired them to inspect their house, me included as I know I would learn much even if they made a few grammar mistakes in the written report.

John Callan