Subscribe: The relationship between Realtors and home inspectors is often contentious. A home inspector arrives on the scene only when a deal is close at hand, and the scent of commission checks is in the air. The discovery of construction defects in a home can kill a deal, and a home inspector who reveals those defects to a buyer – rather than the defects themselves – is perceived as a deal-killer by some Realtors.
Some Realtors try to minimize the risks that construction defects will abort an imminent deal by suggesting that buyers hire a hack home inspector who will overlook or minimize them. Buyers should make no mistake about this: there’s a too-high probability that a home inspector referred by a Realtor is an industry-friendly hack who may ill serve a buyer.
I’ve watched Realtors conduct a decades-long assault on the character of one particular home inspector who I consider a friend and who, from what I’ve seen, is highly professional and knowledgeable and who cares only for the interests of his clients. His approach drives some Realtors bonkers.
You can read a Realtor’s unhinged rant about this home inspector at Gary Lucido’s Getting Real blog. You can follow my response to it in the comments on Gary’s post. A while back we did a video tour of University Village with Gary. The best way to judge his credibility is to read his dishonest, repeated and willful ignorance of simple facts in the extended exchange in the comments on one of his posts about a client of ours.
Realtors who disagree with a home inspector’s findings or conclusions about a home should dispute them on a factual basis. Trashing the home inspector is a stupid Realtor trick that only makes a Realtor look foolish or unprofessional.
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{ 7 comments }
If I wanted to trash a home inspector I would have mentioned his name but I didn’t. My goal in this post was to point out the problems with using alarmist inspectors who are confrontational and try every trick in the book to avoid working with the realtor. I don’t consider this behavior to be in anyone’s best interest. Does he really only care about the interests of his clients or is he erring on the side of making sure he doesn’t ever get sued or does he have something to prove?
We don’t recommend hack inspectors but I admit that other realtors certainly might. And our goal is not to simply get a deal done at all costs. If I see what I think is a problem I will call it to the inspector’s attention to make sure it’s addressed. In fact, I try to identify as many problems as possible myself up front so that they get factored into the initial negotiations. From my perspective the worst thing would be for a buyer to uncover problems after they move in that should have been discovered during the inspection. And of course, a buyer is always free to come up with their own inspectors. We certainly don’t discourage that and some of the better ones we meet that way make it to our referral list.
Gary,
You weren’t pointing out problems; you were slamming an individual – and tarnishing yourself in the process.
Everyone in the busiess knows who you were ranting about. Some may conclude, I believe fairly, that your goal was to avoid a defamation suit, and that your not naming the individual was simply an act of cowardice.
This inspector wasn’t trying to avoid working with you. He had a legal obligation not to work with you without his client’s permission, and your statements indicate a pathetic ignorance of the basic legal rules that govern your relationship with home inspectors.
If you’ve gone this far in your career in ignorance of those rules, then you’ve fessed up to working only with and referring only hack home inspectors. Only a hack would talk to you about his inspection results without his client’s permission. And only a hack would be in need of your suggestions.
Someone whose knowledge of the home inspector’s role and responsibilities is as limited as yours has no standing to judge the behavior of a professional home inspector.
Let’s do readers and any buyers who might consider working with you the favor of confining our exchange on this topic to one place – your blog post.
Agreed on the last point.
Realtors need to act professionally at all time and bite their tongue if they want to bash someone personally.
Joe, you know I hold you in rather high regard. And I think you do hold the same for me. However I really do have to agree with Gary’s logical post about our common Home Inspector. After being the buyer’s rep, and a seller’s rep, on inspections performed by our subject inspector, it became obvious that he wasn’t following the guidelines set by the professional trade organizations that inspectors belong to. I don’t doubt his experience in recognizing problems with real estate. Unfortunately the process of giving advice to his clients is blatantly out-of-bounds of what an inspector should tell his clients. And based on my experience, when our friend shows up at an inspection at one of my listings, as politely as I can, I decline to allow him on the property. I tell the buyer and agent that they are welcome to arrange another inspection, or that we will simply allow the buyer to get out of their contract. Although a buyer is contractually entitled to an inspection, ultimately, a seller has the right to allow or deny access to his property to someone that is objectionable. And if the outcome is going to be a dead contract, why would we waste the three hour charade of a home inspection?
I do hold you in high regard, Bob, and I completely disagree with your approach to this.
What you’re saying, in effect, is that a seller has the right to select a buyer’s home inspector. I assume that you always get your seller’s advance approval of the access denial, since it’s the seller’s property rights, not yours. And your sellers always agree?
Given the fact that this inspector has given a positive reading on a great many homes over the years, how can you possibly know in advance what the outcome will be?
The inspector that cannot speak his name?
I’m guessing the inspector in question is one who has various videos here.
One of my friends used his company on an inspection for a condo he was buying based on the whining I’ve seen realtors do regarding him over the years. Now it was another inspector from his company that did the inspection.
Said inspector pointed out some problem areas, but generally since it was newer construction said it was a well built property.
No split face block etc.
An inspectors job is to inspect and find out what condition the property is in. NOT make friends in the real estate community.
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