Not Having Your Home Inspected? Then Have Your Head Inspected!
Let the world know “I love me some Costco.”
And once again this love proved to be valid, truthful, sustaining and without exception.
A week or so back I decided to return to the cyborg world and reacquaint myself with a Bluetooth. I nabbed one and added it to our simmering pile of Costco purchases and enjoyed the freedom it engendered until it became mysteriously flawed Monday. Fortunately that evening’s itinerary brought us by the selfsame Costco and with the lifeless shell of the earpiece in a tattered plastic bag I presented it to the Customer Service desk and received a refund as quick as an alpine ram might tumble from a hilltop.
No receipt. No questions. No problems.
They did they same thing over and over and over and over and over again with a roomba. Bottom line, if you buy it at Costco you enjoy a degree of freedom knowing if it goes wrong it goes back.
Now if only the same protections prevailed in the world of home buying.
Now some might say buying a house or buying any thing falls ‘neath the heading “caveat emptor.” True that, though I might add one letter to the transliteration so it evolves from “buyer beware” to “buyer be aware.”
Knowledge is power. My clients know this. They have and subsequently gain knowledge. And they have power because they have me. I have knowledge. And so our knowledge is amplified and multiplied. But one significant thing about knowledge is when you know what you don’t know.
And that’s when you call in somebody who knows.
Inspect
The meeting today commenced at 2pm. Participants included Mike and Ann, clients in the process of buying a single family home (and folks I represented in the sale of their Lakeview condo last year). A third party, the proverbial objective third party, at today’s meeting was Pete Neuman of Prairie Home Inspection.
Truth be known, Pete was something of the guest of honor at the gathering as he is a licensed home inspector brought in by Mike and Ann to go through the home with a fine-t0othed comb.
With ten years of bringing people home in the Chicago real estate market I have met more characters than I care to recount. And like a prospector sifting through the mud I have encountered a handful of bright and shiny professionals who make a difference. Among these folks is Pete. It was upon my referral that Mike and Ann made today’s appointment with Pete.
The Point
A home purchase, whether in the low six figures or in the multiple seven figures as my clients have made in the past week, is a mighty investment. For most people it is the most sizable purchase they ever will make. Clearly, this is not a time to make a mistake.
For most participants in the process the most obvious place to avoid a mistake is what they pay. But this is just one part of the equation. Another part of the equation is to ascertain that the home the buyers have fallen in love with is deserving of this love. In other words, we know it looks good – the point of the inspection is to make sure that the good looks are backed up by being fundamentally sound.
The Process
The home inspector rolls up, typically in a station wagon, minivan or small SUV. The vehicle has to have enough room to hold the bag o’ tricks and an accordion ladder. Some guys I have seen (not Pete nor Steve Hier, the other inspector I recommend) look like they sleep in the back. And most of them look like your dad if your dad was one to don plaid flannels and prone to home projects. But I digress.
Good inspectors walk the exterior of the property first. The thing to bear in mind is that here as well as at every juncture of the inspection, the inspector is taking a “snapshot,” accumulating information and running it through the sausage grinder of city code, safety, performance and completeness. He’s not sizing the property up in terms of whether it looks good. Instead, he is looking to make sure it runs right and safely.
Today’s adventure in good decision-making took just shy of three hours. In the course of the thorough review the home was inspected from top to bottom both in and out. In the course of the review Mike and Ann received a primer of home operations while learning about sump pumps and ejectors, electricity and hvac returns, foundations and shingled roofs. With a clipboard in hand they occasionally took copious notes though most of what they inscribed was a lengthy testimonial about how much they have enjoyed working with me.
From his bag Pete pulled what looked like nasal misters to spritz clouds that ensure ventilation systems draw air. He wielded a tickety-tick machine to make sure there were no apparent gas leaks. He used another measure to make sure a mark was not currently damp. He made sure plugs were live and windows opened. He operated heating systems to see that they would warm and ran every type of machine to make sure they were what they seemed to be including putting his jumbo cup filled with water into the microwave.
The cost of the education was $375. A pittance to pay for the peace of mind to learn the inner-workings of the home while getting a symbolic thumbs up on the purchase. As you might expect, not everything was perfect. And so the report summary will serve as a roadmap as the attorneys communicate with each other during their review, determining what needs to be addressed and whether credits are necessary for some issues identified. But while the home is not perfect neither is it so imperfect that the only way for my clients to gain peace of mind is to walk away.
(This happened a few weeks back on a home Pete inspected where his review found the home’s masonry to be deficient. The builder, a proud sort, decided to gain a Pyrrhic victory by telling us he wouldn’t address the brick issues, succeeding in not doing the necessary work but also chasing us to another home that Pete also inspected and whose imperfections were dealt with by the new builder.)
And so it goes
To find out more about Pete check out my review of him on yelp. He can be reached at 708.848.2244.
And you can reach me at 773.848.9241 for assistance in finding your new Chicago home or condo (and being sure to get it at the best possible price in the current buyers’ oriented market).
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Tom, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you once more, that I apologize for not subscribing to your posts’ sooner! I SO enjoy your writing – just wanted to let you know.