Manage Expectations

Clients don’t judge your inspection against your standards of practice. They judge it against the story in their head and that story is often wrong. We talk through one of the most overlooked skills in home inspection: managing expectations so your solid work actually lands as “great service” instead of confusion, frustration, and follow-up arguments.

We dig into two common flashpoints that drive complaints. First, the code compliance assumption: buyers, agents, and even contractors may expect you to confirm everything is “up to code,” then blame you later when a specialist uses a different yardstick. Second, the infrared myth: plenty of people believe an infrared camera can see through walls. We share simple language to explain inspection scope, limitations, and tools in a way that keeps everyone respected while still being crystal clear.

The practical takeaway is the driveway speech. That five minutes of human-to-human communication can prevent hundreds of hours of messes by aligning expectations before the inspection gets rolling. We also cover a quick end-of-inspection wrap-up to keep clients from panicking, plus how to set realistic inspection report delivery timelines so you avoid the “Where’s my report?” text storm. And yes, we still want the paperwork: agreements, SOP links, and reminders that protect you when someone claims they “didn’t have time to read it.”

If you want fewer complaints, smoother inspections, and happier clients, subscribe, share this with an inspector friend, and leave a review. What’s the wildest expectation you’ve had to correct?

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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.

Transcript

Ian Robertson  
Hey, there IT crowd. Welcome back to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. So today we're going to be talking about the second in our Quick Tip series. Manage expectations. This is by far one of the most missing skills that I find in a lot of home inspection companies. So we help a lot of home inspection companies all across the US and Canada and even in other parts of the world. And sometimes when we dig deep down into their company, when they're asking, hey, Ian, you know, how can I improve? Or what would you do in this situation? What we end up finding is a lot of the trouble that companies are running into come down to not managing expectations, or at least not doing it properly. 

A perfect example that I have found very often is the consumer's expectation of what the inspection includes. So oftentimes, agents are misinformed, the client's misinformed, there's misinformation on the internet, and so they will almost invariably assume the inspector is going to make sure this house is up to code. I would say 50, 60% of my clients over the past 20 years have either thought that in one form or another, or expressed it or somebody on site was just like, is that up to code? We as home inspectors typically don't inspect code. We'll leave that argument for another day about code and home inspections. But I'm just using this as an example. Here in New York State, we're not allowed to. So that being said, when people get on site, a lot of times they'll be disappointed in the inspection because an HVAC guy comes later and says, oh, well, your home inspector should have caught this, this HVAC unit is not up to code. So we often like to say, well, I managed expectations. It's in their agreement. Scratch that thought. As much as we try to get people to read the agreements, they don't, and the ones that do, often just read right over that kind of stuff. Well, I email them my SOP ahead of time, or my SOP is on my website. Cool. Did they read it? Probably not. 

So how do we help people help themselves and manage their expectations? Because people's expectations are wild. Another one that I hear is, I was actually sitting in a class one time at a school that I taught. I wanted to hear this class that another teacher was teaching, and she was an agent. And she goes, when they moved in to this old farmhouse, they found a whole other room, and it didn't show up on the infrared scan. And actually, Jay Wynn was in the class with me. We look at each other, we're like, why would that show up on the infrared scan? And then another agent was there, yeah, that was the seller's side, and yeah, it didn't come up on the infrared scan. And one of us asked the question, we're like, what do you think an infrared scan does? And they thought it saw through walls. Both of them have been agents for years or decades. They were not new. One of them, I think, was even a broker of our own agency, and they still didn't understand, because nobody managed their expectations as to what infrared does. So how do we actually do it? Because people have an expectation of 10. In reality, we do a six compared to their expectations, because their expectations are also going to be, tear out that wall, dismantle that outlet, you know, wave a magic wand, rip up all the insulation. They're going to expect a 10 when the six is going to be well above SOP, but we're still going to be delivering a six according to their expectations. So, not saying that we do a bad job, we do a fantastic job, I'm just saying according to their expectations. 

So, some of the best ways we can do that happens with our human to human interaction. So if we're a business owner or if we are an inspector on site, this is the stuff that makes the difference. Number one, driveway speech. How many times on this show have I talked about the driveway speech. Driveway speech, driveway speech, driveway speech. There was a guy I was just talking to last week, or maybe it was the week before. I can't remember exactly, but I'm like, what's in your driveway speech? And he goes, well...and I go, whoa, okay, please don't tell me you don't have one. Well, I have one, but it's not finished. And, you know, sometimes it's busy and this and that. When my clients show up on site, everything stops. Am I running a well flow test? Are we doing a hydraulic load test on the septic system. Am I on the roof? Everything stops, and that driveway speech happens. That five minutes of stopping everything will save you hundreds of hours a year of messes, because now you can nip it in the bud. So yes, still make sure that they get their agreement days or weeks ahead of time, whatever. Make sure you get that to them ahead of time. Put our SOP on our website, yeah, 100%. Heck, put it in a bunch of notifications before the inspection. Here's a link to our SOP. Cool. But once you get on that site, those people have signed documents for weeks, looked at dozens of houses and don't know which way is up. They just want to make sure their house is okay. So it is up to us, to in person, make sure that they understand. 

