by Bob Kille on April 17, 2026

Bathtub Blues

One of my worst home inspection nightmares became a reality today.If you haven’t guess it yet its what happens when you walk away from a filling jaquzzi and forgetting about it. Yep, happened to me and now I’ve got a new rule.

Always inspect the master bathroom before the master bedroom, that way you can still hear the water running, plus you know you still have to inspect the bathroom before leaving the area.

It was quite a mess, I didn’t realize that the water was still running until I came to the bathroom jaquzzi statement in my inspection report. A bit of an adrenline rush combined with a severe sinking feeling is what I’m talk’n about. A good inch of water greeted me at the bathroom door threshold. “Buck up” is what came to mind as I started thinking of what to say to the owner. Well to make a long story short I just emptied the linen closet out onto the floor just after shouting a few choice words.

Please learn from my mistake, inspect the master bath first every time in order to make it a habit. You won’t regret it.

To view software and book publications by Mr. Kille please join us at www.inspectorsuccess.com

by Bob on June 11, 2005

Four Bucks

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Surety bonds for the non-insured home inspection company are a necessary part of doing business in the State of Arizona and I’m sure there are other states that require them or soon will. I applied for one this year from the Ralph Rigo Agency in NY. After filling out the paper work, getting a cashier’s check for the five grand and checking off the expideted return request I waited for the bond.

Ten days after they recieved my money and still no bond I gave them a call. Seems they sent everything out priority mail 8 or 9 days ago and told me that I should wait another 3 days to see if it didn’t show up. That’s when things started to smell bad. I requested to talk the the owner Ralph but keep getting a different person who said they could take care of me. This is how they proposed to do it. Give us your master card number and we will re-issue another bond for you at the rate of $24.95 and oh yeah, by the way we will send it out right away by snail mail. Unless of course you’d like to have us FED EX it for an additional fee.

After explaining to the second lady for a second time that I already paid for the bond issue in my application but did not recieve it and I had already paid for an expidited mailing, she relented on the bond re-issue of $24.95 but she couldn’t priority mail it unless I paid for another expedited fee of $4.00. It was lost on her that I already paid for the priority mail service. Her reply, we can’t help what happens to the mail and that I should be happy that there gonna re-issue the bond without charging me again.

I couldn’t believe my ears, were talking about 4 bucks! I ask again for Ralph, a ten minute wait on hold and Ralpf comes on to explain that “we don’t control the mail and that if you want your bond priority mailed out the next day, to please give my credit card info to the receptionist”. I explain again that it’s already been paid for so would he please send it out ASAP to which he replied, it will go out regular mail. I’m getting the feeling they never sent it out at all. When I asked if they had the tracking number Ralpf steadfastly refused to believe there was any such service offered with priority mail and even if there was they wouldn’t bother with it. Hmm, legal paperwork representing $5,000 deposited in a trust account and no tracking number.

So Ralpf, I say, are you telling me that you’d rather lose a yearly recurring customer than place my bond in a $4.00 priority mail package? I kid you not, his reply, “I’ll place your bond in the mail”. Things must be done a whole lot different in NY. Is it possible that this is standard operating procedure, hold back the bond and see if the customer will pay for a re-issue? In effect paying for it twice. Sounds like NY. Hope I haven’t been scammed for the $5,000 to boot.

by Bob on June 8, 2005

Inspector Brush Off

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Its hard to convince someone of the importance of a home inspection on a brand new, never been lived in home. The building had to pass inspection, right? Sometimes a few examples help a prospective client see the possible value of checking the builder’s work. Today’s inspection for example, provided me with at least a couple of good stories.

Many patios have what we term “typical cracking” which is cosmetic and usually caused by shrinkage or a small amount of settlement. When I made the remark to my client that the house still needed some work to be finished and the only thing that really concerned me was the significant cracking at the patio, he replied, significant? The builder told him that all concrete cracks, just a matter of where. That this was typical and nothing to be concerned with. Now there’s a brush off. Funny, the front patio, same size and configuration had no cracks to speak of.

Significant cracking, i.e. differential elliptical movement surrounded all of the bearing posts that carried the patio cover. The cracks were a 1/8″ to 3/16th’s wide with vertical movement of a 1/8″ to 3/16th’s. The post areas were sinking. Needless to say, I recommended a structural engineer to evaluate with repair as necessary.

The second example derived from this inspection was that the built up paper roof was never coated with the required UV protectant such as elastomeric. There was a guy there, not sure who he was exactly but, when I was relaying the fact of the missing roof coating he breaks into the conversation and say’s “around here the builders regard the coating as optional, it’s not really needed except to reflect the heat”. I let him save face by remarking that he would be correct if this was a rubberized built up roof, but it wasn’t.

