MMM Episode: What’s Hiding Behind the Drywall? Mike Sup reveals everything!

Deals don’t die because of ugly paint and dated cabinets. They die from the stuff you can’t see—or don’t want to see—until it eats your budget and timeline. We sit down with an inspector who’s also an active investor to map the exact risks that deserve your attention: septic systems with unpredictable drain fields, oil tanks that turn into environmental nightmares, foundations that demand context, and sewer laterals that collapse under the street just when you list. He explains why veteran buyers still hire inspections, how to tailor scopes for investor needs, and where a few hundred dollars can save five figures.

We walk step by step through a pro inspection: start outside, note roof lines and drainage, then move top-down while running water through every fixture to reveal hidden interactions. You’ll hear wild field stories—from the “poop house” to a basement squatter—and the sober takeaways they deliver. We dig into wiring, plumbing, polybutylene fittings, cast iron and galvanized lines, and the insurance triggers you’ll face if you ignore them. Radon testing and mitigation get a clear, practical treatment: why it’s common in Pennsylvania, how a simple fan and PVC run works, and why it’s a low-cost, high-impact fix for rentals and flips.

Beyond defects, this is a playbook for momentum. Our guest shares how bad property management stalled his first duplex, how firing fast and treating the asset like a business unlocked growth, and why “action over perfection” beats analysis paralysis. Whether you’re buying your first rental or your fiftieth, you’ll learn how to use inspections as negotiation leverage in a cooling market, build a smarter buy box, and separate fatal flaws from fixable projects. If avoiding five-figure surprises and tightening your execution sounds good, hit play, subscribe, and leave a review with the biggest red flag you screen for today.

VCap Real Estate Podcast

Transcript

Room Setup And Housekeeping

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Ready?

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hey, how are you? No, we're getting rolling. Oh, okay. Can I flip it or not the whole thing? No, you can clip it. I can clip it anywhere up top. It doesn't have to face any direction. You can even just go right there. Perfect. There we go. All right. If you want to take a spot on the right, and then I'll be up in a second. I'll bring everyone up. Gentlemen, ladies, I'm going to interrupt for the hundredth time. So sorry. Can you guys find a seat? You can leave.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

The door's right there.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Find a seat up front, please. If you guys don't mind and grab a seat up front, we'll get Rollin. Yeah, take a seat right there. All right?

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Where are out the door?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah, out the door. Get outside.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Sorry to interrupt.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I'm shuffling everybody up here to take a seat though.

unknown 1:12

Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 1:13

Thanks again for having me, dude. Thanks again for having me. Oh of course. Thank you for coming out and taking the time for this.

Meetup Evolution And Event Format

Guest Intro And Origin Story

SPEAKER_00 1:18

No worries. I know you're used to this, so we're doing the same gig where we'll go through a whole bunch of housekeeping. We'll do, I'll say structure, and then I'm going to say, tell us your story. Yep. And then we'll go into questions and stuff like that. But yeah. The story for you, because you do investments and this, you can tell how you started. You can say about your investments, however you want to hit it, and then we'll just roll together. So that'll be fun. Awesome. Alright, guys, if you could take a seat, that would be awesome. I feel appropriate for this because I had a closing today. Oh, that's perfect. I had a mic for this and it just I didn't like it. It was so like, I was like, we're just gonna talk loud, and I think this will pick it up for anyone else here. Gotcha. All right. Alright, guys, can everyone hear me alright? There we go. All right, very cool. Guys, thank you so much for coming to the final multifamily mastery meetup. Um I'm your host, Cole Farrell. I've been obsessed with real estate um since I was young, and so I've been investing since 2017, and that's what obviously brought me here. Um first off, tonight we have an awesome sponsor, um Michael Halabian and Co. They are flooring partners. We're working with them. Um, and so they do everything from small multis to massive communities. And so if you're in the multifamily space, how they work is they will help you set up the product that fits your community. And like I said, this can be a smaller product, a single, a duplex, something triplex, or if anybody here is a 300 unit or something larger, they help you with that too. Anyways, they'll come in, they'll help you develop what they want and what product, what's going to best fit you, meaning you need a different floor for certain areas of your properties. They'll design all that for you, and then they work with your flooring partners to get that installed. Um, and so we have more info on all their stuff on the table, right where you guys will sign in. Um, Michael's also here from them. So, any questions, he'll be happy to answer them. Um, but please do check them out. Like I said, at very minimum, please check out their info on the table. Housekeeping stuff before we get started. We have food and drink, we got pizzas, we got beer. Please eat all of it and drink it. We don't want to take it home, all right. Um we also have a sign-in sheet, and we ask that you sign in because that's how we let you know to have more of these events. If you guys don't sign in, we don't get your info, you don't hear about it, right? So please sign in. Um also we turn all these events, all of our awesome speakers, into podcasts. So we have these mics, we do all this stuff, and so we put them on a podcast called the Recap Real Estate Podcast. Um, again, if you sign in, we'll send it to you. We've had 50 plus speakers, thousands and thousands of units on here. Um, really good source to learn. And lastly, you did hear me correctly earlier. This is the final multifamily mastery event. And we've been running this for almost five years coming up. This is actually our 56th event. Um, we've been here every single month, and it's pretty cool. Now, we've grown, and you guys have grown, and we've focused on multifamily for a long time, but it's run its course, and so we're actually upgrading, and we're super excited. So, we're still gonna put on this event so nobody freak out. Um, but it's gonna be called foundations, and we're gonna focus still on real estate only, but we're gonna pull more people from more aspects of real estate, have more amazing guests, and so next time you come here, you're gonna see a totally different room with a lot of different stuff. And so that is the next event we're going all out in February, and so I'd recommend that you bring yourself and maybe one other person with you. It's gonna be pretty cool, and so we're super excited for that. Structure. Awesome interview, outro, hang out, network till 8:30. We get kicked out. That's it. With that housekeeping out of the way, we have our awesome guest here, Mike Sub. Um, Mike's the founder of ROI Home Inspections. You're an investor yourself. Um I'm gonna leave it at that. Tell us your story. How'd you get here? Give us the details.

