A Home Looks Perfect To The Untrained Eye!
I'll admit it, I don't know EVERYTHING about houses. I'm not a carpenter, not a stonemason, not a plumber, not a roofer. I've never read builder's code. Sure, I've learned a "few" things along the way and have a critical eye for the things I know (watch out wood rot, I see you there!!).
But often enough a home will look almost PERFECT! Seriously, the home is only a few years old, has all the bells and whistles, made of low maintenance exterior, what could be wrong?? After all, the home was approved by the builder and the building inspector, so NOTHING could be wrong, right?
Unfortunately, WRONG! A home is only as good as the worst day of the subcontractor or supplier that built the home. A wrong box of nails picked up, maybe that tube of caulk ran out 6" from finishing that window seal at the end of Friday, yeah, we'll get that Monday....
And we're going to skim right over what may have happened after building approval when the owner did a few DIY projects or hired someone from the local Big Box Hardware Store parking lot to do a few "extra" things around the home.
The biggest things are often almost invisible to the untrained eye. Would you think to run a tape measure under the brick veneer to make sure it's adequately seated on the foundation? Follow vent ducting and make sure air intakes and exhausts are in the right place and of the right size? Know how to take a look at the innards of an electrical panel and know if there's a "burn the house down" condition lurking?
I'll admit, I don't and I wouldn't, but we know people that do! It's why we feel a home inspection by a PROFESSIONAL home inspection team is so critical to making sure that you find out the imperfections of that PERFECT home. We don't know what we don't know, but a specially trained and experienced home inspector knows what to check because they're seeing it day after day, home after "perfect" home.
Those home inspector dollars may be the best money you'll spend and ensure you're an informed buyer. And we've got the inspection negotiation period to determine which items we can get the seller to repair or if maybe it's time to walk away from that "perfect" home.
If you need help buying or selling a Cincinnati area home, please call us at 513-520-5305!
Serving the Cincinnati to Dayton home market,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz
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