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Stuart Brooks · #19 (**permalink**) 06-07-2008, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vern Heiler

Inspect the house avg. 1hr/thousand sf. Writing the report varies from "I can't believe making money is so easy" (3yr. old slab, not occupied) 30min. max. To tears dripping on the keybd at 1:30am ( 30+ year. two basements and crawlspace, 3 attic, every possible plumbing config. and problem, knob & tube with Federal Pacific panel + subs at every turn, plumber reciprocating saw infestation, etc. on a 1800 sf. house. Ya just gotta love it!

I take an avg. of 100 pics on a 2-3 thousand sf. house. Always go thru the inspection the same direction. Probe I carry tells whether floor is tile or vinyl by how it stands in the pic. Toilet lid up says loose. etc. Also carry a digital voice recorder for things that don't photo well, furnace size etc. I also keep the photos forever. Had one customer call back after 11 mos. with complaint that roof leaked and roofer said HI should have condemed the roof. When I looked at the roof I was shocked to see most of the granuals were gone and you could see the fiberglass. When I asked the customer when he had cleaned the roof he said he had not. When I produced the pictures of the roof that had some algae growth on the rear elevation, that was now gone, he said he was going to go after the seller. Just looking for someone to blame. What a scumbag. I'm glad I had the pic's.

I take 200-300 pictures and keep them. Had a foreclosure inspection in December. It had a fairly new heat pump system and took pictures of it and had taken pictures inside the service panel looking for data on electric elements (a macro shot or 2 records all the numbers). Client calls me up in Feburary, want to know how I could "pass", his term not mine, the heat pump system when the heat module was missing? I told him I was pretty sure I had pictures of the system and I would call him back. Went to his report file, scanned through the pictures and sure 'nough there was the heater module inside the system where it was supposed to be. I called him and emailed the pictures. Turns out the client had someone working in the house before moving in. So apparently, the fixer-upper guy decided he could use the module and no one would miss it. A lot edited out here but I figure keeping pictures in a file saved me a few coins.