June 26, 2025 • 12 mins
The real estate transaction process breaks down when agents fail to prepare their clients properly, especially regarding inspection expectations and appropriate repair requests.
• Frustration with agents who don't explain inspection processes to clients, especially those from different cultures
• Language barriers require extra effort from agents to ensure understanding of complex real estate procedures
• First-time or international buyers need clear guidance about what repair requests are reasonable
• Some agents failing to communicate critical contract deadlines to clients
• Out-of-area agents attempting to work in unfamiliar markets without proper research
• Ethics concerns when agents schedule inspections without client input
• Inappropriate agent influence over health and safety testing decisions
• Importance of letting clients choose their own inspection services
If you're interested in our class "How to Get to Close with Every Client," please give us a call. Though not currently CE-credited, we plan to have it certified this winter.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
NBC4 news segments: The importance of home inspections, and what to look for | NBC4 WCMH-TV
Advice from experts: Don’t skip the home inspection | NBC4 WCMH-TV
OSU student’s mysterious symptoms end up tied to apartment’s air quality | NBC4 WCMH-TV
How to save money by winterizing your home | NBC4 WCMH-TV
Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Scheduled classes
Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Course lis...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs from
radon to mold to warranties Fora great home inspection, you
really can't go wrong.
(00:51):
Visit HomeInspectionsInOhiocom.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hey, welcome to the Standing Out Loud Podcast.
This is Jim, and with me, ofcourse, is Laura, the office
goddess.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Hello everyone.
All right, so what do you wantto talk about?
I don't know.
There's been a bunch of stuffhappen this week and last week.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Which one do you want to?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
pick.
Well, you spent an hour or hourand a half talking to somebody
because their agent the agentrequested you to do that.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Oh, that was an hour.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Because that was an hour, because the buyer wanted
to request everything to befixed.
So I think that's a good one,because that one we could
probably put a link to thisepisode in the report system,
which I'm thinking, if thebuyers actually read the whole
(01:43):
report and then they click onthat link, they go, oh, that's
what I should and shouldn't askfor.
But this is something thatagents should have a discussion
with their buyers long before,or at least a day before they
get the report, before they evenhave the home inspection done.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Part of me wonders how much of that was a language
barrier.
English was not her firstlanguage and we had to do a zoom
so that we could translate.
It was a translation in thezoom from me to her yes, she was
able to speak enough.
I could understand her.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, but you were, you were your.
Your words were not beingtranslated to another language
my words were being translatedinto arabic then for her okay
yeah, and I'm still thinkingthere's no excuse, because if
you can just do a translationthrough, my words were being
translated into Arabic, then forher, okay, I'm still thinking
there's no excuse, because ifyou can just do a translation
through Zoom, right, yep, theagent can do a translation to
let them know.
Hey, this is what's appropriateto ask for.
(02:36):
And this lady didn't even know.
She didn't know the sequence ofwhat was even going on.
It seemed like when I talked toher and I met her at the home
inspection.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
And it's not just that, but if you've got somebody
that's coming in from anothercountry, it's coming in from
another country.
Wouldn't you imagine that theyhave absolutely no concept of
our system and how that worksand that you would have to be
very clear and heck, maybe evenhave like printed stuff for them
(03:09):
?
This is what a home inspectionis.
This is what an appraisal is.
This is the timeline.
This is how things flow.
This is when things need to bedone.
You know, like once you signyour contract, like everything
automatically gets filled intolike an excel spreadsheet and it
populates that and you print itoff and give it to the client
and make your life easy.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
There couldn't have been any of that because this
woman was so clueless and thisis not the first time we've had
to no I guess, I guess walk thebuyers off the cliff of asking
for every little item becausethey're not told what is
appropriate, what's not, and weeven have that in our report
(03:49):
right so if you're a real estateagent and you or a home buyer,
doesn't matter if you have neverseen one of our homeless
profession reports.
The very first thing in thereport is basically don't blow
your deal over little things andit's not appropriate to ask for
minor home maintenance things.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Well, but here is another question then, though.
So I like doing stuff, I likemaintenance, I like repairing
things.