Stuff like this happens all the time on the brand new ones. You can use these examples if you like, in your presentations.

by Bob on June 7, 2005

Just Another Lazy Day

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Every day brings a new perspective to the written words I use in my report software. Today I got a call from an irate home inspection customer who wants me to buy him a new water softener. This one’s 15 years old and leaking from the connections at the inside area of the tank. Here’s the deal. I inspected this house, oh about 8 weeks ago. In the report I list the visible water connections at the outside of the softener as corroded and needing repair along with the water heater, which was in a similar condition. The client who received a home warranty has American Home Shield stop by to evaluate and repair the corroded piping, however, the representative informs the new owner that water softeners are not covered. Hence, the call to me with a request for replacement? Seemed an odd request at first.

Apparently, the corrosion on the inside was much worse than the outside and the client feels like I should have told him the unit was in replacement condition instead of a repair. I must have inspected it as it was commented on. Well here’s the crux of the problem, I use a summary for everyone’s convenience and here’s where things went wrong. Not that the use of the summary failed it’s just that I got lazy, again. What I did was to combine the fact that the water heater and softener had a similar problem in the condition statement for the water heater. After all they were right next to each other.

Why was that such a bad idea you ask? Well, let me tell you. The condition of the water heater, which we must report on, was in a “Repair” state. The water softener which is outside the scope of a home inspection was in a “Further Review” state not only because its outside the scope but its also 15 years old showing corrosion on the outside connections. The “Further Review” statement was in the report at the water softener section to explain things such as outside the scope of a home inspection. This generic statement is not sent to the summary unless there’s a visible condition to attach to it. I figured, wrongly, that the water heater statement was good enough for summary purposes, a separate comment would take another half a second to include and just think of all that wasted ink and paper.

If a water softener appears to be in good condition I still put in a “Further Review” comment which doesn’t go to the summary. However, if I see an obvious deficiency it is noted and put to the summary with basically the same statement listing the visible condition. The fact that most clients never read the full report is not lost here. While I could defend the report and the full contents, I goofed and I paid.

by Bob on June 3, 2005

Home Inspectors And Resistance

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection My home inspection today started off just like any other inspection of a new home. Arrived 15 minutes early, met the owner and like some nervous nellie’s she followed my every move. Were at the garage when I performed a pressure test on the overhead door opener. This is done by standing at the door and when the door gets to about my wrist I give it some resistance. Sometimes the opener will quickly reverse other times it take a bit more resistance. How much more resistance to give it before quitting is a function of good judgment. Ever get that feeling of “something’s wrong” Yeh, that’s right, something just didn’t feel right just before it reversed. With nervous nellie standing there I didn’t want to examine the door just yet.

Anyway, on with the inspection of the exterior, the metal paneled garage door down. I notice that there’s a damaged top panel at the garage door and point it out to the owner who says “that was never there before” and gives me a look. I couldn’t say that it wasn’t there before as the garage door was up when I arrived.

Now its time to start taking a good look at the door. I notice that the door has windows at the upper panel; gazing at the rest of the neiborhoods garage doors I see that no one else has this type of panel. The owner admitted that she installed them herself to let in more light. The attachment point of the opener was where the damage was and you could not help but notice the small amount of metal it was attached to after her modification.

Now I can’t say for sure if I damaged the door with the pressure test or if the door had already been damaged when I arrived and the test just confirmed or made worse the damage. This could explain the “something’s wrong” feeling during the pressure test. I do know that I’m going to closely look over any door with a row of windows in the top panel and I’m sure as heck going to start my inspection with the door down from the exterior.

by Bob on May 27, 2005

Devil’s Side

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection I recieved a call today from a seller of a property I inspected recently. She was having trouble understanding my home inspection report. She had several complaints for me. First, for her, the front of the house has three sides. The left, right and middle sides? So when I remarked in my report that the foundation sill plate was below grade at the front side it left her asking at what side of the front?. That’s when the conversation went south for me as I didn’t realize at the time that the front of a home has three sides. I just assumed that if you looked at the front of the building you could ascertain for yourself where the grade was high. That assumption alone cost me twenty minutes on the phone. Alas, she may have a point. The report could well have said “at the front right side”

Next up was the comment that the seller’s discloure statement wasn’t present at the time of inspection. This is a standard comment inserted into the report to confirm that no one presented me with any additional information as to the past or current condition of the property. Heaven forbid, this comment was incorrect as she had the disclosure in her files and someone should have asked her for it. She apparently wanted me to retrack the statement because the wording of it made it look like she was hiding something. There goes another ten minutes trying to explain that the purpose of the statement was for my protection against possible false claims of someone saying that I had read them and had full knowledge of all contained seller disclosed conditions.

