To watch a video version of this podcast, click here: https://youtu.be/hhrDUvkhtqk
In this episode, Ruben and Tessa dive into the nuanced world of home inspection reporting, exploring when and how to report safety issues versus minor defects, and how overreporting can sometimes do more harm than good. They discuss the importance of context, client expectations, and professional judgment in creating effective inspection reports that truly benefit clients.
Here’s the link to Inspector Empire Builder: https://www.iebcoaching.com/events
Takeaways
The concept of “overreporting” and its impact on clients and inspectors
The difference between reporting big safety issues versus minor aesthetic flaws
How to interpret and incorporate code requirements into inspection reports
The importance of tailoring reports to client knowledge levels and expectations
The diminishing returns of reporting every minor defect
The significance of experience, mentorship, and judgment in inspection report writing
The idea of balancing thoroughness against usability to prevent client overload
The influence of safety codes and recent regulations in reporting decisions
Philosophical reflection on the value of report content versus client understanding
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction and light banter about MN weather and storms
02:00 – Homeowner vs inspector weather experiences
03:27 – The theory: home inspectors tend to overreport
04:26 – Overreporting on small, piddly items and its implications
05:24 – Case study: reporting on electric panel safety covers
06:57 – How code changes influence reporting practices
07:26 – The potential negotiation points created by overreporting
08:27 – Safety recommendations in inspection reports: when are they appropriate?
09:41 – Differentiating between safety hazards and code compliance
10:11 – The gray area: reports on non-defects and client understanding
12:04 – The importance of context and client type in what to report
13:23 – The impact of geographic and insurance considerations on report content
14:07 – The role of inspector experience and mentorship in reporting decisions
15:24 – The philosophy: graphs of good, better, and best inspection reporting
16:15 – The concept of diminishing value in overreporting
17:14 – The importance of balancing thoroughness with relevance
18:49 – The risk of info overload and its effect on client decision-making
20:45 – Real estate agents’ preferences and client communication strategies
21:14 – The challenge of providing meaningful yet manageable reports
22:32 – Reports vary widely: from overly detailed to too sparse
23:55 – Learning from mentorship and experience to find the reporting sweet spot
25:12 – Tailoring reports based on client familiarity and concerns
26:24 – The importance of professional judgment and experience
27:04 – Final thoughts: balancing good, thorough, but not excessive reporting
28:31 – Upcoming guest and discussions on new construction issues
29:23 – Mention of Sponsor: Inspector Empire Builder and AI tools
30:14 – The AI-powered chat feature on the website: live and functional
31:24 – Wrap-up: encouraging feedback and reflections from listeners
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 (00:01.196)
Welcome back to the show. Tessa, great to see you as always. Do you do you like my attire today? I’m wearing a sweatshirt. I am wearing a light sweatshirt. And I’ll let you guess. Is it because my family insists on keeping the house so cold with the AC that this is what I need to do to survive? Or is it only like 70 degrees here in Minnesota and I’m actually cold inside my house? Which one is it?
Tessa Murry (00:27.549)
Can I say both? Cause you like it hot. I yeah, I was gonna say, let’s switch places, Ruben. I it’s cool, it’s a cool day here. It’s only eighty eight. It’s you know, not in the nineties. But the dew point, the dew point is seventy five. I ran into Walmart this morning to grab something. I came out with this like I bought a Tupperware bin, you know, to store things in. I came out immediately. The whole thing fogs up and I’m just like, This is crazy.
Reuben (00:30.904)
Yeah.
Reuben (00:39.214)
Sounds great.
Reuben (00:56.856)
That is crazy. Yeah, it’s yeah, I I like it warm. No, it’s actually cool today. It was really Minnesota weather was exactly like what you’re describing. it that’s what it was yesterday. Yesterday, yeah, I was helping an inspector and every time I’d open the window, it’d just be like this big bunch of condensation on me. And today it’s it’s actually cool. I I need a sweatshirt on to be comfortable. I’d take it a little warmer, but whatever, I’m sure.