SPEAKER_05 5:33

All right, so I'm Mike Sub, owner of ROI Home Inspections. So I'll say like went to buy my primary house in 2019. I did a normal route. You know, I was working W-2 at the time, just got normal, hired a normal home inspector. It was like some 60-year-old dude, and I paid him 550 bucks. I was with him for two hours, and like when I said, like, he's like, Oh, roof looks good. I'm like, did you go on the roof before I got here? He's like, so no, I'm looking at it right now. Like, we're on the street. I'm like, okay, so you know, like, if this guy could get you know amass a hundred guru reviews and take my money and take you know, everybody else's money is doing it for him. Like, I figured I just did the math. I'm like, do three, four of these a week, do four of them, make a hundred extra hundred grand a year, never really, never really hurt somebody. So, but my my that was like a consideration. So I was kind of just like floating that, but my drive was always towards real estate. Like I always had the entrepreneurial spirit, like you know, shoveling snow in like middle school, people's next door neighbors, like hustling Yu-Gi-Oh! Pokemon cards, whatever it is. And uh, so real estate was the end goal and like the place where I wanted it to be. And I was listening to like you know, to the normal analysis paralysis, kind of sat there a little too long doing that, listening to bigger pockets, and I heard David Green say like doing something uh parallel with investing could really drive you a lot further. So, like a lot of people go the agent route. For me, I'm just I'm not a retail aging type of guy, like I'm just like clear-cut, kind of distinct how it is. And uh so the investing thing kind of creeped back in my mind. And then it was 2020 when COVID happened. I was locked down for two weeks because I was sick, and uh kind of hopped on my computer, did 120 hours of training in that two-week period, and then was kind of off from there. And I I knew I wanted to offer like a full service company, not just so I met some other people on networked that owned just home inspections and they didn't really offer any other services. Where I wanted to make sure I had all my certs before I got going, so I could offer a full package, whether it's like septic, mold testing, radon, like you know, sewer scopes, like the works. And uh and right around that time I was training, I purchased my first property in 2022. I think it was a duplex in Allentown. Found it on Facebook, some New York guy who was like tired, and it was rough. The upstairs was a complete crack house, and uh downstairs was it was okay. That's I still had that original tenant, and she's great, actually, and my favorite. And uh I hired a property manager because I already have a lot of my plate here, and they it went sideways. That was that derailed me, sent me back like a year and a half. Like deals would come by, I just wouldn't go because I can't manage the property I already have. What could I do with another one? Just like run that into the ground too. And then I finally, you know, fired them and then you know, kind of regrouped, found a new PM. Just got instead of like acting it as if it's just an investment and more passive, which real estate is not fully passive, you know, certain aspects are, I just got more involved in it and started treating it like a business. And since then I've I've tripled my portfolio in basically like like 14 months span from getting that kind of squared away and going from there, done some flips too in the process. And my especially business, this is the fourth year in business. This month I've done more inspections than I did my first full year in business. So it's kind of just been snowballing from there.

Building An Inspection Business

SPEAKER_00 8:56

And uh yeah, it's kind of how I got here. That's awesome. All right, I want to dive into the nitty-gritty of inspections, but first I want to ask you you're in a room full of investors for the most part. Do we need an inspection?

