James' genius made me the hero! My friends woke up to that nightmare that no first time homeowners want to experience: their very pricy remodelled house was showing water damage on the top level ceilings after just six months. (Barf!) They had a number of different roofing specialists come though to inspect the damage and they all quoted full roof replacement, which could be up to $40Gs! My friends hadn't had a home inspection done pre-sale because including any conditions on their bid may have given the house to the other bidder, so they took my advice to try that tactic after the fact. I'd known James casually and could tell from the way he discussed his work and did his own home construction that he's a super smart cookie who knows his business and is really passionate about it, always updating his knowledge and traveling great distances each day to do inspections. Reporting back to me later my friends seemed surprised at how thorough James' knowledge was and how prepared his toolkit: he took out his moisture meter and diagnosed the problem as originating from the flashing (where shingles join the siding), not the roof - a repair that would run closer to $10Gs to fix. Because he had no vested interest in up-selling the job, his inspection fee ended up paying for itself 160 times over. My friends were understandably delighted and soooooooo grateful for my recommendation. Yay me! (But really him.) James proved just as awesome as expected! read more