To watch a video version of this podcast, click here: https://youtu.be/oCnCRv-xTDM
Click the link to watch Reuben ride his new toy:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYhiBQTBc-P/?igsh=M2xwdDdmNnpwN3Rk
In this episode, Reuben Saltzman, Tessa Murry, and guest Eric Hausman explore the impact of AI on home inspections, client expectations, and innovative projects like vehicle branding. They discuss how AI is shaping the industry, the importance of setting clear expectations, and share personal stories about recent adventures and projects.
Here’s the link to Inspector Empire Builder: https://www.iebcoaching.com/events
Takeaways
AI is transforming home inspections and reporting.
Inspectors must manage expectations around AI-generated checklists.
Honesty and clear communication remain essential.
Pre-drywall inspections help catch hidden issues early.
AI improves client communication and saves time.
AI visuals can sometimes create misleading expectations.
Client feedback helps improve inspection services.
Professional branding builds trust and visibility.
Continuous learning is important as AI evolves.
Human expertise still matters despite AI advancements.
Chapters
00:00 Memorial Day Reflections
03:06 Adventures in Idaho
05:59 Home Improvement Projects
09:01 The Rise of AI in Home Inspections
12:08 Setting Client Expectations
15:02 Company Vehicles and Their Impact
22:25 The Importance of Honesty in Inspections
24:16 Understanding Inspection Standards and Expectations
26:21 Pre-Drywall Inspections: A Crucial Step
27:38 The Role of AI in Home Inspections
30:15 Learning from Client Feedback
31:40 Addressing Plumbing Concerns
34:27 The Impact of AI on Home Inspection Reporting
35:44 Challenges with AI in Visual Representation
37:35 AI as a Time-Saving Tool
39:52 AI in Client Communication
43:35 Continuous Learning and AI Integration
TRANSCRIPTION
The following is an AI-generated transcription from an audio recording. Although the transcription is mostly accurate, it will contain some errors due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
Reuben Saltzman: Welcome to my house. Welcome to the Structure Talk podcast, a production of Structure Tech Home Inspections. My name is Reuben Saltzman. I’m your host alongside building science geek, Tessa Murry. We help home inspectors up their game through education, and we help homeowners to be better stewards of their houses. We’ve been keeping it real on this podcast since 2019, and we are also the number one home inspection podcast in the world, according to my mom.
Reuben Saltzman (00:01.1)
Welcome back to the show. Happy Memorial Day. This show is airing on Memorial Day. It’s a good day to remember everybody who has served. Thank you all. We thank all of our service people who have done so many amazing things for us. We appreciate you. I’ve got a brother who serves and just eternally grateful for everybody who does that. So thank you. Tessa.
Tessa Murry (00:29.614)
Hey Ruben. Hey. Well, getting over a little sinus thing, pretty good. I’ve been on the run, it feels like, the last couple months with lots of you know, speaking and teaching engagements and most recently just got back from a trip a week in Idaho with my family. It was a state that my parents had never been to.
Reuben Saltzman (00:31.383)
What’s going on with you?
Tessa Murry (00:56.042)
And they thought, well, why not? Let’s check it off our bucket list. All they have left is Hawaii. And Hawaii and Idaho. So they went to Idaho. And I went with them. yeah. And you know, I will say it was a very diverse landscape. We explored southern Idaho first, which I would kind of, it was like a desert wasteland. Lots of tumbleweeds and, know.
Reuben Saltzman (01:03.406)
They got the easy one checked off. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (01:27.07)
ground everywhere. There was a really interesting geological site that we visited called Crater of the Moon, Craters of the Moon. Have you ever heard of that? I had never heard of it. It’s located near Alco, Idaho, which is a tiny, tiny town, but it is just north of where the Oregon Trail was. So a lot of the
Reuben Saltzman (01:39.182)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (01:55.342)
pioneers that kind of traveled across Idaho to get to Oregon for the gold rush and out west. After that trail kind of got too dangerous for them. They tried going north and they found this there’s this craters of the moon location where it’s all this volcanic activity, these volcanoes that have exploded. And so as far as you can see, there’s just fields of like lava, hardened magma.
And you can take hikes through these fields and walk up old cones and old volcanoes. And it was so bizarre. I didn’t feel like I was on planet Earth.
Reuben Saltzman (02:32.76)
Cool.
Yeah, yeah. Well, and there’s parts of Hawaii that seem like that too. So you could do some of that too, but there’s a lot of other stuff in Hawaii. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (02:40.168)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty similar. Yeah. And then we ended up going up north a little bit to north of Boise a few hours and it was a completely different landscape. It was just the most beautiful mountains and valleys and these rapids going through the mountains and we were hiking one day it was in the 90s and super hot and then the next day we’re up in the mountains and it was snowing. yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (03:06.08)
cool.
Tessa Murry (03:08.622)
It was a fun trip though, very fun trip and I learned that I love huckleberry ice cream too. yeah, very good. Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (03:14.058)
Nice, nice. So Eric is nodding his head vigorously. I should welcome Eric to the show, repeat guest, our very own Eric Hausman, the greatest name for a home inspector ever. I will always say that when I introduce him. Eric, how you doing today?
Eric Houseman (03:20.458)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (03:24.458)
Welcome Eric. Yes, welcome back.
Eric Houseman (03:35.106)
I’m great. Yes, huckleberry ice cream delicious had some down in Eric last time. Yeah, it’s I don’t know. I’d never seen it until we went to down to Sedona. We go to Sedona quite frequently. But the last time we were down there, we went and visited actually my brother-in-law’s mom who lives in a town right around Sedona and they had
Tessa Murry (03:39.348)
You’ve had it. Yeah.
