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For many homeowners, nothing symbolizes summer quite like getting outside and grilling up some tasty treats on the barbeque. As we dust off our hamburger flippers and prepare for another grilling season, however, it's important to remember that when used or maintained improperly, barbeques can cause serious damage to property and to people. Here are a few simple recommendations to help keep your family safe as you enjoy your barbeque this summer: |
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Positioning the Grill |
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Proper Use & Maintenance: |
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To learn more tips on how to keep your home safe this summer, please contact your local Pillar To Post office. |
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Chris Livingston |
I just had an inspection cancel on me and wanted to share the experience with you. I booked it yesterday for $410 and this was after the agent and client had called around and price shopped several companies.
Today the agent calls, he's never used us before but many in his office do and he 'been in the business for over 30 years', and says I got XYZ Pest Control to do it for $300 and since it's a newer house there won't be anything wrong with it. I explained we've been in business for over 10 years, provide an excellent report onsite with pictures, email it to you and our client later that day, it includes the P&D, we have $1,000,000 in Errors and Omissions Insurance not just the State minimum. Also, not to disparage my competition but I had no clue this company did home inspections. Nothing I said swayed him because he'd "seen it all in 30 years and I've been working with these guys for 20 years and they do a great job."
After hanging up with him I was curious so I called the Pest Company posing as a potential client and asked if they did home inspections because their website mentions nothing about them.
"Well we recently started doing them" she said." We do the pest part and hire a home inspector we pay $187.50 to do the home inspection part". She told me this without even knowing I'm her competition!
I then told her who I was and I just lost an inspection I had booked yesterday to them and I had booked it at $410 after the client and realtor had price shopped everyone else so they just left $110 on the table. "Oh I'll pass that on to our owner because we just raised our prices $50 two weeks ago."
I then called the client directly and said "I'm not upset at all you went with someone else, that's business, but I wanted you to know the home inspector you hired is doing it for $187.50. What do you think he isn't doing that I am? Do you think he has $1,000,000 in E&O or 10+ years in business?"
"Oh I'd better call my realtor and ask him about that but for now I'll stick with the $300 because my agent says they are good."
"No problem. Call me back if you change your mind and thanks for thinking of Pillar To Post."
Oh well. His reluctance to pay a reasonable price on a house that's a short sale costing $600,000 tells me he might get what he paid for. I just want him to remember who told him to go with the $187.50 inspector when there is a problem.
| The Right Tool for The Right Job Fast, Good or Cheap. Pick two. Below is The Designers Holy Triangle! When creating a project, clients must choose only two out of the three options. They can't have it all. It's a reality of life we all have to live with. Good + Fast = Expensive Choose good and fast and we will postpone every other job, cancel all appointments and stay up 25-hours a day just to get your job done. But, don't expect it to be cheap. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Good + Cheap = Slow Choose good and cheap and we will do a great job for a discounted price, but be patient until we have a free moment from paying clients. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Fast + Cheap = Inferior Choose fast and cheap and expect an inferior job delivered on time. You truly get what you pay for, and in our opinion this is the least favorable choice of the three. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- |
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I have to thank Salvador Del Cid with RE/MAX in North Portland for his excellent blog on radon over the last few days. His wife is also a reporter for KOIN 6 News and did a fabulous piece of the dangers of radon.
The link to the short story that was on the news Friday is:
There is also a longer 24 minute interview with Scott Burns, Professor of Geology, Department of Geology,Portland State University. It is better than some of the multi-day long classes I've taken on radon. The link to that one is:
Salvador also has a great map by zip code for the Portland Area:
50% of the houses in Portland statistically levels of radon over 4 by zip code but since zip codes are not geological boundaries it makes areas with higher levels look low. If the Alameda ridge area where its own zip code the maps would show that over 90% of the homes have high levels of radon.
Here is a link to Salvador's Blog as well:
He is on ActiveRain but the blog isn't on here. Drop him a line and get him to re-post them here. :)
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