Texas Inspector

"Thanks for the kind words. Please keep me abreast of your new home's performance."

"I appreciate you taking of your time to review my work and wish you the best with your new home!"

"I empathize with your having to deal with your first "builder". It is indeed a shame that the state of Texas cannot see fit to regulate builders in order to prevent such people from taking advantage of the home-buying public. Fortunately, you were able to dodge that bullet and end up with, what I think is, a much nicer home. I really appreciate your kind words and wish you all the best in your new residence."

"Many thanks for the positive review! Call me if you have questions about your house in the future."

"You are too kind to take the time during this busy holiday season to post your thoughts here. Please remember that I am available anytime to answer any questions you may have regarding your home. Thank you!"

"I really appreciate the kind words. It was my pleasure assisting you with your foundation installation. Together we can insure that your house is constructed in compliance with the adopted codes."

"I certainly appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts about my service to you with others. In addition to the inspection report you received, please remember that I keep an open door to my clients. Contact me anytime regarding issues concerning your home. Also remember that the monthly newsletter contains a wealth of home-related information and my blog has an ever-growing number of pertinent articles at [hyperlink removed]."

"This was a case in which I was hired as an expert witness in a matter of litigation between this client and his builder. The expert consultation contract spelled out in great detail what the fees for my involvement would be. The client agreed to the terms and signed the contract. The client is posting this here because he is angry with his builder and evidently powerless to take any meaningful action against him. His builder (who is a talentless production builder pretending to be a custom builder) did not turn off the water in the house as it was being built during one of the late hard freezes we had in the area earlier this year resulting in the house being completely flooded. Widespread water damage and mold growth occurred. I performed one inspection and was poised to perform several others once the builder had repaired the damages. This client was incapable of negotiating with his builder for more than one reinspection. And that inspection was a mere window of 4 hours on one particular day. I was informed of this at the last minute. I fell very ill during the week prior to this, was under doctor’s care for what is believed to have been West Nile Fever (not the virus, thankfully, but its precursor). I had 104° fever, was under doctor’s care, and was unable to walk from point A to point B. The medications I was taking seemed to be helping some and I agreed to the inspection time, under the assumption that I would be up to it five days later. When the day came, I was determined to go, got as far as the driveway, and realized that I could not see well enough to back the van out of the driveway, much less drive an hour to Southlake and work. I had to decline. Forget for the time being that this is a rich kid (read: two-percenter) buying a $750,000 house in one of the ritzier DFW suburbs. Pay no attention to the fact that both he and his spouse were driving autos which cost more than many peoples’ houses. Lend no credence to the idea that he makes his money in the investments sector. Just imagine that you go to all the trouble to find a lot in a place you like, a floor plan you can appreciate, a builder you think is good, and launch off into new home buyer mode. You wait patiently for many months while it is being built. And then, when it is just a few weeks from being completed, you’re choosing the right furnishings and picturing yourself living there, your builder floods the house and bursts your bubble in the worst kind of way. Might you be ballistic? Even nuclear? While I understand that this client has been through hell with his builder during the construction of this house, I did not hire the no-talent builder, I did not build the house, and I did not negotiate the unreasonably short window of time in which to perform one single re-inspection. If blame is to be placed and anger is to be displayed it should be directed at the proper persons – the builder of the house and the person who hired him. Trouble is, the builder has more money than the rich kid, and I do not. He signed a contract with the builder agreeing that he cannot publicize his bad experience with this house here or anywhere else. I have no such wording in my contract. I believe in free speech, even when it is lies. Now that he’s thrown his little tantrum here, my advice to this client is to admit his mistake, own it, move on with his life, and enjoy his new house."

"Thanks for taking the time to write something here. I really appreciate it. Be certain to contact me if you have any questions at all regarding the systems that I could not completely inspect due to the electricity and gas being off."

"Thank you for the kind words. Call me if your builder gives you any flack over the findings in my report and I will give you some pointers on how to deal with his reluctance."

"Whenever people are moving they are extremely busy with a thousand things to do. I really appreciate your taking a moment out of the moving madness to rate your experience with me. Please be certain to call me anytime you have questions regarding your new home."

