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home status: Climbing Trees and Bad Toupees - 03/12/08 12:25 PM
When I was a kid about 10 years old, I loved to climb trees, much to the worriment of my mom. I even built a tree house for some friends and me in the back yard...but that's a story for another time.
Recently I have begun to call on those old climbing skills as I inspect attics. Where the construction and roof truss braces allow, I climb up to the top of the attic to get a close look at a frequent source of problems, the ridge vent.
Ridge vents are an essential part of a modern roofing system. They allow … (7 comments)
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home status: An Intentional Defect? - 01/23/08 01:43 PM
… (8 comments)
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home status: But Will the House Dance? - 11/06/07 06:54 AM
Selling an older home today can be alot like getting back in the dating game after many years of married life. Lots of updating to do. In today's real estate market, update you must, or more than likely, the house sits, and sits, and sits....like a wall flower at the dance.
This is especially true when the sellers are people who have lived comfortably and happily in the home for 10, 15, 20 or more years. They have become so accustomed to the home's problems that they've overlooked them ... choosing to put off fixing things. They also are unaware of outdated … (9 comments)
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home status: Buyer Be Wary! - 11/05/07 03:05 PM
If you like television series CSI, you'll enjoy this.
This inspection was of an 11 year old single family house that showed well...no, better than that, it was spectacular! Tremendous upgrades, granite, ceramic tile, hardwood floors, the works. It was also almost vacant, but tastefully staged, when I saw it. It had been the object of investor greed, changing hands several times in the past three years, and most likely without inspections. While the house had been rented several times, no one who had owned the house had actually lived in it...which partially explains why the seller was so suprised by … (8 comments)
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home status: What's Different About Foreclosures? - 10/29/07 06:19 AM
The rising tide of forclosures has left some lasting impressions with me. Inspections of foreclosed properties have gone from about 3% of my business last year to about 25% this year. The trend seems to be accellerating.
Obviously foreclosed properties are different. Like the woman who is magical with make up and a pretty dress the evening before but quite ordinary the morning after, the foreclosed property has no make up. You see it in its least attractive state. Warts and all. But there are differences which are important. Take for example the HVAC System. Regular maintenance by a certified professional … (9 comments)
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home status: Don't be Lulled Asleep! - 10/26/07 03:35 PM
Here is a seller stereotype that you have probably run into before.
Really good people. They've lived in their house for 25 years. Cared for it well. It is beautiful. They desire that the next people who live in their house get the same kind of joy that they have from it. They go out of their way to tell prospective buyers everything about the house.
So, as you and your clients go through the house with them, they are completely open and show and tell about everything they can think of. Your clients fall in love with the house and back in … (16 comments)
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home status: The Ceiling Fan Farm! - 10/24/07 08:46 AM
My initial impression of the second floor bedrooms in this foreclosure house was that if you turned on all the ceiling fans full speed, there was one in every room, the roof might blast off!
Just as in houses where there are air fresheners in every electrical receptacle, ceiling fans in every room usually has little to do with the previous owner liking them. They are there for a reason and l set out to figure out what that reason was. When I had entered the house from the front door, I was aware that on this 80 degree day, the … (11 comments)
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home status: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Sump Pump - 10/23/07 10:41 AM
"Will you talk to my mother?" My client asked. She had just called me and was exasperated by all her mother's concerns about the sump pump in her prospective home that I had just inspected. I told her that I would be glad to set her mind at ease.
This house had ranked on my list of the top 5 houses I've every inspected for being almost perfect. This was a 6 year old single family house which had been beautifully finished out and cared for. It had an integral sump pump system protecting the foundation and draining condensate from the … (6 comments)
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home status: Radon Myths - revised - 10/21/07 08:03 AM
Some clients and agents do not have correct knowledge about Radon:
Myth 1 - Slab foundations. "We don't need to test Radon, this house has a slab foundation." The agent said this to me as though it was an absolute fact. I told him I wished that were true, but Radon will be in its highest concentrations in the living area just above the slab.
Concrete is a lousy barrier for Radon. This colorless, odorless gas can go through the pores and cracks in concrete with little effort. Houses and townhouses on slabs should be checked and remediated if found to … (10 comments)
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home status: Cat on a Hot Roof! - 10/19/07 06:40 PM
"Oh good!" I thought to my self as I drove up the driveway. "A relatively new roof, 30 year shingles, and they threw in a ridge vent."
On a 30 year old house, I had expected to see a roof covering that was not original. Worst case scenerio, they had replaced the original roof at say 15 years, and would be looking at the end of life of a second set of 20 year shingles. Best case, the original shingles had lasted longer and the current roof would be newer. In this case however, the owner had upgraded to a longer … (10 comments)
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home status: Shut up and Bail! - 10/18/07 08:17 AM
My client was very excited about owning her first home. So much so that when I started doing my inspection, she started cleaning and doing repairs! Never mind that she didn't own the house yet! She wanted to get a head start and she had come prepared to get some serious cleaning done.