Eric Houseman (04:00.816)
so many places that have a huckleberry ice cream and it’s amazing.
Tessa Murry (04:03.266)
there.
Tessa Murry (04:06.594)
I’m craving it now.
Reuben Saltzman (04:07.886)
All right. Now, now I’m feeling left out. was in recently my family and I went to Zion National Park for our vacation and my kids went somewhere and got huckleberry ice cream. was like, I never heard of that, but I never had it. I never tried it. And now I’m really wishing I had. They went off without me. I don’t know what I was doing. And, you know, they’re like, we’re going to go get some ice cream. Great. Come back. You know,
Tessa Murry (04:11.339)
Yes.
Tessa Murry (04:25.998)
they didn’t share it with you? You didn’t even try?
Reuben Saltzman (04:37.558)
I guess I missed out. I should have should have gone with them. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, Eric, what’s new with you,
Tessa Murry (04:39.116)
You missed your chance, Ruben. You’re going to have to go back.
Yeah.
Eric Houseman (04:47.606)
we’re, we’re so busy, Ruben. My gosh, holy cow. which is great. That’s a good problem to have. full calendars, full schedules. Love it for the inspectors. Personal wise, doing more landscape around the house. I spread 113 bags of mulch this last weekend, re-landscaping. So I am just now not feeling it days later.
Tessa Murry (04:51.948)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (04:52.27)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (04:58.178)
Good.
Reuben Saltzman (05:12.257)
Wow.
Tessa Murry (05:17.296)
my gosh.
Eric Houseman (05:18.389)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (05:18.542)
I think that was the thing to do last weekend. I had a friend say they were on sale at Home Depot for two bucks a bag. You’re not in your you got in on that action. Nice, nice. Yeah, at some point, I wonder, where is it like less expensive to have it delivered? But at $2 a bag, I don’t I don’t think it’s ever less expensive. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (05:27.778)
Eric Houseman (05:27.91)
All healthcare.
Tessa Murry (05:31.553)
my gosh. Wow.
Eric Houseman (05:43.026)
Yeah, no. Delivery is a convenience thing for people that don’t have access to a truck and trailer.
Tessa Murry (05:43.106)
Mm-mm.
Reuben Saltzman (05:49.196)
Yeah. Yeah. How many, how many bags can you fit on your trailer?
Eric Houseman (05:52.918)
uh I did 50 in one load and 60 in the other load and I probably could have done about 70 I think that’s about the max because I I didn’t have the the big black trailer like what you’ve seen before I just had a smaller red trailer but I had the big black trailer I could have done 110 of them all in one shot
Reuben Saltzman (05:56.77)
That’s pretty good.
Tessa Murry (05:57.601)
Whoa.
Reuben Saltzman (06:01.838)
Okay, all right.
Reuben Saltzman (06:08.982)
Okay. All right.
Tessa Murry (06:09.678)
What a project.
Reuben Saltzman (06:16.014)
But you never think you’re gonna need that much, right? You get 50 and you’re like, there’s no way I’m using 50 bags. And then you get them down and you’re half done. And you’re like, how did it only go that far? It never goes as far as you think it will.
Tessa Murry (06:16.973)
my goodness.
Eric Houseman (06:18.932)
No, never.
Eric Houseman (06:23.488)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (06:28.014)
Thanks.
Eric Houseman (06:30.366)
Yeah, well, and then of course, you know, side quests pop up during the process where it’s like, well, we should do this too. And then, you know, so before we went back, we re-estimated, we were like, okay, another 50 bags should do it. And I got up to the cash register on a whim. was like, do 60. Sure enough, we got back to the house. I had five bags left over. I was like, if I had been short by five bags, I would have been so mad.
Tessa Murry (06:55.256)
Ha ha!
Reuben Saltzman (06:56.182)
Yes, yes, exactly.
Tessa Murry (06:58.36)
You know, I miss mulch. have shells around our house here in Florida and I will tell you, little white shells, they get in your shoes, you step on them, they hurt, you track them in your house, you step on them, they get in your car, into your mats, ground in. is pain in the butt, pain in the foot.
Reuben Saltzman (07:13.07)
But yeah, but you don’t need to maintain them too though, right? Like once they’re down, they’re just, you’re done, right? So frozen cons. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (07:21.214)
correct. That’s correct. Yes, low maintenance. Easily source.
Eric Houseman (07:26.632)
You also don’t… You don’t deal with winter. Stop whining.
Tessa Murry (07:32.418)
Dude, Eric, it’s like, it was like 100. It was literally 100 degrees when I got in my car yesterday afternoon on the dashboard. And it’s May. I am dying. You know, I don’t like the heat.
Reuben Saltzman (07:40.839)
Mmm. Yeah. It’s gonna get warmer. Yeah, it’s gonna get warmer. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (07:49.026)
Yeah. Well, anyways, Ruben, what’s new with you? Do you have news to share? What are you up to these days?
Reuben Saltzman (07:53.518)
Nothing huge. I’ll probably share more on another podcast when the project is done, but I am in the middle of installing a heater in my garage, which is just it’s a lot of work. I don’t know why it’s so much work. I helped a buddy. Eric, you remember Troy back in the Home Depot days? Yeah, I had helped Troy install a heater in his last house, and it was probably 10 years ago.
Eric Houseman (08:12.096)
Thank you.
Reuben Saltzman (08:21.056)
And I don’t know, he got it from somebody. remember I went over one afternoon and we had a few beers in his garage and we put it up. Like we ran the gas line from inside his house. ran the copper tubing, ran it up there. We did the vent. We did the power. I don’t know. And we just knocked it out one night. And, know, I probably went home at nine o’clock that night and the heater was running. So I had in my mind, this is a quick and easy project, but it’s not.