"Everyone's time is important. Thank you so much for spending some of yours sharing with the others on Angie's List. Call me anytime you have questions regarding your house!"

"Thank you for spending your valuable time to write something here about my service to you! Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future with any questions regarding your home."

"Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience! Call me anytime you have questions regarding your home. If I do not know the answer, I know someone who does."

"Thank you so much for your review. I am happy to hear that the engineer concurred on your foundation being satisfactory. Here's hoping that you really enjoy your new home!"

"“He was not very thorough at all.” You received a 90-page report on the house replete with 28 photos and illustrations of the major defects. You also received a 4-page termite inspection report, for a total of 94 pages. “Did not check plugs.” All electrical receptacles that were accessible and not in use were inspected. Deficiencies in the GFCI receptacle placement were noted. “bathtubs for leaks.” All bathtubs were inspected. The rim around the master bathtub was not sealed and this was reported. “did not go on the roof.” The roof pitch on this house exceeded 6/12. The inspection agreement which you signed days prior to the inspection specifically notes that the inspector does not mount roofs in excess of 6/12 pitch. The roof was not equipped with an OSHA-required tie-off anchor. The pitch was sufficient for a thorough investigation of the roof from a ladder at the roof edge with 10X binoculars and a 30X camera lens. The roof was thoroughly inspected and many issues were both observed and reported. “nor did he inspect the foundation which had previously had some work done on it.” The foundation was inspected and 2 ½ pages of the report are devoted to its performance and additional information regarding the previous repair attempt. These clients were difficult from the beginning. Their biggest concern was regarding an imagined infestation of honey bees, which was simply not present. When the couple mentioned that they would be cutting down the two large trees in the front yard, I spent a few minutes discussing the possible negative ramifications of this move, such as loss of property value, the attraction of termites, loss of water absorption in the poorly-drained yard, etc. They were appalled that I would disagree with them and accused me of being “some kind of tree-hugger”. I attempted to explain to them in great detail that the accurate evaluation of foundation performance cannot be ascertained simply through foundation elevation measurements, especially in the absence of an initial foundation elevation survey for a benchmark. I further explained that the foundation repair company should be called upon to re-evaluate their repairs and to sign off on them. Additionally, I urged them to hire an independent structural engineer for further evaluation of the foundation prior to purchasing the house. I even gave them a referral for a local engineer. Further exacerbating the episode was the fact that the house was for sale by the owner and no one in the deal was being represented by a professional agent. This is nearly always a recipe for disaster due to laypersons pretending to be adept in areas where they have little knowledge, no expertise, and astoundingly unrealistic expectations. They did not mention any concerns they had about the inspection either during the inspection or following it. Some people simply do not want to hear the truth. They hear what they want to hear, and they become spiteful if they find you are not in lock step with them. Other than that, the review was just peachy. =-)"

"Thanks for the review. The 85-page report contained 38 photographs and line drawings illustrating in great detail the major deficiencies observed. Additional photos and commentary would have been redundant and would just have served to make the report even more difficult to digest. I am certain that I was able to clarify any questions that you had during our follow-up phone conversation. Should any other questions arise, please feel free to contact me. Thanks again!"

"Thanks for your review! I am confident that my reports will settle the dispute you have with your insurance company in your favor. It is always a pleasure to make certain that insurance providers do what they have contracted with their clients to do, and not just deny claims out of hand."

"I really appreciate your taking the time to talk about my service to you! I enjoyed working for you on the last house and look forward to answering any questions you may have about houses in the future."

"Thank you! Let me know whenever you have chosen a contractor for the rebuild and I will insure that he is both competent to do the job and understands what needs to be done."

"Thank you! I enjoyed assisting you and will be available for your questions in the future."

"Thanks for the kind words. I am glad to hear that you followed my advice and called a chimney sweep. It would have been dangerous for you to use that fireplace as is."

"Thank you so much for writing your thoughts here for others. I enjoyed working with you!"

"I appreciate your taking the time to review my work. It was a pleasure working for you. Please do not hesitate to call me with any future questions you may have regarding your home."