Tessa Murry (01:03.58)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (01:09.997)
Recently. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (01:24.155)
That’s so nice. I’m so jealous. Did you have severe storms yesterday? Go through with this front?
Reuben (01:27.937)
Yeah.
No, we got like nothing. We got warnings of them all day. And I actually I was thinking about our podcast. I thought we were gonna get storms today, and I got up and I cleaned my gutters out. I I get these I I get these tiny little things. They’re about a quarter inch, these little seeds that come off this tree. And I don’t know how, but they get everywhere. I mean they get on the other side of my house, and the tree is nowhere nearby, but they cover my deck and my driveway and my
Tessa Murry (01:42.013)
Reuben (02:00.578)
My walkway and they get all in the gutters because I mean even though they’re tiny, there’s like a gazillion of them and they get everywhere. No, no, no, no. It’s serious like a quarter inch. Like this tiny little round thing. But there’s a ton of them. And I was able to get up there. I I used my leaf blower this time. And my gutters are as clean as they’ve been since they were first installed. That it was great. Yeah, I was very happy with it.
Tessa Murry (02:08.007)
Are they those little helicopter seats? Like the no.
Ugh.
Tessa Murry (02:17.917)
Hog up your gutters.
Tessa Murry (02:26.407)
That’s impressive. Congratulations. Was that was that in place of your morning workout? Because I that probably involves some ladder setups, huh?
Reuben (02:35.662)
This was this was after the morning workout and I got my ladder workout in for sure. Yes. I was up and down that many times. But my gutters are clean and we have a very light mist of rain. I did all this prep for that. But you know what? It had to be done at some point.
Tessa Murry (02:38.897)
my gosh.
Tessa Murry (02:50.833)
Well, it’ll be worth it. I was gonna say you’re gonna get more rain this summer and fall. So there you go. You’re all set.
Reuben (02:57.258)
yes, knock on wood. I hope we do. Yeah. All right. So test f wait, first, anything new you gotta talk about? We we already had a big announcement last week. nothing’s gonna stop that. Anything else?
Tessa Murry (02:59.545)
Yeah. You will. He will.
Tessa Murry (03:07.493)
Nope. Yeah, if you if you missed it, yeah, if there’s if you missed it, there is a baby coming. End of September. tune in to the last episode if you wanna know more. Anyways, I don’t have anything new to add. I’m curious what what you wanna talk about today, Ruben.
Reuben (03:21.102)
Yeah.
Reuben (03:27.822)
All right, so I got an interesting one, and this is a this is a theory I’ve had for a long time. This is this is all theory. You can you can certainly argue with it, but I’ve had this in my head for probably over a decade, and it’s that home inspectors can overreport on stuff. you know, I I I don’t know who said this, but I I heard many years ago a home inspector saying when we’re doing a home inspection.
We’re hunting for elephants, we’re not hunting for mice. I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about that. We’re looking for the big stuff in the house, not the little piddly stuff. And sometimes we do comment on the little piddly stuff because you know it bugs us, and maybe we want to put it in the report. Maybe, maybe there’s a little safety element, but you know, generally we try to stay away from the really small stuff. And one of the inspectors on my team.
Tessa Murry (04:04.325)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben (04:26.326)
Had posted something on our internal communication board asking about w whether other inspectors on our team are also reporting on this. And and the issue that he put in his report, this is a 2013 built home. And when you have an electric panel, I’ll just kind of set the stage for this. If you take the cover off an electric panel and you’re gonna do work on it.
Tessa Murry (04:51.315)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben (04:55.498)
Any wise person is going to shut the power off to the panel. So you’re working on a dead panel. However, the main service entrance conductors coming into the panel, you can’t shut off the power to those. Those are still energized. So even with the power off, you still have two live points of contact inside the panel where you could accidentally touch one of those and get shocked or electrocuted.
