Anyhow, I am now licensed and performing home inspections.I know the stigma that a lot of these guys have and frankly I agree with it. There are tons of people who go take a couple month class and off into the wild they go. This is not who I am. A good home inspector needs to be a generalist and know something about a lot of things. I don’t know everything but I know an awful lot about residential construction and systems.
My Background is pretty diverse and I have even helped quite a few people on this board with numerous residential and commercial projects. My biggest strength is where most falter and that is in electrical. I have installed and upgraded tons of residential systems and know the workings in and out. Same goes for plumbing as I have undertook and been included in numerous system overhauls.
I won’t drag this out cover all of my qualifications unless someone seriously feels that they want to know.
I have taken hundreds of hours of training above and beyond the NY License requirements and I am an InterNACHI certified professional inspector. I have done 900sqft homes and 5000+ and I am still just getting started.
The website is under construction but all of the relevant pages are appearing one by one day after day in my “spare time”. http://www.infocusinspection.com
I will obviously offer a discount to members here, I have not decided how to manage that outside of a case by case basis however. I also offer a referral rewards program that can get you free stuff for getting your family and friends to work with me. http://www.infocusinspection.com/referral-rewards
If you need an inspection, have a friend/family/co-worker that does, or have an Agent in your family (I have quite the slew of marketing for Agents) let me know and I will definitely take care of you.
Mike
Edit: This is totally a second operation for me, I am still at Rexel and still have the hook up on anything electrical. FYI
Not sure if it helps, but I know that RLI has a program for insurance for home inspectors and it’s only like $250+/- per year for a policy. I wrote a few of those policies at my old place. Anyways, :tup: to you sir, i’ll keep you in mind when I start on my next house.
I think RLI is where my policy is. I paid a bit more than $250 but I have like 2M liability and some other add ons. I did this for the reason below.
I do walk all roofs that are safe to walk. They have to be in decent condition and of a pitch that I am comfortable with. I just crawled a very steep roof the other day as there were a couple visible issues that I really needed to investigate. This was a 600K home with a newer roof and I was inspecting for the seller prior to listing it. The owner sent me an email after receiving the report thanking me for taking the extra effort and that they are having the entire section replaced prior to the sale.
For the really steep roofs or ones that look spongy and dangerous I am about to spend a lot of money on a drone. I think that the roof is one of if not the absolute most vital part of the inspection and not spending time looking it over for any defects is just negligence.
Another awesome tool that sets me apart is my FLIR camera. I dont have some crappy flir one or low end camera either, I have a FLIR E6 with factory installed E8 guts. This gives me a true mid range camera that is more than capable in building applications. It is sensitive enough to be used in mechanical and electrical applications as well. I can post up some pretty cool pictures that demonstrate how I can find issues that others would just walk right past. I am on a different computer than the one I use for inspections so it will be later.
Here are a couple of thermal shots with descriptions.
This is a shot of the front door threshold. The weatherstripping has deteriorated and needs replacement.
This is a corner of a vaulted ceiling that looks good to the naked eye but there is an issue requiring more investigation. The roof planes come together at this point and moisture intrusion or an insulation defect would be to blame. The owner had this section of the attic boarded closed so I was unable to get in there and see what was actually happening. They at least know that there is something wrong and that the attic needs to be opened up and investigated.
Here is a radiant floor heating system. This was electric so the scan just verified that all areas were energized. In a hydronic application I can scan for leaks or areas that are not being heated.
Thanks! I moved this post into a different thread, FYI.
I have a lot of fun pictures to post up eventually, I get to see some great stuff these days. I have done inspections for 4members on here at this point. Thanks for the business all!
I do interior residential remodeling so some of the issues that he brought up I wouldn’t have caught, or don’t have the tools to inspect. I always knew mike had great knowledge in electrical which I don’t really deal with. Plus Having a home inspection always gives you good leverage
80% of them are based on this statement regardless if the people know anything about proper construction. I guarantee that I could inspect a house, point out major issues with simple fixes, they get thousands back, I come back in 5 years later and the same fucking issue will be there.
