You're WAY underpricing yourself

[Dave Ronyak]

I call it the "paint spot theory". Whenever one paints a room, always miss a spot that can be easily noticed and readily fixed. When the "inspector" notices it and you fix it, the inspection is most often over.

Tom 

That technique is especially valuable when having to deal with building inspectors.  I learned this the hard way when I remodeled and added on to my first house, acting as my own general contractor, and doing most of the work myself save the foundation and drywall.  The electrical inspector flagged some of the work despite it having been meticulously done by me under the guidance of my neighbor who was then the chief electrician of General Tire Company to standards above those required for homes [metal conduit in places rather than romex].  After some negotiations that "above requirements" work was approved.

 

[Tinker]

I was doing a job in a neighboring town.  I had heard the BI was very tough on outsiders. There were rumors that he had "sticky palms'; but i was not about to get into that sort of graft.  I did everything i could to be sure my work was above code requirements. 

With my first inspection, a precedence was set.  As the BI finished his checkout, he told me I had failed.  I was incredulous and argued the points he had gigged me on.  I argued that on every point, i was well above requirements of any code in the state, including the state code and his town code.

With that, the BI looked me straight in the eye and replied, "Young man, in this town, I am the code." I ended up in a conversation with the home owner who in turn had his own discussion with the BI.  We finally ended up by not making any changes.  A few months later, I had moved into the same town and suddenly, I was "one of them" and had no further problems with that BI.
Tinker