So in 2017, the National Electric Code said, we’re not even cool with that. If you got those lugs where they’re always going to stay energized and they’re open, you got to have these plastic covers over them to prevent someone from working inside the panel from accidentally touching it with a screwdriver or something like that. It’s two little pieces of plastic. Those have been required in the code for almost a decade now. And
Tessa Murry (05:47.699)
Mm.
Reuben (05:51.939)
You when it went into the code, I just kind of rolled my eyes. I’m like, all right, what else are we gonna do? You know, it’s it’s like, is is this really an issue? But of course, all of these things that get added into the code get added because somebody got killed. I mean, that’s that’s what that’s where codes come from, right? Who who was it? was it was it one of our podcast guests saying codes are written in blood?
Tessa Murry (05:57.79)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (06:18.552)
maybe. I don’t remember that specific quote, but was that was a like a Mike Casey or Skip Walker or something or a
Reuben (06:22.274)
Okay.
Reuben (06:27.562)
It could have been, although you know who I think it was. I think it was a guest I’m trying to get on is Glenn Matthewson. I think he’s the one who said it. It might have been at a conference he taught, but codes are written in blood. We have all these codes because people died, people got hurt, and now we do things to help prevent people from you know, from bad things happening to them. So okay, I get it. We got these little plastic covers in there. Well, one of the inspectors on my team has been
Tessa Murry (06:34.323)
Okay. Okay.
Tessa Murry (06:45.18)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (06:49.245)
Yeah.
Reuben (06:57.39)
Putting in his reports that it’s a good idea to put those on any panel. Like even pre 2017. He’s like, I think, you know, if I’m working on my panel, I want it to be safe and people should do this. So, you know, he he wrote it up. He said, There there’s no covers on here and it should be added. And somehow this became like a potential negotiation point. And I know you’re rolling your eyes.
Tessa Murry (07:05.459)
Sure.
Tessa Murry (07:10.641)
Yeah. Yeah.
Reuben (07:26.424)
Tessa’s rolling her eyes for anyone not watching the video. and they had an electrician or two come out, and the electricians are like, this wasn’t required until after the panel was installed. This is not a defect. There’s nothing we can do, there’s nothing to be done, blah, blah, blah. And it kind of got back to our team like, hey, why are you writing this up? This is not an issue. I mean, it predates the requirement. It’s code compliant. And
My inspector gets all that, and he’s like, yeah, but what about GFCI devices? We recommend those, don’t we? I mean, the house was built in 1950. There wasn’t such a thing as a GFI. So should I just not report on GFCIs? Okay, fair point. I mean, you can’t grandfather safety. And he’s making a recommendation for safety. Now, to be fair.
Tessa Murry (07:58.398)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (08:10.781)
Good point.
Tessa Murry (08:14.565)
That’s a good point.
Tessa Murry (08:19.485)
Right.
Reuben (08:27.532)
The standard comment we have in our reports in our software says something. I don’t have it in front of me, but it says something along the lines of there was missing terminal covers at the panel, and they should be installed for safety, and they’re required by NEC code section, blah, blah, blah, or something like that. And I really I was like, holy cow, okay, we’re quoting code.
Which is something I don’t even like to do in our home inspections, but we’re applying it to something where it didn’t even apply. So if if we are gonna write this up, the language should sh should be something like.
Tessa Murry (08:58.909)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben (09:11.51)
Today, on a new panel, you’re supposed to have these plastic covers installed over the lugs to help prevent someone from getting electrocuted. It wasn’t required when this panel was installed, but it might be a good idea to have an electrician add these the next time an electrician is doing work inside the panel. Okay, fair enough. It it’s definitely not a negotiation point. You’re making it very clear that this is not a defect. It’s just
Tessa Murry (09:33.456)
Mm, mhm, mhm.
Tessa Murry (09:40.658)
Yeah.