To explain why window bars at the bedroom windows are a reportable safety concern even though the previous home inspector didn’t point it out when they bought the home took more than one attempt, four to be exact. She says to me, just because you have to have a step stool to get to the top cotter pins doesn’t mean the iron bars won’t release quickly after all four pins have been pulled. What could I say to that, this was after my forth attempt.

Well she-devil went on to some other non issues and trying to keep my voice down was hard. I could feel myself ratch it up a bit at times. Even knowing I was raising my voice it was hard to stop. I hate to give up so I hung in there until she quit. I did ask her to call back if she needed more clarification, which is kinda like turning the other cheek so to speak.

Oh, my point. I think I’ll take a closer look at the wording of my comments to see if a little more explination might help. For instance the security window bars. A better explination of what a quick release is and why it would be necessary with a smoke filled room. “Devil’s in the details”

by Bob on May 24, 2005

Masked Man

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection The other day I attended an InspectVue users group meeting. The author of the program Lorne Steiner was there explaining the in’s and outs of his program and awnsering questions. As with most meetings of this sort “Lorne” went into a standard speech that lasted about 20 – 30 minutes on just why the software was so great.

One of the most interesting aspects of the speech was that home inspectors should be paid more, and that an illusion or perception of being overpaid, was held by most realtors and clients. Lorne then went on with a solution to this problem by explaining that if you were to finish your reports back at the office, no one would know how long you worked for your money. Interesting thought.

In my opinion, and do about 600 inspections personally a year, this is not a good idea unless you just don’t enjoy maximising your earning potential and free time at home with the wife and kids. For me, it takes an extra 20 minutes on site to get the report printed and handed over to the client. Off I go with check in hand. How many things can go wrong if you don’t finsih up then and there, plenty. One of my greatest benefits to my realtors who use me regularly is that were all done when we leave. No loose ends.

It may be better to educate the general realtor population as to the true costs of scheduling, expenses, liabilities and total hours worked per day rather than altering what you do to fit there present perceptions. For instance, go to www.inspectorsuccess.com and download the Profit Calculator. Using the Profit Calculator showed me that there is a cost of $140.00 in expenses for each inspection booked. The parameters used were; I wanted to do about 350 inspections a year and make $50,000.

I think what was really going on was that Lorne has had unfavorable remarks made as to how long it actually takes to input an inspection on site with his software. An average on site inspection time of two hours or less is expected and generally sought out by busy realtors. If your taking more time than this at an average inspection you may well want to finish at home to keep your realtors happy. Taking your work home to finish, sort of masks the input time drawback. Nice spin don’t you think?

by Bob on May 22, 2005

Eye Remember

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Some things seem like small details, like the type of tape used for the testing of electronic eyes for the exterior lamppost or garage lights. Generally the use of black electricians tape is used to cover the eye and it sometimes takes a few minutes for the light to come on. Most often I continue my home inspection routine and glance back to see if the light activated. Occasionally, I’ll forget to go back and take the tape off before leaving the inspection site. Nothing like a call back to take a piece of tape off.

Use friction tape. It falls off after a day or two all by itself. Friction tape is made of cloth and has less adhesive. I wrap the lower part of my screwdriver with a good bit of it so it’s handy and with me at all times. Haven’t had to go back for this oversight since I switched to the friction type. Just one less detail to remember.

by Bob on May 20, 2005

Lazy Man’s Bet

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just don’t feel like dealing with the phone. Yesterday I had to take the day off to drive my wife to the peridontics for some minor oral surgery. She generally answers my home inspection phone calls and just before we left she reminded me twice to forward the phone to my cell. My mind start to rationalize that people can wait till we get home and there probably won’t be any calls anyway, blah, blah, blah.

What’s a missed opportunity worth? Not only did I not book the four waiting inquiries for inspections, I lost the future referrals that most inspections generate. The realtors who called ended up using another firm, and guess what, its entirely likely they could actually like the new inspector better than me. So if you care to add it all up, I lost the four inspections, the additional future referrals that the inspections generate, and quite possibly a realtor or two. Realtors are generally worth 10 -20 inspections a year, the inspections plus the referrals generally generated would be in the range of 8 – 20.

So figure, 18 present and future inspections lost if I’m lucky. At $300.00 per inspection I most likely lost a minimum, (minimum is a key word here) of $5,400 dollars because I was lazy and didn’t feel like answering my phone.