I like doing stuff, I likemaintenance, I like repairing
things, I like working outside.
So what's easy for me if you'vegot somebody coming from
another country that doesn'tknow what a furnace is or what a
(04:26):
filter is, or what?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It's now a third world country.
They know what a furnace is.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I don't know, do they actually have them there?
I don't know what their heatingsystems are.
Like we have a masonry heaterthat's common in Europe, not
furnaces.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So I'm just saying I don't know, but I can still,
even if I all right, we have amasonry here with a very
different type of fireplace, Ican still look at it and know
it's a fireplace of some typesome design.
So I think that example thatwe're talking about.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
That was a total failure.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I was trying to be nice well, you can be nice, but
this is a total failure ofwhoever that real estate agent
is to set appropriate limitswith the, the buyer.
Now, if it's a brand new house,yes, I would expect everything
to be a lot more perfect.
And maybe on a brand new buildokay, they didn't paint that
(05:25):
wall perfectly.
I might ask them to touch thatup.
It's a brand new build I'm justnow moved.
I'm the first person buying thisplace.
If the house is like 50 60years old, you should not expect
perfection in anything cosmetic, right.
So she was just.
She was just not prepped andended up.
(05:45):
The agent had took up an hourof your time helping this lady
that she should have beenhelping in the first place and
no commission and you.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
And no commission and you got no commission.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You got no bonus for that.
The agent wasn't even there onthat Zoom call to know what was
said.
No, if you're a real estateagent, do not be an absent agent
.
That does not earn youreferrals.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Can I tell you, this week alone actually today and
yesterday I've had three of ourclients complain about their
agents that they didn'tcommunicate deadlines.
One of our clients didn't knowthat there was a time frame on
the home inspection period andthat he needed to decide stuff
(06:35):
before it expired.
Hadn't been told that um that'samazing, because I just saying
I, I'm not arguing.
Then I had another woman thismorning tell me that her agent
is trying to get a house for herin columbus, but she's not from
the columbus area, don'tremember where she's from it
it's.
It's not from the Columbus area, don't remember where she's
(06:56):
from.
It's not anywhere near Columbus.
And so she was totally cluelessabout the Columbus market and
about everything andsubsequently she couldn't help
her client because she didn'tknow what she needed to know to
work in this market.
I mean, as sad as it is to say,each market is its own niche
and you either know what you'redoing or you don't.
Like I really do need to writethe the city agent and the
(07:19):
country agent, you know, likethat book that we used to read
country mouth city mouth.
I need to do that because thereis a huge difference with where
you come from and what you needto know, and I I don't.
I think that somebody thinks,oh, we can just walk on into
columbus, it's not problem, Ican just do this.
No, honey, you can't.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
No, there should be a lot of similarities.
However, you need to recognizethe differences and do some
research on that.
But does this seem like there'sa trend, and that's what I'm
wondering.
Is there a trend that we'renoticing or not?
Maybe it's just me that agentsare not meeting the expectations
of the buyers, or at leastthey're not helping them as much
(08:01):
as they probably should be.
Or is it just we've had thisinflux of that this last week or
so?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Well, you know what?
Let's revisit that in a month,because right now I would say
yes.
Like the past two weeks, I'vehad a lot more complaints.
I've had people call and wantus to do second inspections
because their agent picked oneInspector, scheduled it and they
had no say in it, according towhat I was told.
So don't know what the truth isthere, but why would you pay
(08:31):
for a second inspection if youalready had one?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
If you weren't happy with it.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Yeah, this past week.
Well, past couple weeks yes.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So somebody had a, a buyer had a home inspection done
.
Your home inspection companywas chosen by the agent.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
And scheduled by the agent.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
And the and, so then the buyer's like I didn't have
any choice with that.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And actually that there's one, now that I'm
thinking of that's like anethics violation.
They were able to cancel thatinspection with that other
company.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I do remember that, yes.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
They were able to cancel the inspection with that
company and they just stayedwith us and their agent was
hotter than heck.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah.
So yeah, which is curious, why?
Why?
If you're an agent, all right,I understand you may have your
favorite inspectors, favoriteinspection companies.
