What Does Professionalism Really Mean In Home Inspections

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One inspector shows up and suddenly the promised radon test or sewer scope becomes “extra” or simply “we’re not doing that.” That moment is more than annoying, it can cost buyers time, leverage, and peace of mind. Jim and Laura share a recent Dayton story that highlights a simple standard too many contractors forget: do what you said you’d do, for the price you agreed to, with the equipment you promised to bring.

We dig into what professional home inspection service looks like when it’s done right: setting expectations before the appointment, being honest about travel limits, and keeping the client’s needs at the center. You’ll hear how we think about value beyond a basic inspection, including radon testing, mold testing, VOC and indoor air quality testing, chimney scope, and sewer scope, plus why being a true one stop shop only matters if you can execute without excuses.

Then we get practical about the tricky stuff buyers ask about, especially pools and hot tubs. A winterized pool can’t be fully evaluated the same way, and de winterizing too early can cause freeze damage. We talk through when pool service records help more than a quick look, the real cost of filling a pool for an inspection, and the not so glamorous side of hot tub chemical balance.

If you’re a home buyer or agent who wants clear answers without drama, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with someone shopping for a home, and leave a review, what’s one inspection red flag you refuse to ignore?

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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

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Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Course listings...

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Let people know what we do.

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey everybody, Jim and Laura here.

SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
Hello everyone.

SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Alright, so last week I went to Dayton, did an
inspection.
I was not the first homeinspection person there.
No, you were not.

SPEAKER_02 (00:15):
You were the second.

SPEAKER_00 (00:16):
There was another company who was who'd been there
the week before or a few daysbefore.

SPEAKER_02 (00:21):
They got remained nameless.

SPEAKER_00 (00:23):
Yeah, but they got their asses fired.
Yes, they did.
And I you I heard it was becausethey didn't want to do the sewer
scope or or they didn't bringtheir equipment to do it.

SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
You heard it was a radon, which was they refused,
so they refused to come back outto pick up their monitor, so
they just refused to place it inthe first place.
So like there's there's a coupledifferent things apparently that
company did not do.

SPEAKER_00 (00:50):
They went out there, did was doing the inspection and
said, Hey, we're not doing this.
We're not gonna drop off thething you we agreed to do for
you, but if we do it we're gonnacharge you extra$50.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02):
Instead of, you know, one of the things that
we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04):
And the buyer's like screw y'all, yeah, yes.
Forget that.
You guys said you do this, nowyou're not not doing it, and and
you're gonna you wanna try tocharge me extra money on top of
what we had already agreed inthe inspection agreement,
because inspection agreementsare supposed to be signed before
you go out there.
So anyway, we went out there, orI did, placed, placed the radon,

(01:29):
did the uh sewer scope, but itjust amazes me, and and I got
all done that that day.
I mean radon's two days, but butyeah, that that's a normal
process.
Went back out, picked up thatradon monitor already.
Life is good, and and I pickedup three other radon monitors
that day, and then play and thenplaced another test somewhere
else.
So we we've been busy, but itkind of blows my mind how often

(01:52):
you'll hear of companies saythey'll do something, but then
with that once they get outthere, they're gonna drop the
ball or change things a littlebit to try and get trying to eke
out more money out of theclients, or I don't know, maybe
they're just too lazy to driveback to Dayton to get to get
their their radon test.

SPEAKER_02 (02:12):
If you're not gonna do it, don't say you're going
to.

SPEAKER_00 (02:15):
Well, we've done that before.
Like I say, Cleveland, likelisten, we can go up there and
do an inspection.

SPEAKER_02 (02:20):
But we can't do the radon.
But we tell them up front.
Like we don't sit here and playgames with them and go, listen.
You know, we'll we'll come upand we'll do the radon and we'll
do all this, and then we get upthere and we're like, ah, psych,
we're not gonna do the radon.
You need to find someone else.
That's unprofessional.

SPEAKER_00 (02:35):
I it it it screams a little bit of desperation.
That goes go go go do this part,and then if it doesn't pay, at
least we got this part done.

SPEAKER_02 (02:42):
Right.
And and that's that's not whatthe client wants, that's not
what their need was.
You you need to take care of theclient.

SPEAKER_00 (02:48):
There's some groups on Facebook where I'll see uh
somebody will say, Hey, I need ahome inspector.
Who who do you recommend?
And you'll see like a couplecompanies.
It seems to be constantly thesame companies going, me, me,
then they'll name themselves relike repeatedly on the same
post.

SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 (03:07):
Oh, that's sad.
And I'm like, it it it seemsdesperate.
I understand you need to getyour name out there.
That's cool.
Maybe say, hey, we we haveopenings this week.
And that's nothing wrong withthat, but man, just it's a
scream desperation jumping.
Which I get, I get it's it'sit's it's a weird year so far.

(03:30):
We're up this year above lastyear.

SPEAKER_02 (03:33):
We've had some better weeks this year than
we've had in years, so doingmuch better.

SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
Yes, now habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs from radon to
mold to warranty for a gradehome inspection, you really
can't go.

(04:01):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_00 (04:06):
You always need to be able to keep uh time slots
available, which we're we'relooking at.

SPEAKER_02 (04:12):
We're having problems with.
We're we can use a hire, by theway.

SPEAKER_00 (04:15):
We can use uh another home inspector.
So if you know a home inspectorthat wants to join uh
habitational investigation,please send them our way because
we can use somebody.
We definitely could.
We want somebody licensed,Columbus, Dayton area, Delaware,
Lewis Center, somewhere aroundwe're gonna get a majority of

(04:36):
their work.
That's fine.

SPEAKER_02 (04:38):
That that that is going, and we have been busy in
Dayton, which is we have beeninsanely busy in Dayton, which
is yeah, crazy to me.

