TOPIC: Mike Holmes Inspections

How many of us have watched this program and wondered just what is this guy up to? he is always downing the previous inspector (very unprofesional ) the tooting his own horn Mike will make it right. all of us do a non-intrusive inspection we don't and should not start tearing into the structure. we should point out problems and the potential of those problems. we make judgement calls based on ? our experiance. we include in our report all of the good and the bad and the ugly.we do not start tearing down sheet rock,ripping off shingles or knocking out windows. WE DO THE INSPECTION AND DO THE REPORT SO THE BUYER HAS BEEN INFORMED ABOUT THE PROPERTY. I think that a Holmes inspection the way he shows it is a conflict of intrest. As professionals we should always avoid any type of conflict of intrest we are working for the buyer INSPECTING we don't recommend specific contractors or our people to preform work on a house we have inspected... ? 

Jim,

Holmes is about TV Entertainment, and sensationalism, not about our industry. ? Just Like the Victoria Secret Fashion show Tuesday nite....I don't see many women walking the streets with 9 ft wings...but they sure had my attention for an hour! ? 

As already mentioned, he is TV and entertaiment.  He is not a home inspector.  He has a big enough draw on TV that he has multiple shows.  Good for him.

Has he increased the publics perception that a home inspection is important?  Probably.  He has a Home Inspection company and his base prices is about $600.  If he can drag prices upward, that is good for the industry.

What do you thing General Contractors thought of his other show?  He bad mouthed shoddy construction.  He still bad mouths shoddy construction.  Before it was directed as those who did the poor construction.  Now it is directed at those who are supposed to report the shoddy construction.  Either way, he points out that there is a lot of poor construction.  He then rebuilds to meet his standards, which are often in conflict with USA building code.  Might meet Canadian code. 

Not thrilled that he always throws the inspector under the wheels.  If you listen really closely, he occasionally will slip up and say that a home inspector could not/ would not have found the issue.  Meaning that since the home inspector did not tear apart the home, the HI could not have found the problem.  Or the problem is not really a problem like the time he found abestos that was completely encapsulated and not a threat.  Even the abestos inspector said it was not a problem. 

It is TV, not real life.  If I can show my clients that I found everything that was possible to be found following the SOPs, then I approach the mythical TV DemiGod and my clients are satisified.  I am happy for anyone who will force priceing upwards by charging more.

I've seen him just a handful of times. He's dead on sometimes and just as absurd other times.  I saw him inspect a house with really obvious plumbing and electrical defects and if the inspector missed them, then he did drop the ball because they were plain as day. The problem was they never actually showed the notes from the report or even read a few of them on air. He just asked the owners if "they were told about this", and of course they claimed they weren't.  I know there are bad inspectors out there, but the law of averages makes it pretty obvious that there are WAY more irresponsible clients who 1)don't read the report fully or at all, 2)read the report and don't follow up on what they don't understand, 3)read the report and understand it all but they choose not to do anything, or 4) don't read the contract so their expectations are beyond human ability.(or they watch Holmes and he feeds their unrealistic expectations)

It doesn't really matter which of those they do, when something breaks they start looking to blame someone. Interestingly, that is one of Holmes' favorite rants, "nobody wants to accept blame or admit they did it wrong". He's right, including home owners/clients. Like Bruce said, he does back up the inspector every once in a while, but I'm sure the producers edit that out as much as possible. TV would be boring if there wasn't some conflict. I just wish the show called out every party involved equally.  Get the sellers, the buyer, the agents, the inspector, get all of them in there and have a Trump style boardroom where the truly offending parties are dressed down on national TV but are also given the chance to defend themselves. I doubt the home inspectors will come away taking the prize for "biggest idiot" the majority of the time.

Cameron, well written. I like the idea of all participants being placed in a room to discuss and see where blame actually lies.