Standing Out in Ohio Podcast
Listen and learn how some stand out from competition and gain market share. Information helpful to agents and buyers. Conversations with professionals and entrepreneurs regarding their stories and what makes their companies and themselves stand out and gain competitive advantages. Listen to stories from Ohio real estate agents and related businesses to help you know how to improve and who to consider using for yourself or friends. Created by the owners of a highly rated home inspection company in Ohio and the Winners of Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest https://homeinspectionsinohio.com/
Standing Out in Ohio Podcast
Squirrel Damage & $20,000 Regrets
Nobody wants to shell out $20,000 to repair damage that could have been prevented with a simple home maintenance inspection. Yet, that's exactly what happened to one Ohio couple who discovered their attic had been devastated by squirrels, leaks, and chewed electrical wires – a disaster that began with a small, easily fixable entry point.
Throughout this eye-opening episode, Jim and Laura from Habitation Investigation discuss the growing trend of maintenance inspections beyond real estate transactions. They share compelling examples of how these preventative checkups have helped homeowners avoid catastrophic expenses. From insurance companies threatening to drop coverage over roof conditions to contractors completing substandard work, regular inspections serve as an essential safeguard for your biggest investment.
The hosts explain that most homeowners, particularly first-time buyers, don't know what to look for in attics or crawl spaces, or even realize basic maintenance requirements like gutter cleaning. According to EPA studies, approximately 85% of homes contain rodent allergens, making pest intrusion a nearly universal concern. While standard home inspections don't specifically target pest control, experienced inspectors often identify early warning signs of infestation and direct homeowners to appropriate specialists before damage escalates.
For just a few hundred dollars every 2-3 years, homeowners can potentially save thousands in emergency repairs. Consider gifting a maintenance inspection to new homeowners in your family or elderly parents – it provides both peace of mind and a prioritized to-do list. Your home deserves this level of care and attention. Schedule your maintenance inspection today through HomeInspectionsInOhio.com and protect your investment before you're faced with an expensive, preventable disaster.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Two-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast, where we discuss topics, upcoming events, news and predictions with real estate professionals and entrepreneurs. Listen and learn what makes their companies and themselves stand out and gain advantages over the competition and gain market share. Subscribe for the latest news and discussion on what it takes to stand out from the crowd. Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2:Habitation investigation is the way to go for a home inspection 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.
Speaker 3:Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out and Hot Podcast. This is Jim and Laura.
Speaker 4:Hello everyone.
Speaker 3:Alright, so we've been talking about building maintenance inspections, we've been pushing maintenance and Laura, hello, everyone All right, so we've been talking about people doing maintenance inspections.
Speaker 4:We've been pushing maintenance inspections because we see a trend.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, and we have gotten quite a few more people this year well, I'll say last six months than we ever really had people, because you know, hiring for inspections Usually people talk about, hey, it's for when you're buying a house right, it's for real estate transaction.
Speaker 4:We've been getting calls for um confirmation for roofing for insurance companies that were trying to drop clients. We've been doing for um when companies come out and do work. We've been doing inspections to make sure that the work was done correctly before they were paid. Yes, and we've started to do a lot for maintenance inspections, just because yeah, because, like radon EPA will tell you if you have a radon system.
Speaker 3:You need to get your house tested every two years, and we agree that's about the same thing with home inspections you should get your house inspected every two to three years. You'd be at something about three years for radon. I think what it was If there was a system. If there is a system, get it checked every two years.
Speaker 3:If I remember right it was every two years and they did not need a radon system before, maybe every three because I figured, all right, it's low in the first place. If you go a year and it didn't work, you're maybe not risking a whole lot, but every two to three years you should have your home re-inspected or looked at well, and you've got all these kids now who are buying a house.
Speaker 4:They don't know what to look at in an attic or a crawl space, they don't know what needs fixed, so maintenance inspection will help give them that honeydew list. Okay, you need to do this. You need to work on the grading around your house, you need to extend your gutters and your downspouts, or, you know, maybe you need a new roof, because you've got this huge leak here and it's going to get worse, or the story we heard recently. That's yes, Elder couple.
Speaker 3:They own their house for quite a while. Okay, and come to find out they have about $20,000 worth of damage up in their attic space because of squirrels and leaks and electrical wires that were chewed by the squirrels. It sounds like, yeah, so home inspectors, or Ohio licensed home inspectors we're not pest inspectors like rodents or general bugs. Maybe we'll just try an insect All of our inspectors get licensed for that, but not every homeless spectra is.
Speaker 3:But if we're up in an attic and we see a big old nest, we're going to let you know. We're going to let you know about that.
Speaker 4:You need to have somebody come out and check out that nest.
Speaker 3:This couple. I like them about that. You need to have somebody come out and check out that nest, yeah. So, hey, this couple I like.
Speaker 4:And and they're, and they're another couple and at this point they don't have what they had when they were younger. They don't have 20 000 to just show out. And well, take care of you and I don't.
Speaker 3:I don't know their circumstances, but nobody shell out $20,000 to clean up a squirrel, mess Right and replace wires.
