Complete Home Inspections Blogs

Today, while inspecting a new property for a former client, I recognized a real estate agent that I had not seen for some time. After a few minutes of small talk and chit chat, I asked how here business was doing and was she busy. She said that she was very busy and had been selling a lot of property.

I congratulated her on her efforts; however, curiosity got the better of me and I had to ask whom she was using to inspect her properties as I used to get almost all her inspections. She told me and was quick to note, that he cheaper and was not as good or as thorough as my inspectors or me. And, she used him because of that and she did not have to work so hard to make the deals go through.

I asked her why she was using me to inspect this house then. Oh! This is for my daughter and her husband. I wanted a good inspector who would catch all the problems so we can negotiate for a better price and I did not want them to have any problems when they moved in.

Kinda makes you wonder… 

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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When real estate agents and their buyers look at a property, more often than not, they are looking at the aesthetics of the property not the functionality. Initially when the untrained eye looks at this photo, one sees a sees a cool looking stairwell, loft and a nice clean open space.

However to the trained eye of the home inspector, much more comes to view. For example:

1. Even though this is an older property, the balusters (spindles) on the guardrail and handrail exceed the current 4” spacing required for child safety. Agents and buyers need to be aware that small children can slip through those spaces and suffer a nasty fall.2. Also, equally as important, is the placement of the smoke alarms on both levels of the property. Smoke alarms provide an early warning signal in the event of fire, which may allow you and your family sufficient time to reach safety.

Properly placed smoke alarms are vital for the safety of you and your family. In most states, properties that have been rehabbed need to be brought up to current standards of safety. These are some of the issues found with this property:

1. The alarms were not wired together – when one-alarm signals, all should signal.

2. The alarms were not installed in the bedrooms. Current safety standards require all smoke alarms to be placed in each bedroom and hallway of in each level of the property.

3. There was no function smoke alarm in the basement or the garage.

4. Alarms need to be placed either on the ceiling or within a foot of the ceiling on a vertical wall.

Did you know…

· Smoke alarms monitor the air 24 hours a day, every day. After 10 years, it’s been on the job for over 87,000 hours. At this point in its life, it stands a 50/50 chance of failure. Do you want to trust your life to an aged device?. If you don’t know how old your alarm is, or if it is more than 10 years old, replace it.

· The battery back up in all alarms need to be replace every year.

· Smoke alarms need to be tested monthly.

· Vacuum the outside covers periodically to remove dust, dirt particles and insects.

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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I love the older, more experienced properties. Like many of our more ‘experienced’ citizens, there are certainly stories to tell, and a journal of what has historically happened in its life.

Yesterday while inspecting a property in the world famous Opryland Hotel area, I ran across this unusual repair by our ol’ buddy Bubba, the unhandy handyman. One again, a classic example of how not to support a load-bearing girder.

The blocks were setting on the ground with no concrete foundation (18×18 for Davidson County), the bricks were kinda-sorta professionally mortared together, but the ‘coup de gras’ were the shims of asbestos shingle tiles… Yeah Buddy!

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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Home inspecting is not rocket science… Most of it is just plain, common, simple horse sense. Generally, if an item does not look right or isn’t functioning correctly something is wrong which needs to be looked into a little further. The two major problematic areas are generally plumbing and electrical. Unhandy home owners and tradesmen either are not competent in various trade disciplines or just like to take shortcuts or the easy way out while doing home repairs or remodeling.

A classic example of this was while inspecting a rehab yesterday, the basins and the kitchen sink were not draining properly. When I opened the cabinets, the problem was obvious. There were no vents installed in the plumbing system.

Standard plumbing systems use water trap seals to perform the critical function of preventing sewer gas from seeping into living areas. Air pipe venting of some type is commonly used to prevent siphoning of traps. Although this method is simple, reliable and effective, it requires each plumbing fixture to have a lateral return vent that passes into the wall cavity system to a central stack system, or to have its own vertical vent that passes into the framing system of the property and out through the roof.

Another way to achieve this is venting is through the use of Air Admittance Valves. These are mechanical devices designed to maintain trap seals without the need for additional vent piping as described above. They are one-way valves that open only under negative pressure (created when a plumbing fixture is operated). When the water flow stops, gravity closes the valve, preventing the escape of sewer gasses into the property.

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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We live in a world today where property transactions are so litigious, that everybody involved in the property transactions does their best to cover their a$$ets. Putting that aside, where does customer service and customer care come into play? In my business model, I have made the business decision to inform my customers when, although functional, the appliances are approaching the end of their expected service lives. Large expenses such as furnaces, air conditioners, and roofs certainly come to mind as these can cost potential home owners thousands in unforeseen costs. Smaller items such as kitchen appliances or water heaters although not as expensive, can cause a new home owner grief when not expected. Also, I feel that it leaves doubt in the home owner’s mind that if I did not inform them about this, what else did I not inform them about?

