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Surviving a Home Inspection - Tips from a Home Inspector to sellers

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Surviving a Home Inspection

Depending on what side of the fence that you're on, a Home Inspection could be something that you welcome or dread.  From a buyer's standpoint, it is an opportunity to lower the asking price of a house by having someone to nit-pick every little thing that is wrong with a house.  From a seller's standpoint, it is like going to the dentist for a multiple root canal with no anesthetics.  In fact, it is neither.  Home Inspectors are only providers of facts.  A good Home Inspector is neither for nor against the sale of a house.  Lets face it, we get paid whether the house sells or not.  Buyers probably stand to gain the most financially from a Home Inspection.  However, sellers can gain too.  If a seller knows in advance what a buyers' Inspector will be looking for, they can head them off and relieve a great deal of tension and anxiety.  With that in mind, here is what I look for when inspecting a house, and what a seller can do to help to alleviate some of the  negative comments that might appear on their report.

Of course, I am only listing the items that an average homeowner can look into themselves, and possibly repair with minor effort.  Fixing these things will not eliminate the need for a Home inspection.  I do not recommend doing anything that might be dangerous like opening your main fuse box to expose the internal wiring or climbing up on your roof to fix loose shingles.  There are some things that you can inspect yourself and repair with minimal effort that will lessen the amount of listed defects in your report.

I will inspect the following components of a house:

• I will check for proper drainage around the houses perimeter.  The seller should make sure that the gutters and downspouts are in good working condition and do the job that they were intended to do.  Clean leaves and debris out of gutters.  Be careful!  If you are not comfortable climbing on a ladder, do not try to clean your gutters, get a professional.  Make sure that they are firmly attached and slope slightly towards downspouts.  Make sure that downspouts are in good working condition and direct water towards storm sewers or at least discharge a minimum of 6 feet away from the houses foundation.  You may need to purchase some downspout extensions (found in most hardware stores) to get the discharge at least 6 feet from your house.  You want water to go away from your house, not settle around your foundation.  Get a feel for the property and make sure that the surrounding areas around the outside of your house slope away from the foundation.
   
• Trim your bushes and trees directly around your house.  I will note in my report if landscaping is too close to the house and needs to be trimmed.  Your house needs to breathe and if it's overgrown with bushes and trees that prevent proper air flow, it will show up on your report.
   
• I will check the exterior siding.  Seal gaps and shore up loose pieces.  I will not comment on dirty siding (although the buyers probably will), I am only looking for places where water, air and pests can get in.  On masonry, I will be looking for cracks and settling.  Sellers should repair any mortar joints that are cracked.  It is not expensive or hard to do.  Your local home improvement store can help.  If you are not sure about being able to do it, call in someone that can seal up any cracks.  If you can see cracks in your masonry, you can bet that an Inspector will too, and I will mention it in my report.
   
• I will be checking the doors and windows.  Sellers should make sure that doors and windows are caulked around the edges and inspect them for possible leak areas.  An hour of your time and a few tubes of caulk could save you from a host of negative comments in your buyers report.
   
• While you are sealing cracks, you can also look for, and seal, any cracks you find in your driveway and sidewalks.  You will need to use a driveway sealing type caulk. 
   
• Cracks in your foundation or basement walls?  You can seal them, and should, as it will be noted in my report, but you will need the professional opinion of an Inspector to determine if they are minor or serious.
   
• If your siding has come loose, or a tree branch knocked off part of you gutter, you should try to put it back in place.  If the railings on your porch are loose, you should try to shore them back.  If your outside steps are loose or worn, again, you should try to fix them.  All of these things will be noted in my report.
   
• On to the interior of the house.  I will check doors and windows for ease of operation.  Go around your house and open all the doors and windows and make sure that they operate smoothly.  A small can of household oil for the doors and a bar of soap for the windows will help to lubricate them and get them working smoothly.  If you have screens for your windows, round them up and either install them in the windows or put them where I will be able to find them.  If your windows are supposed to have screens, and I can't find them, I will note this in my report.
   
• I will check your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.  Spend a few dollars and put fresh batteries in all of them.  If you don't have a smoke alarm on each floor, go to the store and buy some!  You should have a smoke alarm on each floor and they are not very expensive.  If you don't have a smoke alarm on each floor, it will be noted in my report.  You should also have carbon monoxide detectors anywhere that there is an appliance (gas furnace, gas water heater, fireplace, etc.) that could produce CO if it is not venting properly.  Once again, if none are present where they need to be, it will be noted.
   
• Check under all sinks for leaks--I will.  This includes bathrooms, the kitchen and anywhere else that you may have a sink or washtub.  Sometimes a fitting just comes loose a little bit and needs to be re-tightened.  Check the drains and make sure that they work.  You can usually unscrew the trap with minimum force and clean it out if there is a blockage.  If something has leaked or is leaking, clean up the damage after you have fixed the leak.  Make sure that you tell me that you had a leak but fixed it.  It looks much better on the report to note that the problem is fixed rather than have me guess whether it is fixed or needs to be monitored.
   
• Replace any burned out light bulbs.  If a light does not work, I will note it in my report.  An Inspector will not take a light fixture apart to see if it has a burned out bulb in it.  They will note in their report that the light is not working.  This could lead a buyer reading the report to think that there might be an electrical problem when it is only a 25¢ burned out bulb.
   
