Thread: When is enough, enough?

Yesterdays inspection was on a 1945 rural property (don't see too many that era around here) with four separate buildings, including main house, guest house, garage with attached office/utility room and storage shed. Electric service was both knob and tube and NMC, complete with fuse block and three assorted panels, all with a ton of issues - aluminum wiring, open splices, damaged panels, missing dead-front, improper grounding, unsecured conduit, panel guts over-sprayed with stain, covers missing from receptacles, reversed polarity, no GFCIs etc., etc. My question is, when is enough, enough? Clearly the whole system needed to be thoroughly evaluated by an electrician with high probability of complete system upgrade. But at what point do you stop listing or identifying all the defects, taking photographs etc. and simply defer to the expert? It just became redundant after a while. But would you typically go on a scavenger hunt to locate every item in need of repair or simply call it a day when a major issue is detected? And, I am interested to know where do you usually begin the electrical inspection - At the service drop and work in, panels or inside the residence and work out? Sorry, for some reason my laptop keyboard will not allow paragraphs, bummer!

When I encounter similar situations, I list enough of the major items to make a solid recommendation for the expert and state that my list is only an example of a general condition. Also, I list items from each area I want the expert to examine. For example, I don't simply say, "...electrician should examine the entire system". I give examples from each room/location I want the electrician to examine. It usually seems to work.

Once I have an understanding of the scope of the work then I'll throw in the catch all phrase. But I list enough of the big defects with some very strong verbiage so that no one can dismiss it as minor. No need to take the house apart if it is apparent that it is major issue with major expense.
I might even recommend getting a professional xyz to give a bid before they close.

Originally Posted by Ian Page

Yesterdays inspection was on a 1945 rural property

Electric service was both knob and tube and NMC, complete with fuse block and three assorted panels, -
aluminum wiring,
open splices,
damaged panels,
missing dead-front,
improper grounding,
unsecured conduit,
panel guts over-sprayed with stain,
covers missing from receptacles, reversed polarity,
no GFCIs etc., !

Replace Electrical Service : Beyond it's Service Life. Fire and Shock Hazard.

Agreed - once you see that pattern I usually list several examples then throw in "license electrician evaluate the entire home wiring and panel" ..... In a farm setting I will break out the individual structures. My experience has been if I give specific items the sellers will only fix specific items. Then you will get "the inspector did not call that out."

//Rick

Originally Posted by Rick Bunzel

Agreed - once you see that pattern I usually list several examples then throw in "license electrician evaluate the entire home wiring and panel" ..... In a farm setting I will break out the individual structures. My experience has been if I give specific items the sellers will only fix specific items. Then you will get "the inspector did not call that out."

//Rick

Nothing to " Evaluate".
Beyond Service Life.

Originally Posted by Billy Stephens

Nothing to " Evaluate".

Finally ... someone understands.

Thank you to those that shared their thoughts. I did, in fact, itemize and identify the most serious issues with photographs to justify my assessment, then generalized the other defects, also with photos but explained in the report that the pix were representative samples. I also recommended a complete and thorough evaluation of the electrical service with a view to replacement, as considered necessary by a fully qualified electrician. This Inspection beat my previous personal record with 135 photographs, for a 1500 sq.ft. property - though there were additional independent structures also.

Maybe this is a taboo question, but did you charge them enough to make the inspection profitable for you? And I say this only because there are more times than I care to think about where the pics on the internet looked fine and the buyer had been very quiet about the "extras", but when i got there it was just a dump truck full of problems and I had underpriced myself.

135 pictures is a lot - I took 200+ once but it was an exceptionally "bad" house...

Good luck with your business!

Best,
Russell Poe
Best 1 Home Inspection

Originally Posted by Russell Poe

Maybe this is a taboo question, but did you charge them enough to make the inspection profitable for you? And I say this only because there are more times than I care to think about where the pics on the internet looked fine and the buyer had been very quiet about the "extras", but when i got there it was just a dump truck full of problems and I had underpriced myself.

135 pictures is a lot - I took 200+ once but it was an exceptionally "bad" house...

Good luck with your business!

Best,
Russell Poe
Best 1 Home Inspection

Russell, how observant. Not taboo at all. I probably did not charge enough. The visual and practical aspects of the inspection went smoothly enough. It doesn't take long to snap a picture of an issue or defect but when the photos (I probably only actually used about one third) are being explained and the problems memorialized in layman's language, the report became fairly lengthy and time consuming. There were also other reasons but by that time I had already agreed to terms. I typically don't charge extra because the report takes longer than anticipated. Some you win etc... Good fortune to you also...

Not to hijack this thread but I will. After doing several thousand inspections pricing inspections is still a crapshoot. In the past two weeks I have had easy inspections (=profitable) and hard inspections (< profitable). These days I know homes in certain neighborhoods are going to be more issue-prone and others neighborhoods not so much. We try to price them accordingly but you never know when that issue prone property (ie. diamond in the rough or money-pit) will slip in there. Just the risk we take. Most of the time when we are quoting a price and it sounds rough, we will do a lookup while we are on the phone and see how rough it is. If it is rough and the client bawks at the price then its OK for them to goto my competitor!

//Rick

This is one of the reasons I do not give prices out without doing a little research. Using the web and the normal information available (Google, Google earth, Zillow, and county tax sites) I find out what I can and then price the inspection accordingly...then I have a conversation with my potential client to lock down the details. I find many inspections with "out" buildings, large inspections - over 5000SF or over 10,000Sf, older homes - pre 1970s, pre 1940s and just pre...
Bottom line is I ask my client questions and exchange information to be able to sell them on my services and to be prepared to do what needs to be done.