Keep in mind that everything you do is cumulative. The phone doesn’t ring today because of today’s efforts, it rings because of your total past efforts. All your marketing to make the phone ring is useless unless you answer the phone when it does ring. A very good case can be made for the call centers specializing in booking inspections. This is a referral business, either past customers or realtors generate the most and least costly sales year after year. Indeed, they can be counted on if your any good at what you do and your marketing follow up is in place. The follow up and referral generation (past efforts) is the reason that so many inspectors with 5 to 7 years of experience are booked out at least a week in advance.

$5,400.00 lost to the lazy man’s bet. Bet they can wait till tonight, I’ll bet there won’t be any solid inspection inquires. I’ll bet this figure is way high and the realtors will stay loyal because, blah blah bla. Poor bets for a guy who doesn’t answer his phone in a profession where time is of the essence.

by Bob on May 3, 2005

Smack Down

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection You can never tell just how well you’ve handled a customer complaint until you get the better business bureau smack down. For instance, I received one in the mail today dealing with a home inspection customer compliant I had four weeks ago. Actually, when the call came in it was more of a “just wanted to let you know you missed a coupla things” kinda gripe. I took in all three of her comments and then preceded to let her know why these weren’t really mistakes at all, and a valid reason for the one item I did admit to missing. Now that’s a mistake. She felt as if I was making excuses rather than taking responsibility for the three issues raised. (A water heater that wasn’t left on, a dishwasher not checked due to the water supply not being on, and a missed warped header over a closet door) I made the remark to her that I was sorry she felt that way, which seemed to anger her more. It was a strange call, which became stranger as in her letter to the bureau she claims 20 plus items missed in the inspection report.

Usually when a client wants their money back they say so in the phone conversation. Or so I thought, now comes the better business bureau to champion her cause. The client wants an apology and her money back even though the report detailed numerous items to be resolved by the builder. The following is a snippet of my reply to her:

I understand that you feel as though you received a poor inspection of your property, and that my explanation of the three items you shared with me sounded more like excuses than proper procedure. To this, I do apologize.

I hope that the nine items of concern that were discovered through the inspection process and disclosed to you in our summary report were resolved by the builder to your satisfaction including the missed warped header. If you had other issues with my inspection that were not covered in the report please take a moment and read through the Arizona Standards of Professional Practice that is contained on the inside cover of your report. It would help me a great deal to know what issues, if any, you have that did not meet the standards of practice.

Better communication skills might have saved me from this, remember to listen and ask questions rather than defend your position. You could profit from my mistakes.

by Bob on April 20, 2005

Just One More Step

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection An incident during my home inspection today reminded me how often many of us refuse to take that last step to success. This last step, the crucial step, always looks more daunting than it actually is. Its just one more step, just like the last few steps, with just a tad bit more of forethought and care. Instead of thinking it through or asking for a spot our minds start thinking of easier ways around that last step. But alas, that last step is there for a reason. That last step, when taken, will get you up and over obstacles without harm and see you safely to your goal.

Here’s what happened. A day just like any other day, I was up on the flat roof inspecting when I hear a muted cry for assistance back over by the parapet wall and ladder. What greeted me was my client with the proverbial “Deer in the headlights” look. He had one leg over the parapet wall and the other was two steps below on the ladder. This is an older man who wasn’t going to be able to hang on long. His face was bright red from the exertion, no telling how long he’d been in that position before crying out.

Just one more step was all that was needed to complete his goal. Try not to convince yourself that skipping a step would be easier with the same results. For most of us the last step is needed. Watch others take that last step and don’t be afraid to ask for help if your not sure of yourself the first time or two.

by Bob on April 20, 2005

Sword Play

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Some advice from the home inspection trenches or should I say podium. Never step up to the podium without an outline or sufficient practice time for your intended message. I thought I knew what I was going to say and I thought I had a good speech ready but I wasn’t prepared for the coffee blurts.

Three cups of coffee waiting for my time in the spotlight was all it took to vaporize my train of thought and heighten my nerves. A five-minute talk came out in two minutes at a pace that took me by surprise.

Not having an outline for reference was a big mistake when confronted with a combination of brain freeze and the need to keep talking. A few key elements of my talk were passed over making what came out of my mouth sound a bit like a run on sentence that’s not sure where its going.

I’m sure most of the realtors were impressed with my lung capacity but not my message. A speech is like a two edge sword; it can cut you a path or just cut you. No doubt about it, I was bleeding profusely.

