Open Mouth, Insert Foot

As you can imagine, we hear some pretty wild things out in the field.

If you've read my website then you know that I rant about Builder salespeople not being licensed by the State of Texas.

They can tell you anything they want without recourse. What I truly don't understand is how the state can allow them to sell a home and not require a license yet strictly enforce real estate laws and licensing requirements when it comes to dealing with other types of real estate transactions. Even if they handle International real estate sales, they should be licensed.

Anyhow, there was this home that we had inspected during the pre-sheetrock stage. We'd wrote up quite a bit of stuff on this one house. In fact, some of our home inspection tools seemed to walk off on this job!

I did the Final inspection and the Client asked me about the shingles we had wrote up at the pre-sheetrock stage. I'd wrote them up because they had been on the home several months and most had not sealed.

He told me that the Sales lady had told him "they were suppose to be that way!" I thought to myself "No way man, ain't no one gonna spread B.S. that deep."

To prove his point, he called up the Sales lady on his cell phone and put it on speaker so I could hear her.

"Hello J---, yeah this is Steven. I'm here at the house and looking over the pre-sheetrock report. Can you tell me again why you didn't fix the shingles?"

"Oh, those shingles are suppose to be like that. They are not suppose to seal down so they can let air underneath them and ventilate the roof."

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Never had I heard such someone tell such a blatant lie without even missing a beat.

"Ok" my Client said. "Oh, and what did you say about the fireplace?" (we had written it up for improper installation)

"Yeah, well we had the Fire Departmet come out and check it out, they gave it a thumbs up, they said there was nothing wrong with the Fireplace."

It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. This lady was as serious as a freakin' heart attack! This lady knew she was lying but you would have never known it by listening to her. She was good, real good. I imagine she's one helluva Poker player too.

If you're buying a new home, remember, you should use a Licensed Real Estate Agent. It doesn't cost you a thing. If not, you a sheep walking into a Wolf den! I've had some of Houston's best and brightest business people fall victim to Builders salespeople and their shinanigans. So don't go thinking you can out weasel a weasel!

I Even Put My Foot In My Mouth Occassionally

I was inspecting this nice 4200 sf home in Katy. I'd gotten there early and was nearly done with the Kitchen when the Client walked in. I'd showed him a few things that I'd found.

The cabinets were a very pretty black color. The edges had been sanded on the edges for the distressed look......but that didn't occur to me at the time.

As I was wrapping up my findings to date, I said "...and it looks like they drug your cabinets over here behind the truck....you'll want to get them to repaint them"

I swear, just as soon as I said that, I knew they were suppose to be that way for the "distressed" look, but it had never occurred to me....until I saw the look on my Clients face.

"Well" he said "they're suppose to be this way. Funny what people like isn't it?"

I've learned long ago, don't try to talk your way out of a situation like this, you only make it worse.

"Well, I've seen some cabinets like this that wasn't suppose to be "distressed" I said...and left it at that...and went looking for a rock to crawl under.

I guess it happens to the best of us!