Every once in a while on an inspection there is something that startles me. Sometimes it is finding someone where you didn't expect to find them----like the teenager under a pile of debris in the bedroom. One time the agent opened up for me only to find eight people sacked out in the living room----made a quiet exit from that one and came back later. Turns out the listing agent needed a place for a bunch of people to crash for the night and had "forgotten" about the inspection. Another time I walking into the garage and had the "feeling" that someone was watching---that turned out to be Marilyn. Today's startle was perhaps the most heart stopping in a while. I opened a storage shed to find this poor guy. Sometimes I wonder if sellers just like to mess with my head:) Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector
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Uncle Feser, yea that would throw me for a fright. Keep that guy locked up.
Take care!
RJH
Did you put this photo in the inspection report, LOL :-)
Thanks for sharing.
Vickie Nagy http://www.besttrivalleyhomes.com/
Ok Charles, be honest, is was this more frightening or opening a crawlspace access door to find a pair of furry ringed eyes staring back at you?
LOL!
Colleen
OK, that is a little creepy! I am surprised that they didn't have a sheet over it to keep it clean but that may have looked even more strange!
ARDELL, I know what you mean, I have wondered what the agent,s relationship was to the seller that they could pull that one off.
Vicki, I often put humor into my report---this time Uncle Fester stayed in the closet:)
Karen, that reminds me of a story from my construction days. I have the house all to myself (client left for two weeks so I could work uninterrupted), open the door and go running upstairs to find the lady of the house in her underwear----"whoops, didn't we tell you we changed are plans":) Wasn't the first or last time I thoroughly embarrassed myself on the job!
Colleen & Courtney, do you both have something going on about the cute little raccoons? They are for real scary---sometimes the "pretend" scary is worse:) When I go into a crawl space I am "expecting" that sort of thing I guess.
Libby, he looks a little "four sheets to the wind":)
Wow, that would have got my attention real quick! Yikes.
Hee hee hee, That is great! I walked in on a gentleman sitting on the potty one day. All doors open, All lights on. My buyer and I chatting, OY!!!!!! But my guy wasn't green!
What is even more frightening, is the situation I came across when I first started doing appraisals. I went to do the inspection of the home and the person there to let me in, is a 12 year old girl!! and she was the only one home. Needless to say I had to reschedule the appraisal(the mother of the girl was pissed off), and the broker was mad because he didn't get his report fast enough. Since then, when I schedule an appraisal, the first thing I tell the client is that there must be an adult present.
That would scare me too. I'm sure that you were caught off guard.
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Jason, I kept my cool----but barely:)
Chuck, except for his color I would say you at least keep him well fed:)
Coleen, if you haven't seen them, you might enjoy a couple of my earlier blogs about rats.
Michael, I didn't seem to scare him all that much:)
Virginia, nice mental picture:)
Michael Z, amazing---what do people think?
Cindy, may just be me, but I think a "naked guy" would scare me more than Uncle Fester (except perhaps Uncle Fester naked!:)
Oh I would have died. I once went to a home and posters of Charles Manson were hanging everywhere along with pics of daggers and blood dripping off of them. Now that was scary
Phyllis Pafumi
This is my first visit to the "featured" area----coooool. Glad I finally have a day off so I can answer everyone:)
Phyllis, Charlie Manson I can do without:)
Mary, I am totally capable of "screaming like a girl:)
Chris, hopefully just the "sleeping teenager"
Kim, "love this business" somehow doesn't come close----doesn't even feel like a job most of the time:) Very important to like what you do!
Hey, I want that guy! Does he come with the house?
I entered a house once a took 2 steps in and saw somebody standing behind the door. I spun around into my best kung-fu stance and it was a full size cardboard cutout of a basketball player!
Charlie,
Is that a mannequin, or is that just a big mirror looking back at you. I know that, on inspections, you wear a similar outfit. It keeps the rodents away.
Great story!
Here's my heart stopper:
I once showed a home that was being rented at the time. There was a TON of furniture in all of the rooms...so much that you could barely walk through the hallways. Well, we go in the basement...I'm leading the way. It's the same thing down there. It was like a furniture warehouse. We couldn't find the light switch, so we're fumbling around the basement. I go to a doorway of a room and it's pitch black. I turn the light switch on and get FREAKED OUT. There's a man sitting on a bed in total darkness with his eyes wide open. I jumped backwards about 3 feet and almost knocked my clients over. My heart was ready to jump out of my skin. The man didn't say anything at all...just stared at us. We finally got out of the house in a hurry.
Wayne, prowling around in other people's houses can be pretty un-nerving.
Steve, your spoiling all my fun----you didn't have to tell did you?:)
Katie, it would make a lot of noise to Karate chop that thing:)
Dan, that would do it for me---what is it they say----life is about "adrenalin"----any way you can get it is good?
I think my kids would really get a kick out of me coming across this guy in a dark shed...I jump 10 feet when they just walk up behind me and say, "hey mom."
Dee, I let out a hell of a scream (in my head:)----always the professional you know?
Lori, now you've got me laughing:)
Jim & Maria, if life wasn't stressful would we know what life was:)
Tamara, pretty good idea to live ones whole life as if the cameras are rolling, but especially as a home inspector. An inspector friend of mine found a hidden camera from the attic into the daughters bedroom---kinda creepy. I have had houses wired with cameras----gotta keep smiling:)
LOL Charles...
That would've scared the "BEE-GEEZEZ" out of me too.
More than likely I would have pulled out my gun and tried to reciprocate that scare :)
TLW...ROAR!
I'm with Ardell. That is just wrong. Can you imagine the lawsuit if something had gone wrong? On another note, I do remember the house with the mounted and stuffed pet dog. That was freaky too! I cannot imagine all the things you must run across that startle you. My best one was the sleeping younger guy who'd "forgotten" about the showing. Let's just say the room was a little warm!
was that a picture of the agent, the seller, or the buyer?
Knowing that the agent said that a particular house will be vacated doesn't matter. I ring the bell, nock on the door, no answer? I open the door and gently say "inspector here", and then a little louder and then I generally holler pretty loud. If they did not hear me the first time then they are hard of hearing and did not know I was yelling anyway and if no one is there I just got to exersize my lungs. No harm no foul!
WELLL, After all that I enterd a home (nobody home) and as I usually do passed from room to room getting a feel for the layout and sure enough the last bedroom on the left was a woman passed-out (fully clorthed) sprawled all over the bed with bottles of beer everywhere. I backpeddled all the way to the door and re-locked it THEN called the REALTOR. After a few calls and a couple of days I went back to the home to do the inspection. This time I took the bull-horn (not really) just wanted to. Seems her divorce was final the afternoon prior to theinspection. She decided before leaving town she waould just use the key she had kept and have one lst fling.
That guy in the shed would have had me more than backpeddling.
Blessings
Mike Reel Williamstown WV
Charlie,
You are getting way too many comments, and points on this one, in light of the fact that it is a self-portrait. I am jealous.
Broker Byrant, me thinks gus scare me more:)
Kirk, good question. Answer: my friend Steve :)
Mike, good advice.
Steve, you gotta "put yourselve out there" ---if you want to get the points:)
Now Donna, do you carry your pepper spray in your hand when you open storage sheds.
By the time you got it out of wherever you keep it, you would have realized what it really was. Wouldn't you?