Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid!

John Wayne said it best.  "Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid!

I recently received this response to my follow up e-mail from my Morehead KY Home Inspection client asking how his deal was going and if he had any questions regarding his home inspection report.

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"They took an offer of $XXX.XX K. 

I think the current owners are a little angry about the thorough inspection you did. They didn't have one done and it cost them $18K.

I, my loan officer and (my agent) think the home inspection is well worth what I paid. Thanks for asking."

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I note that he paid SIGNIFICANTLY LESS than 18 K for the inspection.  And I also note that I don't have anything to do with determining the cost of repairs.  I just find em, I don't fix em!

This was the first clue.  Water damaged moldy spot on the outside wall of the closet.  The seller told us he was told, when he bought the home one year ago (without a Morehead KY Home Inspection) that it was from an already repaired plumbing leak from the sink on the opposite side of the closet.

The top arrow points to the problem area.

The bottom arrow is the  other side of the wall in picture one above where the moldy spot grew.

Water had been running into the wall, where the roof met the wall, for about 16 years.  The original builder's crew left out the kick out / diverter flashing that would have forced the water into the gutter instead of into the wall.  Sadly, there were a couple of other places where the kick out / diverter flashing was also missing.

I can't tell what damage had been done inside the wall.  I don't have Superman's eyes.

But then, I don't really need them or even an infrared camera to know that significant damage exists inside the wall.  This is the rim joist under the floor, visible from the crawl space.  My probe (a very large screwdriver) went through the joist like it was melted butter.  The rim joist, to the right of this picture, was rotted all the way to the bottom along with the sill plate and subfloor.  The structural framing, along with the interior of the wall will need significant repair.

That wasn't the only area needing significant repair.

The hole in the siding, at the top left corner of this window , had also done significant damage inside the wall. 

Here's the hole that was letting the water into the wall.

Here's the inside of the window.  You'll have to imagine the damage inside the wall as home inspections are "non-invasive".  We'll leave that to the repair guys to determine after the drywall is removed.

The deck was not flashed to the house.  I don't know if the rim joist in that area was rotted.  Nor was the deck bolted to the house.  The front right corner of the deck had started to pull away from the house as the back left corner shifted to the left.  Needless to say, it was a bit wobbly.  Likely a tear off and replace.

These issues had been in existence since the house was built.  A thorough, competent home inspection early on in the life of this house, like when it was first built, would have had the builder bearing the cost of fixing these issues.

Unfortunately, a Kentucky home inspection hadn't been done previously.  Now the current sellers bear the brunt of the cost of repairs out of their pocket.

Still think your brand new Kentucky Home doesn't need a new construction inspection besides the local code guy?

You might want to think again!