It's your client's decision onwho they decide to use.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
They are paying for it.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
And all the services that they decide to get.
I remember a couple of yearsago there was an agent that goes
, no, they don't need that, andthey basically, on site, talk to
the client out of having radon,out of having mold, oh you
don't need radon, radon's fake.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Well, what's going to happen 20 years from now when
that client realizes they've gotlung cancer because they smoked
and they're eight times morelikely to get cancer if they
have radon in the house and theynever tested it?
Is that agent going to bepaying for all of their medical
bills and their hospital stayand their cancer treatments
should be I mean I had one buyeremail.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
No, he called us.
Yeah, I think he called us oremailed us very next day after.
His agent was really rude abouttelling out how we should do
testing that way and this guy asan agent?
He should stay completely outof how radon testing is done
unless he's a licensed um what?
Radon technician or mitigating?
He's just like he wasn't yeah,well, his buyer apologized for
(10:30):
his agent baby.
Well, that agent is no longerwith that agency.
In fact, as far as I know, I'veheard his name.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
However, he's and that his broker, his broker
dropped him, like his well, andhis broker's no longer brokering
either.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
They got to drop like bags of dirt because they're
doing what they shouldn't.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Well, and the phrase that they use was well.
Well, that was the.
That was his fault, because hedidn't teach them what they
needed to ask for.
No, that's not your job toteach them.
Do they have somebody that hasa health concern?
Do they have somebody that'sprone to cancer?
Do they have a kid that has amold allergy?
You don't know any of thisstuff, and if you let somebody
(11:10):
walk in and they don't get theappropriate tests that they need
to be able to to know thatthey're going to be healthy in
that house, they're coming backon the agent yep, they should.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
They should, you will lose.
So, as an agent, you need toprep your client as what a home
inspection is, what'sappropriate to ask for, but do
not tell them what services oradditional inspection they
should have, because that'sthat's their decision right now.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
You know what we could do.
I have a uh a sheet okay, thathas different services on it and
when you should request thoseservices.
Do you want to add that as alink to this podcast?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I'll put that in the show notes for this one, but I
think that's about it for thisone.
Besides, the battery on thisrecorder is about out, so we
need to cut this one quick, butanyway, I think this is valuable
, though you need to make sureyour client knows what's going
on and you actually prep them aswhat is appropriate to request
and timelines and if you needsome help with that, we actually
(12:09):
offer a class.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It's not for ce I although I am going to try and
get it set up for CE this winterbut it's basically how to get
to close with every client andif that's something that you're
interested in, please give us acall, let us know and we'll
schedule a class for you.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yep, all right, all right, bye-bye, bye.
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs from
radon to mold to warranties Fora great home inspection, you
really can't go wrong.
(00:51):
Visit HomeInspectionsInOhiocom.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Hey, welcome to the Standing Out Loud Podcast.
This is Jim, and with me, ofcourse, is Laura, the office
goddess.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Hello everyone.
All right, so what do you wantto talk about?
I don't know.
There's been a bunch of stuffhappen this week and last week.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Which one do you want to?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
pick.
Well, you spent an hour or hourand a half talking to somebody
because their agent the agentrequested you to do that.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Oh, that was an hour.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Because that was an hour, because the buyer wanted
to request everything to befixed.
So I think that's a good one,because that one we could
probably put a link to thisepisode in the report system,
which I'm thinking, if thebuyers actually read the whole
(01:43):
report and then they click onthat link, they go, oh, that's
what I should and shouldn't askfor.
But this is something thatagents should have a discussion
with their buyers long before,or at least a day before they
get the report, before they evenhave the home inspection done.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Part of me wonders how much of that was a language
barrier.
English was not her firstlanguage and we had to do a zoom
so that we could translate.
It was a translation in thezoom from me to her yes, she was
able to speak enough.
I could understand her.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, but you were, you were your.
Your words were not beingtranslated to another language
my words were being translatedinto arabic then for her okay
yeah, and I'm still thinkingthere's no excuse, because if
you can just do a translationthrough, my words were being
translated into Arabic, then forher, okay, I'm still thinking
there's no excuse, because ifyou can just do a translation
through Zoom, right, yep, theagent can do a translation to
let them know.
