Elevating the Consumer Experience

I’ve been inspecting in the DC area, including Maryland and Virginia, for the last 15 years. Consumer protection is something I hold very dear to my heart. It’s something that was passed down to me from JD Grewell, my late mentor and father-in-law.

JD had a way of getting to the point. He always had the perfect description, using the least amount of words, leaving just enough “open to interpretation” to be right about whatever point he was making—be it in the field or the boardroom. One of his passions was helping clients—the consumer protection side of home inspection. He championed the report requirement in our Standards of Practice and would be rolling over in his grave about these “walk-and-talks.” He would probably throw his hands up, shake his head, and say, “Markets do crazy things.”

I worry about the consumer protection side of home inspections being eroded all too often by the transaction timeline necessitated by the market. A couple of hours or less in a house barely scratches the surface of what could (and often is) hiding just beneath. A quick walk-and-talk with the wrong client is going to land some poor inspector in a world of hurt because these are not home inspections; they offer very little consumer protection. There is no standard of practice related to this type of work, and it leaves anyone who does them open to liability. Make sure you have a good contract executed before the job. Make sure it sets the very clear expectation that what you are doing is in no way, shape, or form a home inspection. 

I chair the Commission of Real Estate Appraisers, Appraisal Management Companies, and Home Inspectors for the state of Maryland. We review complaints received about home inspections performed by inspectors across the state. While we’ve had no complaints about walk-and-talks from the consumer protection side of home inspection generally, I assure you we can all do a much better job. I believe there is a fear of exceeding the minimum inspection standard that has infected the profession, and many inspectors are so hyper-focused on completing their template they forget, or never ask about, the client’s concerns. 

We are working on changing the minimum SoP in Maryland in an effort to elevate the consumer experience, and I’m happy to see ASHI is on the road to doing the same thing. We are evolving as a profession, and I would encourage all of us to embrace this change and keep in mind that perfection is impossible. But the more the profession changes, the better it gets.

Relying on software has contributed to taking us away from our clients, too. It produces a slick report; we hope there are no typos, but trust me, there are. These PDFs are way better from the client’s perspective than a 10-page NCR-printed chicken-scratch report, but I bet some of that chicken-scratch made the pre-loaded three-paragraph description in some of these software programs make sense in five words. 

There are also some software templates listed as approved for different states—like Maryland, for example. State report template approval is not a thing, unless it is generated by the state, like Texas. It is up to each inspector to make sure your software, and ultimately your report, meets the requirements of the jurisdiction you’re inspecting in. Some will complain, “Why do we have to jump through all these hoops now? It was so easy before!” But gone are the days of the paper report, and we can all agree, may they RIP. We need to shake off the dust of decades-old expectations and do a better job for the people who hire us.

Our profession has evolved because the public demanded it for their own protection. They deserve to understand how their house works. The consumers of our product deserve to see issues with clear photos and detailed descriptions. I encourage every inspector who comes through our Commission due to a complaint to rise to the challenge and be a better inspector. I would encourage everyone reading this to do the same. Go change one thing that will improve the consumer protection you are providing. I know you know what it is. Go do it!

Sean Troxell is the recipient of the 2024 President’s Award as well as a past Iron Man Winner (2023).