It's a great day here in Orem, Utah. Last Thursday I celebrated my 39th birthday. I spent the week with my Boy Scout troop backpacking in the High Uintah mountain range here in Utah. We fished in over a dozen lakes and scaled the highest point in Utah. Kings Peak has seen me climb to its summit 3 times prior and each ascent has been equally difficult. The 13,528 foot mountain doesn't seem to get any lower. I have found that my body quits performing as designed at about 12,900 feet. At this level the air is thinner and I get lightheaded, groggy, and my perception is not as sharp. I have no idea how the climbers of 20,000 feet plus peaks do it and I have no aspirations for such punishment.
Many, including my wife, ask me why I continue to take the young Boy Scouts to the highest summits. I have found over the years that my time invested in them has helped to change their lives. Confidence is what comes from the type of struggles that young men achieve when they hike with me. I design the trips to push them to their individual limits. This past week was no exception as we encountered rain, lightening and daily hail storms while we were making our way through the high wilderness adventure. Of course their was the usual weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth from the young mountaineers. There were also moments of happiness, relief and joy. Blisters were common place and sore backs were the norm. The return to humanity found us indulging in the Wendy's 99 cent menu after a long week of Richmoor freeze dried food. The fishing this year was pathetic, yet the incredible visual surroundings still made the journey worthwhile. All in all, the trip made impressions on the boys that will last their entire lives.
This week's Monday Morning Messenger is a "Flash from the Past" to relive a day in my inspection life of which I received a lot of flack for in the past couple of years. Let's relive "A Day In The Life of Inspector Michael Leavitt"......
Have you ever encountered a week that already looked promising before it even started and then got worse (meaning busier)? Have you reached, or passed, that time in your inspection career when you didn't want to say "NO" even though your schedule was booked? Have you ever gotten behind in putting the finishing touches on one day's reports, yet the next full day was already upon you?
Yes, last week was an incredible bear. With 6 inspections one day and at least 2 every other day, and the homes ranging in age from 1860 to 1998, and square footages from the smallest 1200 sq ft condo to a 6,000 sq ft duplex to a brand new mansion with over 7,000 sq ft., I have learned the hard way how many inspections can be done in one day. Take Wednesday, March 25, 1998, for example.
On Wednesday, my first inspection was doing a Listing Inspection for an agent who up until a month ago abhorred Home Inspectors. The Listing Agent's attitude changed completely when one of the Agents in her office reported to the other 40 agents in the office that she was being sued by her client, the buyer, on a brand new townhome. The agent being sued is one of my "How High" agents and refers me by name in every transaction. She also referred me in the lawsuit case, but when I showed up to do the inspection, the place was not finished so I postponed it for a week. The buyer was moving in from out-of-state and wanted the place to be ready before loading the moving van.
In the week's postponement, the buyer decided she would save the inspection fee and canceled the inspection. She relocated, moved in and "SURPRISE, SURPRISE" (as Gomer Pyle used to say), there were alot of systems not working properly. She is suing everybody involved, including the Agents and Brokers on both sides, even though the only real responsible party is the builder and the subcontractors.
This lawsuit brings with it joy and heartache. Heartache for the agents and brokers who now have to pay their E&O deductibles, and a semi-morbid joy to me. The semi-morbid joy comes because this situation has awakened a lot of the Agents that were lulled into a hazy sleep that included the dream that Home Inspections were a waste of time and didn't offer any protection. I shouldn't say awakened.... It was more like a pitcher of frozen water being thrown upon them as they were in deep hibernation.
I was amazed to book the Listing Inspection for the Sellers. This older home is near our local major university and it will probably sell quickly, with or without an inspection, to an investor who would take Grandma's old house and turn it into a coed factory. The Sellers had never thought of having this done, it came about purely at the urging of the Agent. I have been promoting this train of thought at the office meetings for a couple of years now, but the Agents were hibernating.
Grandma's house had pitched roof damage, flat roof damage, negative grading around the foundation, peeling, flaking paint (I did a Lead Hazard Screen also), a backed-up washer drain, a loosely mounted toilet, a filthy heater, and some miswired outlets. These are all things that, if left to be found out by the buyer after the offer acceptance, would have resulted in about $4,000-8,000 in further deductions from the selling amount.
