Bill's Blog

The rising tide of forclosures has left some lasting impressions with me. Inspections of foreclosed properties have gone from about 3% of my business last year to about 25% this year. The trend seems to be accellerating. Obviously foreclosed properties are different. Like the woman who is magical...

I'm trained to notice things, and despite what some people will tell you, there is something more than skill at work here. Take for instance, windows. There are some in the business that say that checking a representative sample of the windows is OK. After all, checking them all takes alot of tim...

Here is a seller stereotype that you have probably run into before.Really good people. They've lived in their house for 25 years. Cared for it well. It is beautiful. They desire that the next people who live in their house get the same kind of joy that they have from it. They go out of their way ...

This blog is not about Home Inspecting.  It is about an outrageous practice used by my credit card company (whose name rhymes with a famous Southern City).  Yes, I'm throwing them under the bus. What they are doing is wrong and I am wondering if I'm the only person that was not aware of about thi...

"How long is too long for an inspection?" The question came from one of my favorite agent clients and before I could reply she said, "How about 6 and 1/2 hours!" "Wow" I said, "It must have been some house!"  While I've not taken that long on any house, I have had some very large houses approach ...

My initial impression of the second floor bedrooms in this foreclosure house was that if you turned on all the ceiling fans full speed, there was one in every room, the roof might blast off! Just as in houses where there are air fresheners in every electrical receptacle, ceiling fans in every roo...

"Will you talk to my mother?" My client asked. She had just called me and was exasperated by all her mother's concerns about the sump pump in her prospective home that I had just inspected. I told her that I would be glad to set her mind at ease. This house had ranked on my list of the top 5 hous...

Some clients and agents do not have correct knowledge about Radon: Myth 1 - Slab foundations. "We don't need to test Radon, this house has a slab foundation." The agent said this to me as though it was an absolute fact. I told him I wished that were true, but Radon will be in its highest concentr...

"Oh good!" I thought to my self as I drove up the driveway. "A relatively new roof, 30 year shingles, and they threw in a ridge vent." On a 30 year old house, I had expected to see a roof covering that was not original. Worst case scenerio, they had replaced the original roof at say 15 years, and...

My client was very excited about owning her first home. So much so that when I started doing my inspection, she started cleaning and doing repairs! Never mind that she didn't own the house yet! She wanted to get a head start and she had come prepared to get some serious cleaning done. Her enthusi...