• Replace any broken light switch or receptacle covers.  I will note it in my report if there are any.  They are dirt cheap, and every little thing that you can do to eliminate a negative comment on your report will help.  If the switch or receptacle itself is broken, do not attempt to re-wire a new one unless you are familiar with electricity!
   
• If you don't have GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlets in your kitchen, bathroom, and other places where water and humans come in contact with each other, you will need to get some.  It is a pretty big deal and you should hire an electrician to install them if you don't know exactly how to do them.  They are required and I will note anyplace where one should be and is not in my report.  You have to have them!  You should even go around and test them, if you have them, to make sure they work, by plugging something into both outlets and tripping them.  In 2008 it will be required to have AFCI (arc fault circuit interrupter) outlets in bedrooms, but I will cover this at another time.  Information can be found at: http://www.sea.siemens.com/reselec/product/rzafcifaq.html#1
   
• Open the cover of your fuse box or breaker box and make sure that the fuses/breakers are clearly marked.  Touch the fuse box with the back of your hand FIRST to make sure it is not hot!  Spend the time to trip the breaker or unplug the fuse and determine what they protect.  If you find any burned out fuses, replace them with a fuse of the same size.  Even if you just write it on a piece of paper what each fuse/breaker protects, and tape it to the inside of the panel cover, it will help.  If they are not marked, your report will list this as a defect.  I carry fuse panel labels with me an will transfer the information to one and stick it to the inside--most inspectors do not--and no inspector will try to determine what each breaker/fuse protects and label them for you--they will just mark it on the report that the fuse box was not labeled.. 
  VERY IMPORTANT--DO NOT take the cover off of the fuses/breakers themselves and expose the internal wiring!  There is enough voltage in the box to kill you dead 10 times over!  If the box is damaged in any way, has water in it, is humming or looks in any way to be unsafe, DON'T touch it!  Call a professional to look at it or wait for the inspector to look at it.
   
• Put a new furnace filter in your furnace, if it takes one.  Once again, they are pretty cheap, but a dirty or missing one will be noted in the report.  Make sure that there is no clutter or obstacles in front of the furnace, hot water heater, main water shut off valve, electrical panel, or other places where you know the Inspector might want to go.  I will move a certain amount of clutter out of my way if I need to get to something, but a lot of Inspectors will simply write in their report that the area was inaccessible and won't inspect it.  This does not mean that you should pile a bunch of stuff in front of something that you don't want an Inspector to look at!  It puts up a red flag, and it really won't work.
   
• If you have cars in your garage, you should pull them out so the Inspector can properly look at the garage and garage door opener.  Once again, if an Inspector can't get to it pretty easily, they will note that they could not inspect it in their report.  Even I will not move a car!
   
• If your attic access is in a closet, you should take your clothes out and make sure that I can get into the attic.  If you have attic pull down stairs, you should make sure that they work.  You could even take a look yourself in the attic and try to determine if you have enough insulation.  Your local hardware store should be able to help you to determine if you have enough.  It varies greatly by type of insulation and climate.  Try not to walk around in the attic unless you can do it safely, you could very easily put your foot through your bedroom ceiling if you step wrong.  You could also step on a hot wire.  You might just want to wait for the Inspection to determine what to do.
   
• Ants in your kitchen?  Although I don't do pest inspections, I did take extensive training at the Orkin Institute.  Since I contract my pest inspections out to an affiliate of mine, I would probably only mention briefly in my report that I noticed ants.  I can assure you that nothing creeps out a buyer more than seeing ants in the kitchen or bathroom!  Pick up some Ortho Home Defense (my favorite) and spray it around the exterior of your house and around the interior baseboards.  It works indoors and out.  The stuff works great!  It leaves no residue and is safe around pets and children.  One application and your troubles are gone.  Termites are an entirely different issue, and you can check my blog for an article on them.
   
• There are other things that you can do to improve your chances of eliminating negative comments on your Inspection report.  Most of them are common sense.  If it is broken or loose, you should try to fix it before the Inspection.  Anything that is broken or loose will be noted in your report and the more you can fix, the less negatives in your report.  If it is going to be in the Inspectors' way, you should move it.  Try not to cover anything up that you are worried that the Inspector will find.  If an Inspector notices something that looks as though it is being covered to prevent detection, it sends up a red flag and further investigation is usually called for, even if the Inspector notes that someone else should look at it.  Take a critical look around your entire house and see if it looks right to you.  If it doesn't, it probably will be noted in your report.  There are literally hundreds of other components that I will check during my Inspection, however, most are beyond the average homeowners ability to analyze and repair.  If you can just accomplish some of the things that I have noted here, your report will have far less negatives in it.  The more negatives you can eliminate from your report, the better off you are going to be, and these things I have listed are some of the more common and least expensive items to repair.  However, if you ignore these, they will show up on your report!
  
  
  Let me finalize by saying that Inspectors, as a whole, are not the enemy.  We are merely messengers.  We have the training and experience to know what is right and what is wrong.  Personally, I am here to help everyone involved.  If I do find something that is wrong, I will let you know how severe it is and give you my opinion on the best way to solve the problem.  I have nothing to gain by nit-picking every little thing that is wrong with your house.  I am only trying to make sure that everything is working the way it should and does not pose a safety issue or a financial issue for my client whether it be the buyer or the seller
  
  Mark Taylor
  CERTIFIED HOME INSPECTIONS LLC
  http://www.certified-home-inspections.com/ .