If you’re confident in your experience, it pays to inspect appliances and make the customer happy

The Standards of Practice are where you find guidance for performing home inspections. But you won’t find much, if any, information about home appliances, whether you’re relying Standards from a national, state or local association. From a customer’s perspective, an inspection should cover all of the elements in any home. And that leaves you with a conundrum.

If appliances aren’t truly covered in the Standards, but your customers expect to learn whether the refrigerator gets cold or the oven heats up, you’ll probably err on the side of pleasing the customer. So the obvious question is, how?

What Current Standards Say

Most Standards of Practice are pretty straightforward about not inspecting appliances, or at least leaving that at the discretion of the home inspector. For example, the NAHI Standards, under section 10.3.8 state that the inspector is not required to operate freestanding or built-in appliances.

But “not required” is a lot different from “shall not.” And if your customers expect appliances to be inspected, you’ll have much better luck pleasing them if you include that in your services.

You’ll have to draw boundaries somewhere, as not every inspector knows every appliance.

Risks of Inspecting Appliances

With every home inspection, you run the risk of being held responsible for anything that’s not in good working order, at least if you don’t report it. If the roof leaks and you didn’t detect it, chances are the customer will want to know why. But without Standards to guide you, you’re in a riskier area.

If you inspect appliances, you won’t have Standards to back up your methods if the customer has questions later. But if you don’t inspect them, you run the risk of losing customers. The answer, says NAHI, is to use a better standard of care.

Your life experience has taught you how to operate common appliances.

How to Protect Yourself

Where the Standards stop short of describing how to inspect appliances, Claude McGavic, NAHI blog contributor, recommends that inspectors operate the appliance where feasible, and look for the following:

Your general knowledge of how to operate appliances in your own home obviously constitutes some level of expertise. And where you’re faced with any appliance that you aren’t familiar with, then you can fall back on the Standards that say you should only report on what you know.

Appliances are a gray area in home inspections. They’re generally not required, but your customer probably doesn’t know that. And even if they’re informed, it’s better to make the customer happy than to risk losing business. And that leaves you vulnerable. The best way to mitigate that is to use a general standard of care, and avoid giving an opinion on anything that you truly don’t know.

Home inspecting is rarely the same from one day to the next. Where one customer is well-informed and knows just what your job entails, most others have no real idea. You can offer more services than the Standards require, but always remember to cover your own back.

If you consider the EPA guide a radon heat map, California is pretty warm.

Throughout your home inspection course materials, you’ll learn about the different tangible components of a house and their possible defects. But some defects, you can’t touch, see or even smell. Such is the case with radon.

You may have heard about radon before, but you might not know just how important detection really is. In the state of California, you really do need radon education. Here’s why:

This noble gas has some fairly dishonorable effects.

What is Radon?

Why is Radon Dangerous?

Simply put, radon causes cancer. Lung cancer, to be specific. According to the American Lung Association, radon is second only to tobacco in lung cancer deaths, with over 21,000 reported each year. It’s also dangerous because you won’t know that you’re being exposed to radon unless the building and the soil under it are tested.

Are Some Homes More at Risk Than Others?

There’s no way to know, at least not just by looking, whether a house is contaminated with radon gas. Unlike some contaminants, such as lead or asbestos, the age of the house is not an indicator. Some brand new houses test positive, and some old houses do not. It’s also false security to think that because neighboring property is clear, the house in question must be, too.

Radon takes the path of least resistance, which means it can enter many different ways.

How Does Radon Enter a House?

The simplest answer to how radon enters a house is, “Any way that it can.” Radon is in the soil, so it migrates upward through a crawlspace, slab, walls and any other point of entry that’s not especially dense. Once inside a house, it can contaminate nearly everything, including the water supply.

Is One Test Enough?

Unfortunately a clear test doesn’t mean that the house is clear of radon forever. This is true, even if the house has radon mitigation in place. Every house should be regularly tested for the gas. It’s the only way to know for sure.

