How many deals "fall through" because of incompetent home inspectors.

No, not those that fall through because the house told a story, the inspector wrote it down, and the buyer backed out.

I think the question is too broad. We would have to have a definition of "incompetent home inspector" to answer the question, and I don't believe we have that in our industry.

We do have Standards of Practice, but even the national and state trade associations, as well as the many states that have licensing, cannot agree on what those Standards of Practice are.

And we have inspectors who inspect to the minimum standards, and those who go well above and beyond. Those who go above and beyond quite plausibly consider those who work to the minimum to be "incompetent home inspectors."

I recently heard a Realtor call a home inspector incompetent because he said that the electric panel screws were mismatched and pointed. As the Realtor said, "Who the f*** cares about screws?" Such a statement, however, leads me to believe that the home inspector did not bother explaining why mismatched and pointed screws are of a concern at the electric panel.

In my case, I consider "incompetent home inspectors" to be those who do not educate their Clients about what the conditions mean, why we state that something is of concern to us, and the consequences of ignoring the problem and/or ignoring the fix and/or ignoring our recommendations. But that doesn't mean that the "incompetent home inspector" can't be educated as well.

Would a home inspector who has done one inspection be considered incompetent by the home inspector with 25 years of experience and 5,000 inspections? I've quite often found that the answer is a resounding yes, particularly when spoken by those have the experience.

Is it any different from the heart surgeon who has completed one surgery versus the heart surgeon who has completed 500 heart surgeries.

One always hopes that education and knowledge will come into play. The rest simply has to be left up to experience.

I'm assuming that you're asking inspectors, but I think I have a good one.

I once had a contract for a buyer on a foreclosed property, where the inspector not only wrote up every possible thing under the sun, but to the side put quotes of what it would cost to fix it! Of course, my buyer freaked out.

Then, he faxed me (and my buyers) the report. All 78 pages of it. It included code for every item that he wrote up.

My deal busted within hours.

I snipped some of your post for brevity.

On that same vein, I wanted to say that I consider incompetent real estate agents to be those that blame the inspector for every busted deal, when it makes the situation sticky.

I'm an agent and my husband is an inspector, so I see both sides. I see what my husband does and how ethical he is and what his standards are, and it peeves me to see them get such a bum rap.

They are often the scapegoat, when I think if the agent would educate her buyer, or seller to the possibilities of the inspection's outcome, then the situations would be easier for everyone to deal with.

My situation that I spoke of earlier in another post, was a little different. Inspectors aren't specialists in any one field, and shouldn't place value on every item that needs to be fixed. When I saw that report, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Again - back to the real estate agents, I got a contract amendment with the report the other day, and the agent asked for EVERY single thing to be fixed. Of course it's up to the client, but I advise my clients to ask for those issues that affect resale, or are safety issues. Asking for every little thing is sure to set the seller off and sets your buyer up for a busted deal. That's just MHO thought.

I go on inspections with my husband when I can. I hear how he talks to his clients. Out of curiosity, do y'all speak to your clients about which issues they should ask to have repaired?

Here in south Orange County, CA. most of the homes are newer, so even a so-called incompetent home inspector would have a hard time killing a transaction on an otherwise OK to clean home. Most educated buyers and their agents would realize that the home inspector made a mistake, and compensate accordingly. Also, we sometimes will hire another home inspector for a second opinion in unique circumstances.

However, there are several areas of the country that require home inspectors to provide repair cost estimates, including right down there in Oklahoma and Florida. So your inspector might have some friends in those two states who convinced him that it is a good thing to provide such estimates.

Additionally, there is a very good web site that provides estimates that are quite good, even for here in San Diego:

www.homeinspectorlocator.com/resources/costtorepair.htm

So perhaps he was just trying to be helpful, and his type of helpfulness didn't sit well with you.

I never understand how a buyer will back out of something without working with his agent to see what the seller might be willing to repair. That will always bug me. As a former Realtor myself, there are very few material things that can't be worked through. Psychological things are a different story altogether, so I think your buyer had more psychological issues to deal with than anything else.

This particular case was a foreclosure and the seller wasn't going to shell out $6k to repair the items that he had listed.

I agree about the psychological issues. When you see every section, with major items and repair estimates - that are not normal to our area off to the side, you're darn right it's going to freak them out, especially when they're first-time homebuyers. Nothing I could say, could sway these people. The "evidence" was too comprehensive.

Not to say the issues didn't exist, but to put off to the side the thousands and thousands of dollars it was going to take to get the place up to par, they balked. He wasn't an HVAC repairman, he wasn't an electrician. I think those estimates would have been best left to someone who actually knew the repair costs, not someone who put what they thought the costs would be. And just because other states do it, doesn't mean it's right. Heck, some states don't even license their inspectors!

