Adventures in Home Buying

Beyond Negotiation: How Your Inspection Report Becomes Your Home's Maintenance Bible

• Jim Troth

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 20:19

Your home inspection report is a goldmine of critical information, but are you using it properly? Despite investing in professional inspections, many homebuyers never even read their reports, missing out on valuable insights that could save them thousands of dollars and countless headaches.

Think of your inspection report as a multi-purpose tool. During the purchase process, it serves as your primary negotiation asset. Those detailed findings empower you to request repairs, price reductions, or closing credits based on documented issues. In some cases, the report might even provide grounds to walk away from a problematic property before making a costly mistake. Yet surprisingly, many buyers simply hand their reports to real estate agents without reviewing them personally – a risky move considering agents only get paid when deals close.

Unlike other professionals in the real estate transaction, home inspectors have no financial stake in whether the sale completes. They're paid to provide honest, thorough assessments regardless of outcome, making them your most objective resource during the buying process. This neutrality is precisely why smart homebuyers prioritize reading and understanding every aspect of their reports.

Beyond the purchase phase, your inspection report transforms into your home maintenance bible – your comprehensive "honey-do" list that helps prioritize repairs and improvements. Water-related issues should always top this list, as roof leaks, plumbing problems, and improper grading can quickly escalate from minor concerns to major expenses. Something as simple as extending your downspouts away from the foundation (a $20 fix) can prevent thousands in basement water damage.

For maximum protection of your investment, consider scheduling maintenance inspections every two years. These follow-up assessments catch subtle changes before they become serious problems – like the homeowner whose wife suffered unexplained illness until an inspection revealed a malfunctioning sump pump creating dangerous mold growth in their basement. When you eventually sell, these maintenance records demonstrate your diligent care, potentially commanding higher offers from confident buyers.

Ready to make your inspection report work harder for you? Start by reading it thoroughly yourself, prioritizing repairs strategically, and treating it as the valuable roadmap to successful homeownership that it truly is.

Adventures in Home Buying, the ultimate podcast for anyone navigating the exciting, sometimes daunting world of purchasing a home! Whether you're a first-time buyer, a seasoned investor, or dreaming of your forever home, our engaging stories and expert insights will guide you through every step of the homebuying journey. From decoding mortgages and mastering bidding wars to uncovering hidden costs and spotting sustainable home features, we deliver practical tips and real-world advice to empower you with confidence.

Visit our home inspection website at Home Inspector Columbus Ohio | Habitation Investigation for exclusive resources, and tools to make your homebuying adventure a success.

Are you a home inspector or service company? We’re always looking for passionate experts to join us as guests! Share your insights, showcase your services, and connect with our growing audience of homebuyers. Contact us at (1) Facebook to be featured on Adventures in Home Buying.

Subscribe now and embark on your homebuying adventure with us—because every home has a story, and we’re here to help you write yours!

Sponsored by a Multi-Award Winning home inspection company Habitation Investigation in Ohio Home Inspector Columbus Ohio | Habitation Investigation

What To Do With Your Inspection Report

Speaker 1

All right, so back at it. Adventures of Home Buying, Laura. So you knew you should do the home inspection. You did it. What, yeah? The report? What the heck do you do with the report now? How do you read the home inspection report? Most people that we've talked to they really have not seen the report ever. Ever, we talked to some home buyers and they've never seen a home inspection report.

Speaker 2

I was looking for seven years and had not seen an inspection report.

Speaker 1

Something really weird there. How are you looking for that long and never even got close to pulling the trigger? You're really passively looking.

Speaker 2

You're not really serious about buying at that point Like that one agent that we talked to. Eh, they're kind of flexible about it. I'm just looking as I get time.

Speaker 1

Oh, that's a whole nother. Some agents do not care about you as much as they should. And most agents are good, some are bad.

Speaker 2

You need to protect yourself, you need to protect yourself.

Speaker 1

You need to protect yourself. But anyway, well, more well, let's stick to that story. You mentioned that one. All right, so had an agent, I would ask. We had a?

