Are Real Estate Agents trustworthy?

If trying to get you to use their Home Inspector who helps them make a smooth sale and stick you with lots of repairs is considered not trustworthy to you then to you they may very well not be trustworthy.

Not all but many real estate agents will try to get you to use their Home Inspector because they know they won’t “kill the deal”, folks, nobody “kills a deal” but some houses commit suicide from the lack of repairs and maintenance performed by the owners or poor quality construction (which is VERY common in Louisville and surrounding areas) and often not any of the owners fault because they just plain didn’t know.

That’s why we’re still here after many years of Agents threatening they will put us out of business and denying us access to their listings, because we find all of those issues so you won ‘t have to deal with them all yourselves.. if agents care about you and your family they will get the most thorough Home Inspector possible for you.

Most, if not all real estate agents, are not qualified to say what a good home inspector is since they themselves do not possess the required knowledge to accurately assess the Home Inspectors true abilities and we believe Real Estate Agents should not even be allowed to refer Home Inspectors for this very reason. It’s easy to know if your dealing with a shady Broker or Realtor, they won’t allow your Home Inspector access for inspection! I would never purchase a home from such an individual nor should you!

Buyers don’t want Mr. nice guy for a Home Inspection, they want Mr. thorough! But being both very nice and full of energy and personality sure makes it more fun! 🙂 That’s me.

Just because the inspector wears booties and drives a nice vehicle and makes a nice looking report that adequately explains what he did manage to find does not say he is thorough and protecting his clients to the fullest extent possible, a good Home Inspector should be judged by how thorough they are and how well they protect their clients, the home buyers.

We see it all the time; recently we inspected a home the Broker sold to his friends family and had his Home Inspector inspect it for them, the Inspector did not warn them of foundation issues, a major safety hazard in the flue system that was spilling carbon monoxide into the home or many other issues costing his friends the sale of their home and thousands of dollars.

This Broker may very well have believed his inspector was good? We often hear after we inspect a home “why didn’t the last inspector find all these issues you found”? I can’t answer that question.. I just do a thorough inspection EVERY time.

We have had many, many cancellations over the years after a client makes an appointment with us due to their agent asking “who did you hire”? They then go into panic mode and make up things scaring our clients and often calling the selling agent to “warn” them resulting in an odd cancellation “because the sellers won’t let us in”? That is absolutely going against their clients best interests and unethical.

But anyway..

How could they even know who we are and what are they trying to hide? Sounds like a good time to cancel the contract if you ask me seeing we have been in business over 18 years with no complaints, a perfect BBB record and hundreds of great reviews from our clients.

To us this is criminal and goes against all ethical business practice. We have had clients telling us several of the big name Brokerages have Agents doing it AND their Brokers encouraging it!

Real estate agents know we find more defects than other inspection companies and therefore cause them more effort selling homes.

In our opinion a real estate agent SHOULD want a thorough inspection finding every possible issue and maintenance and/or repair need so their clients can be satisfied with their purchase and when they go to sell it will be a sooth transaction with no worries after the inspection.

Real estate agents have been saying they will put us out of business for many years now and said much worse lying to their clients saying we have damaged homes etc, of which many clients have forwarded the emails and texts to us proving they say these things.

Some agents even have an email they send to the buyers agent stating our company is not allowed to inspect their homes they list (this too is criminal in our minds) so to say the least there are many dishonest, of poor reputation and lying real estate agents out there trying to get their clients to buy a home using their Inspector, so decide for yourselves..

Are some Real Estate Agents criminals?

Protect your investments, hire a Home Inspection Company who refuses to solicit real estate agents and keeps everything honest, hire Commonwealth Home Inspections! That is what we do and that is why we’re still here!

P.S.

An update from current events.. after many years and loss of over $100,000 due to Agents not allowing us access they have now been spreading a Facebook page snapshot where on a closed message board where you have to be a member to see it (and there aren’t many members) one of the Agents Inspectors screenshot something we wrote out of fun saying we would like to make a video game like Mario Brothers but instead of Mario have agents jumping and shoot them as they jump for points.. I also wrote in the same rant obviously I do not condone such things, which obviously no sane person would, and yet they are sending it to thousands of agents, Inspectors, clients and government officials trying to make it look like something it clearly is not.. so it goes to show the extent the Industry will go to stop you from having a thorough inspection! By the way, it was the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors who sent the complaint to the KY Home Inspectors Board. The KY Real Estate Inspections Association AND the KY Attorney Generals office. Besides that after failing to get these Boards to discipline me the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors has fined me $2500 for using my Supra key which is active saying I must personally contact the selling Agent even though we have our clients obtain permission through their Agents. Needless to say we will not be paying and will lose our Supra key only making it harder on my clients Agents since they will now need to open the homes for the Home Inspection. 

Update November 2016

The Greater Louisville Association of Realtors has disabled my Supra Key since we will not pay a bogus fine levied against our Company and I have been told by clients their Agents are telling them “they shouldn’t use someone who does not have a Supra Key, all of the good Inspectors have Supra Keys”.. No, ALL of the Inspectors who work with Agents do, WE DON”T! And we will always save you more money and go out of our way to protect you from the sneaky agents trying to sell you a money pit!

Update May 2017

Now Agents are telling people they should not use Commonwealth Home Inspections in Louisville and surrounding areas because we are not associated with the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors.. REALLY!? That is a huge advantage for you to know your Home Inspector is not helping Agents! Nuff said.