Tessa Murry (08:49.262)
You just need to drink some beer. Make it a lot easier.
Reuben Saltzman (08:51.754)
I, you know, maybe I’m missing my, my garage heater juice. think that’s what I’m missing. Yeah. But it’s, it’s been, it’s been a tedious project. Like, you know, I spent an entire weekend just running the gas line. Cause I did all black hard pipe in the garage. And, you know, when you’re doing that, it’s, it’s a pain in the butt. Cause you gotta, you gotta have people thread.
Tessa Murry (09:03.042)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:07.758)
I
Reuben Saltzman (09:18.008)
fittings, thread lengths to make it exactly the right length and go around corners and all that. It’s it’s tedious, but I’ll talk more about it when I’m done. The point on that right now is I got to hang it and it’s super heavy and I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get it in the air to get it mounted. And I haven’t figured that out yet. I could rent a lift, but it’s like 65 bucks and I’m cheap. So.
Tessa Murry (09:26.518)
well.
Eric Houseman (09:46.39)
65 dollars isn’t that much money.
Tessa Murry (09:48.302)
I can see you creating like a building a pulley system Trying to waste it
Reuben Saltzman (09:54.178)
You are not far off at all, Tessa. I will take pictures to show what I have invented to get it up in the air. yeah, too cheap. I should just buy, get the lift, but stay tuned. Yeah, stay tuned. and one other thing. There’s a fun video. I went along on an inspection with George and I…
Tessa Murry (10:03.503)
my gosh. All right. Well, stay tuned listeners.
Reuben Saltzman (10:21.55)
We ended up talking something about it was right by my house and I said yeah I was thinking about riding my one wheel over to the inspection, but that just looked goofy. So I drove, know Tessa I saw you mouth, you know what a one wheel is It’s it’s kind of like an electric skateboard It’s it’s it’s where you you ride on this thing, but it’s got a single wheel in the middle and it balances Yeah, yeah
Tessa Murry (10:36.904)
know what
Tessa Murry (10:42.816)
yes.
and your feet go on either side of it.
Reuben Saltzman (10:49.614)
And you’re not, it’s not like a hoverboard where you’re facing the way you go. You ride it like a skateboard where, you know, your body’s turned. It’s much cooler. Yeah. Thank you. It’s much cooler. And you know, they zip. I mean, it’ll go 25.
Tessa Murry (10:56.764)
That’s much cooler.
Tessa Murry (11:11.456)
Is this your toy or is this Lucy or Sy’s toy? It’s your toy.
Reuben Saltzman (11:14.7)
it’s very much mine. yeah. Yeah. I mean, I got two of them. So my kids will both they can ride with me sometimes. because it’ll go 25 constant and I, you know, it’ll I’ll get up to about 26, 27 and then it’ll say slow down and it’ll kind of, you know, give you some feedback telling you to slow down. But it zips. I mean, it’s really fast. But I was telling George.
Tessa Murry (11:22.54)
How fast can you go?
Tessa Murry (11:28.334)
Tessa Murry (11:35.687)
my gosh.
Reuben Saltzman (11:40.95)
I should I thought about writing this over to the inspection. was like, yeah, that looked really goofy. I’m not doing that. But he’s like, we should make a video. Let’s just have a video of you riding away on your one wheel like like you showed up to it. So I’ve got my tool belt on and all that. I’m like, all right. Thanks, George. Good seeing you. Whatever. And then I zip away and I go down the block and around the corner. And then there’s there’s just a fun little surprise. George’s commentary at the end of the video.
I’ll put a link to it in the show notes if you want to see it, but it’s pretty funny. George George.
Tessa Murry (12:11.444)
Yes. that’s awesome. Did you post that? Did you post that on social media? On like, okay, I’ll check it out.
Reuben Saltzman (12:18.862)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I shared it. It went on our structure tech page and then I shared it on my personal Instagram and Facebook page because it was good. It was funny. But all. Right. Yeah. And then I had this agent, the comment, it was like Marty McFly got his home inspector license because, you know, it’s kind of like the hoverboard and the agent, this agent.
Tessa Murry (12:27.22)
my gosh. that’s awesome. Too bad you didn’t have a cape. It sounds like just your tool belt, huh?
Tessa Murry (12:43.99)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (12:48.75)
wrote me a note. He’s like, where’s your ladder? said, Oh, I can I can jump on the roof. I don’t need a ladder. He’s like, Oh, I thought you’re gonna tell me where we’re going. We don’t need ladders. That would have been so good. But yeah, I miss my opportunity. Oh, that’d be even better. Where are they? We’re supposed to have those by now. Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (12:52.174)
you
Eric Houseman (13:04.093)
you
Tessa Murry (13:05.922)
you’re gonna say you had a jetpack for that. Eric, where are the jetpacks?
Reuben Saltzman (13:17.984)
and you know what? I’ll tell you another project Eric has been working on is we got some, we got some vehicles for the home inspectors and yeah, we got a couple of trucks and it’s kind of a test run to see how they, how they like them. And Eric has learned a new skill, which is using a vinyl cutter. that, that was a learning process and he has taught me how to do it. I’m not nearly as competent at it, but.
Tessa Murry (13:22.421)
Mmm.
Tessa Murry (13:26.78)
wow!
I
Reuben Saltzman (13:47.914)
If you know if I had to I could do it, but it’s it is
Tessa Murry (13:52.43)
Why would what is I’m picturing like something for site like vinyl siding? What what do you what are you using a vinyl cutter for?