Reuben (09:41.187)
You know, something maybe you might want to have an electrician do for some added safety. I’ve got no problem with adding that in the report. But the way we wrote it up, it it kind of sounded like a kind of yeah, yeah. It sounds like something like, hey, we gotta get on this or someone’s gonna die. No, this is only gonna affect somebody working inside a panel. Personally, I would never put that comment in my inspection report. Would you what do you think, Tess?
Tessa Murry (09:46.194)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:52.723)
Sounds severe. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:59.005)
Yeah.
Reuben (10:11.008)
I mean, I you’re all about safety. Would you would you write this up?
Tessa Murry (10:17.061)
You know, that’s a really good question, Ruben. And I I can’t answer that because I feel like we’re entering territory right now where you know, there’s so much gray area when you’re inspecting. Y trying to figure out w what comments you should put in the report and what you shouldn’t, I think is one of the most difficult things as a home inspector because you might
You might think if you’re if you’ve never been a home inspector before that like, okay, you see a defect, you put it in the report and you know, you see this defect in all the houses, it goes in every single report. Well, what if you’ve got like a a nineteen hundred home that’s had tons of DIY people working on it, you got a million things wrong, you’re not gonna put in there that you’ve got, you know, little piddly things that are, you know, scuffed paint or
you know, doors that rub on the jams, stuff like that. But if you’re inspecting a brand new construction house, yeah, yeah, missing door stops. But if you’re inspecting like a brand new, you know, 2026 house and you’ve got, you know, dents in the wall, cr you know, little, you know, aesthetic things or doors that rub, you’re gonna put that in the report. And so that’s kind of that gray area that I think comes with experience as a home inspector where you have to determine, okay, yes, these are defects.
Reuben (11:13.688)
Yep. Missing door stopper. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (11:40.7)
We have these comments in a report. Do I want to put it in the report or not? And it depends on the it depends, I think, on the inspector and how they view it. It depends on the client and what their concerns and expectations are. Depends on the house. And so I think, you know, going back to your question, like should you put it in or not?
Okay. Well, if you’ve got a house that’s built in like twenty sixteen, right before the code changed, and there’s not a whole lot wrong in this house, I’d probably put it in because it’s a comment that’s just like a basic comment. There’s probably not a whole lot wrong in this house, and it was right on the edge of code change and wouldn’t, you know, won’t ca cause any harm. And I think the way you you s you rewrote the comment here gives it better context so it doesn’t scare people. So I think that’s important too.
‘Cause part of all of this is just giving giving clients and and buyers context for things. But but that’s a tough call and I know a lot of inspectors kind of struggle with, especially if you’re new, trying to figure out well, is this a house I should put this comment in or not?
Reuben (12:54.284)
Yeah, yeah. And like AFCIs. What if you have a home that was built in two thousand before there was any requirements for AFCIs, are you gonna put a comment in the report saying, hey, wasn’t required, but for added safety, it’d be a good idea to have an electrician come in and put AFCI protection in all the areas that are required to have the AFCI protection today, which is most of the living spaces. What
Tessa Murry (12:57.65)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (13:04.573)
Yeah.
Reuben (13:23.554)
Are are you gonna do that? I know some home inspectors do.
Tessa Murry (13:24.178)
Well
Well, and here’s another factor too, I didn’t even mention, but geographically, it could depend on insurance companies and what they allow in terms of buying and selling properties. You might have to have certain safety requirements in a house, like you know, these upgrades have to be done. You if you’ve got electrical that’s over fifty years old, like you’re replacing it anyways. So yeah, I would put in a comment about yeah, you gotta upgrade to Arc Vaults because that’s what’s, you know, required now.
Reuben (13:34.102)
Mm.
Tessa Murry (13:55.646)
‘Cause you’re gonna be replacing all the electrical anyways or something, you know, I don’t know. in the Twin Cities though, you we see lots of really old electrical and you know, it’s that comment may not make sense in lots of situations.