SPEAKER_05 9:09

Yeah, I I do inspections for some like like uh most high volume guys in Lehigh Valley. You know, the I do investor reports. Do you need a 75-page home inspection report? No. If you're a seasoned investor, do you need maybe eyes on me for a few hundred bucks just to check out the place? And you know, I some guys that do 50 plus deals a year use me for every single one and and walk away, and some of them for for the few hundred dollars, so save themselves a lot too.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

So that's awesome. Yeah. What what does the inspection process look like then, right? So if somebody's here is like, okay, maybe that sounds like a good idea. How does it run?

SPEAKER_05 9:45

So typically, like I always encourage I have past clients here, I always encourage my clients to be there. It might weigh me down 10 minutes, but it adds all the value to them, especially if you're a first-time home buyer or newer investor, and you you have you're not just paying for the report, you're paying for the time with me for me to walk you through everything and kind of give you my opinion on stuff. And so I always start on the outside of the property, check, check out the roof and the exterior, and then like a home inspection process is like I put together pieces. So if I see something outside, like say a shingle might be missing or something, but all right, in that section of the house, let me check that and to kind of piece together everything. So I always start the outside, then I start top down, and then as as I go down to the house, I'm always running water to every fixture, this and that, because you know, I when I just started, I'll be jumbled. Maybe I'll start in the basement or whatever. But the one one of my first ones, I started in the basement, did the basement inspection, go back upstairs. I'm like, oh, I have to check something in the basement. All this water is all over the ground. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna start top down now. So I just started going top down of the house, check out really every component, you know, heating system, AC if they have it, uh, water heater, plumbing electrical, and just you know, the interior conditions too.

Do Investors Need Inspections

SPEAKER_00 10:58

I like that. What I really like about that that I'm so guilty of is on the investor side, I get emotionally attached, right? And I'm like emotionally attached to the outcome of this inspection where you're not. Yeah. Right. So I get a deal, I'm like, this is a good deal. I haven't had a deal in a while, whatever the scenario is, I go in and I'm like almost got blinders on. I'm like, it looks great, everything's fine, I can fix that. Because I'm now attached to this outcome that's concocting in my head, right? Where you're like, man, this is terrible. Yeah, are you looking? Like that's crazy. So I think that's really valuable.

SPEAKER_05 11:26

Yeah, I see two sides of the picture of that. Sometimes, like this past Saturday, I had an inspection, the house was pretty clean. It was like there's a newer home buyer, and the roof looked old. He's like, Oh, that's a deal breaker for me. I'm like, we didn't even get inside yet, dude. They're like, let's see what the rest of the house looks like. And then on the vice versa, sometimes total mess, and like, yeah, it looks good. I'm like, okay, you know, just like can't tell you to say no or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

I just I just tell you what's here, you know. I was gonna say, how far does it go? Meaning, like, can you give advice necessarily, or is it just kind of a presentation of facts where you're like, I'm assuming you're just like make your decision, but here's some things.

SPEAKER_05 11:58

So for me, like you know, I I tell everyone my job is just to present what's here at the property. If I can't, if someone asks me what I should do, I I can't give you a true answer because that's discretion, it's discretionary. Like, what's pricing? My contractor might be a third of price of what you're calling somebody off Google for, or like what matters to you might not matter to me. And uh, it's really that's like for me, that's the agent's job to you know, I pass it to them, and then they're the fiduciary in the situation where them and the client need to make the decision what's important to them. So I stay, I just say I stay in my lane. And that's just describing what's going on in the property.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

What is the craziest inspection you've ever seen?

How A Pro Inspection Actually Runs

SPEAKER_05 12:39

So I've seen some disgusting. Yeah, that's the one thing inspection I did not anticipate. It's like you see all walks of life. Sometimes I see really good things and really great people, and sometimes I see like the most horrific things seemingly possible. And uh I I call had one house, two like distinct things that come to my mind. It's like the one poop house I went to. They they had uh like 13 golden retrievers in an Allentown Row home and a all concrete backyard fenced in. And then that wasn't even the worst part. The sewer line, the lateral, was like I'm presumably broken, and they ran like a gutter from the sewer line to the sump pump, and then they were just pumping it into the backyard. What? So that was heinous. Oh my god. And then uh another investor, we're friends with Bill. Yes, I was doing an inspection for him. He was trying to knock down a price on a property, so he used me as like a retail inspection. And Bill's in the front talking uh with like the seller or whatever he was doing. I'm in the backyard. All of a sudden, I walk back around and there's like three cop cars out front. I'm like, dude, what happens? Like, so we were trying to get in the basement, and this lady popped out, and she was like squatting in the basement, and then we like two hours, there's a three, and it's like two hours later, we're working in the basement. She just comes back and she's like, hey guys, yeah, they let me out. And she just sat down on her couch and just we were like, okay. Like and we just wrapped the inspection up. So yeah, that was uh that was an interesting one too. That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah. All right. Um that's wild. Yeah. Call me off guard. So if you're going into any place, any condition, I know you have things that you look for, like a red flag. What are some of those? What are you looking for?

