PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Beon DeNood
This is Inspector Toolbelt Talk.

Ian Robertson
Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. So today I want to talk about the tale of two inspectors, and I bring this up because it’s a situation that came up recently, and I know at least one of the two inspectors involved, and I know the situation behind it. But it’s a good lesson for all of us as home inspectors, because what makes a good doctor is not always his ability to diagnose or to find issues, but also to present the information.

So this is what happened. We’ll sum it up in a nutshell. Both of them are home inspectors, but they were doing a septic inspection in this particular case for a seller. So the first inspector shows up, and within five to 15 minutes, he figures out that the entire system is in failure. It’s done. It’s shot. Kick it to the curb. So he tells the seller, “Your system is dead, pay me,” and to the tune of $20,000-$30,000 is what it’s going to cost you. This is a big ticket item for just about anybody, right? $20,000-$30,000 septic system, people tearing up your yard, professionals, estimates, not being able to use your bathroom for a while, all of that stuff. It’s a big deal. So this guy wrote, not a great report. Did it have the facts in it? Yes. Did it fail the system? Yes. Was it a great report? No. Not even a good one. But he was 100% right. But did that make the situation better? No, actually, it made it worse. It made the seller question the situation. He was only here for a short period of time. He gave me curt information, and I’m not going to spend 20 or 30 grand based on that, and legitimately.

So he called the second inspector that I know personally. The second inspector shows up on site, and in five to 15 minutes, just like the last one, figures out this system is dead. It’s done. So he could have taken two paths here. The first one could have been like the guy previous to him, which got accurate information out, but in a really cruddy way. Instead, he stopped and spent some time with the guy. He said, “Let me show you while I have the lid off the tank why this is in failure.” Walked the leach field with him, “So you see this soft spot and that soft spot. Here’s the D box. You know what? While I’m here, why don’t I dig that up too?” Ran a sewer scope or whatever else he did, and spent a good amount of time with this guy. Then afterwards, gave him a full professional report instead of well, he already knows it’s a failure, so I’ll just write it’s in failure. Gave him a nice professional report, lots of great pictures. The seller was not so thrilled with the first inspector, and I’d have to check on this, but I think he gave him a bad review. The second inspector, not even an hour or two after he left the site, he got a glowing review from the seller. So an interesting situation developed. It was the tale of two inspectors, right? They both had the same information. They both presented the same information, but one had good bedside manner, and it made all the difference.

So sometimes I’ll work with home inspectors, and they’ll say things like, agents are mad because of the accurate information I put in my reports, or they think I killed the deal, when in reality, I always love that expression, I just wrote the obituary. Could it be, hypothetically, step back, let’s use some metacognition. I had to learn this early on, and I still work on it to this day. Could it be that maybe we did kill the deal? Not with our information. That’s not what I’m saying. And I know I’m already going to have angry emails from people saying, I’m never going to do this on inspection. I’m always honest. I’m not talking about not being honest. I’m talking about how we present information, especially the people that don’t know. Have we ever done an inspection in a harsh way and watched the people’s faces change as we do the inspection? Even about minor things, all of a sudden, these minor things, and we’re trying to tell them, are like, listen, it’s one gutter clip, you know. Send the handyman up there, and in five minutes, it’s done. But it starts to build up in their mind because they don’t know.

Think about a situation where you don’t know. I always like to use a doctor illustration because you know what? As hard as I try, I just don’t understand all the medical stuff. But when I’ve had doctors explain things to me clearly, concisely, then I get out of my own head, you know, stop looking on WebMD and thinking that I have 18 different types of cancer all at once because my left toe hurts. It’s all about bedside manner. We can tell two people the same bad news and have two completely different reactions.

So, how can we present the information in a way that shows that we have good bedside manner? So, here’s a couple of suggestions that I have found helpful that I have implemented. First of all, when possible, tell them how common or uncommon something is. In my area, about one out of four houses, we’ll find mold in the attic. I don’t freak out about it. The sellers almost always take care of it. We mark it in red, easy, easy call. But if I climb out of the attic and I say, “Oh yeah, there’s mold in the attic.” And then mark it off, say, okay, the attorneys will take care of it. I don’t know how bad those people are spiraling later that night, looking up every possible thing, asking AI every possible way they could die from it, and AI just spiraling them more. Sometimes, if we say, “Listen, I find this one out of four houses, typically pretty easy to fix.” And that’s going to be good for the smaller things or the pretty common things. Are we in an area with a lot of radon? Are we used to inspecting homes by this one particular builder, where for some reason their electrician has all of the light switches loose. To somebody who doesn’t know, a loose light switch in five out of six rooms is going to freak them out. Say, yep, this is pretty common. Happens on a lot of this guy’s houses. Oh, okay. Now it’s a fixable issue, and let’s be honest, all issues are fixable. Doesn’t matter if you want to pay for it or not.

The second suggestion is, let’s say we’re getting in our own heads. Let’s be honest. Some metacognition, that happens. By the third thing that I found in a home inspection, that I realized the seller’s hiding something, like, why was that bookcase right there? Why was that blocked off? Why does this smell like bleach? I get it in my own head that I need to ride in with my white horse and find everything, and that’s fine. That’s beautiful, actually. We want to be that inspector, but sometimes do we carry that over into other inspections, or make some wild assumptions about sellers that maybe aren’t true? A bookcase in front of a burnt-out outlet. Oh, well, they’re hiding stuff just like that one inspection over an Evergreen Lane. We may not think it or say it out loud, but in the back of our head, is that ruminating? Now, the one exception I’ll make to this are flips. I will always walk into a flip with the most extreme bias. I treat it like an Easter egg hunt. It’s not a matter of, will I find stuff? It’s a matter of how many absolute ridiculous things will I find? That’s the only time I try to take that bias out. But by and large, if we step back and look at the house objectively, like we’re technically supposed to, could our bedside manner be affected by maybe our bad attitude about things? Also, listen to our own tone. Think for a moment before we start to say something to somebody, would I want a doctor to tell a loved one that this big thing was wrong in this way? Almost invariably, I’ve caught myself being able to say, no, I wouldn’t want it to be said that way.

