Jack Gilleland

I do, litterally everywhere. It is a practice that I began, what seems like, eons ago.

I put it under the tip at restaurants, on the counter at stores, at the doctors office, at the barber shop, and well, you get the idea. This practice has netted me a number of clients and a few irate phone calls.

Last month I left my card at a house where I had accompanied a friend. The friend was in the market for a new house and asked me to go along to see if there were any major, glaring problems. I don't do this on a regular basis, just for relatives and very close friends. Three days went by and the listing agent called me to complain about my card being there.

It seems the homeowner, for some reason, assumed that I was the recommended Home Inspector for the listing agent. They had called to check with her just to make sure. If they had called me I would have proceeded to sell them my service.

I got a call from my friend's agent asking me not to do that again. She had gotten a call from the listing agent too.

Here is the question that begs asking. Why was she so concerned that her client had gotten my card. It isn't like I have no presence on the web or you can't find my name in a dozen different Real Estate Offices. I am in the top 5 on google in my area.

I am actually glad that my friend didn't like the house much, even though I didn't see any major problems.

Maybe I'll get a call from the homeowner anyway, doubt it. Remember, anyone participating in a Real Estate transaction is allowed to use any Home/Property Inspector they wish to use.

Jack Gilleland

Home Inspection Services, Clayton

In my last blog I said I enlisted the help of a new and first time buyer to make my report pertinent to the real home buyer. Ok, I can hear you, "What does he mean by Real Home Buyer". I'm sure everyone that ever tried to explain anything has come across the person who knows nothing, but nods and smiles well and convincingly. I love the husband that shows off for the wife, he knows exactly what I'm talking about, right! Oh, and by the way, it isn't exclusive to husbands and wives. It also applies to friends, relatives (parents or siblings), and Real Estate Agents. Dads are maybe the worst.

With this in mind, I'm going to say there is no such thing as "talking down to the client". I do apologize for talking down, but I don't change the way I talk to the client. I also apologize for asking if the client understands (especially when I get that flash of a confused look on their face). I try very hard to not use technical terms, but I balk when comes to calling something a "Thing a Majig" a "Do Hickey" or even a "Whats a Ma Call It". I do include common glossaries with my reports.

A report, by definition, is a chronicle of findings, but as my client said, "It doesn't have to be in any specific format or order". Her suggestion was to put the pictures in the front of the report with captions and a reference to a page with a detailed explanation of the issue. In other words, write a short report in front of the long report.

Don't do this! The client just might be confused enough without having to trace out which arrow goes to which issue. Her suggestion was to put one arrow (two at the most) per picture, even if it meant having to repeat the picture. Just for reference, I never did do this. Well, not this bad anyway.

I've been changing things a little bit at a time and (thanks to my client) letting my client go over the changes. When you have software that produces your report for you changes take longer than you would like.

Jack Gilleland

Home Inspection Services, Clayton

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When a home inspector changes his report format it means he had nothing to do for weeks. But in this case it wasn't true.

Recently, I decided to change my report formats to make them more meaningful to the client. I separated the report into several sections and arranged the form to be much more meaningful to the specific person I was serving at the time. In truth, I made my residential report more like my commercial report.

I enlisted the help of a first time home buyer (one who readily admitted knowing nothing about home maintenance or real estate transactions). This outgoing (albeit ignorant about her new home) was more than willing to help me set up the new report. Actually, she was the one who suggested the reports remodeling. She was impressed by the wealth of information I provided her, but was ashamed to admit she understood very little of what I was saying.

Having gone through the house with me at the time of the inspection she nodded and smiled knowingly at the appropriate times. This led me to believe she understood what I was talking about. Boy was I wrong. Impressed with the amount of knowledge she seemed to have, I proceeded to get more technical hoping not to insult her intelligence. She was very good at convincing me that I was being clear getting across the very important issues and not overstating the items that were important but not disastrous. It wasn't till I gave her a little quiz that she sheepishly admitted that she was lost.

"Okay, lets start again", I suggested, vowing to make sure she understood. You see a good home inspector is a teacher. It is my job to instruct the client concerning the problems with their home and the possible ramifications of not addressing those problems.

Unless I go crazy, in the next few blogs I'm going to share her findings and criticisms (some of the most nicely put I've ever heard) and what I did to incorporate these into my report.

Jack Gilleland

Home Inspection Services, Clayton

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What are the things that you don't know about your home? They are all the important things that you don't know are important until you need to know them. Now is that clear to everyone.

If you live in the North (north of what you ask, where it is cold) you have a more than even chance your driveway is cracked. Why is that? Well, simple explanation covers most cracks, expansion and contraction. Concrete (like my fingers when exposed to excessive temperatures) contracts when it is cold and expands when it is warm. To make things worse water/moisture under your driveway does the same thing. The force of this expansion is enormous. It can lift and buckle whole sections of your driveway causing cracks and complete breaks.

These cracks show the obvious signs of moisture seeping under the concrete slab and raising the slab until it cracked. The crack is higher toward the top of the picture, so that is where the upward pressure was the greatest. Of course, you can't fix this crack this time of year, so your going to have to wait for some more moderate temperatures this spring.

Latitudinal cracks (going across the pad) are very common. They are mostly apparent on slopes where the ground underneath the driveway bends more radically. Cracks develop at the point where the concrete is the thinnest point close to where the pressure is being exerted.

Now, maybe you did know all that and if that is the case I apologize for repeating it. If you didn't then you now know something about your house you didn't know before.

Jack Gilleland

Home Inspection Services, Clayton

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Here's wishing you the Best of the Holidays.

May you prosper in all you do.

Jack Gilleland

Home Inspection Services, Clayton