Bob Wagner has been a home inspector with Florida HomePro for seven years.
BEFORE HOME INSPECTING?
He was a Naval flight officer for 16 years. When he retired, he went to work briefly for a defense contractor, Logistic Services International, writing training programs for Navy flight crews.
HOW DID HE BECOME A HOME INSPECTOR?
Before joining the Navy, he was a project engineer for a general contractor. “That was my background in construction, so when I retired from the Navy, I thought it was time to get back into a related field and home inspection seemed like a good opportunity. I met Wally Conway [president of Florida HomePro] shortly after I retired and I was offered a proposition to train with Florida HomePro so I trained with them while I was still at my other job with LSI.” After his training was complete, he joined Florida HomePro full time.
WHAT IS SOMETHING REALTORS CAN DO TO HELP YOU IN YOUR JOB?
“The best thing they can do, since they are usually the first point of contact in the housing market for potential buyers and sellers, is just to prepare them for what to expect. Everyone who decides to have an inspection comes to the table with different expectations.” He said it would help if the Realtor made it clear to the buyer or seller what services can be offered through a home inspection and how that differs from hiring an expert such as an electrician to do a full electrical inspection or an air conditioning contractor to do a full air conditioning inspection.”
TIPS FOR REALTORS?
One thing Wagner suggested that will help Realtors is for them to insist their buyers use an American Society of Home Inspectors certified inspector. “There are a lot of people out there who do home inspections and Florida does not license home inspectors at this time. To establish a standard, a national organization, ASHI, certifies home inspectors. By insisting on an ASHI inspection, then at least there is some level of credibility of the skills of the home inspecting company and a standard of what they are going to look for and required to report. It helps Realtors in their business because they are not getting an unqualified home inspector reporting things or causing problems that weren’t necessary as far as helping to get the deal closed and it gives the client a better quality job.”
HOW DOES THAT HELP YOU?
“What gives home inspectors or any other profession a bad name is when folks go to the cheap guy and they do a poor quality job. The feeling in the client’s or Realtor’s mind is that home inspectors do a lousy job, when in reality they used someone who does not perform at the same expertise as a ASHI certified home inspector does.”
SO WHAT DO HOME INSPECTORS DO?
“In a normal home inspection, the goal is to try the systems out, run the different systems and see how they perform. It’s a functional test. Whether we are going into a 100-year-old place or a 100-day-old place, we operate the different systems and when we see things not functioning as intended for that particular system, that’s when we’ll suggest an expert in that particular field for further evaluation or repairs depending on what we discover.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST ISSUES FACING HOME INSPECTORS RIGHT NOW?
“One issue is those expectations. When they are not clearly being met, then the client is expecting one thing compared to what the inspector is able to accomplish, then there is going to be a disagreement. As far as the liability issues that go along with that, that is a huge hurdle. How to meet client’s expectations and still perform our job within industry standards is an issue.”
NEW INNOVATIONS IN HOME INSPECTING?
“As new technology has become available what we do today is a little more comprehensive than what we did five years ago and certainly more than 10 years ago. We have new and better moisture meters that help us find moisture problems in houses or recognize water intrusion issues. We can use that equipment to validate what we think is there because what we do is a visual inspection, it’s non invasive. We don’t poke holes in walls and do damage to the house because we are doing the inspection for the buyer who does not own the house. A lot of inspectors in our industry are becoming more adept at acquiring information through the information highway to make that information available to homeowners to better equip them.”
HOW CAN THAT INFORMATION HELP THEM?
“We go into a house for two or three hours and give them a snapshot of what is going on. But, once the buyers get into the house and use the operating system for 24 hours, seven days a week, issues pop up in the future that don’t always show up in the inspection. We provide them with different resources so they can be better prepared to deal with those issues in the future.”
COLLEGE
He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Lehigh University.
AREA YOU WORK?
He works all over Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia.
ADVICE TO NEW HOME INSPECTORS?
“Our industry is very hard to break into. A suggestion is to affiliate yourself with an already established company.”
RESIDES
Orange Park.
FAMILY
He has been married to Wanda, who is a secretary at the Orange Park Christian Academy, for 20 years. They have two children.
HOBBIES
He does a lot of volunteer work with the Clay County Chamber of Commerce. “When I was in the service, you always did more than just what your job was. Orange Park is a family oriented community and this is a good way to be involved in the community.”
CHURCH
He and his family are very involved with their church, Orange Park Assembly of God.
ASSOCIATIONS
He is very involved with the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors’ Southwest Council and the Clay County Chamber of Commerce.
FAVORITES
His favorite types of books are classic, mysteries and historical novels. His favorite type of movies are science fiction, notably, the most recent Star Trek flick. When traveling, he prefers Rome or San Antonio, Texas. When dining out, he likes Woody’s Bar-B-Que.
— by Michele Newbern Gillis