Frank Bombardiere's Blog

Who needs to be at the inspection

Frank Bombardiere (The HomeTeam Inspection Service) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:12:09 -0800

This time I would like to talk about who should attend the inspection. I work all over the Oklahoma City Metro area and have noticed differences in how the home inspection is handled from one side of town to the next. One difference that stands out in my mind is the people attending the inspection. On one side of town, 90% of the time the only people at the inspection will be the buyers and their agent. On the other side of town most of the time there will be the buyers and their agent as well as the sellers and their agent. Many times there will be not only those people but the parents, friends, kids, etc.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a family man and love to see close nit families and people that care about what is going on. However, I would like to bring up some of the pros and cons to these two approaches. Buying a home is an exciting time and everyone is happy and wanting to show off their new home to get approval from family and friends. That is one of the fun things about buying a home. Mom wants to go over the décor and what can be done to make it your own and pops wants to check things out to see if he thinks the house is in good condition and worth the price. This is all well and good but from my experience these are things that should be done at another time other than the inspection.

As a seasoned veteran of thousands of inspections, I have seen what can go wrong in these situations. A home inspection can be an anxious time for the buyers and especially the sellers for obvious reasons. Many buyers do not feel comfortable with the sellers there because they do not feel as free to look around more or talk about their thoughts on the home. A home inspection is a fairly invasive procedure and sellers sometimes feel violated because the inspector is looking under their cabinets, in their closets, and pretty much everywhere. They are also worried about what might be found and can sometimes become defensive if the inspector finds things they were not aware of or don't understand.

The inspector needs to pay close attention to many many details when performing a good inspection. Distractions like sellers, kids, or dad following them around talking can cause the inspector to get sidetracked or lose the train of thought causing something to be overlooked. It can also be a tense time when the inspector gives the verbal report and the sellers are there because the buyers will usually not ask many questions or say much as they are not comfortable with the setting. Occasionally the seller will become visibly upset and cause somewhat of a scene.

The pros to having the sellers at the inspection are that the sellers can get a better understanding of what will be in the report and the inspector can sometimes get questions answered about the home that they are curious about. The buyers can also find out a lot about the home and neighbors from the sellers while talking during the inspection.

There are pros and cons to the different approaches. I can and have dealt with it from nobody at the inspection to 12 people there. My personal preference is for the buyers, their agent, and maybe the seller's agent to be the only people at the inspection. This allows me to concentrate only on my work and providing my undivided attention to my clients. It is undoubtedly easier to do a thorough job that way and everyone involved is more comfortable. After all, the entire reason for the inspection is to discover the true condition of the home and all the other hoopla can be done at other times. The seller can call us if they have questions or concerns after they have read the report. Won't say which side of town does what, but it is odd how the process has evolved in different ways even within the same metropolis. Each probably believes their way is beneficial and there are advantages to both. However, if you put a truth serum in all the home inspectors they would likely say they prefer less people at the inspection.

More on codes

Frank Bombardiere (The HomeTeam Inspection Service) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:10:46 -0800

In my last blog I wrote about the myth that home inspectors are making sure the home meets code. This time I would like to give an example of why we as home inspectors need to write up certain things regarding safety that might have been up to code when the home was built, but have since been found to be a safety issue. As I said, codes change all the time and the reason they change is that new information has surfaced indicating the old way was not as safe as previously thought. New technologies come along that appear to be safe and later are found to have problems not brought to light until being in use for a while. A common complaint home inspectors get from agents and builders is that "it was up to code when the house was built, or it was approved by the AHJ" I agree that sellers are not necessarily responsible to bring a home up to code (at least not here in OK) however, it is my responsibility to let my client know everything I know about the house and the systems involved. Especially when it comes to safety.

Many of you have probably heard of CSST (Corrugated Stainless Steel) gas piping from a home inspection report. This is a good example of a system that was approved and later suspected to be dangerous. Most new codes require new methods of installing these pipes so as to reduce the risk involved. I am not one to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but there is growing concern about these pipes causing fires after lightning strikes. Click this link to watch a recent story aired on our local news channel. Http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/video-home-gas-pipe-causing-house-fires/12172707

Common misconceptions about home inspections

Frank Bombardiere (The HomeTeam Inspection Service) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:07:02 -0800

Myth - The home inspector is checking the house to see if it meets code.

Truth - Since it is impossible to know every code that was adopted and when it went into effect by every jurisdiction, it is not feasible for a home inspector to do a code inspection and it is certainly not required. However, many of our defects and notes are related to codes. Codes are put into place as a minimum standard that needs to be met for safety reasons. They change all the time and some towns may be on the 2008 version while the next town over could still be on the 1999 version. Even within those versions, each jurisdiction can choose not to enforce certain aspects of the code. So you can see how hard it would be to know every jurisdictions codes.

Many inspectors are familiar with certain jurisdictions that they work in often and therefore will write up some code violations. Also, there are certain things that we know have been done incorrectly to manufacturers instructions. Manufacturers instructions trump code in most cases and therefore are very important. As home inspectors we are more interested in the safety of our clients than anything else and will let our clients know if there are things in the home that are not considered to be safe by today's standards.

This does not always mean that they are the seller's responsibility to repair. For example, homes built before certain electrical codes were in effect, do not have to be brought up to today's code, however, if we know for a fact that something in the system is not up to what the code was when that home was built, we will write it up as a defect. If we know that something was allowed when the home was built but is not considered safe by today's standards, we might just make mention of the issues to let our clients know that the system is not as safe as it could be.

Our clients need to be educated to what a home inspection is and what it is not. We do our best to make this clear with our inspection agreement and reporting verbiage, but Realtors can help tremendously by being knowledgeable about our work and creating realistic expectations up front. Anyone involved with the transaction could benefit by knowing what the regulations regarding home inspections are. I encourage you to read them by following this link. http://www.ok.gov/health/documents/HomeInspRULES.pdf