Reuben (14:07.746)
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean I can say for the record, we don’t. We don’t make any recommendation to retrofit AFCI stuff. and when we’re inspecting homes where it was required at the time and it doesn’t have any, we will point that out. I mean if I if I do a new construction house and there’s no way AFCI protection, you bet I’m gonna talk about that. Now i it
Tessa Murry (14:27.857)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (14:34.184)
Yeah.
Reuben (14:35.446)
Okay, now is that moving into the territory of code compliance? I it’s a gray area. I mean, I guess, yeah, it probably is, but the you you can’t say that we don’t do anything related to code compliance. There’s a lot of stuff that we do report on. And
Tessa Murry (14:42.577)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (14:54.395)
Again, it’s it’s understanding the context. It’s like, okay, if you if you have a basic understanding of what the code required, then it helps us make these recommendations that, you know, support these codes that are in place for certain reason, like you mentioned before, saving lives usually. so we’re not code inspectors, but we have knowledge of it, so we can make recommendations that make sense to people. But how do you know interpret what makes sense? That’s the hard part. That’s I think that’s the art of
Of inspecting and becoming a good home inspector.
Reuben (15:24.992)
Well, yeah, and he here’s here’s where I want to get into philosophy a little bit and and maybe theory, I don’t know. I I’ve always had this graph in my head. I’ve never put it on paper, but I did it today. I sketched it out right as you and I were chatting before the show, because I’ve had it in my head, and I’m gonna I’m gonna just describe it because most of the people aren’t watching this, but you know how
Tessa Murry (15:45.649)
Yeah.
Reuben (15:52.267)
most graphs work with any successful business, it’s always up and to the right. So I I think a lot of home inspectors have this idea that the amount of good they are doing in the world, the amount of good that they are doing in a home inspection, the amount of value they can deliver.
Is gonna go up with the more things that they report. And I’m holding it up here. it’s very simple, it’s just it’s a it’s a line that goes up and to the right. The more they report on, the more good they’re doing. Very simple, right? Straight line. Yeah, yeah, the better the report. This is the way I think a lot of home inspectors.
Tessa Murry (16:35.923)
More the better the report. More thorough. Yeah.
Reuben (16:44.792)
Think about their job. But the way I have it in my mind is that it’s not a straight line. I think initially, the first stuff that you see, the stuff that you notice on your first walk around the house on the outside, your first initial walk on the inside, I think you’re able to do the most good with all that stuff you saw right at the beginning. And
Tessa Murry (16:47.398)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (16:53.681)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (17:12.837)
Mm-hmm. If you think like Ruben and you’ve taken his water intrusion class. Yeah.
Reuben (17:14.082)
There’s a diminishing value.
Right? Yeah. And I and so now what I have is a line that goes up very quickly. In fact, on what I’m holding up, it doesn’t go up as quickly as I would like, but the line goes up for the amount of good you’re doing pretty quickly, and then it starts to taper off to the point where you you’re the the more you’re reporting on, you’re doing very little incremental good the more stuff you report on. For the first
Tessa Murry (17:47.333)
Yeah. So steep incline and then a plateau kind of. Yeah.
Reuben (17:49.209)
You know, and then a plateau. Yeah. And and it doesn’t it doesn’t go completely flat, but it really levels off. And you know, if if you spend three hours at a house inspecting and reporting on stuff, which is what we’ve kind of determined, I think that’s kind of the sweet spot. We we s we schedule four hour inspections is our standard, and then we typically spend another hour with the client going over all of it, but we’re inspecting we’re we’re spending three hours inspecting.
Tessa Murry (17:57.616)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (18:12.208)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben (18:19.672)
For the average home, bigger homes, complicated homes, of course, it’s more, but this is just general numbers. I think that’s a sweet spot where we can get the most possible value out of those, do the most possible good for those first three hours. And if we were to be at that same house and we spent six hours at the house instead, we would find more stuff, I’m sure. There’d be more stuff that we report on.