Speaker 2

whole client yeah, so you know the story, but not do good so we had a client that was in a wheelchair and she had a specific set of needs because of said wheelchair they were not at the.

Speaker 1

They were not, they were out of state. Yeah, so we were there wheelchair and she had a specific set of needs because of said wheelchair and they were not at the.

Speaker 2

They were not, they were out of state. Yeah, so we were there, literally their eyes and ears. So there was her, and her husband worked in the basement all the time. He was some insurance processor and just lived in the basement. So their basement had to not have mold issues, not have scent issues, be somewhere where he could be, you know, like 8, 11 hours a day and not get sick from it. So like they had very specific requirements, was he in a wheelchair?

Speaker 2

no, just her just her, okay, so it had to be like ada compliant, it had to have ramps and this and that. So we're doing an inspection at this first place and we walk in and I'm like there's no way this woman's going to get around in this house because the the doors weren't wide enough. There was no entrance to the house that she would have been able to get into, so so we To make it ADA, I guess useful it would be very expensive to do this.

Speaker 2

So we walked through with like did a Facebook video because she'd not seen the house and she was like, yeah, that's not going to work. So I was talking to her agent and he was like, yeah, they don't really have. Because I said have you found any place that that's ada compliant for her? Yet he's like, yeah, there's nothing really on the market. He's like I kind of look every so often but they don't really like, they're not really like um, high, high need clients. They don't have a lot of special needs.

Speaker 1

So I'm just kind of looking definitely have a special need yeah I'm special looking for, so he really paid no attention to them.

Speaker 2

Or I don't know.

Speaker 1

So what'd you do? Something got lost in the translation. What'd you do?

Speaker 2

So I had contacted an agent that I knew and within two minutes she had pulled up an ADA compliant house that eventually we did end up inspecting for them. But they were in a contract with the other agent and couldn't get out of it.

Speaker 1

Okay so, yeah, so once again contacting a home inspector.

Speaker 3

Can you?

Speaker 1

imagine if that client had contacted us in the very beginning. Go hey, I need to find a agent. Can you recommend one?

Speaker 2

I have special needs I have special needs.

Speaker 1

I need something ADA compliant. You recommended a real estate agent and we go oh yeah, contact this agent Bam first person. You tell her finds a home that's going to be perfect for them. Within two minutes literally Within two minutes, where the other agent's not even working. We would have saved her so much yeah, months of time and issues and expense.

Speaker 2

Because she paid for an inspection. That let's face it, she didn't need that house.

Speaker 1

Yep Paid for an inspection on a house that would never work out. I can't say wow, it would have worked out, but you had to spend tens of thousands of dollars getting it there and they did not have that.

Speaker 2

They were already moving, and why?

Speaker 1

should you spend that much money when there's a house also on the market? That's all you need. So you sold your home expression report. That's what we started out doing.

Speaker 2

Okay.

Speaker 1

So you did a smart thing. You found out how much you can afford. You found a house through a real estate agent. The agent had Habitation Investigation on their list or another good, reputable home inspection company. You get your report. What?

Speaker 2

do you do now? Now what the?

Why Inspectors Are Your Most Honest Resource

Speaker 1

heck, do you do with the report? One thing you don't do is give it to the agent and go here, here's the report. Let me know what I need to. What needs taken care of. Don't do that. We have heard stories where horror stories and he goes yeah, there's nothing important on it, and then they call us a month later, or to my hey, there's, there's this on the on.

Speaker 1

I'm having trouble with my and I go, oh, let's look at your report. What's the address? But look, I'm like, oh yeah, that's item 72. Oh, my agent didn't tell me that was my. Okay, it's all item 72 did you read the report? Did you like? No, I did not read the report.

Speaker 2

My agent told me I didn't need to and they were taking care of it for me not all agents just like all are created equal are created equal.

Speaker 1

Home inspectors. This is. This is one reason why home inspectors are the best company or individual for you to contact for your buying, selling, looking for professionals is we do not get paid whether or not the house sells or not. We get paid to give you honest information. Period and story sells or not, we get paid to give you honest information regarding the house, because if we do not give you honest, good information, well, we could potentially be sued.

