If You Ignore The Report, You Own The Risk

Ever wondered why some buyers breeze through homeownership while others drown in repairs and denied claims? The difference often comes down to one unglamorous step: reading the inspection report and taking action before problems spread. We walk through the real costs of ignoring red flags like moisture, mold, and chimney defects, and we share a clear framework for deciding what to fix now, what to monitor, and what can wait without risking your health or your budget.

We break down why moisture is the fastest way to ruin a house and how a small leak can fuel mold growth within 48 hours. From missing flue tiles that can spark a house fire to sump pump discharge lines that quietly soak finished spaces, you’ll hear practical examples that make the stakes clear. We also explain how insurers evaluate negligence and why failing to mitigate active damage can get your claim slashed, even if the initial failure was covered. Documentation, timelines, and decisive steps are your best protection.

If you’re under contract, use the report as leverage: schedule specialist evaluations, gather quotes, and negotiate repairs or credits before closing. Already a homeowner? Set a two-year maintenance rhythm that pairs a radon test with a targeted inspection, especially for moisture-prone areas like basements, attics, and bathrooms. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s smart triage. Prioritise anything that spreads damage, threatens air quality, or poses a fire or shock hazard, and let the cosmetic quirks wait until time and budget allow.

Whether you’re a first-time buyer or a seasoned owner, this conversation gives you a calm, proven path from inspection to action. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s house hunting, and leave a review to tell us your top must-fix item after an inspection.

Transcript

Orchard Banter And Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everybody, it's Jim and the office goddess Laura.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Hello, everyone. Alright, so I thought you were gonna call me the Laura.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

The Laura. The Lorax. That's because you plant lots of trees. Well, you have planted like 50-some like fruit trees, berry bushes, all kinds of things here on the property. Which I think you just want pies in your future. I do want pies. Is this the third year that you've planted the trees? Some of it's the fourth. We should be getting some fruit trees this year. We had a peach last year, the year before, but we cut it off because we wanted the tree to focus on growing its branches instead of growing fruit.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

We we need to trim them off the top this year so that uh they can start being a little more stout.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Like power lifters.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Like power lifters, yeah. Short and and stout and sturdy.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Strong as crap.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Like little dwarves.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

They can handle all the uh all the wind and everything, and the weight of the fruit that they're gonna bear.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

That's the impression.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Because our last house, we did not trim the apple tree. It broke some branches because all the weight of all the apples.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

I should have trimmed some of those apples off.

Why Reading The Report Matters

SPEAKER_01 1:12

We need to trim. So anyway, what I was gonna talk about here. We got distracted. Sorry. We got we got distracted. So you did the right thing. You had a home inspection, okay? First of all, right thing you had an agent that you you you like and trust. Okay, first you gotta have that. If you didn't know of any agent to use, well, maybe you contact a home inspector in the area and go, hey, I'm I'm looking to buy a house. This is the area. This is the area. I have these three agents I'm thinking about working with, which ones would you recommend, or is any anyone there you would recommend and you know I avoid. Anyway, you got you got yourself an agent. Fantastic. And you bought that and you went a contract, you had the home inspection. But here's the important thing: when you get things in your report, you have to act upon those things.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Well, first of all, wait, wait, wait, let's back up. You have to read the report first. Yes, do you know how many times we've had people call and ask a question because they had some handyman, Joe Schmo, come in and say, Oh my god, your home inspection company could have caught this, you're sh they should have caught this. And the first question we ask is, Well, did you read your report? And nine times out of ten, they'll say no.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Because that's in the report. Because it's in the report. Well, so yeah, you get the inspection, you have to read the report. Do not say, hey, I'm gonna give it to my agent. My brother or my agent or my neighbor to read the report for me.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

You bought it, you're moving to the house, you need to read it.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