Tessa Murry (18:24.711)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (18:46.737)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Reuben (18:49.804)
But the additional value we deliver is gonna be just a little. It’s not gonna be a ton. And we’re gonna have to charge people for all that time, which is why we spend the amount of time we do. And I I think it’s the same thing with what we report on. And what what what I’ve got in my mind is that the amount of good we do at some point can actually go down.
Tessa Murry (18:52.985)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben (19:18.542)
And what I’m showing you here is a third graph where it it looks a lot like the first, the or the like the last one I just showed you, where it goes up really fast and then it tapers off. And then at some point, the amount of good we’re doing actually goes down based on reporting too much stuff. And and this is where this is theory. And I I know there’s some home inspectors, I mean, they have a straight line in their mind, and it’s like
Tessa Murry (19:22.053)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (19:26.855)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben (19:46.849)
Every additional thing I report on is information for the clients. And who am I to say that this client shouldn’t be given that additional information? It’s up to them. And I’m gonna give them every single thing I possibly can. But in my mind, you are taking away from the important stuff. When you give them a 100-page report, at some point it’s it’s in
Indigestible. Is that a word? Indigestible? Yeah. Yeah, it’s a word. it’s it’s it’s too much for them. And they just they’re they’re gonna get overloaded and they’re gonna go, what what’s what’s the big stuff? And you’re gonna have some very tiny piddly stuff that really doesn’t matter that you put in there anyway. And then you’re gonna have a bunch of pretty important stuff that ought to be done in the next year or two, and then you’ll have the really high priority items.
Tessa Murry (20:18.341)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (20:28.935)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Reuben (20:45.656)
But I my concern is that people are just gonna look at the really high priority items, and all the rest of the stuff just gets mixed in together. And yeah, it’s noise and they don’t see it. And I I think the amount of good you do is actually gonna go down. Not only that, but if you get a home inspector who’s just gonna report on all this stuff, every little thing, and you know, talk about putting
Tessa Murry (20:54.013)
It’s noise. Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (21:02.323)
Mm.
Reuben (21:14.85)
The covers in the electric panel, like we just talked about at the beginning.
You’re gonna get agents, real estate agents, who get frustrated with this level of reporting where it’s just you report on every little thing and everything needs to be fixed. And they go, Look, I’d rather work with a home inspector who’s gonna be more level headed and give us the information we need to help make a decision on buying this house. And I’m gonna work with the people who do that instead. And if people choose not to work with you.
Tessa Murry (21:31.389)
Mm.
Tessa Murry (21:42.301)
Mm.
Tessa Murry (21:47.016)
Mm.
Reuben (21:50.957)
You can’t do this good in the world. And I don’t think the clients appreciate all that level of detail either. And so I I think at some point you’re you’re shooting yourself in the foot. You’re doing more harm than good. What do you think, Tess? Do you think there’s there’s any any truth in this theory?
Tessa Murry (21:53.949)
Hm.
Tessa Murry (22:03.599)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You you bring up some really good points, Ruben, and I and I tend to agree with you. You can lose the the force through the trees if you start reporting on all the little piddly things and the report gets overwhelming. I’ve read a lot of reports from different inspectors from kind of different areas around the country, and there’s a wide variation, I’d say, in how people report. I’ve seen
I think people that report every tiny little defect in the reports are super detailed. There’s way too much information in there. It’s hard to decipher it even for someone like me, let alone a homeowner, and figure out what’s important, like you just said. you’re actually, you know, you’re not doing good. You’re maybe doing some harm. And then the opposite of that is I’ve seen reports where it’s just there’s it you can tell it they went through the house really fast. Probably didn’t
see too much and there’s hardly anything reported. So there’s a sweet spot, I think, somewhere in the middle. And figuring out where that is, I think takes experience and for me personally, really good mentorship. So when when I was hired, you know, by Structure Tech, one of the most valuable things I think I got was just being able to shadow lots of different people.