So driveway speech, you know, we're going to do a great, thorough inspection. Some limitations are...and we talk about the limitations, like we're not going to, here's my favorite expression, we're not going to inspect the house for code. And then invariably, the father-in-law on site gasps and has a small heart attack. You're like, that's because we're not supposed to. Think about it. In 1980 something, most municipalities, they went to two by six exterior walls. Your house was built in 1968. So very likely your house walls, exterior walls, are two by four and not two by six according to modern code. Does that mean we tear down your whole house and start over again because it doesn't meet code? And then they go, oh, well, I guess that makes sense. And then we reassure them by telling them, while we don't inspect for code, that's up to the municipality. We go better. We do better. We have our own standards of practice. Make sure we reassure them of that, and we make sure that it is functional and safe according to its age and your use. Now they're reassured, and now they understand. 

During the inspection, every time we pull out a tool, and this gets super old, but every time we pull out a tool, we let them know what we're doing and what we can, especially with infrared, I learned an expression. Boy, I brought Jay up twice this in this podcast, but Jay Wynn, whenever he pulls out his infrared camera, he'll say something along the lines. Now, this infrared camera cannot see through walls, and it does not replace a trained eye. We use it for verification purposes. Wow. Okay, cool. Now, those agents who think you can see through walls, they're gonna stand there and go, oh, he can't see through walls. You dignified everybody on site by not making them feel dumb, but you let them know this is what we can expect, and then you can go farther. Be like, okay, you see these blobs here on the screen. This is showing temperature differential. So as water evaporates, it cools. So that might be a water spot that we want to look at. So keep things simple, but manage their expectations. Even at the end of the inspection, I do a second driveway speech. We're outside away from the ring doorbell so that nobody can record what we're saying. And I say, listen, we found three larger items here, not uncommon, things break. People can live with this stuff for a long time. And, you know, just get your contractors in here and take a look at them. That first of all, manages their expectation that the house isn't going to explode. Set realistic expectations. Don't freak out yet. Freak out if you know the repair turns out to be $40,000 and you thought it was going to be $4,000. Wait until the contractors come. 

And then I manage your expectations as to when they're going to get the report. You'll get the report later this evening or before tomorrow morning, within 24 hours, whatever it happens to be, even though we've already told them. Managing expectations in person is almost always better. They don't read the notifications. They look for the date and time on it, and then they blow through the rest of it. Manage expectations of when they're going to get the report, because one of the worst things is when somebody starts texting or emailing you, hey, when's my report getting here? It's eight o'clock. Where's the report? Hey, it's been 22 hours. Where's the report? Manage the expectations and give ourselves some wiggle room. If we do most of our reports same day, maybe say within 24 hours, although same day is better. But if we need a little wiggle room, give ourselves a little wiggle room. If we say on site reporting, maybe say reports within an hour of the inspection. Helps us fulfill our promises while still managing expectation. You don't have to do that part, but I always find giving ourselves a little bit of wiggle room kind of helps. But listen, it's competitive out there, so if you got to say, same day, same day, cool, but just stick to it so you don't get those angry emails with people. 

So in person is almost always the best, but we still have to have the written notifications, because when somebody invariably comes back, this actually just happened to an inspector, somebody comes back and said, we didn't have enough time to read the agreement. They were able to go back and say, here's your agreement, here's another link to your agreement, both of which were eight days ahead of the inspection. I asked you if you had any questions about the agreement ahead of time. And here's the two notifications that said it. On site, I gave you this speech. If you wear a body cam, double whammy that you recorded the whole speech. So now you give them a plethora of stuff. And they're like, all right, yeah, you gave me everything I needed, and I just didn't listen. Maybe not everybody, but could we quell 70% of those complaints by managing expectations? Yeah, 100% I think. That's funny, 100% of the time, we can quell 70% of the complaints. 

But besides my funny math, managing expectations is a skill. If we are working for a company, we will make our bosses incredibly happy, and we will have the happiest clients if we manage expectations. Same thing with if we are the business owner, training our people or ourselves working at managing expectations is one of the most useful skills that we can have as a home inspector. So that's our quick tip for today. Hopefully it helps, 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 info@inspectortoolbelt.com.

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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.