Marshall Hall's blog

Home inspectors interact with not a few animals during the course of their day-to-day work.  It comes with the job. Probably half of American households include pets some of which can present challenges. 

Non-domesticated animals can likewise give the most intrepid home inspector some memorable moments, as do skunks and snakes in crawlspaces and raccoons raising their young in the fireplace smoke-chamber.  In the attic of an old carriage house, I was once surprised, putting it mildly, to encounter two very large vultures building a huge nest up there.

As a home inspector I have been a nosey guest in thousands of houses.  Most have been in New England where for some years I supervised up to six home inspector colleagues. Even though some of those houses were specifically disclosed by the seller to be haunted, in only one house (yes, it was a gothic old house) did I personally experience what might have been a paranormal event. You will have to read this to the end to get to that if that’s what you are really interested in. For me, it was just an odd anomaly compared to what really haunts old houses. 

Some people mistakenly assume a new house does not need a home inspection. After all, the builder commonly does offer a warranty. Based on my experience as a home inspector, I know better.

Punch Lists: Most newly constructed houses are far from completely finished. Typically, many details, some little and some not so little, need attention by the builder. The enumeration of these details is referred to as a Punch List. The home inspector can provide a Punch List to be given to the builder by the buyer.

Funeral homes are not a huge component of the real estate industry. They don’t turn over very often. When is the last time you saw an advertisement for one in the real estate supplement of your newspaper? How would that go anyway? “Beautiful but appropriately somber and dignified colonial starter mortuary with a fantastic viewing room! Updated granite counter-tops in the prep room. Great location near major cemeteries.”

Tales From the Road is a forum to share amusing or enlightening stories collected over the years from our inspectors.  The names have been changed and some of the details have been altered, but these are based on true events.

My good friend and fellow manager (now retired) Dale Hruby, from Virginia, shared this story with me a few years ago:

As usual, I arrived early at the inspection site and began taking some preliminary notes. Soon the buyer's Realtor drove up, followed shortly by a mini van driven by my client, the buyer. The van was expertly wheeled around into position, backing part way up the shallow slope of the driveway. This was a custom outfitted van with wheelchair lift and all kinds of hi-tech gear to accommodate the fact that the buyer, a young lady in her late thirties, whom I will call Susan, had apparently been born with some significant physical disadvantages, including being completely without arms, all of which left her wheelchair bound.

It was a hot, muggy summer day as I stepped out of my Jeep at an older lake-side property in the bucolic community of New Preston, Connecticut. I was thirsty. I inspected the lot and then the exterior of the dwelling. Next, I mounted the roof. The roof, shimmering under the New England sun, was hot enough to fry an egg. I got down from the roof. Now, I was very thirsty.

I brought my equipment into the house, proclaimed its kitchen to be a temporary U.S. Inspect field office, and announced to all that now was an appropriate point in time for an official U.S. Inspect taste-test analysis of the well water. Filling a large tumbler at the kitchen sink faucet, I raised my little finger and chugged. I adopted a thoughtful, analytic demeanor. It was monstrous good. Just to be sure, I filled the tumbler once more and savored it more slowly this time.  “Pleasingly hard, with an elusive manganese bouquet, and a well-balanced nitrite finish,” I reported to all. “On with the inspection! I am refreshed.” To the basement I went with my retinue of Mr. and Mrs. Client and their real estate agent.