Reuben Saltzman (13:59.63)
graphics, like, like vehicle graphics and stuff. So you want to letter up your company vehicles and all that instead of having a shop do it, you can do it yourself if you’ve got a big vinyl cutter. And what is it? What does it cut Eric like two feet rolls? Is that what it is?
Tessa Murry (14:01.954)
Okay.
Eric Houseman (14:16.629)
Yeah, it’s a 24 inch so it’s a two foot wide roll, you can however long you need it. So you’re limited to two feet of height, but you can cut however long you need.
Tessa Murry (14:30.594)
Well, well, that’s cool.
Reuben Saltzman (14:30.658)
Yep. Yep. So Eric, Eric has been spending a lot of time lettering up all of the vehicles and, lettering anything that we want lettered now and, getting all those, getting all those vehicles equipped, you know, the roof racks and all that. It’s just been a project. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (14:43.763)
Thank
Tessa Murry (14:48.75)
All right. Well, that’s a big project. So can I ask a quick business question, Ruben? What made you decide to go in and buy a couple of vehicles? Is it because gas prices are above $4 a gallon and the reimbursements for home inspectors is too much or?
Reuben Saltzman (15:04.654)
You know what it really comes down to is home inspectors were asking about it. It was probably, probably almost a decade ago when I had kind of pulled the team and I said, Hey guys, who’s interested in company vehicles? I think it’d be really cool to have our logo all over town and have you guys drive in the same thing. And nobody raised their hand. They’re all like, Nope. I like my nice cushy truck. I’m not interested in getting whatever you could afford to buy me.
Tessa Murry (15:29.1)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (15:33.81)
I, I like driving an $80,000 vehicle. Sorry. But had a number of people on the team, bring it up again. And we threw, threw out a poll and said, Hey, here’s what it would look like. Who’s interested. A lot of people raise their hands. So we said, let’s, let’s try it. Let’s get a couple, see how it goes. And so far it’s been going good. I mean, good feedback from the people who have them so far, right? Eric.
Tessa Murry (15:33.954)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (15:38.462)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (15:51.342)
you
That’s cool.
Eric Houseman (16:00.425)
Yeah, really good feedback. And gas mileage on them is crazy. Both of them have said that they’re getting about 40 miles to the gallon on these trucks.
Tessa Murry (16:02.722)
Hmm.
Tessa Murry (16:10.442)
Woohoo!
Reuben Saltzman (16:11.724)
Well, now now people are going to ask. So let’s just talk about what did we get and why do we get them?
Tessa Murry (16:14.388)
What kind of truck?
Eric Houseman (16:17.385)
We got two Ford Mavericks 2025s, XLs, white, basic, very basic, but they are hybrid engines. So they get like 40 plus miles to the gallon on the highway. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (16:21.005)
Hmm.
Tessa Murry (16:37.258)
Wow, nice. Yep, very nice.
Reuben Saltzman (16:37.42)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They’re good looking vehicles. I like them. Yeah. Yeah. They got the roof rack, all that fun stuff. And yeah, really good mileage. So we’ve been happy so far. We’ll report back in a few months. See how it’s going. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (16:43.272)
Yeah, yeah, very cool. That’s exciting. Yeah, very nice.
Tessa Murry (16:58.734)
Cool. Very cool.
Reuben Saltzman (17:00.568)
All right. Well, that thumbs the updates. So we brought Eric on today’s show to talk about something he’s kind of been dealing with. mean, I don’t even want to say dealing with it. It makes it sound like it’s a problem, but just something that’s come up at a number of is, is it Eric, is it new construction inspections or just inspections? Am I being too specific when I say new construction?
Tessa Murry (17:02.766)
.
Eric Houseman (17:28.277)
I would say that it’s just inspections across the board, but I think the ones that really come to mind are the new construction situations. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (17:39.63)
Okay. What is it? What are you seeing?
Eric Houseman (17:43.412)
So I have experienced this personally, and then I’ve received a couple of emails from other inspectors on the team who are getting an email from the client ahead of the inspection that is incredibly detailed and very well written, very well written about specific things that they want to make sure.
Tessa Murry (18:08.248)
Mm-hmm.
Eric Houseman (18:12.841)
we inspect or we look at. And it’s broken down like insulation and air ceiling, windows and doors, basement and structure, roof and attic. And it’s like, it just seems like they know too much about the structure and the components and systems of a house. But the verbiage that’s used in it is a little suspect from time to time.
and the things that they’re asking for are a little suspect from time to time.
Reuben Saltzman (18:46.358)
Yeah, so what
Tessa Murry (18:46.784)
And StructureTech never used to get specific requests like this five years ago. Whatever. This is all kind of new, huh?
Reuben Saltzman (18:53.888)
Yeah. So what did you do, Eric?
Eric Houseman (18:57.759)
So I took the last email that was sent to me from one of the inspectors on our team, and I went into an AI app. I’ll just say it, I used Claude. And I went in and I said, very basic, generate me a list of things my home inspector should look at or report on.
at a new construction home inspection. And 60 seconds later, it spits out this laundry list of things and I put them side by side and compared them and they were almost verbatim.
Reuben Saltzman (19:40.524)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (19:40.632)
Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Reuben Saltzman (19:43.823)
So what’s going on here is people are going on the AI platforms and they’re saying, give me a list of things that I should make sure that my home inspector checks. And then they’re taking this list and then they’re giving it to us and saying, Hey, we want to make sure you’re doing all this stuff. And what do you think about all this, Eric? Is this a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Is it, is it neutral? How do we feel about this?
