Complete Home Inspections Blogs

There are some people in this world that you want to reach out and touch. No, not like Ma Bell, I mean REALLY reach out and touch…

Last week, a property inspection and a termite inspection had been set up with this agent for about 5 days. Now in the interim, this property had been rescheduled already two times before. Thank Goodness for Velcro, because I really needed it with this agent. The rescheduling was not because or the normal buyer/seller conflicts, it was because it was inconvenient for her.

Inconvenient for her? Kinda make you want to scratch your head with an ice pick or something. Evidentially, this ‘socialite’ thought that it was more important to ‘hob knob’ with the ‘hoity toity’ people than to take care of her clients. So on the day of the agreed upon inspection date, the buyers, termite inspector and I were waiting for her to show up. After about 15 minutes I called her – no answer. The buyers called her – no answer. After about an hour of calling her office, her broker and everyone else under the sun, she finally called and said that she could not make it and could we reschedule…

The answer not no, but a resounding H… No! After a few irate calls to her broker from the buyers and me, the issue was immediately resolved. Arriving at the property in record time, very unhappy and looking like yesterday’s news, she grudgingly unlocked the doors to let us in. As I was doing what I needed to do to serve my customer, I could hear a heated discussion going on the next room. Needless to say, this is one real estate agent that I will be taking off my list…

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Late last week, the minimum wage was increased by 70 cents. However, as the already sagging housing market continues to get worse and businesses are closing, unemployment rates are rising proportionally.

Now it does not take a rocket scientist to understand, that raising costs in a declining market is not a very good economic strategy. In fact is downright dumb. Moves like this are certain to adversely affect the cost of goods, services and, of course, labor not to mention the impact it will have on those families whose budgets are already strained. The 70 cent increase will be gobbled up in increased costs faster than Pac Man gobbles dots. This is bound to add to more unemployment and inflation.

I really have to hand it to the flawed thinking of the geniuses on Capitol Hill for their lack of insight for helping to make a bad situation even worse. But then, why should they care? Anyway that’s my 2 cents worth…

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

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As home inspectors, we are hired to find out what is wrong with the property that we are inspecting, and are quick to start the litany of what is wrong and do not take a moment to say what is good with the property. Think about it. If you were purchasing the property what would you want to hear, the good along with the bad or just the bad? After talking to many real estate professionals, the number one reason that agents go elsewhere for home inspector and drop you is either you “kill too many deals” with strong negative verbiage, blowing things out of peroration or scare the crap out of the potential buyers.

I have learned that a blend of both the good and bad helps make the transaction more palatable. After all, not every property we inspect is ready for the bulldozer. If the property is in a great location or close to a school say so. Think about it, there are at least 10 positive things that you can say about every house that you inspect. After all, the real estate agent’s customer is going to live in the property long after you and the agent are gone. What impression do you want to leave?

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

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There are several firsts, in most of our lives; first step, first birthday, first kiss, first hot date… Now that I have gotten your attention, you get the picture. Well today I am doing a first post… well at least north of the Mason/Dixon that is. As I passed through Louisville, KY, I tipped my hat to General Lee and crossed the Ohio River on into Northern country heading for a small town north of Indianapolis for a meeting with 19 other home inspectors from across the nation for a 2 day convention to share ideas on how to grow our business and how to structure multi-inspector firms.

I know that this is nothing like the hoopla surrounding the Real Estate Connect convention going on in San Francisco, but nevertheless, this is just as exciting as this will take me out of the crawlspace and into the corporate world of running a business with multiple employees. Many of the people that I will meet have several inspectors working for them so I will have the opportunity to learn from the cream of the crop on the ins and outs of running a multi-inspector company.

The real beauty of this meeting is that since we do not compete in each others market area, the knowledge is freely given to help others grow their business unselfishly. Is that totally cool or what? Anyway, I will keep y’all posted on what is going on here…

P.S. You can take the man out of the south but you cannot take the south out of the man… LOL

Michael

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As of 0425 today, Active Rain has 319 more members to go before they reach their goal of 100,000 members. This is really exciting as this community is on the verge of reaching a benchmark that most blogging platforms only wish that they could reach. Let’s put forth an extra effort today to help push this community over the top and everyone recruit at least one new member today… Oh, and as added incentive, remember that Active Rain will be giving away 2000 Active Rain points if they reach this plateau today.

Good luck Active Rain….

P.S. On a side note, what time today do you think that they will reach this benchmark?

Have you joined my birthday alarm? It is fast painless and the best part of all, you will be helping me out.

Because I need your help, subscribe to my blog.

Michael

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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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