So remember, these people have spent weeks, months, sometimes years looking for a house. Now their heart’s set on this one, and we are just tearing it apart, just tearing this house a new one. Could we step back, give them the same exact information, but in a calmer, kinder way? Even for the big stuff. I’ve had collapsing foundations. There’s a house down the road. I say down the road, it’s probably 10 minutes down the road, and you know how many bowing CMU foundation walls I’ve called out in my career? Oh my goodness! But people will oftentimes poo-poo it. That house 10 minutes down the road from me, their CMU foundation wall just collapsed right into the basement. House was only being held up by the corners on this one side. When we see things like that, we tend to get as worked up as they do. But I love my doctor. Well, I love him as much as you can love a doctor, because when I tell him something, he’s like, okay, and I expect him to have the same reaction. But instead, he’s like, thank you for that information. That helps us put things together. Let’s not freak out about that until the time comes. Not that I’ve ever really had anything to freak out about, but maybe I’ll get a little personal here. There was a scare that I had a couple of years ago because a doctor freaked out, and I spent two months freaking out about it, and I don’t freak out about medical stuff, but it was family history, and he had all the evidence. My brother had this issue, my grandfather had this issue, my father had this issue, and he was like, you’re going to have this issue, and it was serious. Turns out I didn’t have the issue. Perfectly fine. That particular doctor spiraled me when I was perfectly fine. This podcast makes it sound like I go to the doctor a lot. I actually don’t go to the doctor a lot, once a year, what is it?

But anyways, do we sometimes spiral people because we have all our thoughts and all our evidence, when in reality we point out a defect, our reasons why, and typically there’s a specialist that’s going to come in after us, and it’s also just bad for business. Like if we freak out and then the specialist comes in and he’s calm, and he explains, he goes, “Yep, this is an issue, but it’s fixable. Here’s a cost estimate.” And then all of a sudden, the attorney rides in on his white horse, and the closing company’s like, oh yeah, we negotiated. The seller’s gonna pay for it. Cool. Now we look like the jerk in the situation that everybody else had to ride in and save the buyer from or the seller from. We don’t want that persona.

So if we’re one of those inspectors that calls me and says, hey, agents don’t refer me because I tell the truth, or they only want soft inspectors, or this or that, stop for a moment. Some of the best inspectors I know are some of the harshest on a house, and they are extremely busy. I’ve seen some inspectors where I’m like, man, you went hard on that house, and that agent loves him for it because good bedside manner. The tale of two inspectors. Let’s be the second one. Let’s spend some time with our clients. Be calm. Calm ourselves down. Approach things objectively as possible. And you know what? If there is a situation where you need to freak out, save that for those times. Thank you very much for listening in, and we’ll see you next time on Inspector Toolbelt Talk.

Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of Inspector Toolbelt Talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].

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*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.

PODCAST SUMMARY/BLOG

Home inspection clients rarely remember every defect you found, but they always remember how you made them feel when you found it. That’s the heart of this conversation about “bedside manner” for home inspectors, built around a septic inspection story with a seller facing a $20,000 to $30,000 replacement. Two inspectors reached the same conclusion in minutes: the septic system was in failure. The difference was client communication. One inspector delivered a blunt verdict and a thin inspection report, which made the seller doubt the diagnosis and resist the cost. The other inspector slowed down, showed the evidence, explained the process, and followed up with a clear, photo rich report writing style that created trust even with bad news.

Great inspectors don’t just diagnose problems, they translate them. When people don’t understand houses, they fill gaps with fear. A single loose light switch, a small gutter clip, or “mold in the attic” can snowball into worst case fantasies if it’s framed harshly or left unexplained. The episode argues that accuracy is necessary but not sufficient: you can be 100% right and still create a mess if your delivery is curt, confusing, or overloaded with alarm. The goal is not to soften facts or protect a deal. It’s to present defects in plain language, connect observations to visible evidence, and keep buyers, sellers, and real estate agents oriented to what matters, what’s fixable, and what happens next.

One practical tactic is adding context that reduces panic without reducing honesty. If something is common in your region, say so. If radon is prevalent where you inspect, explain that mitigation is normal and measurable. If you routinely see attic mold patterns or recurring workmanship issues from a particular builder, name the pattern and the typical remedy. Context helps clients categorize risk and prioritize repairs. Another tactic is to physically walk people through key findings when appropriate: show the leach field symptoms, point out the D box area, explain why standing water or soft spots matter, and document it all with strong photos. A professional inspection report should read like a calm, organized story of the house, not a drive by list of alarms.

The episode also warns about the inspector’s mindset. After a few tough jobs, it’s easy to assume every seller is hiding something, or to let frustration leak into your tone. That bias can make you sound accusatory and can trigger defensiveness, especially during real estate negotiations. Staying objective protects your credibility and your business. The host uses a doctor analogy to show how delivery changes outcomes: one clinician can spiral a patient for months, while another can acknowledge the concern, explain the plan, and keep the patient grounded. Home inspectors can do the same by pausing before speaking, choosing calmer words, and remembering that most findings lead to a specialist follow up, a repair estimate, and a resolution. When you communicate with clarity, you help clients make decisions, you reduce conflict, and you become the inspector agents respect even when your reports are tough.