I really feel that home inspectors are in a real catch-22 situation. They have to walk that tight rope between the client (the real estate agent) and the buyer. Some agents do not like it when you give too much information as it makes it difficult for them to finalize the sale. There are agents that have the attitude, well if the home inspector missed it, go sue them, leave me out of it. Other agents want to know everything so that there are no hidden surprises and customer call backs. So where does one reach that happy medium where they both inform the buyer of potential issues and also satisfy their customer the real estate professional? Or is there such a happy medium?

How do other home inspectors handle the issue of age related issues? Feed back on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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As most of you know by now, flexible plastic venting for clothes dryer venting has been banned for use in residential properties for many years because it is considered a fire hazard. But I guess that our ‘ol buddy Bubba just hasn’t read the latest and greatest on this regulation. Maybe they will come out with a coloring code book one of these days…

I have to admit that the duct tape was the coup de gras…

What do you think?

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton; Complete Home Inspections, Inc. Brentwood, TN, All Rights Reserved.

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A few weeks ago, someone wrote an article in the active|rain blog posts about HOA’s getting too powerful and I wish that I could remember who wrote that piece but I do remember commenting on it. Well, it seems as if the HOA for my subdivision has up and done it again…

It seems as if some of the ‘hoity toity, Brentwood for Lunch Bunch’ has been ‘offended’ by some of us ‘commoners’ putting our roll out trash bins at the curb for curbside pick up. The edict was in my post box on Wednesday afternoon and my trash pick-up day is on Thursday. As Brentwood does not have city service and totally relies on independent haulers it was too late for me to ‘comply’ with this latest and greatest…

So on Thursday, I wheel my trash to the curb thinking surely they will give us ‘scoff laws’ until next week to comply… I no sooner set the cart down when, the ‘trash police’ with their old ladies panties in a wad, descended upon me like files at a — well, uh, trash can. After quite an exchange of words, I just told them to ‘Book me Danno’… The trash stays until I can get in touch with my provider and make arrangements for other pick-up options.

One would think that with the price of fuel where it is, that it would be more environmentally friendly to have the automated trucks pick up rather than the labor intensive hand pick up in the smaller trucks… I guess that image is more important than the ecology…

Complete Home Inspections, Inc. | Brentwood, TN 37027

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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While inspecting a property in the upscale ‘Green Hills’ section of Nashville, I find that there isn’t any section of town where our ‘ol friend Bubba, the unhandy handyman, has not had some type of misadventure. Yeah Buddy…

We can certainly see why ‘ol Bubba buys duct tape by the six pack… Yeah Buddy! Need I say anythin’ else???

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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It is not unusual for clients in this area to “price shop” home inspections or other services as part of the property transaction process. I used to waste a lot of time trying to “convince” them that ours was the best company to use… Why not? We feel that we do give our clients the best service for their money… I just give them the price and urge them to make their decision on quality and not price.

I understand that some people are tight on cash and want to get the “best for the buck” and often go with the cheapest service provider. Cheaper is not always better… I find that quality in any service costs a little more but in the long run is well worth the price…

The bitterness of poor quality lingers on after the sweetness of low prices has been forgotten…

Complete Home Inspections, Inc. | Brentwood, TN 37027

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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With the high price of gasoline being on every American’s mind, and how it is affecting the price of everything from vacations to toilet paper, there seems to be a plethora of items on the internet from all touting better fuel mileage. These range from HHO technology products to gasoline additives. Do they work or are they just another scam to prey on unsuspecting victims?

I have been driving a hybrid car for the past 3 years and I have learned how to drive all over again to squeeze every drop of fuel out of the cars’ technology. Not because I am stingy, but because I am a conservative and believe that we have a finite resource that I hope that we can leave our children and their children.

As I am tired of the paltry 47.5 AVG MPG that I am getting on my Prius and the real stinko mileage on my gas guzzling SUV – won’t even mention those numbers as they are sub-prime… I have read just about all there is on the various forms of gadgetry and additives out there.

I am starting to experiment with a fuel additive that ‘claims’ to add 17 – 20% more fuel efficiency. Of all the products out there ETHOS seems to be the best. Nick Lovellette a fellow active|rain member turned me on to the product saying that at $4.00 per gallon, he is saving about $196.00 in fuel costs by using this product in his vehicle. I will be running independent test of my own and will keep all of you abreast on how well this works in subsequent posts.

Complete Home Inspections, Inc. | Brentwood, TN 37027

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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