You need to read it yourself and understand. Because we've had this has been a while ago. We had a per a person who they contacted and were complaining about something, and I looked it up. I'm like, and I'm like, here's here's the report. Did you read it? Like, no. I I I had my agent read up my age, I guess my re agent, my agent said there's there's nothing nothing on there. I'm like, wow. It's number uh, it's number 86 in the report. You look that up. So and but didn't I didn't hear any more about that, but no, it's your house, you need to read the report, and agents, you need to make certain your client reads that report.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

You don't want to accept liability for something if you say, Oh, well, there's nothing wrong with the house, and then you've got number 86 and 124, and you know, whatever, they're gonna come back on you because they're gonna be pissed, and you're the one that said, Oh, well, there wasn't a problem with the report.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yes.

Acting On Findings Before Closing

SPEAKER_02 4:05

And keep in mind, what's not a problem to you may be a huge problem to them. So you can't just talk for them. You you need to actually know.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Well, yeah, and like mold. It some molds can grow very rapidly. You're talking about 24, 48 hours, all of a sudden you can see it all over the place. If your if your uh inspection notes a little bit of mold growth or moisture, you need to get that taken care of. You don't let that you don't you don't ignore that for months and months, and then think, well, I I need to complain to something because there's there's mold in my house. I'm like There was three months ago, you should have three months ago.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

You should have found out why it was wet and growing it four months ago. What did you do about that? Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

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SPEAKER_01 5:20

No, it's do do not abdicate the responsibility of taking care of what is now your house. And that starts by taking your report and making certain that you get important things fixed. Now, what's important? That's gonna be for you to decide. But if you like, let's say it's a it's a you got a five wood-burning fireplace. You just you uh and you got us to do the chimney scope, okay? We scope the chimney. Yeah, there's a you're you're a missing flu tile up there. You really need to get that fixed. If you ignore that and you set your house on fire two months later, you have nobody to blame but yourself. You it's your responsibility to take care of your house, and that starts by having an accurate home inspection. And oh home inspections are not perfect, they don't they can't catch every little thing. They're definitely gonna catch some major stuff. And when they catch that stuff, you need to act upon it.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Which means that prior to closing, you make sure that if there's something in that report that you're not sure about or that you think is going to concern you, you have a specialist look at that. You figure out what's going on. Is that something that you can live with? Or do you need to have it fixed before you close? Like you need to figure these things out. And then having remorse when you've been there for three or four months and there's now more mold growing, but you haven't fixed the wet areas, the leaks, the moisture intrusion, you didn't get, you know, remediation of the mold in the first place, you it's going to happen, but that's on you because it was in the report and you didn't deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

That reminds me of insurance claims.

Insurance, Negligence, And Denied Claims

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Right. I was just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

If you have uh, let's say a bathtub leak, your bathtub leaks. Well, no, no, uh, let's say you you got a um um a pipe burst.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Pipe but it's it's cold out, that makes sense. You know, whose bit pipe breaks, so it's flooding. You decide not to shut off the water and you call in insurance company a week later and try and make a claim. They are not going to cover your claim because you it's uh you are minimization of damage. You you are required to do not let continued damage happen. Ignore the situation that allows things to get worse, gives the insurance company an out. They are not responsible. Now they might go, all right, it'll pay for that pipe, but mold growth and all this rod that you allow to happen because you waited one week to shut their water off and you never did have the water drained out, they're gonna put that 100% on you, the buyer, or I should say homeowner at that point. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

And in fact, the way insurance is going, they may even get snippy about whether or not they want to insure you down the road.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

So if they get snippy, yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Well, I'm trying to be nice, but you know, there's a lot of things we're hearing about home insurance companies, and they've, you know, with things changing, storms being worse, they have gotten shakier about I don't know if storms have gotten worse or it can or is the construction getting a little uh not a little shadier, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

I do know was it last year? Last year or year before there's a report that like ten insurance carriers either went out of business or bailed out of covering any house in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

And then California had a bunch pull out too because of like the fire loss and a bunch of stuff like that. Well, and then there was like another law that got passed, and I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