SPEAKER_00 (04:46):
So anyway, some companies will drop the ball,
and we make every effort tonever drop the ball.
Never ever.
In fact, we do more things thanmost other home inspection
companies do.

SPEAKER_02 (05:01):
I think that's from our social work background.
And a lot of our inspectors feelthe same way about taking care
of clients, so it works well.

SPEAKER_00 (05:11):
Well, the way we we would find inspectors is they'd
have to have like a servicementality.

SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
I mean, because you this and this this is where
you're you're taking care of theclient.
Every client is gonna be alittle bit different.
They all have concerns about thehouse or the Some have more
skills than others.
Yeah, some have more concerns,fewer skills than than others,
but just because you you'reskilled doesn't mean you want to
take on the work of a banged uphouse.

SPEAKER_02 (05:36):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (05:37):
So they want to know information about the house, and
that's how that's how we provideservices doing um thorough
inspection, taking our timedoing it, get the report out
later on that same day, usuallythat that night, and then of
course we can do radon, moldtesting, VOC, air quality
testing.
We do chimney scope, sewerscope.

(05:58):
Yes, yep.
We are pretty much your one-stopshop for pretty much everything
you would need.

SPEAKER_02 (06:04):
Except for septic inspections.

SPEAKER_00 (06:05):
Yeah, except we don't do that.
That's a county healthdepartment, they'll tell you who
they recommend for that.
We could even do hot tub andpools, but the pool, dude, it
has to be de-winterized.
I had somebody want me to do aninspection the other day, it was
still winterized.

SPEAKER_02 (06:19):
The cover's still on it, the pipes no water in the
pipes.

SPEAKER_00 (06:24):
Um, if there was water in the pipes, I don't
know, dude.
It got down.
It would have been free.
It got down like 20, 29 degreesthe other day.
That's how you that's how youbreak filters.

SPEAKER_02 (06:32):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (06:33):
By having them full of water when they freeze and
expand.
Just like the water expands andpushes can push in your
foundation, it can pop out afilter on a pool and cause lots
of damage.

SPEAKER_02 (06:43):
The best thing to do for a full pool is to see who
winterized it if a company cameout and did it and talk to them
and get their records on thepool because they've probably
serviced it.
So that's that's your in yourbest interest.

SPEAKER_00 (06:57):
Oh, yeah, because they and they have records of
how they're doing it.
Now, people are servicingthemselves, the homeowners, I
get it.
I do too.
It's not it wouldn't be rocketscience to do that, but it
matters do you have theequipment and the time and the
desire to do it, especially ifyou're selling your house.
Do you really at this time ofyear do you really want to
de-winterize your pool and thenyou're never going to use it

(07:20):
yourself?

SPEAKER_02 (07:20):
Well, and then not only that, but like it's not
cheap to haul water in to fillit up.
Whether you're on, you know,like a well water or something,
you're you're most people havefire trucks haul in water to
fill up their pool.

SPEAKER_00 (07:34):
Yeah, how much we had somebody who filled a pool
up just so we can inspect it.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 (07:40):
It was between 500 and a thousand, but I can't
remember.

SPEAKER_00 (07:43):
Okay, to fill the pool up.

SPEAKER_02 (07:44):
To fill the pool up, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (07:45):
Okay.
So it it is.

SPEAKER_02 (07:47):
It's because the client was freaking out about it
and they decided that they wouldgo ahead and fill it up.

SPEAKER_00 (07:53):
Yeah.
So to me, a pool is like one ofthe things you you love the day
you get it, and you love the daythat you get rid of the thing
because it's just a maintenanceissue.

SPEAKER_02 (08:03):
But you never even knew how to do the hot tub.
So you are so good at it.
You are so good at it.
I know.

SPEAKER_00 (08:09):
I I admit I did have trouble maintaining the chemical
balance in the hot tub, which iswhy the next one we get is gonna
be salt water.
It's gonna be saltwater.
In fact, we should start lookingfor it.
We should start looking for one.
I know you want one.

SPEAKER_02 (08:21):
I want one for wintertime where I can sit out
in the snow.

SPEAKER_00 (08:24):
Yes.
That was that was the best.
That was so cool.
In the hot tub while it'ssnowing outside.
And you're just sitting therenice and warm, here comes snow
come down your face.
So nice.
That was that was cool.
So, anyway, if you are a homebuyer or an agent and you need
inspections done, like you'renot doing the silly stuff of
waving the home inspection, givehabitation investigation a call

(08:48):
because we we will not drop theball.
We try and get everything donequickly for the parties
involved, and and that that'sabout it, really.
We do thorough job, and we'renot gonna screw anybody anybody
over.
We don't man, we're we're notlike Chicken Lille, we're not
gonna scream the sky is falling,the sky is falling.
The foundation is caving whenit's just a little crack.

SPEAKER_02 (09:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (09:12):
So we'll keep things in perspective.

SPEAKER_02 (09:15):
We're we're not going to get hired if we're
drama queens and we're going andmaking mountains out of
molehills.
It it is what it is.
You let the client make thedecision.
They're the ones that knowstheir skills, the they know
their friends, they know whothey can bribe with beer and
pizza to come and help do stuff.
Yes, you know, that it is whatit is, and that's exactly what

(09:36):
we tell people.
This is what's going on.
You guys need to make yourchoice, talk it over with your
agent.

SPEAKER_00 (09:41):
Home inspectors truly are the neutral party in
the whole real estatetransaction.
So we got paid to inspect.
We don't get paid based upon ifit sells or not.

SPEAKER_02 (09:50):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (09:51):
Truly impartial.
So I think that's it for thisone.
Thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 (09:56):
Bye.
Bye bye.