Speaker 2

Well, and we're not doing our job.

Speaker 1

We're not doing our job and most home inspectors have very good ethics. They do not want to get sued. They don't have to give that. Well, I think in the state of Ohio it's limited to the fee of the inspection Statewide. They don't want to do that and they want to get referrals from clients.

Speaker 2

From happy clients.

Speaker 1

So the best way to do that is to do a good, thorough, accurate job, Because that is their job description. Yes, to do a good job. Agents, loan officers, title agencies they only get paid if the house gets sold Right. Maybe not title agencies.

Speaker 2

I was going to say title agencies, maybe not, that might be Maybe not. Because if they do the title search, that gets paid for.

Speaker 1

Probably by the mortgage company.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

I don't know exactly on that one, because that's one of the things. When you're buying a house, there's so many parts, things that goes on in the background that you don't need to worry about as a home buyer. You don't need to worry about the appraiser. The mortgage company is going to take care of that, the title agents. That's all taken care of by the mortgage company, I believe, or the agent could help you figure that out. Some real estate agencies actually have their own mortgage and title company built in house.

Speaker 1

Yes, that has become a thing, which means that's pretty smooth transaction that way, but I've never heard any negatives regarding anybody doing that. But when you get your home inspection which you should always have done, have the place inspected, brand new, used, remodeled, always get it inspected what do you do with it? Do you use it? You can use it for negotiation go hey, we found this. Can you give us five hundred dollars off or ten thousand dollars off, or can you fix this for us or give it? Can you give us money so we can fix it ourselves, but money to escrow so we can take care of ourselves?

Speaker 2

and then if we don't use it all, you get the rest back yeah, use it for negotiation.

Speaker 1

you can use it get out of the contract, because you know what? There's just too much stuff here I'm not going to deal with that. There's mold and then it was confirmed through a mold test. We can't do this. Kid has asthma. We don't want to do this.

Speaker 2

Okay, legit, you can get out, let's say you stay in the house and you buy it.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

What do you do with that report now?

Speaker 1

You save it. That is your honey-do list. Now you can look yeah snap, snap because you're still done.

Using Your Report For Negotiation

Speaker 1

You can use that list right at the very beginning. Okay, here's what I want to negotiate with, or you can see, this is things I can live with. This is like. I want to get this fixed immediately. You can look at the summary report, which typically will have just a more costly or major issues, right, but you should always read the entire report, because some of the things in there and here's one thing that's almost always in the report is grading issues where the ground slopes to the house or it doesn't direct the water away from the house as well as it should. Usually those are pretty easy to fix, but they're important so they don't wreck, so that all that water pressure doesn't wreck your foundation and it costs you tens of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 2

And foundation repairs that you wouldn't have needed.

Speaker 1

Yes. So you use a report to negotiate and then, after you own the house, this is your honeydew list. Then you use that and you go prioritize what you need fixed Because, say, there's a loose toilet, you don't want water leaking out and causing damage.

Speaker 2

And rot to the underlayer, yeah.

Speaker 1

Let's say that toilet is in the basement, which is a concrete floor, and you never use it. You're like, all right, that's going to be a low priority, I'm never going to use that one.

Speaker 2

You just shut the water off and don't worry about it Until the kids get older, in which case they don't Perhaps.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah. Or just occasionally make sure to keep water in there. You usually prioritize what you're going to fix and I would always prioritize water infiltration to the house, which would be roof issue Any roof issues. You want to get those fixed. Plumbing leaks Plumbing leaks and then grading, directing water away. Those would be my three things I would really focus on. Now, if you had a house that the furnace is spilling carbon monoxide into the house because the exhaust pipe is damaged, that's definitely going to be a priority to get that fixed. But replacing a sectional pipe is not expensive.

Speaker 2

No.

Speaker 1

But that's far more important to make sure you don't die versus. I got to fix that one shingle on the roof Right, so you use it to prioritize and make repairs to keep your house safe, healthy. To keep your house safe healthy.