And pick their brains on what they thought mattered and what they thought didn’t matter. And it was slightly different, based on each person and based on their experience and the houses they saw and the the clients they had. And as you know, I think a lot of our comments in the reports came from probably not only just our experience of knowing what defects were and trying to kind of make these recommendations based on code, but also from
callbacks or from issues from clients who were like, This is a problem, why didn’t you catch it? And we’re Oops, okay, well we’ll make a comment for that. Like, you know, testing all the appliances, you know, clothes washers, dryers, microwaves, refr you know, refrigerators, stuff like that, burners. It’s like
Reuben (24:12.194)
Yeah. I got one task, our reports are written in cash. How’s that?
Tessa Murry (24:16.659)
Yeah. So there’s like, you know, there’s a r the I think as a home inspector, you kind of you you have this almost reaction, you know, to to these experiences where clients, you know, push back and want more information. You didn’t give them enough. And so you’re constantly trying to find that line between, okay, well, what do I need to tell them? ‘Cause they’re gonna be upset that I didn’t tell them and what
is too much information for them. And I think that’s why it’s so important to get to know your client too and get to know like, okay, are we talking to an engineer here who’s like owned a lot of homes and has a million questions and wants to know all the details and would like the details, less overwhelmed? Are we talking to like a first time home buyer who just needs to know like the stuff that’s really important and can leave out all these little things and it’s not going to be an issue for them. They’re not going to be upset about that.
Reuben (25:12.632)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (25:14.413)
And so that’s that’s key too. But I was gonna say, just going back to kind of my training, I think it’s really it’s it’s nice when you are a home inspector and you have access to other people who have been doing it a long time to watch and listen and pick their brain on how they determine what you put in their port and what you don’t and how you report on it. ’cause it’s not always black or white, like you said. You’ve got structure tech has this comment, but
you wouldn’t put it in, but maybe you would in some situations. A lot of times you wouldn’t. So when do you do that? You know? And and so that’s something I think you just kind of have to learn over time. And as a home inspector, you have to switch your brain into taking a step back instead of thinking in black and white and kind of all these, you know, minutiae things that we’re trained to look for. It’s like, does this matter? Is this important?
If it is, how do I report on it? so yeah, I don’t know if that answers your question. I’m kind of I think I can see both sides. I can see I can see the importance of having comments like this.
Reuben (26:24.14)
You you’re saying you’re saying it depends. Is that right?
Tessa Murry (26:27.603)
In a nutshell, thank you. Yes. That’s a much more succinct way, yes.
Reuben (26:33.656)
Yes.
It’s your it’s your favorite phrase, you know. Let’s let’s just pull that out. You haven’t used it yet today. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, that that’s really it. I I don’t think we need to I I don’t think there’s a whole lot else to get into. I mean, the the basis is I think that there there can be over reporting. At some point, you’re not doing your client any favors by including all these little things.
Tessa Murry (26:38.995)
It applies. I think it applies. Yeah.
Reuben (27:04.352)
Everyb every home inspector is gonna have their own conviction, their own reason for reporting on this stuff. And you know, w we’re not all gonna do the exact same thing. And that’s fine. We don’t need to. But at some point you gotta think, What am I am I doing real good here? Or am I just overloading people with too much stuff? So
Tessa Murry (27:09.747)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (27:16.337)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (27:24.465)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (27:28.059)
Yes. I think always come back to that. That’s a very good point. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Reuben (27:32.643)
Yep. Yep. No one to pull it back. All right. well that’s that was the whole show. That’s all I had to talk about. And I I will give a little teaser. We’re gonna get Eric as a guest on. He’s the service manager at Structure Tech, Eric Houseman. And we were talking about a couple of complaints that we got on new construction houses. And I’m dying to share these with you. I don’t want to step all over it, but these
Tessa Murry (27:55.075)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (28:00.689)
Ho ho ho
Reuben (28:02.138)
These these are things where it’s like someone actually took the time to pick up the phone to talk about this. And it also made me realize, whoa, we gotta do a way better job of having conversation with our clients before a new construction inspection to set the stage on what we’re doing and what we’re not doing. Cause some of this stuff is just out there.