Hey, this is what's appropriateto ask for.
(02:36):
And this lady didn't even know.
She didn't know the sequence ofwhat was even going on.
It seemed like when I talked toher and I met her at the home
inspection.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
And it's not just that, but if you've got somebody
that's coming in from anothercountry, it's coming in from
another country.
Wouldn't you imagine that theyhave absolutely no concept of
our system and how that worksand that you would have to be
very clear and heck, maybe evenhave like printed stuff for them
(03:09):
?
This is what a home inspectionis.
This is what an appraisal is.
This is the timeline.
This is how things flow.
This is when things need to bedone.
You know, like once you signyour contract, like everything
automatically gets filled intolike an excel spreadsheet and it
populates that and you print itoff and give it to the client
and make your life easy.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
There couldn't have been any of that because this
woman was so clueless and thisis not the first time we've had
to no I guess, I guess walk thebuyers off the cliff of asking
for every little item becausethey're not told what is
appropriate, what's not, and weeven have that in our report
(03:49):
right so if you're a real estateagent and you or a home buyer,
doesn't matter if you have neverseen one of our homeless
profession reports.
The very first thing in thereport is basically don't blow
your deal over little things andit's not appropriate to ask for
minor home maintenance things.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Well, but here is another question then, though.
So I like doing stuff, I likemaintenance, I like repairing
things.
I like doing stuff, I likemaintenance, I like repairing
things, I like working outside.
So what's easy for me if you'vegot somebody coming from
another country that doesn'tknow what a furnace is or what a
(04:26):
filter is, or what?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
It's now a third world country.
They know what a furnace is.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I don't know, do they actually have them there?
I don't know what their heatingsystems are.
Like we have a masonry heaterthat's common in Europe, not
furnaces.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So I'm just saying I don't know, but I can still,
even if I all right, we have amasonry here with a very
different type of fireplace, Ican still look at it and know
it's a fireplace of some typesome design.
So I think that example thatwe're talking about.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
That was a total failure.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I was trying to be nice well, you can be nice, but
this is a total failure ofwhoever that real estate agent
is to set appropriate limitswith the, the buyer.
Now, if it's a brand new house,yes, I would expect everything
to be a lot more perfect.
And maybe on a brand new buildokay, they didn't paint that
(05:25):
wall perfectly.
I might ask them to touch thatup.
It's a brand new build I'm justnow moved.
I'm the first person buying thisplace.
If the house is like 50 60years old, you should not expect
perfection in anything cosmetic, right.
So she was just.
She was just not prepped andended up.
(05:45):
The agent had took up an hourof your time helping this lady
that she should have beenhelping in the first place and
no commission and you.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
And no commission and you got no commission.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You got no bonus for that.
The agent wasn't even there onthat Zoom call to know what was
said.
No, if you're a real estateagent, do not be an absent agent
.
That does not earn youreferrals.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Can I tell you, this week alone actually today and
yesterday I've had three of ourclients complain about their
agents that they didn'tcommunicate deadlines.
One of our clients didn't knowthat there was a time frame on
the home inspection period andthat he needed to decide stuff
(06:35):
before it expired.
Hadn't been told that um that'samazing, because I just saying
I, I'm not arguing.
Then I had another woman thismorning tell me that her agent
is trying to get a house for herin columbus, but she's not from
the columbus area, don'tremember where she's from it
it's.
It's not from the Columbus area, don't remember where she's
(06:56):
from.
It's not anywhere near Columbus.
And so she was totally cluelessabout the Columbus market and
about everything andsubsequently she couldn't help
her client because she didn'tknow what she needed to know to
work in this market.
I mean, as sad as it is to say,each market is its own niche
and you either know what you'redoing or you don't.
Like I really do need to writethe the city agent and the
(07:19):
country agent, you know, likethat book that we used to read
country mouth city mouth.
I need to do that because thereis a huge difference with where
you come from and what you needto know, and I I don't.
I think that somebody thinks,oh, we can just walk on into
columbus, it's not problem, Ican just do this.