Speaker 2

And then, every two years, have an inspection company come out and redo an inspection what is called a maintenance inspection and then that gives you your new list of priorities. Or has anything changed in that two years? Is there now a major roof leak that you need to take care of before you have to replace your whole roof? Or, you know, is there something else going on in the foundation that changed and you didn't know? Because, I mean, let's face it, who has time to go and do an inspection of their house?

Your Report As A Honeydew List

Speaker 2

or to go up in the attic or the crawl space, even if you know what you're looking for, we just don't have time anymore or desire yeah, like it's just if you're, you're home, you're tired, you want to spend time with your family, with your kids, with whatever, have a professional come out and do it. Make your life that much easier. And then you've got your list and you just work your way through it and what ends up happening is, by the time you decide you want to move or downsize or whatever, your house is in better shape and you're going to get more value for your money than if you hadn't taken care of it.

Speaker 1

We've had several homeowners having us come over every two, three years and do a maintenance special in the house, Because it's the classic thing that we'll find is say you have a fireplace, the flashing around the chimney and the roof has a little bit of issues. Maybe the ceiling popped loose, wind damage, who knows? Maybe a squirrel trying to dig inside there?

Speaker 2

Or Rocky the raccoon.

Speaker 1

Rocky the raccoon. We catch that stuff early because it didn't go on for four years without anybody taking a look. We catch that early and you can fix it where it costs. You Say you did it yourself.

Speaker 2

Pennies on the dollar as opposed to thousands, or you send your kid up there.

Speaker 1

If your kid's old enough, send them up there with a tube of caulking and something to help put things back in place. It costs you $5. Listen, kid, I'll give you a pizza if you go up there and take care of this. Here's how you do it. It costs you a pizza and five dollars worth of caulk, and you're you saved yourself five hundred dollars in repair, because I think flashing around a chimney I think I heard like six hundred dollars to have somebody come out and fix it to put in the flash.

Speaker 2

I'm like but how much would it cost if that flashing doesn't get repaired at that point? So you're going to go from $600 to having roof issues because it's going to rot out the underlayment, it's going to drip into the attic and you don't know what it's going to hit in the attic. That's going to cause a lot more issues and a lot more money $600 would replace, I think, all the flashing. So that's you know.

Speaker 1

One section handyman could go up there.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 1

Roofer, probably a handyman. Send a handyman up there maybe $200, $300 to fix a couple sections of it, Depends how high in danger it's going to be for the guy to do it. That is far easier because that little bit of flashing is going to let water in and it could rot your sheathing, which now you got to replace that whole section of roof.

Speaker 2

And you don't want to do that. That's going to be way more expensive.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it's a lot more cost effective. So, yeah, use the report for negotiation, get money back on your purchase and help prioritize what to fix purchase and to help prioritize what to fix. And if you don't know what what to prioritize, your home inspector can go. Oh well, personally, I would probably take care of these things, these things first if it were my house, I would do this first, and that's how.

Speaker 1

When somebody asked me what, what should I do? I'm like, well, for me I would. I would take care of these things first and and this is why, this is why and people buying houses I'm like theouts just go to Lowe's Home Depot, buy those long black pipes.

Speaker 2

They don't look pretty.

Speaker 3

But they work, but stick them on.

Speaker 1

Take the water like 10 feet away from your house and then immediately you temporarily fix that whole water issue coming in your base or crawl space. Like 20 bucks maybe did the whole house, it's not.

Speaker 2

Isn't it like 20 bucks for a 100-foot section of that pipe? No, 1960s.

Speaker 1

No, I think it's about $20. A like a 30, 10, 15 foot section I didn't buy that stuff for a while.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's not crazy it's not crazy expensive.

The Importance of Regular Maintenance Inspections

Speaker 1

Well, that's the stuff they got. Are buried, are downspout extensions going to the ground and then they're connected to that right this way. They're not expensive but very important to get that water with the house. But get your inspection. Ask the inspector hey, what would you prioritize?