Tessa Murry (28:09.413)
Yeah.
Reuben (28:31.146)
And I’ll leave it at that. I don’t want to step on Eric’s stories, but he’s he’s got some stories to share.
Tessa Murry (28:31.641)
Really? Okay. Okay. Yeah. It’s all about setting the expectation right off the bat, isn’t it? Okay. Well I’m looking forward to that.
Reuben (28:40.246)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I think I think we’re gonna title the show Some of the Craziest Home Inspection Complaints We’ve Ever Seen. Should be fun. Yeah. Eric said we might have to make it two episodes, but we’ll see.
Tessa Murry (28:51.533)
No that sounds good. That sounds good.
Okay. nice. There’s a lot, huh? Okay. Don’t be juicy.
Reuben (29:01.686)
Yeah. Yeah. So we’ll we’ll get him on whenever we can. And Tessa, anything else we gotta cover? Did I forget anything?
Tessa Murry (29:12.837)
I don’t think so. If you know, if anyone’s listening and they have any thoughts or feedback or comments on kind of what we’re talking about today, please feel free to to write us an email or let us know.
Reuben (29:23.948)
All right, cool. And you know what? I I gotta put out a sh I I gotta mention our show sponsors, IEB, Inspector Empire Builder. There’s you know, we talked about AI a number of times on the show, and there’s an ongoing AI discussion we have. I recently hired another colleague, another home inspection business owner. I won’t share his name because I don’t know if he wants me to share it. Maybe I’ll share it another time, but
I had a little AI project I wanted him to do. I wanted a little AI chat bubble on my website where instead of searching for information on the site using the dumb search bar, you can just click on the chat bubble and you can type in your question and it gives you an intelligent AI powered answer based on my blog content. And it’s working. It’s working. And yeah. It’s live.
Tessa Murry (30:14.349)
whoa, cool. What? my gosh. It you’ve already implemented it? I have to try it. So it’s it’s like I get to talk to a Ruben. I get I get to go onto your website and just ask you a bunch of questions, huh?
Reuben (30:21.388)
Yeah, check it out.
Reuben (30:26.03)
Maybe. That’s the goal. I mean, check it out for yourself. Tell me what you think. if you absolutely hate it, just tell me I saw it and we’ll leave it at that. I’ll I’ll read between the lines.
Tessa Murry (30:36.467)
So so there’s a Ruben p AI persona out there now. It’s alive.
Reuben (30:43.138)
We we d we tried. We tried. And it’ll give you backup info. But all of this because of Inspector Empire Builder. This is if if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have these connections. I wouldn’t know that this is even a possibility. And just being around these people who are talking about it, who are doing it, it opens your world up. So big shout out for IEB and I’ve been a member for a long time and I will have a link to the group.
in the show notes if you’d like to learn more. So that’s what I got. And I think that’s it. We’ll call that a show.
Tessa Murry (31:15.741)
Perfect.
Okay. Perfect. Wow, we wrapped it up in record time here today.
Reuben (31:24.576)
Record time. Yeah. I always say we’re gonna do twenty minutes. We never do, but this was this was close to twenty minutes as we’ve done for a long time. So for the listeners, if you got yeah, high five test. Okay. For our listeners, if you got questions for us or you got thoughts on my philosophies, Tessa’s philosophies on the amount that should be reported, send us an email. We would love to hear from you. You can reach us by emailing podcast at
Tessa Murry (31:32.324)
It is, yeah. Congratulations to us.
Reuben (31:54.485)
Structuretech.com, and we will catch you next time. Take care.
Tessa Murry (31:59.23)
Thanks.