With all of these mounding issues it is evident that the new home construction industry is going to continue to suffer for several years. Many have thought that the Green Building focus would help bring the U.S. housing market out of the slumps, but there are just too many factors that are holding it down. So it does not look like Green will save the day.

The big concern that is not talked about in the many news articles is the fact that the U.S. is going to be faced with much higher priced material in the future. This might not make sense based on the low demand but a major change is happening in the supply chain that will have a dramatic effect on the price of materials.

First we have material supply yards closing at an alarming rate because they can not afford to remain open. Stock Building Supply has just completed a chapter 11 restructure with more than two thirds of its locations closing. BMC West is just going into chapter 11 and many small family owned yards are closing or going bankrupt. This is happening in lumber, windows, doors, roofing, drywall, electrical and plumbing yards across the country. The wholesale companies are facing the same problems. But this even goes to mills and manufacturing facilities.

The prices of many of home building products are based on supply and demand. The demand is low and the supply is getting lower. The prices of many products so low the mills or manufacturers can not make any money, so they have stopped production. When this market decides to turn around then prices will go through the roof, there will just not be enough supply to keep up with even the smallest increase in demand. This process will make it even harder for people to afford to start a home and slow the recovery of new housing starts.

So the next several years will be a difficult one for anyone in the housing industry.

My response:

Report what you see and keep your personal feelings out of the mix.

As property inspectors we’re hired to see and report the findings of the conditions of the home. Giving advice on whether or not to buy is not part of your job and is a very bad idea.

So…you don’t agree? OK…where do you draw the line? Will you tell them to walk after, say…3 items or 4? How many…is your number 12? What list of issues should you or do you use? When do you grab your client by the hand (or throat) and “get their attention”?

The most important aspect of what we do in this profession is communicate.

When we make determinations about what we see we do so from the facts which are obvious (the light does not come on when I flip the switch); we have the opportunity to comment on the color of the switch, whether it’s dirty or clean, if it’s cracked, and a list of other issues we could use to communicate the those facts.

When we take facts about an issue and mix our personal convictions we begin to transform the facts into philosophical ideas based on our own convictions. When we begin to introduce our own “personal values” we project those values in a manner that transforms the reporting of facts into subjective, philosophical ideas. We begin to dilute the facts into emotion.

When we include emotions in our fact finding we are no longer held to what we see but how we feel about what we see based on our own personal experience about the issue…and that is where the door is pushed wide open and “miss- communication” steps in. Why?

Because you won’t “feel” the same about what you see as another inspector will. Or a home owner. Or the agent. Or anyone else. When we use subjective observations we’ll see the issues from a completely different set of “values”.Commenting about whether or not someone should make a purchase is not why we’re hired, the facts become clouded by the inspector’s convictions, and the report is transformed from factual to emotional.

A home inspector should stay unbiased and keep his/her personal opinions to themselves.

One of the positive attributes of the Jackson metro market, or anywhere there are a number of inspectors, is that there are those who will openly give advice on purchase decisions.

But for this inspector, giving advice on the purchase is a bad idea.