As a home inspector this is an important question because we are accused of being nitpickers so often.

I will take some “liberties” with Wikipedia’s definition of “nitpicker.”
In defining a nitpicker, Wikipedia refers to “the pastime of finding mistakes in movies (homes) and television shows (buildings). These mistakes can range from very trivial mistakes that regular viewers (real estate agents and home buyers) don’t notice, to very serious mistakes which disrupt the suspension of disbelief in the show’s story for even casual viewers (first time home buyers).”
I would argue that it is hardly a “pastime.” One person’s trivial, is another person’s serious matter! While most inspectors get a “charge” out of some of the crazy stuff we see, I think there are actually very few inspectors that go out of their way to get “creative” about what they see–except perhaps when they write about it on their blog. In inspection reports that I routinely see, inspectors often ere on the side of so little information as to make the report meaningless and irrelevant to the purpose at hand.
This definition of nitpicking as a pastime is quite a departure from the origins of the phrase. Originally it simply described someone that actually picked nits. Before the days of delousing shampoos, for a person to be good at this job, it took incredible patience, persistence, vigilance, and thoroughness–and typically a large amount of “caring”–as well as super human powers of observation–to find every last nit.
Don’t these sound like the very qualities one would want to see in a good home inspector?
I guess that makes me proud to be considered a nit-picker.
No inspector can afford to be in a position of attempting to figure out what a buyer doesn’t want to learn about their home.
So who are these “nit-pickers” that agents refer to?
I would argue that that the ones that make a “pastime” of home inspections don’t really exist, but that instead, there are just agents that hate nits. That is not to say there are no “lousy” inspectors or “lousy” agents. Perhaps these agents had a bad experience with nits when they were a kid or with their own kids. But as with kids–when they come home from school or day-care with that note that says: “Little Jonnie has head lice,” you just have to dig in and deal with it. Why would anyone think it would be any different with house defects? Whether that house is lousy with louses or only has a couple of louses–sooner or later someone has to pick those nits!
It basically comes down to: “Too much information is never enough.”
After all–if you miss just one nit, the cycle starts all over again.
Now we don’t want that do we?
By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle
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Bravo!
Besides being an excellent inspector, you are the master of analogy!
Write on!
Charles, once again your blog is both amusing and very informative, and direct to the point.
I like it !
The answer to the original question?
He’d pick all the nits that a nit-picker picks if a nit-picker could pick nits.
ONE TEAM – ONE FIGHT!!!
Mike
Just what I needed, confirmation!
Charlie,
First of all, can I sign up for blog writing lessons?
Second, you just provide the information. It’s up to the buyers to decide what to do with it. Frankly I lost a sale because of your findings. However, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I see myself as an advocate for my buyers which is why I call you, my clients are not just another “sale”.
I personally had a thorough inspector when I bought my home 25 years ago and there were many pages of findings. It was a road map of what to expect in the future. A little daunting as a first time home buyer, but once again just information to consider. It’s a little bit like looking in a dressing room mirror in flourescent lights, it can be hard to take but it’s just the truth. Nit pick away!
Blog writing lessons? Now there is an ancillary service I had not thought of 🙂 Thanks for your kind words. It is part of why you are on my short list (very short list) of agents I give people when they are looking for an agent.
Awesome blog as usual. I always find your blogs informative and a pleasure to read.