SPEAKER_05 14:17

So like I have a few things like that, like are like deal breakers for me, or like I really like first of all, septic systems. It's like uh it's not just like cut or dry. And then I have investors that like want to do uh inspections for it, but it's like give it a look over. It's a lot more involved than just like me peeking at something. Like that's a comprehensive uh inspection that has lots of like lots of variables. Every system's different. Sometimes the lids could be on the surface, sometimes they could be three and a half feet deep and need to be uh excavated out. Uh and then there's there's the tank itself, and then there's the drain field. So, like for a long-term hold, like septic systems are not in my buy box because like the tanks are meant to like hold back any solids, and then the drain field is just a PVC pipe with little perforated holes in it that drains the liquid back to the earth, and so it's recycled. And if you get start getting solids or things that shouldn't be flushed down going down there, and you start clogging up your drain field, then you if you have a drain field failure, basically you're out of any using any water in the house until it's repaired or replaced, and that replacement could$25,000 plus sometimes in that range. And a lot of times I see with investors too that are buying on like uh smaller lots that there is no room to move it. And if there's no there's no uh street main, you know, and you have a failure and your yard doesn't pass a perk test, you're kind of owning you know four walls and a roof that could do nothing with. And uh and sometimes too, like if they have a I've seen it plenty of times like an old cesspool, which is basically just a hole in the ground where it just collects it, and they last a long time, but eventually they fail too. So then it's like, all right, do you have the room on the lot to install a whole new system? Not not even considering the fact that's$25,000 to$40,000. So, and then you know, without it functioning, you know, you can't, it's kind of in inhabitable, you know, living there. So that that's a big one for me.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Uh can I say real quick, I uh have a special love for septics because I just bought a house to flip that had a septic. I did the classic it's fine, and it's not fine. Oh boy, and so I just threw$25,000 out the window. Okay, so happy about that. Yeah, that's that's that's a brutal one. Yeah, call me next time, right?

Objectivity Beats Investor Emotion

SPEAKER_05 16:38

We keep going. Yeah, and that uh like uh oil tanks, that's another one people kind of look over. In in New Jersey, it's like really like you have to do tank sweeps on every property, like basement oil or underground oil. So both. So when I was a kid, I worked for my uh my uncle, he owns a masonry company and he was picking up insurance jobs when people's oil tanks fail in their basement, which you know, say you have a long-term hold that you're not in the basement all the time, you're not smelling stuff or checking it out. Uh it rusts if you see rust on the outside, it it rusts from the inside out. So if you see rust on the outside, not good. Eventually there's gonna be a hole, and then you have you know 300 gallons of fuel oil floating in your basement floor that's just seeping into the ground. And then once that happens, you have you basically have the EPA sends out like a third-party tester, and you have to dig out your basement floor until a point where the soil comes clean. So, like the one job I did with my uncle in the summertime was we were 12 feet below these people's basement floor, hand digging out things. So I can imagine the tab for you know four guys doing that is is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Wow.

Wild Field Stories And Red Flags

SPEAKER_05 17:47

And uh but then that's a major concern. But also then if you have an outdoor tank or underground buried tank too. I I've heard of like cases where say somebody was near a stream and your underground tank that you can't see fails, and you pollute a stream, you could be, you know, in serious shit. Then like you could pollute other people's yards, you know, environmental concerns like that. That's that's pretty huge. And then uh and stuff like other environments, like asbestos, like you know, knowing what that looks like to be able to identify that if like say if it's in a spot that you need to remove or is accessible by people, uh and just like uh another just and just foundations too, like knowing what you're looking at. In Allentown and Bethlehem Easton, most of the inventory is between like 1880 and 1940, essentially. So most of its field stone foundations, which well-maintained ones last hundreds of years because they actually have flexibility to move. But then, like you know, masonry blocks, like the probably the worst, because like a little bit of displacement in those, that's uh that's like considered foundational movement. And and then in these old properties, like defining what's settlement and what's movit movement too. That that's like a really keen thing. Like if you see like horizontal cracking sideways or like walls like displacing, like coming out, that that's like signs of you're having more problems. Where like in these older houses, if you see the corner cracking by doors and windows, that's pretty normal, you know. But it it's a fine line of what's movement and what's settlement. And then uh trying to think for that, that's that's pretty much I guess too for in the ABE area, a lot of things I see with foundations and settlement stuff is like a lot of these old houses when they have additions put on, they like you're walking a house, a row home or something, everything's level, and then you take a step, and then half half the house is diving. It's like they've threw that addition on like without a proper foundation and footing. So then it's like like like wood framing just sitting on soil, so it's settling down, it's rotting out because it's touching dirt directly, and you know that that just Becomes a nuisance over time and keeps on settling out on you there.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Interesting. Okay, so let's say Septics Foundation and Oil Tanks, I would say sounds like deals deal killers for you. Is there like a step down of like, I'm gonna look into that more? That's a I don't know, red flag or yellow flag, but not like a no?