Write your outline even if you don’t think you need it and for heavens sake stay away from the coffee before a presentation, unless of course, you enjoy bleeding like a stuck pig in public.

by Bob on April 19, 2005

Sink Or Swim

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Sink or swim is a question you ask yourself when you’re stuck in a wash and the water rises to about the door panel area. Spinning the wheels just sinks you down more and you feel conflicted as to weather your going to open the door and let in a small amount of the Santa Cruz river or get out through the window.

I choose the door not quite thinking it all through, a poor choice if I do say so myself. All the water made the car even heavier to push out. Good Samaritans are still around. I convinced a nice young lady to get wet and sit behind the wheel and give it a bit of gas as my new best friend and I pushed.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Always have an extra set of clothes tucked away, you never know when or why you’re going to need them. You’re going to thank me one day for reminding you to tuck them in just like I’m thank’n Gayle today.

By the way, I gave my business card to both of these kind souls and offered to do a free home inspection for them or anyone in there family. I really hope they call on me, it was a great feeling to be able to offer something in return for there gracious efforts.

by Bob on April 7, 2005

Keypad Follies

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection Has one of your realtors asked you to pony up and get a keypad so that you can let yourself in while they stay in bed?

This is really not a good idea, unless and I mean unless, all the other home inspectors in your market area are doing this. The state requires that either the buyer or the buyer’s broker sign the contract. If no one shows to the inspection how do you get the contract signed? You could jump through hoops getting fax numbers to your customer (if they even have one) and then bug them to send it back before the inspection the next morning.

I do know a few home inspectors who have their wives or staff do this, not mine of course. This keypad responsibility just adds a whole new layer of complexity to your already hectic day. And for what? So a realtor doesn’t have to show up and do their job of reporting the conditions accurately as possible.

Ideally its best that someone see the conditions that are contained in your report so you don’t have to come home to phone calls to explain everything to the realtor and then to your customer as well.

What happens when you forget to update that pad every morning? What if the update didn’t work? That’s right you can’t do the home inspection and your screwed! At least once a month a realtor shows up and their keypad doesn’t work. They have to go back to the office where the special cradle is and reset it. Lucky for us we can start on the outside while there gone.

Keep it simple stupid, comes to mind.

by Bob on April 6, 2005

My Roots Are Showing

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection The big boys are movin into my neiborhood. LandAmerica just landed at the local MLS meeting and made alot of noise about being the best home inspection company, having the best inspectors, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Basically they are trying to buy there way into the market with a loss leader strategy. Did someone say Cupins? Coupons fer the rest of us. There trying to get a foothold using price and convenience of having the termite inspection done at the same time. Don’t forget they also add money to the fee for older homes, just like I do. Speaking of which it looks like they’re 5 dollars higher than me at there regular fees.

There inspection guarantee is a nice touch for 90 days but it may leave a sour puss on the realtors client if something goes wrong after that. The one year home warranties are a much better way for a realtor to keep his/her referral base happy long term and it doesn’t cost them a dime more than the free 90 days warranty LandAmerica gives out.

I would think a realtor would be wise to consider the longer inspection times on the termite/home inspection combo. It takes a good 1/2 hour or more to do a through termite inspection, add that to the inspection time and I think the realtor will be at the inspection longer than they’d like. Not sure how this is a benefit to the realtor, takes longer and there’s no one to back up the termite inspection without a lot of paperwork and complaints.

LandAmerica also has a 3 million dollar E&O policy. Not sure how many 3 million dollar homes are in Green Valley (none) but it sounds good. Well on second thought, maybe there track record ain’t so good and they feel the need to over compensate.

LandAmerica is a huge company, I’m sure they can afford to cut prices for a year but it will still come down to who the Green Valley Realtors feel most comfortable with. I’ll still be here with the rest of the little guys that survive. This is an industry trend that reminds me of the family farm and the fall of the farm belt to big agriculture. Progress I guess.

by Bob on April 5, 2005

Make em Laugh

Bob Kille Acuspect Home Inspection What does cute and funny have to do with home inspection marketing? Well let me tell you, how would you like to be marketed to? Making someone laugh or just plain smile goes a long way to gain their trust and acceptance.

To get referrals you must be liked, trusted and respected. Humor in marketing done right elevates you past the being liked hurdle we all face when starting out in this business. Especially good humor delivered consistently might even get you remembered when it counts. How much would you pay to have your realtors display your marketing prominently at their desk?

Find a repeatable theme or style of humor, hit them with it 12 times a year to gain the edge in the battle for their mental real estate. There’s a reason the most successful home inspectors have a marketing system, they work!

Blog Post

Footer

Meta