All 50 states show evidence of radon in the soil. Some states have a much higher concentration, but no state is safe. Most of California is in what’s known as the “Orange Zone” or Zone 2. While radon concentration isn’t as high as Zone 1, which is throughout the northern parts of the U.S., it’s also not as low as Zone 3, which is mainly found in the southern U.S. California is in the middle.

Every house that you inspect is at risk of testing positive for radon gas. So radon education helps you become a better home inspector. Fortunately we include it as part of a complete training course.

When a disaster happens, inspectors help make the path to FEMA assistance as smooth as possible.

As a disaster inspector, you could offer assistance just when people need it the most. When any disaster affects home owners, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) steps in to assess the situation and provide different types of relief as needed. One type is disaster inspections, which report the scope of damage for home owner insurance and repair purposes.

Disaster inspections won’t be your sole source of customers, and thank goodness for that. But qualified and certified men and women find disaster work a good way to serve communities and supplement their income.

Disaster inspectors assess the scope of damage, not whether a light bulb works.

What is a Disaster Inspection?

Unlike a typical home inspection, which reports on the condition of everything visible and accessible from the roof to the basement, a disaster inspection focuses on damage. Inspectors visit homes or home sites of people who have applied for disaster assistance from FEMA.

Before FEMA can offer assistance, they must determine whether or not it’s warranted. That’s where people like you come in. Inspectors look for damages that are related to a federally-recognized disaster, such as a flood, tornado or earthquake. All information is recorded electronically and sent to FEMA.

Disaster Inspectors Don’t Work for Free

Although this type of work is certainly a service, inspectors aren’t expected to donate their time and skills. Disaster situations can be more hazardous than any average home inspection, and ASHI says the pay reflects that.

As with your normal inspections, pay is on a per-site basis. But because these aren’t comprehensive inspections where you’ll test outlets or determine whether living room lights function, the process goes faster. Many inspectors complete about 10 per day.

Disaster inspectors help families put their lives back together.

How to Qualify as a FEMA Disaster Inspector

FEMA-approved contractors offer a free, one-day Disaster Inspection Training course across the country. ASHI says members usually have access to this training through local chapters at low or no cost. A fee may be assessed to help support the ASHI chapter. Training also meets some of your ASHI Membership Renewal Credits (MRCs).

At present, FEMA contracts with only two disaster inspection companies. Those are PB Disaster Services, and PaRR Inspections. Do your due diligence before signing on with either company for disaster-related inspection work. They will handle the FEMA contracts, and they will retain a portion of what FEMA pays for inspections. Unless FEMA changes policies, you won’t perform disaster work directly for FEMA, but for one of those two companies.

Disasters aren’t predictable. There might be hurricane and tornado seasons, but no one can really know when or where the next event might happen. When home owners lose everything to fire, flood or almost any other natural occurrence, FEMA can help. And with inspectors like you, they know who needs their help the most.

Many inspectors enter the field looking for a career change with more control.

Home inspecting can be a rewarding 1st or 2nd career, but what you imagine and the realities of of the job might be a lot different. There’s more to it besides ticking off line items on a report. Some of it is interesting. Some of it is boring. Some is tedious, and some parts are downright enjoyable.

Are You a Good Self Motivator?

One of the most important qualities of a home inspector is the ability to keep moving forward. You’re in charge of getting leads. You’ll set appointment. You’re the one who shows up at a home on time.

If you can motivate yourself to not just perform inspections but everything else that goes with the job, you’ve got a good portion of the requirements already under control. If not, you’ll need to work at staying on track.

Houses might be reasonably clean, but some of the systems aren’t.

Do You Mind Getting Dirty?

Home inspecting isn’t as dirty a job as construction, but you probably won’t wear a shirt a tie. Inspections require you to investigate a house top to bottom, including the crawlspace or basement, attic, and everything in between.