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Uh, mentioned it already. Isn't a big one lately? Because you can't get insurance on a house if they don't sign off on the proof.

SPEAKER_05 20:29

Yeah, I I guess for like that's like more of like a retail say. Like I I guess if I'm I'm talking to a group of investors, like anything that's inside the house we can look at. We just it's just do you know the dollar value of replacing it type of thing? Yeah. If I was speaking to first-time homebuyers of like, yeah, be so terrified of knob and tube or this and that, because those are hazards, but like in an investor mindset, just like being able to identify stuff like that, ungrounded knob and tube wiring you might want to pull out, uh, you know, yeah, make old galvanized and cast iron lines that that are rotten. Say you do a full renovation inside your house, and then your cast iron thing behind your cabinet start it starts leaking, then you're ripping your kitchen back out to redo it again, you know. Like for me, my renovations, especially if it's the budget, I just you know replace both of those. Yeah. Because then it's like if I'm already dropping 35,000, what's another few grand just to be a preventative if I'm gonna hold it for the long term?

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

You know, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

So like but so not really for me, nothing really else like a big flag is just like if I'm buying it right, I don't really care. Makes sense. And just to answer kind of your question, I feel like roofs for most of us are like kind of like you said, yeah, it's X amount of dollars and they fix it. That's not that's it. Where oil septic is not that clean. It could be 10, 20, unlimited, it's tough. So what about um, and this is just a side question, but uh do you love polybutane piping um or any feelings?

SPEAKER_05 21:50

Poly D, you mean just like I see that mostly in like mobile homes essentially is the most. I've seen it a couple times recently, and I keep having issues with it. Yeah, yeah, and it's like the weird fitting classes. They cra they crack. They're like known, they're like a recalled pipe fitting uh and pipe material. They crack, you know. That's something that I do note, and that is that is an issue. But it just like, yeah. It's curious, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

So I keep seeing we had insurance issues with that one where insurance needs to be.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

The flood risk is high. You know, at the fittings, they like they fail very often, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

We had it in my house, burst upstairs, rained, yeah, just middle night, no reason. It just happens, yeah. Okay. Um you kind of already answered this, so I know the answer, but I guess how can you leverage, let's say you go into a report, let's say an investor to for the seller, right? To like beat them up on price. Do you think it's effective? Um, can somebody use you for that? Is that frowned upon? How does that look?

SPEAKER_05 22:46

Yeah, uh uh I think now more than the last few years since I started, it's becoming more of a thing because the the market's balancing a little bit. So I just see that from how busy I am right now, just that it's more relevant and a lot more houses that are contingent of inspection. So you know, I know a lot of smart investors are preparing for it on the back end on their sales. And then also, too, like you know, as a buyer, if you're going out retail shopping essentially uh for investment stuff, you you definitely you can't you most likely could pull that, you know. Makes sense. I don't I'm not in the negotiation phase, I'm just in the higher phase, but yeah.

Septic Systems, Oil Tanks, Foundations

SPEAKER_00 23:21

I like it. All right. Um, your investments, the stuff that you have, yeah. Tell me about that. Meaning the one you said you found on Facebook, which is crazy. Yeah. Um I don't let's start there. Because has anybody here have found a deal on Facebook and bought it? That's super rare. So here today.

unknown 23:38

Chris did it.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Did he really? That's so funny. It's tough.

