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Barry Stone: The House Detective
In 1969, armed with a box full of tools and a head full of ambitious ideas, Barry embarked on a construction career that
carried him from the hard-muscled, blue collar world of rough framers, through the lean and competitive hard-knocks school
of residential contracting and remodeling, to the precarious uncertainties of real estate investment and property renovations;
emerging at last with a broad and comprehensive overview of the construction and real estate fields, their practices, shortcomings,
and vast interactive complexities.
During these formative and informative years, Barry's exposure to indiscriminate building violations, hurried construction
practices, loose interpretations and lax applications of the Uniform Building Code, and particularly, the common avoidance
of defect disclosure in real estate transactions, heightened his awareness and concern for consumer vulnerability in the residential
marketplace.
In 1987, combining this complex of knowledge and experience with his newly acquired certification as an ICBO Building
Inspector, Barry departed the construction field and established Action Home Inspection Service, the first business of its
kind on the California Central Coast. As a professional property inspector, Barry has evaluated over 6,000 homes, hotels,
shopping centers and other commercial buildings, establishing an imposing reputation as a preeminent expert in construction
defects and real estate disclosure.
In 1993, Barry commenced publication of his first weekly column, "Ask the Inspector," a public awareness forum,
alerting buyers and sellers to common building defects and residential safety hazards. Response to this feature was so enthusiastic
that it has been syndicated from coast to coast, under the bylines of "Inspector's In the House" and "The House
Detective."
In 1999, Barry was invited to become a contributing columnist for Inman News Features, gaining him a new found popularity
on the web. Through Inman distribution, these columns can now be read on hundreds of web sites nationwide.
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