I explained to the Daughter the benefits of having the home Pre-Inspected. I shared with them the areas that they might want to repair, as well as the areas that they might want to leave "As Is." Many of the items were easily repairable and others were going to require the hands of professional. I also said that they might want to discuss a strategy with their Agent on how to leave as many of the items unrepaired as possible and add a large attractive "Allowance" for the perspective buyers to make the needed repairs. These are very popular in Utah since it allows buyers to move in knowing that they have $5,000 with which to make repairs. Every repair they do themselves saves money for another upgrade or repair.
It was a win-win for the seller. They would get the amount of money they were looking for and the surprises that would have lowered the final price had already been disclosed. In essence, they trumped the buyer's hand before they ever showed up. The key to the inspection is being very thorough, knowing that another inspector might be following behind me representing the buyers. That wasn't a challenge, though, because as a certified AII™ inspector, I have been very thorough from the start of my enterprise and I just did my normal inspection.
The next inspection was a 1,600 sq ft condominium for an out-of-state client who had never seen the property. His daughter had looked at it and thought her Dad should make the investment as a place for her to stay while going to school. I had been putting it off for 2 days due to time constraints but I had exactly 53 minutes free in my schedule and so decided that was as good as it was going to get this week.
By this point in my day, I was already frazzled, not because of one inspection, but because what had come the two days before and what was ahead of me in the week. As I walked up to this condominium, I noticed work trucks out on the street doing some kind of heavy labor, but I was so focused (pressured for time) that I didn't even stop to see what it was that they were doing. Noticing some minor deterioration on the front window box, I walked up to probe it. As I stepped from the lawn onto the concrete boarder trim to the planter box it felt as though I had just stepped into doggie doo-doo. I looked down and felt the lowest sinking feeling of embarrassment and humiliation in my life. Working hard just 25 feet away on the next unit was the man laying the brand new concrete border trim for the planter boxes. My size 15 shoe was smack dab in the middle of a perfect trim curb. I apologized profusely at my inconsideration at not even noticing what they were doing. I still can't believe I did that!
As the condominium was completed, I realized that there was no time to stop for lunch or else I would be holding up an Agent about 15 miles away. Speeding down the road, appetite was being replaced by stress as the hardest part of the day was coming upon me. A client had called in the middle of the previous week asking about the possibility of inspecting 2 matching 1984 duplexes and 1 home converted into a duplex that was built in 1890. He wanted an inspection for the older home, but I packaged the fee in such an attractive way that he couldn't refuse the package deal. Seems easy enough...... 3 more duplexes in an afternoon...... Forget about lunch for now!
Arriving on site I was surprised to find the Listing Agent. She was thrilled to see me because she likes my work regardless whether she is listing or selling. Then the Property Manager showed up, as well as the Selling Agent. I was fortunate because my new Apprentice also showed up from his regular full-time job to gain some more experience. He is almost to the point where he can fly solo, but enjoys the comfort of being overseen.
We started attacking the 1984 duplexes and discovered some interesting things. All four units had 1995 heaters and new ceiling ductwork had been added in the attics. This was evident because of the trampled condition of the 1984 fiberglass insulation, as well as the fact that the heaters were not designed to blow down into the slab, but only upwards to the attic.
This might not seem like a big deal, but there were floor ducts in every room. These were poured into the original concrete slabs. It turns out that the duplexes were built over some seasonal springs that raise the water table. Tenants had complained of water in their heating ducts. When the condition was fully exposed, the slab flues were filled in with concrete, and the above heating systems were installed. To quiet the fears of the tenants, the rooftop swamp coolers were aborted and each tenant got central air conditioning as a bonus.
From my perspective, I could see no damage to the structure from the high water table. The all brick exteriors with concrete foundations showed no settling or cracking. Brick is the great revealer for settling, yet no cracking or patching could be found. I have done numerous homes in that same area and have found some to be consistently dry in the crawls, while others are wet 90% of the time.
