Hello Again,, Your Friendly Home Inspector Here.. Rick McCullough

A Tip for Your Sellers From Your Friendly Home Inspector.

When your home is scheduled for an inspection please have your clients do a couple of simple but important and very helpful items,,

First is the Dishwasher

Either load only dishes or unload the Dishwasher, the inspector will want to run a cycle. Having it used as a storage place is never a good idea and unless you leave a VERY visible note on it. "DO NOT USE". It will probably be run and possibly damage what ever was in there. Not a nice situation for anyone. The dishwasher is NOT a good place to HIDE valuable items either.

I had an inspection where when I arrived the client and Agent were already there. The client had insisted that she wanted to operate all the appliances to make sure she knew how to operate them herself and had already started the dishwasher. They were newer and looked complicated. The client said she had looked in a dishwasher seeing nothing in the bottom and apparently not pulling the top rack out ALL the way, she added dish soap and started the dishwasher. She never saw a very expensive camera that was stuck in the far back of the top rack.

When the seller came home towards the end of the inspection and she discovered what had happened she was a bit unraveled to say it nicely. She had placed the camera there to hide it from being stolen she said. Not thinking about it being run through a wash cycle. Ended up with taking the camera to a repair shop and having it looked at. Repair costs were about $750.00, the camera was worth well over $5000.00. The buyer absorbed the bill in Lieu of repairs that were needed to the home,, and did buy the home,, but the negotiations were tense.

This is an Inspection where the Client taught me a Valuable Lesson too. I ALWAYS pull the rack out ALL the way now.

PS,, the repair shop told me the camera was very clean,, but never try to clean your camera that way. (He was making a joke, glad the client wasn't there)

Second the OVEN,,

Please remove everything from it. The inspector will want to test the elements and possibly the cleaning cycle.

I heard from a reliable Agent I have know for years, that during an inspection they turned on the oven and placed it in the cleaning cycle, then walked off and were wandering through the house when someone noticed smoke was coming from the kitchen.

They were about 45 minutes into the inspection and coming back inside.

In the kitchen the smoke was billowing out of the oven, then started on fire. Luckily the Agent had enough to keep her wits and turn off the oven and look for a fire extinguisher. She doused the flames before they created any major fire damage. Smoke damage only to the home,, range was ruined though.

They were Very Lucky.

The Agent didn't remember anyone opening the oven BEFORE they turned it on. The seller had left some plastic storage bowls in there and that is what was on fire. Something very simple to prevent but wasn't in this case.

Just a couple of simple but VERY IMPORTANT things to ask of your seller to help their Home Inspection go a little smoother.

From Your Friendly Home Inspector. Rick McCullough