California had some uh weird laws. Well I think the insurance company you're required to clean up all the debris around areas. California failed to do that. The state. Oh so the state has some responsibilities. In fact, I'm pretty certain insurance carriers goes, hey, you need to clean this stuff up, or we have to drop you. Nothing. Nothing done.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

And that's why they dropped.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Sad story. But anyway. I can't think we're gonna go with that one. I don't know. I'll bring one blank again.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Oh, baby, that's so easy. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

So, but anyway, it's your responsibility. Do not let things just dwell on because yeah, insurance is not gonna cover. That's what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Yeah, there you go.

What Truly Needs Fixing

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Which reminds me, we should do an episode on going through the home inspection uh sample or a made-up home inspection report and go, hey, these are things that you really need to take care of because they're gonna get worse if you allow them to continue. Where you got hey, you got a piece of broken floor tile, you can leave that there for 20 years and nothing else in your house is going to get affected. Right? Well we did for a while. Some things like eh, all right. I mean, our house, there's there's some our house now, there's some things that I I'm I see that's not quite right, but affects nothing else.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

I'm like, we don't have the time, so we're just ignoring it.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah, well, it's it's not important. But Laura, look at the door right there. It's slightly crooked.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Oh, see that's gonna bother me now. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

You're welcome. Well, there's another door like that in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

And I haven't seen it, so she's see.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

They're so subtle. See, you get inspector vision, you see everything, you can't shut it off. You go to a restaurant, somewhere like, holy shit. Why is the way not gonna be a good one?

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Because like we're gonna be driving by somewhere, and all of a sudden I'll be like, Oh, do you see that roof?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

That roof is jacked.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Holy crap. And you're just like, Yep, that's my girl.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

But that there, that's just a little adjustment on the hinge. That's all it is. Now, hanging doors, I suck at hanging doors. There's not easy. I built that sauna, doors not right. It sucks. Well, I build it so so I don't want being tight because if somebody says we're in there, we get you get dizzy, you're gonna pass out. I want you to be able to just lean against it. You lean against the door, put you out. That's why I designed I have it designed that way with safety in mind, but I I want to look better.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

You're so cute.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

That's about it. So, anyway, I think that's the message on this one. If you have an issue with your house, whether it's a house you're buying or your current house, you need to get the issue taken care of. Which reminds me, maintenance inspections, home inspections are not just for when you're buying a house, it could be when you own a house and you want to make certain you're not missing any maintenance issues.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

I call it my honeydew list.

Maintenance Inspections And Radon

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yes, that's yes, you do. But we have we've had some people do them every two years, which is the same time frame that the EPA tells you to get your radon tested every two years. So every two years, get your radon tested and then have a home inspector do an inspection on your house. Even it's just the moisture inspection, that's fine because moisture is a root can ruin any house given enough time and uh volume.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Well, that's and anything that can go on like that can do a lot of damage with moisture and mold and attics and basements. Like that one guy, he and his wife were debating about the fact that you know she kept feeling ill, and it was when this happened and this happened, and he didn't believe her, and he didn't believe her. We're there and in five minutes figure out what the problem is.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Oh, that sump pump. The sump pump. The pipe, the discharge pipe became disconnected, so every time it went off, spraying water all over the corner.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Which then went across the floor into the living space into the finished space and a couple of carpets they had laying beside the bed that were completely saturated with moisture. And then mold growth. And then mold growth, which is why she was getting sick.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yep. So every two years, get your house inspected, even it's just a moisture inspection. Uh uh, get get that done, and then get your radon test done. But then, yeah, get it.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Much less know what they're looking at. Or have the desire to have the or have the desire or the time, any of that. So just you know, all right, have an inspection done.

Moisture Case Study And Health

SPEAKER_01 13:53

That's that's it on this one. Do not let issues linger and become a bigger problem. Don't let them fester. Don't let them fester. All right. Bye, everybody. Bye.