Eric Houseman (20:13.429)
I think there’s good and there’s bad. I’m not going to say neutral. I’m going to say that, because neutral kind of implies that you’re like, I don’t really care. I do care because I think that it can work both ways. I think that AI can do a really good job of informing a new home buyer or a new homeowner.
about the things that they should be aware of upon moving into their home or what needs to be done at a home inspection. But I think that it also puts a unrealistic expectation or inflates the expectation for the client about what a home inspector does and does not do. So now it’s on us.
to either affirm that expectation or tamper that expectation based on the standards of practice that we follow, what we do at StructureTech, because we know we go above and beyond this ashy standard of practice. But it’s really important that you go back and detail out like, this is something that I can do, or this isn’t something that I can do.
Reuben Saltzman (21:32.808)
Now, and I will say the part I don’t like about this is when you have this AI engine telling someone your home inspector should be doing this and then we got to go in and we got to tamper these expectations. It just feels like we’re apologizing for things that we’re not doing that we should be doing. They’ve been told we should be doing it and
Tessa Murry (21:34.446)
I’m sorry.
Reuben Saltzman (22:02.134)
I mean we charge a premium fee compared to most other home inspectors Shouldn’t we be doing everything that this robot says we should be doing I I hate being put in that position I Mean, it’s like I’m just backpedaling at this point
Tessa Murry (22:17.454)
Are you finding that clients are upset, Eric, when you have to have those conversations with them to set expectations and kind of readjust what they think you’re doing? Are you having a lot of those conversations?
Eric Houseman (22:32.181)
Um, I’ve coached a couple of our inspectors through those conversations. And in the back of my mind, I always go back to, and Ruben, I’m going to butcher this, but you’ve said this to me quite a few times in our working relationship. It’s something like honest is fair. Right. Is that, is that right? Ruben? Like you. It’s kind of like honesty is the best policy. Yes. Right. It’s.
Reuben Saltzman (22:52.622)
Yeah, yeah, truth is kind.
Eric Houseman (22:59.707)
And it’s funny that you bring that up because there’s there’s a big difference between being kind and being nice. There’s a huge difference between the two. I won’t get into that. If you want to look it up, look it up online. There’s plenty of videos about it, but there’s a huge difference between those two things. And I think that being honest with someone.
and not even necessarily apologizing, but you are better off establishing or redirecting those expectations ahead of time and allowing somebody to have the information that they need to make the decision of, this isn’t what I signed up for. Maybe I need to go find somebody who will do these things or live up to these expectations. And that’s fine. You can try and go find somebody else.
Ultimately, what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to minimize the fallout after the fact.
Reuben Saltzman (23:56.034)
And you know, Eric, let me just stop, because I know if I were listening, I’d be thinking to myself, well, what are people asking for that you’re not doing? Maybe you should be doing more. So let me just give the very first example on this list. Under foundation and structure. And it’s, like Eric said, very well written. I mean, it’s categorized and everything. We got foundation structure. It’s the heading. And then the next bullet point underneath that, what do we want for foundation structure?
You wanna make sure that the home inspector can verify footing depth, footing width, and reinforcement of the footings, such as rebar placement and spacing.
Reuben Saltzman (24:40.136)
What?
Tessa Murry (24:42.894)
Wait, you don’t do that?
Reuben Saltzman (24:45.214)
What are you kidding me for a home inspection? No, I and and it goes on that’s just an example. It’s like, okay, when you’re giving this to a robot, it has no idea what we’re doing. There’s not a single home inspector who’s going to verify footing depth with and what kind of reinforcement and and placement and spacing you got for rebar. No way impossible.
Tessa Murry (24:52.536)
Hmm.
Eric Houseman (25:15.285)
And the confusing part about this is that those things are interwoven with things that we do actually do.
Reuben Saltzman (25:24.806)
yeah. Yeah, there’s a lot of good stuff. I mean, the very next one. Check the slab for cracks, exposed rebar and uneven uneven surfaces. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah, makes perfect sense. We can do that. Yeah, but it’s just it’s it’s a big list and some of it’s great. Some of it is absolute trash. And yeah, like I said, we’re having a backpedal, having to calm people down.
Eric Houseman (25:26.376)
So.
Tessa Murry (25:35.576)
Sure. If visible. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (25:50.999)
Hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (25:55.052)
Yeah. So.
Tessa Murry (25:56.398)
Yeah, that’s a frustrating, that’s a tough conversation to have, but at the same time, I wonder how many people have actually read through that list when they send it to you.
Reuben Saltzman (26:05.602)
Nobody, I’m saying nobody.
Eric Houseman (26:07.825)
the same number of people that actually read the ASCII standard of practice before they sign the inspection agreement. Now, in AI’s defense, because like I said, there’s good and there’s bad here, the very last thing that is in this generated mishmash of things, it says,
Tessa Murry (26:13.903)
Right,
Reuben Saltzman (26:15.682)
Yeah.
Eric Houseman (26:33.311)
Consider scheduling a pre-drywall inspection if construction isn’t finished yet. That’s your last chance to see framing, wiring, and plumbing before they’re covered. And if your builder offers a one-year warranty, an 11-month inspection catches settlement cracks, HVAC issues, and other latent defects before coverage expires.
Tessa Murry (26:53.068)
Hey! Good advice!
Reuben Saltzman (26:54.018)
created right. Yeah.
Eric Houseman (26:55.817)
Thanks for doing our job. Not only should you do the pre-move-in inspection, but you should do pre-drywall and 11-month warranty. Agreed.
Reuben Saltzman (27:03.948)
Yeah. Yes. Yes. So lot of good information in there.
Tessa Murry (27:04.096)
We agree. So you are seeing an uptick in sales for for pre drywall inspections then?
Eric Houseman (27:06.719)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (27:16.43)
No, I don’t think so. What do you think, Eric? No? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we should. We certainly should.
Tessa Murry (27:18.306)
Not really. Okay.
