Why Does My Home Inspection Say I Need an Automatic Closer on My House to Garage Door?

Why Does My Home Inspection Say I Need an Automatic Closer on My House to Garage Door?

By Michelle Carr-Crowe, Cupertino real estate agent and San Jose home selling expert

While not every home inspection may point out this safety item, over the years, hundreds of our Silicon Valley, Calif. sellers and buyers from Campbell to Cupertino have asked me: Why Does My Home Inspection Say I Need an Automatic Closer on My House to Garage Door? After all, in the seller’s case, they may have lived without one for 50 years. A buyer may not have ever lived in a home with an attached garage and find this item puzzling and alarming.

The reason an automatic closing mechanism is recommended on the house to garage door is for safety.

For example, say you started the car to warm it up and are just about to bundle your baby in the car seat, when you realize you left your cell phone in the house. Leaving the car running, you quickly dash inside with the baby, leaving the door between the house and garage open. After locating the phone in the bedroom, it rings. Your baby is falling asleep in your arms, but your spouse asks you to check the office to see if the boss’s presentation got left behind. You suddenly feel so weak and sleepy you drop the phone…

Even though it’s only been a matter of minutes, carbon dioxide likely already overcame the baby before you even noticed yourself feeling sleepy.

Although unlike carbon monoxide, you can smell the burning gas in carbon dioxide, when you are stressed or rushed, you can be quickly overwhelmed by this poisonous gas.

An automatic closer is basically a spring that forces an open door to automatically close, even if no one pushes it. So in the example above, when you first went into the house, the auto-closer would shut and contain the majority of carbon dioxide in the garage, protecting you and the baby. Upon opening the door you would be alerted to the strong smell and danger. You could hit the garage door opener to allow the gas to dissipate outside before going in and turning off the car.

Installing an automatic closer on the house to garage door is an inexpensive change that can protect the priceless members of your family.

Aloha & God bless you,

Michelle

Michelle Carr Crowe Real Estate Agent Keller Williams Cupertino	P: 408-252-8900 F: 408-850-6911 E: GetResultsTeam@gmail.com	20230 Stevens Creek, #E Cupertino, CA 95014 www.MichelleJudyCarr.com

Michelle C. Carr-Crowe, DRE #00901962, and the Get RE$ult$ Team (established by the late Judy Carr) are known as the "Lynbrook and Cupertino Schools Experts." Michelle is a creative catalyst for positive change in people's lives.She is a Silicon Valley-based multi-million dollar real estate consultant who works by referral only.

Her designations include: Accredited Buyers Representative (ABR), Accredited Consultant of Real Estate (ACRE), Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS), Accredited Staging Professional (ASP), Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE),  Property Marketing Expert (PME), Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist (RECS), and Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES). In addition, she is an internationally-published freelance writer with over 1,000 traditional articles in print and online, as well as over 62,000 blog posts on Blogger, ActiveRain, MySpace, FaceBook, Realtor.com, Trulia, RealBird and others. She enjoys reading, traveling, animals, dancing, staging and praying. Check out her blog at www.activerain.com/results or visit her online at www.michellejudycarr.com or www.lynbrookhighhomes.com. For RE$ult$ ... Just Call ... (408) 252-8900.