Her enthusiasm was contageous and I forgot one of the unwritten (or maybe it is written), common sense, rules in Real Estate...don't do anything to the property until you own it. (Who knows...there are a hundred ways a deal can fall through.). I had mistakenly thought, how can … (12 comments)
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home status: Uncommon Sense! - 10/17/07 07:13 AM
I wrote this last year when weather conditions were the exact opposite as they are now here in Virginia. We are currently having our worst drought in years. However, stick around, we will have torrential rains soon.
July 30, 2006
This last week I was called by a lovely older lady to do a Home Wellness Check. A Home Wellness Check is my term for a full inspection on a house that is not for sale.
When I got to the inspection I learned that she had recently hired a water proofing company to install a full blown sump pump system in her basement … (12 comments)
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home status: Spotting Amateur Work - 10/15/07 09:18 PM
If his work were being judged by neatness, Mrs. Norwood, my old english teacher, would have given him an A+. In fact, if you did not know what you are looking for you would think it was the work of a professional.
In preparation for selling his house, the owner spent a weekend in the crawl space of his house. He did some things right. He removed every bit of debris, including all the old tattered insulation, pipe pieces, torn vapor barrier, spider webs, etc. Then he installed a complete new vapor barrier, using the thickest plastic sheathing he could find. … (4 comments)
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home status: Nature vs. Nurture - 10/15/07 08:08 AM
Foreword, there may be people that think I should not mention the Virginia Tech tragedy in context of a home inspection blog or news letter. I do so here with the utmost respect for the victums, their families and everyone involved with this incident. At the time, our hearts were heavy and our thoughts and prayers were focused on Blacksburg, VA. Most of our conversations in those days after April 16th included something of the news and events of that terrible day.
My young client wanted to talk about the awful events at Virginia Tech a couple of days earlier and asked … (1 comments)
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home status: The Fixer Upper! - 10/14/07 03:57 PM
"Does this house qualify for one of your email letters? My agent friend asked me with a devilish grin. "Probably about three" I said, and I began to think of the lessons this house could teach.
This was a 29 year old split level on a beautiful mountain lot which showed lots of wear and tear, both natural and man-made. Over the years it had suffered the effects of owner tinkering, bad judgement and bad taste. All of the walls and ceilings were covered with textured ivory paint and all the floors were poorly laid linoleum. None of the baseboards or … (4 comments)
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home status: On Discipline When Business is Slow - 10/13/07 03:14 PM
I was opening an old electrical panel and my electric drill didn't have the power to turn the screws, so I reached in my bag for my manual screw driver. It wasn't there. I had to improvise, basically using my electric drill as a manual screw driver. No big deal right?
Well I got to thinking about why my screw driver was not in the bag. As I turned that scrutiny on myself which I use in inspections, I didn't like what I saw. I had been sloppy. I had used the screw driver in an inspection two days before and put it … (31 comments)
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home status: The Bottomless Hose Bib! - 10/12/07 07:04 AM
For all the agents who are custodians of empty listed houses, it's that time of year again. Freezing temperatures in many parts of the country are right around the corner. Cases like the one below are rare, but if you find an outside faucet that does not shut off properly, get a plumber in and have it fixed. The alternative of a broken pipe and the water damage is just not much fun to deal with...especially when you are trying to sell the property.
"Oh No!" I though as I rounded the corner into the back yard and saw the hose … (4 comments)
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home status: A Common New Construction Problem - 10/11/07 02:29 PM
"Have you ever used a home inspector before? This is a standard warm up question and this time the response by my clients, a young couple buying a new house, was a suprise!
They both answered at once. He said, "Yes" She said, "No." I was beginning to think this might be a long morning when he began to explain. "We purchased a new house two years ago and our agent told us that we didn't need an inspection because it was a new house. We didn't know any better, so we skipped it." "Big mistake," She continued. "About two months … (13 comments)
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home status: Unwritten Rules #103 & 104 - 10/11/07 07:24 AM
A friend of mine who happens to be a real estate agent related a horror story to me several months ago that I felt should be passed along to others. The second story below happened to me on an inspection. Both teach rules to live by in Real Estate which are probably not handled in class.
My friend had helped a couple place a contract on a lovely house in McLean, VA. The couple, a highly regarded, and very strong financial contributor of the Bush White house, has stayed there over night on several occasions. The house, a 1.8 million dollar house was … (9 comments)
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home status: Unwritten Rules #101 & 102 - 10/09/07 07:03 AM
These rules may be covered in real estate training, but they never came up in my home inspection classes. I believe they apply equally to both agents and home inspectors.
"Pretty nice place" I said as I began reviewing the home inspection report with my client. This had become a standard comment, and I had always considered it to be pretty bland. Later I learned that my statement, was construed by the seller who was standing nearby, as a justification for hard negotiating on any concessions. The seller went further to point to my statement as being the reason why not … (5 comments)
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Bill Duncan
Haymarket,
VA
More about me…
Home Status Inspection Company, LLC
Address: 4208 High Ridge Road, Haymarket, VA, 20169
Office Phone: (703) 754-9992
Cell Phone: (703) 283-6375
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