Visual Inspection Reveals Rotten Wood

[Christine Marie]

while performing the visual inspection on the exterior of a home involved in a sale, i noted approximately 30' of rotted wood on the trim of the home, behind the plastic gutters, in addition to an approximate 8' of rotted base {wood siding} on the rear of the home. seeing this, I then noted the repairs in a text addendum and forwarded it to the loan officer, asap, because [naturally, they wanted the report finished before I even got the order], and in an effort to not hold the thing up...i tried to help. Yesterday, the lo called me and said the realtor {Listing agent} chewed her head off and told her that "I was not doing a home inspection, and what I called for was not what I am suppose to do," I can't decide if I want to speak to this genius Realtor, or let sleeping dogs lie.....

 

[Restrain]

The Realtor is not your client. Talking with them is like talking to a yapping Yorkie. They can't and won't listen. You did right in mentioning the rotting wood. It affects value. Someone's going to have to fix it or you will have even worse problems. I don't know if you called for repairs. For a conventional loan, I would not have called for repairs but rather itemized the problems and adjusted for it.

Roger

 

[Tom Barclay]

I generally won't go into specifics with those types of repairs, for a couple of reasons. You are placing yourself in the position of being viewed as a P&D inspector. And, if they repair the visible damage to make you happy, they may cover up repairs that should have been made. Then it appears that you have done this inspection and said that the repairs have been made. You could end up liable.
What I do is to let the client know that the report will be coming to them "subject to" due to the condition of some components of the structure, and that you will be requiring a professional trained in finding those types of problems to diagnose repairs needed. And, that the repairs identified will be fixed. That lets you off the hook, liability wise, and saves you time and effort in identifying and estimating(and adjusting for) repairs that very well could be more extensive than you thought and therefore wrong. And, a simple heads up by way of a phone call is all that I ever do. That gives them time to start arranging the inspections.

 

[Walter Kirk]

If an item requireing repair is in your plain view you must comment on it. I am sure that any potential buyer would see the rotten wood and require it's repair or offer to pay less for the property.

Several years ago I did an appraisal of a house with a malfunctioning septic system. This appraisal was for a bankrupcy case and I had to testify about it. The lawyer for the other side commented that I was not an expert in septic systems and asked how I could state that the system wasn't working. I explained that I could say that because my shoes were covered in raw sewage after walking on the septic field. The judge laughed.

The point is that if a defect is obvious you must comment on it.

 

[Mountain Man]

The Deal-a-tor is piping mad because she was trying to cover it up, or hope that it didn't get noticed. <_< Which, BTW, is a violation of THEIR code of ethics! Like it's ever read. Agents have a fiduciary responsibility to their client, but they also have to disclose all known and readily observable defects.

 

[jeanwillick]

It almost sounds like a back handed way of telling you to not put these items in your report. You know a "she said - he said" . You were right to point these items out. True, the Realtor is not your client and you shouldn't discuss it with her. Many times we have to be above the crowd, even if we want to make one of those "what I should have said" comments. I hope you told the loan officer it IS your job to point these obvious items out. Why else would you need E & O insurance??

 

[George Hatch]

What's the alternative? Not comment on an obvious deficiency? As far as I'm concerned, you just saved that realtor a ton of trouble. They should be thanking you, not giving you a hard time.