SPEAKER_05 23:42

Yeah. It was my first, yeah. This one was ballsy. It was just like A Street Downtown, duplex. It was I got it on a contract for like$142. It was in$22. So at the time it was like a decent price. The upstairs needed a renovation. Downstairs was okay. But then, like I said, uh management missed cues that kind of dragged dragged it into like a year and a half per type thing. But by the time I got in there, took control of the property, evicted the upstairs tenant, renovated the place. I refought it out like last December at 285. Damn. So I I I I made myself whole there. That's awesome. Yeah. That was my first deal.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

So I was I was pretty happy with that. Yeah, that's insane. Um, what about I know you said you do a couple flips too on the side. What do they look like? Meaning, what are you looking for for buy, sale? Do you have any kind of parameters that you run through?

SPEAKER_05 24:29

Just makes money. And I feel like now, since my deal flow is increasing too, just not getting into something that's gonna drag out into like a seven, eight-month project for 20 grand. Yeah. Where you know you can make it 20 grand like on a seven-week rehab type thing and then list it. So I feel like that's kind of my my look of just like not deploying all my resources into uh getting jammed up and stuff, stuff like that. Makes sense. Yeah. Okay. If right now right now, like stay home life, kids on the way, I have a kid, kids on the way, so it's like more a little bit more picky with what I do at at this stage of life. But uh it's just try to buy good deals only.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

That's awesome. I feel like that's a natural progression. You usually start out and buy a bunch of crap and then you realize the problems, and then you start filtering back, right?

SPEAKER_05 25:11

Yeah, I was too I'll say I I wish I was more aggressive, like I was more analysis paralysis in the beginning. So it it goes, you know, it goes two ways. Yeah. You know, if you can fumble through things and they appreciate, then you're on the other side, it looks good, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

So I definitely want to do time for QA because I think it's rare somebody can just rapid fire you. Unfortunately, you're in the rapid fire seed. But before we do that, I want to ask, is there anything that I didn't ask you that we should hit on?

SPEAKER_01 25:38

No, I I think pretty solid, yeah. All right. Questions?

unknown 25:45

So uh yeah, I was gonna ask what would you say is the biggest difference between like character and what was we would compare the two?

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Like what would you say are the biggest takeaways from that?

SPEAKER_05 26:00

They're two different totally different things. Totally. Uh I I've been like on site doing a home inspection when the appraiser comes. They just come by for 10 minutes, they take a bunch of pictures, and then they leave. They're they're more doing CMAs, in my opinion, and then we're um just you know breaking a property apart. Yeah. Yeah. And even like a comparison, like people always say, like, this well, the CEO said this, yeah, that that's like what the the city's parameters are, too. Like, you know, they don't look at for the best interest of the buyer or look at every detail of the house. They just care about what their standards are. And they have their own set of standards, and I have my my own too.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 27:04

Again, just like like say Nob and Tube Wiring, or like if you have dated, like again, cast iron or like galvanized water lines too. Those are if you have cast iron and galvanized water lines, they're probably 80 years old if they're in one of your properties. Uh also one thing we didn't touch is sewer lateral inspections too. So like the I've been really working on being more of a business person than just an inspector recently. So like upselling my my services. The last two investor inspections I did, I upsold sewer laterals, but and both of them had damaged sewer laterals. So like in Bethlehem. No, not for I don't consider that one damage. That one was all right. Yeah, that was that was all right. No, the the last one was specifically in Southside Bethlehem where it was cast iron and it turned to clay and it was collapsed. So, you know, I I know Southside Bethlehem, they have a lot of issues with sewer laterals like going there. And uh yeah, and most of the time, basically if it hasn't been replaced and you're in like the ABE zone, you're you're probably dealing with an 80-year-old plus sewer line. So depending how far in the street it goes and stuff like that, that could be a$15,000 repair, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Well, quick question. So sewer lateral, like I'm a five-year-old. Where is that? So what is the sewer lateral?

SPEAKER_05 28:20

Technically from like your clean out or like your house, like whatever I have access to, to the street main. So the street main is always in the street. And that's always on the property owner. On the property owner to the connection. Yep, okay. Yep. So yeah, that that's on then you have to pull permits, dig the street out, dig out the whole thing. Sometimes they're uh salvable enough where you could put the plumbers have like these liners, you can line it, but then that's expensive too. And then, you know, it varies.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 28:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Did answer your question? Cool.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

For the cruiser, I I honestly I try to stay away from recommending people because just you know, things could go sideways and I don't want people looking at me for that personally. And like keeping my contractors close to my cuff. And then also, and your first part, yeah, my ancillary services, I totally offer them independently. One of the like the biggest growing parts of my business now is like mold clearance testing. So I for mold remediation contractors, I just do follow-up like air quality for them, and that's been uh a really growing factor in my business. So I do say radon tests or serilateral. I we do things independently. Yep. Yeah, those are like super minimized. They they kind of care about safety of the tenant, smoke detectors, and stuff like that, where we're looking at like every component of the property. They don't they don't really look at stuff like that. Like we look at the condition of everything in the house.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Said differently, just to expand on that. Section eight is just like living quality. Yeah. So like they're like not really doing anything. They're just like, yeah, it looks okay. Somebody could live here in theory. Yeah. And they have pretty low standards where they're not going to look like, is the foundation shot? Is the roof shot? Because if they walk in and there's no like visible roof leak, they're not flagging it. Where Mike would be like, your roof shot, that's a problem. So it's like kind of different.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Other questions? PVC.