Most inspectors wear casual clothing that’s neat and well kept, such as khakis and a polo shirt or something similar. Any given day could find you with tar, grease, dirt, or cobwebs all over your clothing. It’s all part of the job, and every job is a little bit different.

Are You Comfortable with Technology?

Home inspections don’t require technology, but it sure does make them easier. Many home inspectors carry a tablet computer or laptop and create a digital inspection report as they go. That saves time, and also lets you add photos without developing film or printing photos from a home printer.

Customers are beginning to expect digital reports, too. So a certain comfort level with home inspection software helps you work efficiently and keep up with the latest trends in the industry.

Do You Have an Interest in Home Systems?

You don’t need a background in construction or any related field to become a great home inspector. Your training will teach you everything you need to get started, and you’ll keep learning for as long as you work in the industry. The important question is whether you care about inspecting homes.

A home has a lot of different elements, and all of them need an inspection. That means you’ll learn about roofs, siding, interiors, foundations, electrical systems, plumbing, HVAC, and many others. You’ll need at least some interest in what makes a home tick.

You don’t need business experience, but it sure does help.

Can You Run a Business?

Inspections are one part of home inspecting, but the business side of the job covers a lot of tedious work. You’ll need some bookkeeping skills, and marketing doesn’t hurt, either. Taxes are another issue, and so is managing your appointment calendar.

For the right type of person, home inspecting makes a great career choice. There’s plenty of freedom, you’re your own boss, and you control how fast or slow your business grows. But it’s not for everyone.

The time you save generating reports quickly could be spend helping your business grow.

Automation makes the home inspection industry work a little quicker and probably adds a lot of efficiency, too. As a home inspector, you go in and get the job done, and then the customer gets the report in hand faster, too. But in all of this fast-paced, efficient reporting, where does that leave the customer, aside from walking away from the transaction as quickly as possible?

Are you missing out on building a relationship? And should you worry about a relationship at all? Probably yes, and on both counts.

Technology should enhance your business, not limit it.

Assembly Line Inspecting

The one thing that advancements in technology always promise is a better way of doing things. But better is a relative term. If you think about your job as only inspecting houses, then it makes sense that getting as many done in a day as possible frees you up to do more. You don’t have to think about the customer except for providing him or her with a great report in a timely manner, and then it’s on to the next one.

But where are all of those inspections coming from? Technology might help you work faster, but that’s only part of your job. The other part is getting work so that you have houses to inspect. And someplace in the middle is the customer, someone you can regard only as the source of one job or someone who could help you get more.

Old Fashioned Inspecting

The old fashioned way of inspecting might take a little longer, but it has a much more personal touch. ASHI President, Alden Gibson says at ASHI Reporter that in his experience, nothing beats developing a relationship with every customer, at least to the extent possible. Technology doesn’t prevent that, either. So really, it’s more a matter of priority than choosing modern technology or not.

The old way, as he calls it, lets him involve the customer in the inspection. He can make eye contact. Show the customer what he’s inspecting, and explaining what he’s found. The report serves as a permanent copy of the inspection, not as the only evidence that it existed at all. This might take more time, but it serves both jobs – doing inspections and getting leads.

Every house that you inspect represents a person with a referral opportunity.

Getting Critical Leads

If you were going to recommend any professional to a friend, who would that recommendation be? Would you refer a friend to someone you’ve never met and only spoken with on the phone and via email? Or would you be more likely to make that referral to someone you’ve spent some time with?

Referrals can make or break your home inspection business. Sure, some people might do a Google search and choose the first one that they find. And some might check out the Better Business Bureau and Angie’s List to see whether there are any complaints. But when a friend says, “Call this guy, he did a good job for me,” that’s worth more than any random website or anonymous business rating.

Working efficiently isn’t unimportant, it’s just not the most important thing that you’ll do. Technology has improved the inspection business for you and your customers. But it’s not a substitute for good old fashioned customer service.

Use your software, and generate reports quickly. That’s what the market expects. But remember that every customer is an opportunity to generate goodwill, and hopefully keep your home inspection business growing.