Eric Houseman (27:19.923)
No, I don’t think so.
Tessa Murry (27:25.58)
People are using AI, you know, and they’re getting these recommendations. I was just wondering if it was influencing your market at all. Yet. Not yet.
Reuben Saltzman (27:33.166)
Yeah, I mean, it’s just there’s so many people who don’t do inspections on new construction and people just tell them you shouldn’t do it. I’ve got two good friends who recently bought new construction homes and you know, they told me they they were moved in and all that and I’m just thinking to myself.
Tessa Murry (27:40.142)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (27:55.01)
Why didn’t you call us? You know what I do. You hear me talk about this stuff. It’s okay. It’s okay. We’re booked out two weeks anyway. It would have been a hassle to squeeze you in, but it’s just cause I care about you. Like you should have had us out, but it’s all right. And these, these are people I know and we’re friends with. They know what I do. How do they not do it?
Tessa Murry (27:57.742)
times.
Tessa Murry (28:06.392)
Take a breath.
Hey.
Tessa Murry (28:17.41)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (28:22.894)
You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped, Reuben.
Reuben Saltzman (28:27.17)
No, no, it’s okay. It’s fine, Tessa. I’m okay. I’ll be right back. No, I’m just kidding.
Tessa Murry (28:31.32)
Thanks.
Tessa Murry (28:36.43)
See ya.
Eric Houseman (28:38.557)
Ruben needs to go read Lethem again.
Tessa Murry (28:39.342)
you
Reuben Saltzman (28:41.024)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Tessa Murry (28:41.686)
Well, how does it feel to live your life so passionately each day, Reuben? Is it exhausting?
Reuben Saltzman (28:47.863)
It can be tiring. It can be. can be a little intense at times.
Tessa Murry (28:53.024)
I love it. I love it.
No, no, that’s Ruben. That’s the best part of you. And you know what? I can get that way about certain things too, especially when it comes to, know, like geeking out about building science stuff or, you know, whatever.
Reuben Saltzman (29:07.298)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So Eric, what do we do with this? How do we help people?
Eric Houseman (29:17.173)
wow, that’s a great question. I think we just need to us as a company, as home inspectors, I think you just need to make sure that you address, make sure that you have a good driveway talk, a good kitchen talk, establish expectations, know what you do, know what you don’t do. But at the same point, don’t dismiss these
as an annoyance. I have said over the years in the role that I’m in within the company that you can learn something from every single complaint. It doesn’t matter if it’s verifiable. It doesn’t matter if it’s an actual miss. It doesn’t matter if it is completely erroneous. You can learn something. And if you actually look at these and you read through it, you might find something that’s like
Maybe I do need to be doing that. Maybe I do need to, that’s not necessarily part of the home inspector standards of practice that I follow, but maybe I could do a little bit more and provide more value to my client without spending that much extra time.
Reuben Saltzman (30:37.677)
Yeah.
No, I agree. I agree. We’re always looking.
Tessa Murry (30:42.446)
Do you have any examples of anything specific, Eric, that you guys have come across with a client that has a pretty good request based on AI that’s not part of the structure tech, you know, SOP that you guys are doing then?
Eric Houseman (30:56.829)
I don’t know that I can think of anything right off the top of my head. No. I mean, but then again, and I’m saying this not because I say like, I’m tooting our horn or whatever, but we’re already doing so much more than the average home inspector who’s just following the SOP. I think it’s just, it’s don’t rest on the fact that, you I’m hundreds or thousands of inspections in and I’ve done this. I’ve seen this house before like,
Tessa Murry (31:15.918)
Mm.
Eric Houseman (31:26.109)
You if I’ve said this to many inspectors, if you’re not walking into every single house with a healthy level of anxiety ahead of that home inspection, check your ego at the door. You you are responsible for the education of this homeowner that is going to be that’s going to be purchasing this home. And you should do everything that you can to.
Tessa Murry (31:37.314)
Mm-hmm.
Eric Houseman (31:52.904)
answer their questions and satisfy their expectations. It’s a part of growing the industry. It’s a part of being just doing the job and having this be a career and truly being passionate about it.
Reuben Saltzman (32:07.134)
Here’s here’s one Tessa I was just looking over this big list trying to pick out one that I mean most most of the stuff on the list is pretty good and like Eric said it’s stuff we already do here’s what we don’t do and you know, it’d be an interesting topic for discussion Which is it says under plumbing hot water delivery time at distant fixtures
Tessa Murry (32:18.968)
and
Tessa Murry (32:31.052)
Hmm That one is that’s a good point because That can be a pain in the butt sometimes you turn on the water It takes like two minutes for it to get hot and I’m sure people are frustrated with that and do you get complaints Eric that are people like you never told me it would take No, okay
Eric Houseman (32:49.371)
I haven’t but I mean come to think of it like I’m just so used to it in my own house right now my kitchen sink is probably what 30 feet from my water heater. I turn on my kitchen sink and I just let it run and I go do something else and come back before I wash dishes because I don’t want to stand there wait.
Tessa Murry (33:06.38)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (33:07.79)
Yeah. And I mean, I’ve talked that I’ve talked about that on this podcast, you know, Tessa, do you get annoyed? You know, I get annoyed. I have no tolerance for that.
Tessa Murry (33:16.185)
yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ve been through several on-demand failed water heaters because yes, we don’t like to wait.
Reuben Saltzman (33:24.254)
Yeah, and at my last house, I replumbed it. I ran a three eighths inch copper tubing line from my water heater directly to the kitchen faucet to make it take 10 seconds. And that was a good solution there. I mean, I, I don’t like waiting for stuff. And yeah, we’ve never gotten a complaint about it. But you know, what what if we did start checking that? I mean, you got to think about the logistics. What’s that?
