As we navigate the events of our daily lives, the number of possible experiences that we can have are almost unlimited. This same rule applies when we perform a home inspection: there are an almost unlimited number of possible things that we could find when analyzing a home’s systems and components. Just as it’s hard to prepare ourselves for an …
Sharpening the Ax
This time of the year is notorious for adding more stress to our already hectic lives. We’re often doing things wildly different from our normal routine and we find ourselves subjected to personal interactions we would normally steer clean from in our daily lives. Ah, the holidays! In spite of all the extra demands placed on me by all this holiday …
Providing Information
Information is the lifeblood of every creature. Most of the time, the more information we have, the better off we are. As an inspector, as a home buyer, as a human being in general, the more we know about a situation, the more successful we’ll be. We’re better prepared to face the experiences of the day when we know what’s …
Why Should We Change?
Most of us have a good thing going. Whether it’s our job, our daily routine, or our relationships, there are some areas in our lives where we’ve settled into a well-worn routine. Personally, I’ve been doing inspections since 2000 and feel like I have it down to a science. I know my job, my software, and my routine like the …
Our Defendability Score
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone we dealt with in our businesses (and our lives) saw things from our point of view? Whenever there was a problem, we would talk it out, they would quickly see things our way and the issue would miraculously disappear! Unfortunately, that’s not the way that things work in the real world. We are certain …
Employer or Employee; Which One am I?
As children, we were taught that once we started working, we had our choice of either a blue or white-collar job. For as long as we can remember, that was the norm. You went to school and got a white-collar job, or you skipped school and started working right away at a blue-collar job. We could be a worker, or …
Incomplete Information
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Helen Keller It is great to be alive, but this life is not all love and roses. Being a human does come with its own difficulties. How we decide to deal with those difficulties, the …
3 Things
What the hell am I supposed to do when this happens? When we’re out there inspecting, running our business, we’re going to be asking the “what do I do now” question a lot. There are always going to be unusual situations popping up, and we’re the one left trying to figure out what to do next. Things happen to us …
Daily Reminders
Face it, sometimes bad things happen to us. Oftentimes, it’s simply the result of bad luck: we find ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Other times, we’re the ones making bad decisions, and those poor choices generally lead to bad outcomes. In some of these situations, we find that there remain constant, daily reminders of those bad …
Opportunity and Decision
What do we do when faced with an opportunity? How do we decide what’s our best course of action? What happens if we can’t make the hard decision?