Speaker 4:It could have been prevented a couple years ago by a couple hundred dollar inspection.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, so it could have been caught really early, like hey, you got a little hole here and I saw a little squirrel moving through there. I see some mess materials.
Speaker 4:You need to get somebody out.
Speaker 3:And take care of that, because the squirrels multiply like bunny rabbits, they can multiply.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, they can do that. And then also such raccoons just tear the shit out of the insulation. I've seen ductwork in an attic that was completely ripped open and it just ruined everything up in this attic. So everything has to be removed, everything in that attic, and replaced, because it was just so nasty up there. But, man, you could have just a few hundred dollars worth of repairs, maybe a thousand dollars worth of repairs, maybe a thousand dollars worth of repairs, or 20 000 or 20 000 if you let it ignore and let it go.
Speaker 3:So always get the maintenance inspection done every two to three years. Nobody wants to pay. Hey, let me spend four hundred dollars to get an inspection done. Five, 500, 600, depends on all you haven't done and the size of your house. But, man, that is vastly significant than paying $20,000 or $10,000 for the repair work which will result if you are not aware of the issues and those issues are allowed to continue. Like squirrels, raccoon, mice and there are some pest control companies. You get a few mice up in the attic space, which is common. What was it?
Speaker 4:like 85% of all houses have some type of mice, something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, EPA did a study years ago. They looked for rodent allergens. Rodents I mean mice rats, squirrels, bunnies, Rabbits are rodents also, but they would not be in their attic.
Speaker 4:I hope not, I'd like to know how they got up there yeah, well, wow, I tell you a story about snakes yeah, well, snakes are different than a buddy anyway epa did a study looking for rodent allergens and it was 80.
Speaker 3:Some percent of all that, I think it was 82 of all the houses they looked at had rodent allergens in them. So it's extremely common for mice rats, rodents to get inside a house, especially when fall comes, Like hey, they need someplace warm and they go. You know what? Every now and then I smell cheese downstairs, so the house is a perfect place for mice to go.
Speaker 4:Well, here was one of my thoughts. You have an older couple, mom and dad. They're getting up in years and you know they buyer, like maybe your kid just bought a house and you know like it's a year or two in and you know they're completely clueless. Get them a home inspection for Christmas, get them that list so that they know what to fix, and it helps educate them too, so that they know oh, this is what I need to do every year.
Speaker 3:I need to work on this, I need to do this and it starts slowly teaching them how to take care of things themselves there was an agent you talked to and he was trying to help his client, his buyer, who did not know you would need to get a ladder to reach the gutters, to clean out theters, as if there's some magical button you have to push once a year to clean them out.
Speaker 4:But no, physically, you have to get up there, you have to get a ladder and you have to scoop it out.
Speaker 3:There are some tools you can use, like a hose, a little power wash, a hose hook thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like a hook that has water squirts on it. You're going to get dressed if you use it. You're going to get dressed if you use them, though You're going to get wet. I'd rather just reach out there and pull stuff out. But anyway, maintenance inspection is very important. Get it done so you don't have just lots of messy stuff to deal with. That will be expensive. I was saying earlier, I got tangents. You Pest control companies often, even though there's a little bit of mice in there, oh yes, They'll tell you. You need to replace it all. We need to replace all the insulation, Do you really? I mean, if you want to be absolutely certain there's no hantavirus which comes from the droppings of rodents, if you want to make sure and bats bats are rodents also.
Speaker 3:Yes, they are I like bats. If you want to make certain there's nothing, no hantavirus. They will often tell you we need to take out all the insulation.
Speaker 4:And that does make sense to me. But, there should also be a way to test to see if that virus is in those droppings there could be, or there's a company that we know of that does animal wildlife removal.
Speaker 3:They can spray it, fog it with a disinfectant to kill the viruses. To me that makes so much more sense.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's not like we live up in the attics typically. It's not like the air is shared with the attic and the downstairs typically should not be you know, you know. So the decontamination or the sterilization of all of the viruses there, that makes sense to me and it can save people money oh, yep, definitely, and it's outside.
Speaker 3:just so everybody knows it's outside the scope of a home inspection. To look for little tiny openings for mice, like minimus conditions, is not the scope of an inspection, no.
Speaker 4:We are unusual, I think, in that we will mention if we see evidence of rodents and we'll say, hey, if it's on this level, it's probably elsewhere. I don't think other companies do that necessarily. We do it just because it's part of our education for our clients. Hey, you need to check this out, contact somebody that can do this, because we can't. But you need to be careful and check that out because chances are you will have an animal problem at some point.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you have a house there's winter. Oh yeah, well, you have a house there's winter.
Speaker 4:This is Ohio. There'll be a mouse in the house. There will be a mouse in the house, all right.
Speaker 3:Thank you everybody, all right, bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Bye. You've been listening to the standing out in Ohio podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify or Google podcast to get new, fresh episodes. For more, please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or visit the website of the best Ohio home inspection company at homeinspectionsinohiocom or jimtroffcom. That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H and click on podcast. Until next time, learn and go do stuff.