Tessa Murry (33:36.43)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (33:40.567)
That worked. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (33:51.118)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (33:52.92)
How do you do it? I mean, you gotta make sure that nobody has run any hot water for like the last hour and you gotta go to the most distant fixture. You gotta turn it on, then you gotta time it. Yeah, and then it’s like, what do you do with that information? What is anyone supposed to do? I mean, it’s not a defect.
Tessa Murry (33:58.607)
That’s tricky. Yeah. And then time it. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (34:10.894)
It’s a comment. Yeah, it’s a comment saying hey, this is something to know but it seems like that in my opinion you start gathering more information like that about a house and the important things just get lost in the weeds
Eric Houseman (34:24.853)
Yep. Yep. Preach. Preach. Preach. Preach.
Reuben Saltzman (34:26.072)
That, that right there, Yes. Yes. And that’s how I feel about our home inspection reporting standards. You know, the ASHE standard of practice says you need to describe all these different components. You need to describe what type of foundation you have or what type of floor framing and wall framing and all these different things. And it’s all got to go in the report.
Tessa Murry (34:28.802)
Now.
Tessa Murry (34:38.242)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (34:54.922)
And it just feels like it dilutes it. Nobody’s ever gone back to a report to check any of this stuff. Who cares? But we have to put it in there. And I totally feel like it dilutes our reports, takes away from the important stuff. we surely will not be doing this. I mean, if home inspectors on my team are listening to this podcast and they’re like, no, now we gotta do this. Like just.
Tessa Murry (35:02.67)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (35:06.188)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (35:15.522)
You
Reuben Saltzman (35:20.202)
I mean, I know that’s how they feel every time we got something new to do. It’s like it’s just one more thing I got to do during We’re not gonna be doing this but it’s an interesting thing to discuss It’s yeah, maybe some people would care
Tessa Murry (35:25.121)
One more thing.
and
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, someday when AI does all the home inspections and they replace humans, they can do that.
Reuben Saltzman (35:41.954)
They can do whatever they want. Yeah. I’ll tell you what Tessa, you know, we’re talking about AI and just how stuff’s not right. I was almost going to talk about it before the show. I was trying to create an illustration for a blog post I was doing about supply ventilation versus exhaust ventilation versus balance ventilation. And I was trying to create an illustration to put in my blog post. And I was going through iteration after iteration on.
I don’t remember which AI engine I was using, but every time it would come up with an illustration, it was wrong. It was like the arrows were pointing the wrong direction or it was prescribing the stack effect. And it was saying the air wants to come in at the attic and leave at the basement. Or I mean, whatever. And it was just backwards. It was wrong. And I kept going through iteration after iteration.
Tessa Murry (36:21.346)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (36:36.568)
Did it think you were in a hot climate?
Reuben Saltzman (36:40.43)
I, it should know I’m in Minnesota. I mean, it knows who I am. But I never could get the illustration correct. So I canned it and I didn’t even use it just because it got too frustrating.
Tessa Murry (36:49.654)
Yeah, yeah.
Tessa Murry (36:54.03)
You have a… That is very frustrating. I’m in the same boat, Ruben. I’ve, you know, I’ve tried doing that for different presentations and visuals that I need and stuff for teaching, but always run into kind of some snags. But I also, I mean, I use ChatGPT, you know, I pay for, you know, a subscription every month to use it. But I still have challenges with the images working out. I know there are other, there’s other…
specific like softwares or apps you can use for image creation and you can pay more money for those and maybe they’re better and they could do what you’re looking for. But are you using just a standard like free model or what are you using?
Reuben Saltzman (37:37.108)
I think I tried a few of them. I tried doing it on Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT. And I could not get what I wanted. I mean, and maybe there’s a better one I should be using, but that’s, that’s what I know.
Tessa Murry (37:48.224)
Yeah, wow. None of them. Yeah. Yeah, crazy.
Tessa Murry (37:58.677)
not not my area of expertise.
Eric Houseman (38:02.791)
Yeah, my I have been relatively resistant to it. I know Ruben and Mindy talk about it quite often if they’ve used it. And of course, going back to the vehicle thing, you know, we get these two new company vehicles and we’re going to give them to inspectors and we’re like, hey, we should probably have a vehicle agreement that goes over, you know, what you can and cannot do. It’s probably obvious, but we should have something in place.
And I sat down at my computer and I was like, this is going to take me forever to do. And I want to make sure it’s comprehensive. And I was like, you know what? I’m just going to give AI a shot. Let’s see what it comes up with. And this is my first venture into AI at all. So I pulled up Claude on my computer and I typed in, all I typed in was make me a company vehicle use agreement for home inspectors.
Tessa Murry (38:41.459)
wow.
Eric Houseman (38:51.797)
90 seconds later, it popped out the most beautiful, well-written document that it would have taken me half a day or a day to come up with. And it wouldn’t have been as comprehensive. it like, keeps that on the the right side of the screen. And then you say, over in the prompts, you say, replace company name with structure tech. 15 seconds later, whole document changes. Change the address to this. The whole document changes.
Tessa Murry (38:58.126)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (39:04.738)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (39:04.994)
Yeah.
Eric Houseman (39:21.781)
And then what did we spend? 30 minutes. Yeah. 30 minutes going over in a meeting to delete some stuff, Ruben. And we were done. I was like…
Tessa Murry (39:22.757)
It’s life, it’s life changing, isn’t it, Eric? Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (39:27.938)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, about 30 minutes, we tweaked it. We went over this, change the delete this, add this. And yeah, that’s fantastic. I mean, what a time saver.