With that many people onsite it was a zoo, to say the least. The Selling Agent kept getting and making cell phone calls. It was impossible not to overhear his end of the conversations. He had scored tickets to the NCAA Final Four in San Antonio, Texas, and he was flying out the next day. Since he is an alumni of University of Utah, it was a very big deal to him.
The Selling Agent was trying to close on a home in less than 2 hours, and he was frantically trying to get a City Inspector to come out and look at a heating unit. The home was being financed by Utah Housing and the Appraiser for Utah Housing had said that he thought the unit was improperly located and the home could not close until somebody else looked at it. This is not what an Agent wants to hear just hours before the signing.
I listened to the struggle for about 20 minutes as I continued inspecting, and it was becoming evermore clear that I could very easily perform the service he needed. He was at his wits end and felt the closing was doomed because nobody could perform the needed service on that day. That's when I finally mentioned that I had performed the same type of inspection many times and that I would be happy to go over and take a look....... Talk about a sigh of relief...... His eyes immediately lit up and he started making phone calls letting everybody know that the closing still could go on.
The home was built in about 1890 and had 2 additions. The previous "want-to-be" buyers had installed new vinyl siding over this adobe brick home only to find out that they couldn't qualify for the loan and they lost their siding investment. The Seller had previously installed a new gas forced air, horizontal mounted unit in the attic. The exterior attic access was just large enough to fit the unit inside the opening which doubled as the gable vent.
I showed up and dawned my full respirator, pads, jumpsuit and gloves and headed up knowing what I would find, or so I thought. The Appraiser never saw what I was about to see. He made a good call, but for the completely wrong reasons. He based his evaluation solely on the size of the opening. The cover had not been removed recently, and I found about 2 feet of pristine non-trodden blown-in fiberglass insulation added everywhere. It must of seemed like the best thing to do at the time........But...... It was unsafe for several reasons.
I started the adventure with a breast stroke working my way westward. I could see nothing but insulation and found the division wall to the addition. It was filled with insulation, totally blocking any airflow from gable vent to gable vent. I took a deep breath and dove in, clearing the passage into the next area. I was shocked, because at the end of my first lap I did the high speed underwater turnaround and kick only to realize that I had never found the heater.
I didn't realize that I was looking for a buried heater. Now the search had changed it's tone, I was now looking for a periscope,.... I mean a flue pipe. Back in the original section of the attic I found the flue and started digging. Sure enough, completely buried was a brand new professionally installed heater. Now I don't do repairs, but I had no qualms taking the 3 minutes to pull back all of the insulation to completely expose the heating unit.
The heater could not properly function because it could not properly breath combustion air. I'm certain that this was a hazard in a covered condition, but if exposed, it was fine. It was adequately supported, had a hand shut-off gas valve and a flex line to boot. The heater fired right up and was working great. It now had great ventilation from the cross flow gable venting as well as the added roof vent. Although the insulation was now trampled and not the original 24", it was a great installation. I wrote up the findings and the agent was as happy as could be. Now I could get back to the real job and see how my Apprentice was holding up (I also took 5 minutes out for some KFC.... It was Finger Lickin' Good).
Have you ever had the pleasure of hearing this from a tenant....... "I was not informed that you were coming! I do not have the time to stay here! I did not have the proper notice to have things cleaned up, and there is no way in the blippity blippen world that you are entering this unit to do the inspection today!!!" All of the pent-up wrath from the tenant/landlord relationship suddenly had a way to vent itself...... And I was the target!
I hate it because eventually I do get the joy of returning to the property and have to deal with the tenant again. They just don't get it. In the name of their constitutional rights, they are slitting their own throats. Afterall, I am performing the inspection for their new landlord. I was clear to document the conversation within my report, so that my client would know which tenants were easy to deal with and which one was a total pain. I realize that this is beyond the scope of my inspection, but this added note was for MY satisfaction! (Don't mess with the home inspector!)
As the tenant drove away, I reached the Listing Agent who shared the true facts. The tenant was called 2 days before, and the young son would hang up on her. The day before the inspection, their phone was out of service. The day of the inspection the tenant was notified at work about the inspection. The neighbor across the way shared that they had discussed the upcoming inspection the day previous. I have very little patience for the attitude and belittling feeling expressed to me by the tenant, and have even less desire to return to the property.........