Don't get me wrong - remember, I'm married to an inspector - this is the only one that I've cringed at. For the most part, I've had no issues with what the inspector has found. My issues for the most part, have been with the real estate agents not being educated in the process.

Yea, foreclosures are a different story.

And most states still do not licensed their home inspectors, including California.

I don't provide cost to repair estimates, but I try to be helpful by putting this in my reports:

quote
Quite often we get asked “How much does it cost to repair that?” Quite frankly, we don’t know.

We are full-time, professional home inspectors, and our Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice prevent us from working on properties that we have inspected, so we have no personal experience concerning how much it costs to repair the many things that we inspect. Each home and circumstance is different, and a licensed expert at something surely will discover some additional problems that a generalist and unlicensed home inspector cannot (California has no licensing for home inspectors). And we have yet to have any Client or Realtor call us up and say, “Hey, it cost $248.17 to fix that doohickey.” So we’re not being stubborn or anything like that; it’s simply that we really don’t know.

If you need to get an estimate for repairs, there are two very good ways to get in the ballpark. First, call three repair specialists for the work you need to have done and get an estimate from them (e.g., plumber, electrician, etc.). Most of them charge by the hour, so until they actually do the repairs, it truly will be an estimate. Then, pretend like you are a judge at the Olympics: Throw out the high estimate and the low estimate and take the middle estimate. That tactic typically (but not always) ensures quality materials, quality workmanship, and quality service without being taken to the cleaners by those who would prefer to overcharge you for poor materials, poor workmanship, or poor service.

Second, go to www.homeinspectorlocator.com/resources/costtorepair.htm for a pretty good list of estimates to repair just about anything in your home. Note, however, that they are estimates, and you’ll find estimates in some categories that say something like “$2,500 and up.” Well, your “and up” might come in at $15,000 when all is said and done, so it’s still better to call around and get some repair estimates for your specific situation and for the area where you will be living (Rancho Santa Fe in North County will be more expensive than Rancho San Diego in East County). Many Realtors or their offices maintain lists of professionals who have provided quality service to their agents or Clients at some time in the past.

We also quite often get asked, “Who should repair that?” Since HOMETEAM does not know the qualifications of the seller or the buyer to conduct repairs, we recommend that you hire a qualified and/or licensed professional in the appropriate trade to perform repairs. You need to decide for yourself if you or the seller’s qualifications, experience, and knowledge would allow the repair to be made without using a qualified and/or licensed trade professional. Keep in mind that some sellers tend to repair things using the quickest and least expensive method because they just want to sell the house. As quite often happens, that quickest and least expensive method leads to premature failure of the repair. Click here for helpful information concerning home inspectors, licensed specialists and experts, and the Better Business Bureau, and for help in selecting appropriate personnel to do repairs and maintenance on your new home.
unquote

Russel, I like that. I'll have to show it to my husband.

If you like that, you'd love my Interactive Report System.

I think my husband uses InspectIT Pro, or something like that.

How is your report interactive?

It comes on a CD, and you simply click your way through it. You can read whatever you want, or nothing. I've only been using it since August 1, and everyone is really responding well to it. Realtors especially like it because it provides them with a list of areas of concern so they don't have to read all the legal and insurance disclosures, yet those same disclosures are just a click away for my Clients. It is saving everyone a ton of time--me by not having to print and bind reports anymore, Realtors by not having to make copies of whole pages just to get to one item, Clients because they have access to so much useful information without being overwhelmed like so many reports tend to do. If I were to print everything out, it would be a couple of hundred pages at this point. On CD, they can read at their leisure, or at their interest.

Just like the section I posted above concerning Cost to repair. All that information is one click away in my Interactive Report System. So it doesn't take up a page in the actual areas of concern section that forces everyone to read through it to make sure they haven't missed anything.

My husband gets his reports to his clients the same day (sometimes veeeery late at night) and sends them as PDF files. He was binding a copy and sending them thru the mail too, but he cut that out.

So, do you mail the CD's out the next day? Sounds like a great idea, but I don't know if it would work for him.

I send email copies as PDF files about 12 hours after the inspection. Then CDs are delivered either by courier (Client and Client's Realtor) or by USPS Standard Mail (Seller or Seller's Realtor).

Gee, some of that looks familar.

I'll bet some of my reporting would look familar to you too!

Actually the thread was addressed to real estate agents but put here as I didn't want to steal the thread that made the question come up.