Tessa Murry (39:38.646)
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, there’s certain things that it can be very helpful and very beneficial for, but some things not.
Eric Houseman (39:42.089)
Huge time saver.
Reuben Saltzman (39:43.758)
So, yeah, I’m not.
Reuben Saltzman (39:50.764)
Yeah, I’m definitely not trashing it. mean, what I keep hearing over and over again, and like Eric said earlier about whatever I used to say, I’m going to butcher this, but you’ll get the essence of it. People aren’t going anywhere. AI is not going to replace people, but the people who know how to use AI are going to replace the people who don’t. So, I mean, it’s here and it ain’t going away. So figure it out.
Tessa Murry (40:16.781)
Hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (40:19.906)
The sooner the better.
Tessa Murry (40:21.816)
Well, here’s a question for you, Ruben. I can’t remember if this was a recent podcast we did or something else I heard at another conference, but there’s AI, basically, phone answering systems for home inspection companies and replacing, know, client care coordinators, the scheduling and everything. Have you tried that? Have you experienced that yourself or or no other companies who have? what is your take on?
Reuben Saltzman (40:38.872)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (40:52.244)
I know another company who has, just, it’s a guy out in California. I won’t share his name because I don’t know if he’d want me to, but he’s out in the San Diego area and he shared a phone call where someone was calling in to book an inspection with their AI robot. And it was very impressive. It could not, it could not schedule the inspection. It kind of had to defer and say,
Tessa Murry (41:15.063)
Wow.
Reuben Saltzman (41:20.61)
You know, I’m sorry, we’re going to have to have somebody call you back and whatever. But it was a lot better than leaving a voicemail potentially. On the other hand, there was enough things about it that I didn’t like, like the long pauses where it had to think. And I just thought, yeah, I’m not ready for this, but maybe within the next year it will be ready. So, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s.
Tessa Murry (41:36.535)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (41:48.49)
Increase it’s getting faster and Exponentially so
Tessa Murry (41:54.081)
Would you see yourself using it as a means to answer phone calls outside of business hours then? Or would you actually use it in place of people?
Reuben Saltzman (42:04.906)
No, I think it’d be the overflow. It’d be when all of our people are on the other line, it’d be better than having somebody on hold. And when it’s off hours, it’d be better than going to voicemail.
Tessa Murry (42:07.682)
overflow.
Yep.
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (42:18.644)
Yeah, yeah, interesting. Huh. It’s coming.
Reuben Saltzman (42:20.322)
Yep. So someday I’m sure we’ll do. I’m sure we’ll get there. I’m just not willing to invest the time yet. I want it to be built out more. I don’t want to be the one to make it. I want someone else to make it and I’ll pay him for it. Yeah. Yeah. Not ready for that.
Tessa Murry (42:26.186)
Yeah, it’s happening fast.
Tessa Murry (42:32.142)
Hmm?
Tessa Murry (42:36.448)
Yeah, you don’t want to be the guinea pig yet. Yeah.
Eric Houseman (42:43.349)
I can see just in talking with Mindy and the client care coordinators, one of the things that I’ve thought about that would be a big time saver for them that we could use AI for is, obviously we know we have inspectors that live all across the cities. Can we dump all of their home addresses into AI and…
AI can take a day’s worth or a week’s worth of inspections and analyze, are we obviously leaving requests out of it, but are we mapping them efficiently? Like, can we switch this inspector with this inspector and that only takes AI five seconds to recognize versus it takes an actual human 10 minutes, or they don’t recognize it at all?
Reuben Saltzman (43:31.746)
Yeah.
That would be a really cool thing to do. Now, and you know what? I forgot to mention our show sponsors, IEB, Inspector Empire Builder. I was just telling you that I had learned about this AI answering service from another inspector. Of course, I know the inspector and I learned about this through IEB. It was on one of the calls.
Eric Houseman (43:37.001)
Right.
Tessa Murry (43:37.075)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (44:02.454)
And as I’m talking about all this, I’m thinking about the call that I’ve got on zoom tonight at 6pm central time, which is the monthly AI call that we have for inspector empire builder, which I always put on my calendar and I always try to attend. I’ve got to have something really important if I’m not going to join on this call, because the whole focus is what are you doing with AI to improve your home inspection company?
Tessa Murry (44:18.211)
Hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (44:30.656)
And every time I feel like, I feel like just a knuckle dragger. I’m so far behind the times on what some of these guys are doing for their company. I do, I do. It’s, it’s really helpful. So I mean that, that right there is worth my price of admission to inspector empire builder. Can’t say enough good stuff about them and I’ll put a note. Yeah. I’ll put a note about them in the show notes.
Tessa Murry (44:30.786)
Wow.
Tessa Murry (44:40.236)
You learn something new every month, huh? Something valuable. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (44:52.866)
Good segue there, Ruben. Nice. Nice.
Reuben Saltzman (45:01.218)
All right. Well, I think that makes up our show. Eric, any other thoughts? Anything we forgot to chat about today?
Eric Houseman (45:09.021)
Nope, not that I can think of. I think we covered it. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (45:12.886)
Okay. All right. Cool. Well, thank you for joining. Always appreciate your time, to see you. I hope you get some cool weather. Not too likely, yeah, yeah, I know you’d appreciate it. All right. Well, to listeners, if you got any thoughts about any of stuff we’re chatting about future show topics that you would love to see discussed.
Eric Houseman (45:19.007)
Happy to be here.
Tessa Murry (45:22.51)
Good to see you guys. Maybe in nine months.
Reuben Saltzman (45:41.4)
Drop us a line. You can reach us by emailing us. It’s podcast at structuretech.com and we will catch you next time. Take care.