No, honey, you can't.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
No, there should be a lot of similarities.
However, you need to recognizethe differences and do some
research on that.
But does this seem like there'sa trend, and that's what I'm
wondering.
Is there a trend that we'renoticing or not?
Maybe it's just me that agentsare not meeting the expectations
of the buyers, or at leastthey're not helping them as much
(08:01):
as they probably should be.
Or is it just we've had thisinflux of that this last week or
so?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Well, you know what?
Let's revisit that in a month,because right now I would say
yes.
Like the past two weeks, I'vehad a lot more complaints.
I've had people call and wantus to do second inspections
because their agent picked oneInspector, scheduled it and they
had no say in it, according towhat I was told.
So don't know what the truth isthere, but why would you pay
(08:31):
for a second inspection if youalready had one?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
If you weren't happy with it.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Yeah, this past week.
Well, past couple weeks yes.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So somebody had a, a buyer had a home inspection done
.
Your home inspection companywas chosen by the agent.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
And scheduled by the agent.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
And the and, so then the buyer's like I didn't have
any choice with that.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And actually that there's one, now that I'm
thinking of that's like anethics violation.
They were able to cancel thatinspection with that other
company.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I do remember that, yes.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
They were able to cancel the inspection with that
company and they just stayedwith us and their agent was
hotter than heck.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah.
So yeah, which is curious, why?
Why?
If you're an agent, all right,I understand you may have your
favorite inspectors, favoriteinspection companies.
It's your client's decision onwho they decide to use.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
They are paying for it.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
And all the services that they decide to get.
I remember a couple of yearsago there was an agent that goes
, no, they don't need that, andthey basically, on site, talk to
the client out of having radon,out of having mold, oh you
don't need radon, radon's fake.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Well, what's going to happen 20 years from now when
that client realizes they've gotlung cancer because they smoked
and they're eight times morelikely to get cancer if they
have radon in the house and theynever tested it?
Is that agent going to bepaying for all of their medical
bills and their hospital stayand their cancer treatments
should be I mean I had one buyeremail.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
No, he called us.
Yeah, I think he called us oremailed us very next day after.
His agent was really rude abouttelling out how we should do
testing that way and this guy asan agent?
He should stay completely outof how radon testing is done
unless he's a licensed um what?
Radon technician or mitigating?
He's just like he wasn't yeah,well, his buyer apologized for
(10:30):
his agent baby.
Well, that agent is no longerwith that agency.
In fact, as far as I know, I'veheard his name.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
However, he's and that his broker, his broker
dropped him, like his well, andhis broker's no longer brokering
either.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
They got to drop like bags of dirt because they're
doing what they shouldn't.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Well, and the phrase that they use was well.
Well, that was the.
That was his fault, because hedidn't teach them what they
needed to ask for.
No, that's not your job toteach them.
Do they have somebody that hasa health concern?
Do they have somebody that'sprone to cancer?
Do they have a kid that has amold allergy?
You don't know any of thisstuff, and if you let somebody
(11:10):
walk in and they don't get theappropriate tests that they need
to be able to to know thatthey're going to be healthy in
that house, they're coming backon the agent yep, they should.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
They should, you will lose.
So, as an agent, you need toprep your client as what a home
inspection is, what'sappropriate to ask for, but do
not tell them what services oradditional inspection they
should have, because that'sthat's their decision right now.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
You know what we could do.
I have a uh a sheet okay, thathas different services on it and
when you should request thoseservices.
Do you want to add that as alink to this podcast?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I'll put that in the show notes for this one, but I
think that's about it for thisone.
Besides, the battery on thisrecorder is about out, so we
need to cut this one quick, butanyway, I think this is valuable
, though you need to make sureyour client knows what's going
on and you actually prep them aswhat is appropriate to request
and timelines and if you needsome help with that, we actually
(12:09):
offer a class.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It's not for ce I although I am going to try and
get it set up for CE this winterbut it's basically how to get
to close with every client andif that's something that you're
interested in, please give us acall, let us know and we'll
schedule a class for you.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yep, all right, all right, bye-bye, bye.
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