HOME INSPECTIONS: Opportunity or Problem?
By Coleman M. Greenberg

THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN FEBRUARY 1998 ISSUE OF THE
ARIZONA JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE & BUSINESS

Home inspections have been conducted since the first time a prehistoric family sent someone into a cave to check it out for them before they moved in. If that hapless first inspector failed to notice evidence that a saber-tooth tiger may already be calling the cave "home," the family might rightfully want to extract some form of retribution from the inspector for losses they may have suffered at the paws and jaws of the tiger. Almost nothing has changed since those days, except that homes are now far more complicated and a whole profession has sprung up to help folks find out about the conditions of the property (for a fee) before they move in and other professionals are now available to help them extract retribution (for a fee) if the inspector misses any tigers. That first inspector's defense might have been: "No tiger observed in the cave at the time of the inspection" and would obviously have fallen on deaf ears, if indeed there were any ears left for it to fall on, at all.

After today's inspections and reports disclose observations of evidence of water penetration, a listing agent's almost immediate question is often: "But, was the roof leaking at the time of the inspection?" Whether the issue is the damage a tiger in your house might do to you, or the house, or the damage rain through your roof might cause, this issue is at the core of the controversy between some real estate agents and some home inspectors about home buyers' rights to know about the condition of the property they want to buy.

How do a potential property-owner's personal rights compare to a current property owner's property rights? And, exactly who says so? Who is willing to interfere in any way with the rights of a potential property-purchaser trying to learn EVERYTHING they can about a property? Who determines how many days a buyer may have for investigations and inspections? Who decides who they can use to do their investigations and inspections? And, who is willing to be legally-liable for the difference between what a qualified and competent professional home inspector can find out, given sufficient time to perform a thorough inspection and write a unique and comprehensive report and what might be discovered and reported by an over-optimistic, quickie low-bidder inspector with a "short-form" checklist report? Who will step forward to make good for the damage the tiger does?

Really professional selling agents realize that ecstatically-satisfied buyers can be created by making sure that they know in advance about the "warts" and even "tigers" that may lurk in their new home and offering to help deal with them. These agents know that their satisfied buyers tell their friends and relatives about their experience, creating almost "sure-thing" personal referrals. Savvy listing and selling agents know that they are held to a much higher "standard of care" than the sellers and cannot rely on an "Unknown" response on the Seller Property Disclosure Statement. They actually look forward to a really comprehensive professional inspection to lift the unnecessary burden of liability for property condition from their shoulders and put it where it belongs: On the shoulders of the inspector, where it is welcome and "just part of the job."

In our common real estate community, agents, lenders, appraisers, title companies and inspectors can work together in harmony to take a transaction from listing to closing, or they can work at odds with each other, making every step unnecessarily difficult. The choice is largely up to the agents. At the center of almost every transaction, agents often determine who will be the lenders, the appraisers, the title companies and the inspectors. Denying it as they do it, they direct transactions like the conductors of symphony orchestras, but not always with acceptable results. According to the ADRE, the result is often a claim against the agent for property condition. In fact, the most prevalent claim against ADRE licensees is for property condition. With the availability of so many qualified and competent professional home inspectors, this is quite unnecessary.

Agents can "dump liability" and still know what to expect in an inspection by using the 1-800-723-2790 number provided by the Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors, Inc. (ASHI ) to help their buyers find a professional inspector. A call to this number will get an almost instant FAX reply with a list of full Members of the AZ-ASHI chapter who work in the area of the prospective sale property. Inspectors on the list have met the rigorous requirements of ASHI Membership and are qualified to perform inspections in accordance with ASHI's Standards of Practice. A request made at the 1-800 number will get a free copy of the Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics sent anywhere by mail. A personal supply of these useful booklets can be obtained at very small cost, so that every prospective home buyer can know what to expect from an inspection and can make their own choice from a list of ASHI-qualified inspectors. Agents with a complaint about the performance of any inspector on the list can call the same number and register it.

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Coleman M. Greenberg was president of the American Society of Home Inspectors, Inc. in 1993 and currently serves as president of the AZ-ASHI chapter. He was formerly licensed as a Real Estate Broker in Nebraska, where he operated a property management company. He was also previously licensed as a Real Estate Broker in New York, where he owned and operated a full-service real estate office. A former Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser in Arizona, Greenberg is ASHI Member #373, a full-time Real Estate Consultant and Home Inspector and can be reached at Dominion Real Estate Services - 928-204-1608.

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Coleman M. Greenberg
Professional Home Inspector
Certified Member #373, American Society of Home Inspectors, Inc.®
Arizona Certified Home Inspector #38576
Arizona Casualty and Property Insurance Producer #1213456

928-204-1608
1-800-998-1608 toll free from anywhere
Fax: 928-204-1597
Sedona, Arizona