Wiring, Plumbing, And Insurance Triggers

SPEAKER_05 30:54

Anything I'll kid and copper water lines. Yeah. Anything new, nobody uses copper anymore taxes, it's easier and cheaper. But uh, yeah. Yeah. So like me, I I like obviously as a business person, I like to walk away from the inspection and then just go to the next one and never hear anything about it again. But I have no like I I'm a human too, and most of these people, this is the biggest process of their life. So if they call me with questions or anything like that, I I always have give them the time of day to do that. That's how how I feel. I feel like that's just the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

So do you think that like as a businessman as you develop and grow and get some context other work that that will kind of go by the wayside?

SPEAKER_05 31:57

I'll probably hire like a part-time like therapist to cool down the first-time home buyers. But yeah, uh I'll try to like, I guess I'll I'll incorporate it into the scope like for my inspectors for them to take the call. Yeah, because I feel like that's uh you know a part of the industry that you know you could stand out with being personalized, and and I I I wouldn't want that going sideways just for because I'm hiring somebody.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

I got another question. I'm gonna put my stupid self on the line again. I bought a house with uh all the radon stuff in it. I literally have no idea what radon is, but tell me about it.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

All right, so radon radon, it's actually like it's pretty horrifying. It's like the number two leading cause of lung cancer in the world. And it was uh identified at the Limerick power plant in like the 70s. The uh some work they had radiation monitors at the door, so they made sure that no one was leaving the facility like with radiation on them. And some dude came in Monday morning and was setting off alarms, and they're like, you know, what the fuck? They did a full investigation. It was the guy, it was his the his house, his clothes were so contaminated that he was setting off radiation monitors at the door of the power plant.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 33:06

And so then they discover what radon is, and it's just it's it's a natural gas that's in soil, and you know, Pennsylvania, I think you're uh three times more likely than any other state to have a dangerous level, and it's odorless, tasteless, and without testing, you just you just don't know. And I'd say probably 85% of the tests I do come back high higher than you know the action level is what they call it.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Yeah, so should somebody buy a house with radon um like a system on, let's say, should you avoid it? Like, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 33:38

So you in pay honestly, my opinion is you should have one in. You know, they're totally they're totally effective.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

What is it exactly? Because like in the place I bought, there's all these pipes everywhere.

SPEAKER_05 33:47

It's super, it's actually super simple. They just they plug PVC pipe below your basement slab, and there's a fan on the outside, and they just depressurize below the slab, so they just draw the air from below the house and just blow it outside.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Really?

Using Reports In Negotiations

SPEAKER_05 34:00

So then the radon gas that's coming up, it goes it goes out. So like when you open your windows in your house and stuff like that, people like try to like fake a test or whatever. If you drop a monitor off, actually, like it's a stack effect, it draws air up through the house and then out the window. So like that increases levels. If it's snow on the ground, it compacts it all, and then the easier way for it to go is through the house, too. So that increases levels and stuff. But uh, yeah, basically if you live in Pennsylvania, you should get it get tested and or get get a system put in. So interesting.

unknown 34:33

How much does that system cost?

SPEAKER_05 34:35

I think people like$1,200,$1,500. Oh, that's it.

SPEAKER_04 34:40

Yep. That's not bad.

SPEAKER_05 34:42

And then the new construction homes, 99% of the time they have passive systems. They're just you need to have like a DP license to put an active so they put the pipe in like through your attic space, and then you and they typically a good builder will just leave a spot for the fan and put an outlet right there. So then someone has to just come in and put the fan in, and then you're you're done.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Any other questions? Yeah, Jim.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

I I can bounce back in my house, I have to pass it bottom, bottom off e-bate.

SPEAKER_05 35:07

Yeah, just throw it in, yeah. It's pretty simple.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Yeah, pretty simple.

SPEAKER_05 35:11

Yep, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

But uh, so I I've seen my fair share of TikToks with inspectors with any new construction homes.

SPEAKER_05 35:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Uh what are your observations between really high value?