By this time of the day, I was tired and ready to call it quits. Yet the hardest inspection of the day was awaiting. Hard, because everything was just old or "Harvey Homeowner" renovated. Each room, system and component needed a special written comment. Whether it was the high window sills with the windows being taped shut or the full bath crammed into the half-bath space. The roof had three layers, with the top layer being installed at 4 different times. The only saving grace was the recently installed heater and water heater, because it surely wasn't the ancient, partially- modified electrical system. This inspection would have been much better suited for first thing in the morning when the brain cells were fresh.
We called it a day and I dropped off my apprentice at about 6:15 pm. Now it was time to come home and relax, right???....... WRONG!!! The evening had been reserved to put on a new home buyers workshop down in Provo at 7:45 PM.
The evening wrapped up with a 50 minute presentation to a small intimate group of first time home buyers. Half the time was spent in question and answer format, and the other was presentation format. I'll discuss this wonderful marketing approach in another MMM. Needless to say, I was ready to collapse from a full day in the middle of a full week. It was also unrealistic to have all of the reports ready for delivery first thing the next morning. I got home from the workshop and headed to the office to finish the reports. When I laid my head down at 1:00 a.m., it had been an exhausting day. Did you keep track??? The day included: 1 Pre-Listing Inspection, 1 Condo Inspection, 1 Heater Evaluation, 2 Newer Duplexes, 1 Old Home/Duplex conversion, and 1 Home Buyers workshop. I remember the days not too long ago when it would have thrilled me to have completed all those in one week.......
I have posed several questions this week.... Please respond to them below.
Your Name:
Hello Folks!
I'd like to visit with you this month about our A.I.I. Membership. There are several great reasons to be a member of the American Institute of Inspectors. Before becoming an inspector I investigated all of the inspection trade associations I could find, trying to find the best one for me. I'm sure the rest of you underwent this same search. I felt it was important to belong to a professional association for the credibility it would bring. I did not receive a reply from some of them. One was for inspectors in a specific state only. There were only a few that I considered to be what I was looking for. As I narrowed my choice down, the American Institute of Inspectors stood out above the rest because it offered an excellent training program, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for this career, there was a lot of support, I found that credibility I was looking for, yet the association was still fairly small in size so I wouldn't get lost in the numbers.
I still believe these things to be true. In fact, we have added a few benefits over the years in the form of, a) the Electronic Mail Hotline--Our communication avenue used daily by association members to discuss various inspection related issues. We have the ability to ask questions and receive support through this media and can expect a timely response from another inspector, b) The Monday Morning Messenger that you are reading--a weekly newsletter posted online by Web Master, Michael Leavitt covering various topics where members are encouraged to submit articles for publication relating to your inspection experiences.
Other benefits include: eligibility to hold an elected office, the right to vote in Annual Elections of officers, and the right to participate in Annual Board meetings. This association belongs to all its members and as a member, you can have a say in how our association is operated. As an A.I.I.. member you have the right to use the A.I.I. name or logo, refer to documents that describe A.I.I.'s policies, Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics. You also have the right to use A.I.I. approved Inspection Forms and Service Agreements.
You are offered continuing education classes at our Annual Meeting for a reduced fee to members. In Oregon, A.I.I. classes qualify for state continuing education credit also. There are certification classes available for Pest & Dry Rot and Mobile Home Inspections (these will both be offered at this year's Annual Meeting in November).
Thank you to the many of you who have already sent in your membership dues for 2000 - 2001. The invoices went out last month and are due by August 13th. Shortly after the 13th of August I will be putting together a new Membership Roster. Please make sure you get your dues in immediately if you want to be included in the roster. The new roster information will also be used by the Elections Committee to formulate and send a ballot out for our 2001 Election of Officers. This is a great professional association. I hope you will all continue to grow with us. Those who do not pay their dues will soon lose all the wonderful benefits listed above. How awful it would be to not have access to them!!!
Best regards,
Betty Buckley Executive Director The American Institute of Inspectors
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