Speaker 2

Or if there's something going on in your house and you know it. So we had a call. It was this year, like earlier in the year, and the woman was getting sick. Husband was totally clueless. He's like I don't know what she's talking about, but let's have you guys come out and see what we can figure out.

Speaker 1

Was he just humoring her?

Speaker 2

I think he was humoring her. So we're in the basement and I go to look in the utility room where the furnace and the sump pump and stuff was, and all of a sudden the sump pump kicks in as I'm opening up the door and water is spraying everywhere.

Speaker 2

Like a water fountain Like a water fountain, and the room beside that was a finished room. So all that water was going into the carpet, into the carpets that they had sitting there, and it was causing the mold that was making the woman sick and the guy went. Well, crap.

Speaker 1

It's not just her.

Speaker 2

She's not cracking up.

Speaker 1

Yeah, which shows you can live in your house and still miss what's going on, because, all right because it had to have been going, but she was complaining for like three or four months, I think easily so it probably went on for at least six months and give the mold a little time to start growing and spread which can technically, depending on the kind, just start in 24 hours yes, so but, yeah, spreading.

Speaker 2

So make sure that you do have a maintenance inspection after your home inspection, just like two years down the road have the have the radon retested, because the epa suggests every two years, just to make sure that things haven't changed, because you know like the airflow coming in through the house and going out can change depending on the furniture that you have in if you've done any remodeling added installation added insulation, any of that stuff, and I often want to do an inspection.

Speaker 1

The band boards in the basement.

Speaker 2

There's no installation on those things and why is that important for those that are listening?

Speaker 1

well, because right out you got your foundation wall, the joists on top of that foundation. On the outside of that is just your siding, really Maybe like a little sheathing house wrap and then the side. There's no insulation, so that is going to get cold. So putting the insulation in that little box, sill place on top of the band board there, that's going to be very helpful for energy efficiency Definitely.

Speaker 2

Does that also keep it from condensation dripping on it, if you have that much?

Prioritizing Home Repairs Effectively

Speaker 1

moisture in your basement. You got other issues you need to deal with first, but I have seen we start getting condensation and then therefore mold and rot on the sill plate areas because there's no insulation and it gets colder in the winter and all that moisture that's in the wet basement or crawl space condenses on there and causes issues, but also the radon. You start putting insulation inside those box sills. You're not getting as much air leakage coming in because that kind of blocks the air leakage a little bit. So that will affect your radon levels.

Speaker 1

So that's every two years get things checked out. So kind of think anything else you can use Really those are the main uses of the home inspection. To know what you're buying is the first clue you need to make sure this is going to be okay for you to live in Financially.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you need to know what you're getting into.

Speaker 1

Home inspectors do not give estimates on repair because there's such a variety. We can help you on some things a little bit. Like I know TPR valve is. If you do it yourself it's $13. Over at Lowe's Home Depot last time I looked, they're not expensive. Some things we can give you an idea on. Like I had a home buyer one time he thought the water heater was going to cost $10,000.

Speaker 2

No.

Speaker 1

Smart guy, software engineer. He just didn't know houses. So he's like, yeah, water's like $10,000, right. I'm like, no, no, if you did it yourself, you can go to Lowe's and buy one for like $600, $700. Like, oh, all right, totally changed his thought process of the house and how expensive it's going to be to buy the house. So you can use it for that, you can use it for negotiation, you can use it for your honeydew list to maintain it.

Speaker 2

Or to make it better.

Speaker 1

Make it better and then if you sell it, if you got here's an old report that we did two years ago before we decided to sell here's receipts- for repairs that we've had. And it's gone so fast, your new buyer feels good because you took care of your house and you got the paperwork to show it.

Speaker 2

And you were transparent about everything that you did. Transparent, yes.

Speaker 1

So all right, Thank you everybody, Bye-bye.

Speaker 3

Bye. Habitation investigation is the way to go for a homection in Ohio. Trusted licensed home inspectors for your needs. From radon to mold to warranties For a great home inspection, you really can't go wrong. Visit HomeInspectionsInOhiocom.

Contributor

Jim Troth

Host
Contributor

Laura Troth

Host