Deals, Management Lessons, And Flips

SPEAKER_05 35:22

Yeah, I'll I'll say, you know, there's a fair share of uh shitty new new builds for sure. There's so there's so I forget the name of the builder. It's like in east, in northeast, and they have a they have a lot of good properties going. But yes, some I still walk out of there like, wow, you know. They just slapping them together and you find some stuff like missing shingles and stuff like that on a new construction house. It's just it's pretty pretty brutal. But it's a mixed bag, depending on who the builder is, really. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I don't want to have you calling any programs.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Love it. Yeah. Alright, I got a couple last questions for you that I love asking every guest. And so, first one is what separates I'm gonna hit you from an investor standpoint for these, and you can adjust as needed, but what separates top performing investors from the rest of the crowd?

SPEAKER_05 36:11

I want to say I'm a top performing investor, but I'll say just perseverance and just like you know, you you eat a lot of shit as an investor, it pays off, you know, but you just gotta just keep on eating eating shit for a while.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

But and just stay in the game, basically. I love that answer. What's a daily habit habit that contributes to your success?

SPEAKER_05 36:31

Just wake up, you know, just just do it, you know. Just action. Action. Yeah. So just like I feel like that held me back for a while, just like, you know, saying I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, just just doing it, you know, and then going from there.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Do you have any special like way to control that action, meaning like you're where you're sitting, so you're doing things right? Is there like any kind of either software or just things that maybe mental models that like allow you to be effective and not just crazy? No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

Chris, I just be like raw dogging it for the last few years. Like I like barely a blue-collar guy, like I don't even have a spreadsheet for doing flips or like analyzing properties, just like you know, Starbucks napkin type thing. So no, just just going. That's fine. Yeah, I'm trying to start implementing those things.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

I love it. What is a piece of advice that you'd give to yourself if you were starting again? Just be more aggressive from the beginning.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

Yeah. Just there's been a lot of appreciation passed. Probably not gonna see that again for a long time in our lifetime in that short of a span. So I would have bought more then. Yeah. Uh favorite business or real estate book? I'm gonna go with uh rich dad, poor dad, like cliche. It's like uh not just for me, like obviously it clicked for me, but uh I heard on BiggerPocks podcast a while ago, like Brandon Turter like traded with his wife, and like he read a book, she read a book. And like for me, I did the same thing. I was like, hey, I'll read a book that you want me to read. I just want you to read this because like I want you to buy in what we're doing. And so I read Love Languages, and her her love language is acts of service, and uh she read Rich Bad Fortnite, and she just said, I trust you, you gotta do what you gotta do. That's awesome. So we went from there.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

That's a great idea.

SPEAKER_05 38:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

So all right. Last question any final advice?

SPEAKER_05 38:17

I just take action. I just say say it over and over again. Just like you just sit back and like watch people do stuff, and like, or or you just gotta go, you know? And just like take a take a little risk too.

SPEAKER_04 38:27

Just yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:28

That's really it.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Love it. Thank you for being here. This is awesome. Just give Mike a round of applause. Appreciate it. All right, two last things. I'd like to do a little outro here just to kind of help facilitate our last networking bit. So if you're at any of these things, just raise your hand. And the reason we're gonna raise our hand is maybe you need this person, whether it's a lender, contractor, whatever. Now you need to go talk to that person, right? So, first, who's looking for their first property? Anyone? That's cool. That's rare. Okay. Um who's looking for their second up to their 20th?

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Very cool. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Um contractors of any kind here?

Audience Q&A: Inspectors vs Appraisers

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Kind of flooring. Okay. Uh insurance. Realtors. Lenders. It's quiet here today.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Full-time investors. One, two, three, okay. Um who's looking for a deal right now? Every hand. Um who's selling a deal? One, maybe, two, three, okay. Bill, Sophia? Okay, very cool. All right, thank you. One last thing. We just started doing lending, specifically private money lending, and I'm not here to sell you any kind of shit. I just want to tell you about it. Um, and so we're looking That's exactly the piece of here. That's the price. No, but we just got into private money lending. And so if anybody here is an active investor specifically, someone that does multiple deals specifically, and you're looking for private money, meaning someone that's aggressive, super fast, and that's more relationship driven, that's very uh against let's say traditional banking. Um, I'd love to talk to you. Um and I'll leave it there. So once again, thank you guys all for being here. Um thank you for Michael Halabian and Co. and their flooring. And that's it. So we'll hang out till 8 30, network, and that's it. Thanks, guys. Give me one second, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Different type of things in everyone.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

Yeah, yeah, give me one sec. Yeah, I'll just thank you. Appreciate it. Can I get a picture?

SPEAKER_01 40:55

I hold your film now.

unknown 41:18

I don't catch it really, I don't care.