Dealing with Stress

There are a million ways we can screw up. For starters, a house has thousands of parts. You need a calm demeanor to manage clients, real estate agents, extended family, and so forth. Of course there are also other challenges to managing your own business—getting leads, selling yourself on the phone, giving quotes, and booking inspections, all 24/7.

There are days that are too full and ones that are too spare. Plus, these days, you have the stress of higher interest rates, waived inspections, inflation, war, the pandemic, and more.

Taking the Proper Steps

Dramatic events during an inspection certainly impact my brain power: like a spa flooding the basement or an oil furnace burning so hot the ducts burn my fingers (both of these happened recently). These disasters led me to forget other basic items, and I had to return to the property to complete the report. Thank goodness for radon pickups that provide an easy second chance to clear things up.

Fortunately I am always able to begin calmly because I go early enough to have some alone time with the house. This sometimes also allows me to meet the owner, from whom I can also get useful information. I inspect the outside once by myself and again with the client. This allows me to usually find smaller defects the second time around. Often the light will have changed to help me see new things also.

Paul Cummins is seen here in a hot crawl space on the job.

Surprises and Self-Care

For condos, I walk around the whole thing to start. When I think I’m done with the inspection, I walk around it all again, as important things can be in strange places. For example, one small unit had a second air handler in an outdoor closet on ground level two stories down. I never would have expected that. This demonstrates the need for humility and being open with each new inspection. I view each inspection as a new experiment and try to have fun with it.

Then there are the times you feel like fleeing the scene and leave items behind: jackets, shoes, umbrellas, ladders. I have a ritual now where I walk around my Jeep twice before I leave a site to clear my head and make sure I have everything.

Unavoidably, there are the houses that just won’t let you win because they have so many unexpected defects. And some clients are just, well, difficult. For me, that’s when a hot bath and a beer helps. There is no perfection in life. All we can ever do is our best. And we need to be our own cheerleaders.

As business owners we have to make decisions. The problem with making decisions is that sometimes you will be wrong.

Peace in life requires embracing uncertainty. Home inspection is a very critical and intimate experience. We are looking inside people’s closets, for goodness sake, and helping them make the most important purchase of their lives. Most people can tell if you’re competent and will give you a break if needed. Take pride in providing a very important public service, and hang in there.