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
Inspection Illusions and Honest Advice with Laura
Ever stumbled upon a hidden room in a home and realized it was never mentioned during the home inspection? Well, you're not alone. Dive into an eye-opening discussion with Laura and me, where we debunk myths and share stories about the home inspection process that could save you from future headaches. Our conversation unveils the truth about inspectors' access to blueprints (here's a hint: they don't have it), and we also explore the critical role of seller disclosures, especially for those in the Ohio real estate market.
This episode isn't just about the hidden crawl spaces; it's a treasure trove of insights for agents and buyers alike. Learn how to manage expectations, avoid potential embarrassments, and why understanding the scope of a home inspection is paramount. Whether you're a real estate newbie or a seasoned professional, join us for a candid chat that will leave you better informed and ready to navigate the murky waters of home inspections with confidence.
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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For home buyers: What to expect from a home inspection. YT video for home buyers
Homebuyers, Help Protect Yourself When Going Commando (buying without the home inspection) – Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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If you would like to be a guest on the podcast contact us and let us know. You can visit Home (jimtroth.com) and go to the podcast page or message Habitation Investigation.
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:Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast. This is Jim, and with me, of course, is Laura, the office goddess. Hello everyone. It's been a while but we've been busy, which is great, but we plan on doing the podcast. Then we get busy and we get home and it's late and it's like we're tired yeah, let's go to bed.
Speaker 2:So a couple things we're going to talk about it, or I guess it kind of like it popped up like some things that people believe about home inspections. That is not true. It's important if you're an agent and you're listening. It's important for you to know this as well, because if you tell your client wrong, you're going to look silly. You're going to look like you don't know or you haven't been doing real estate for a long time and you've been doing it for 20 years and you get it wrong. It's like who is this person? Did she or he stop learning after they got their license? But we'll go over that. But first let's listen to this.
Speaker 4: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 2:Okay, laura, we had something pop up where we did the inspection and then, like three and a half, four years later, okay, apparently there was another crawl space.
Speaker 3:Hidden behind a finished area. And there was nothing mentioned in the MLS about crawl spaces, just a finished basement. Correct, correct.
Speaker 2:So we looked that up and the MLS listing said finished basement. Oh my, nothing about crawl space. We did find one crawl space and we got into that. This is like three and a half years ago. But then the person we recently contacted hey, I got some water. You guys never mentioned about this crawl space. And we're looking at the report like what are you talking?
Speaker 4:about what crawl space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we took the pictures in the report and we can see what wall he's talking about. And the inspector did a good job. Hey, you have moisture issues coming to this area of the basement. Here's the grading issue, here's the townspout issues. So, yeah, you're going to have water coming in unless you're fixing the stuff. And apparently they had water coming in shortly after moving. I guess they just cleaned it up and ignored the exterior of the house and all that.
Speaker 3:They never fixed the grading and then like three and a half years later, like hey you guys didn't mention this crawl space.
Speaker 2:The myth that came up about that one was that for some reason, the buyer thought that home inspectors get the blueprints on houses. No, home inspectors do not get the blueprints, even on new construction. We don't look over the blueprints. We, on new construction, we don't look over the blueprints, we're not looking at the building plans. And then this house was an existing home, older house. Yes, who knows where the blueprints are, if they even existed.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Or some previous owner even had them. So that's one thing. For some strange reason, somebody believed that we look at blueprints. Homeless predators do not look at blueprints.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Not in the slightest and we're not gonna. I mean, we can't inspect what we can't see Right. We can't inspect what we don't have access to Right. In this case, nobody even knew there was a space to even look at. It was completely behind a finished wall. It was not listed as having crawl spaces, which to me sounds like a seller disclosure.
Speaker 3:Right and I would agree with that.
Speaker 2:And the fact that they had water continually coming in, like we said they did in the report. But if the seller never said we have water coming in, then that's the seller disclosure, right and anyway. This is all good for the seller in this case, but anyway, inspectors never look at blueprints.
Speaker 3:So we had another one and they were wanting us to do a mold inspection and drill behind the drywall to do the testing behind the drywall.
Speaker 2:Was this for a purchase of a house?
Speaker 3:I believe so yes.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Which, once again, we do not do any drilling, we don't pull off anything, we do nothing that can damage anything. We are not. What homes on homes or something like that, yeah, why not? He kind of like over-dramatizes stuff and he's not a real inspector.
Speaker 2:No, he actually is a home inspector.
Speaker 3:Well, not like per our standards. No, no, he can do his own thing.
Speaker 2:For his show. People already own the house Right and they have full permission to have things tore out.
Speaker 2:That's why he's like well then he has to open up this wall and see if there's a leak back here. We can't do that, we can't do that, we can't do that. Actual home inspectors during a home inspection cannot be damaging things like that. So now if an agent had a buyer who was really concerned about mold behind the drywall, they're going to have to try and get permission from the seller. Hey, can we get behind here somehow? And most likely they're going to say no, I'm assuming the finished basement. They're going to go no, I don't want you to put a hole in my wall At that point. Really, you almost have to go on the assumption if there's dampness down there, there's a chance there's going to be, some mold going on that you may not be able to see.
Speaker 3:There's a chance there's going to be some mold going on that you may not be able to see. So if you have somebody that has allergies or asthma or reacts to mold, I would just go on that assumption and base your decision to move forward or not, based upon that.
Speaker 2:And that's actually another myth that homeless patients are looking for mold. We look for it if we see the fuzziness, but man, it's not part of the standard at all. No, and if anybody wants testing, that's a separate.
Speaker 2:That's a separate fee because that is not part of the standard of the homeless patient is getting mold testing, actually looking for mold, so that's something you need to pay extra for. But if you've got a finished basement and cellulose-type materials that are a food source and moisture, good chance there could be some mold going down there, so that would be an idea. If you can't get behind the drywall to have mold testing, an air test done. So then here's another myth that has popped up a couple times and I think it kind of sounds like some of the agents are perpetuating this, and that is that homeless pet owners will look for mice and termites automatically with that stuff. There's two different types of this is the general term that kind of screws everybody up Pest inspections and they will assume and they're meaning termite Termite would destroy an insect as a pest inspection. There's another term pest inspection is more for, like mice, raccoons, just general bugs in the house. Totally two totally different licenses for there.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Wood-destroying insect is its own license, then I'll call it critter, critter license, critter license. You know, rodent and pest, that is a completely separate license and I don't know of any home inspector anywhere that has a license also for the rodent and pest inspection. I'm sure there is somewhere. Don't know of any in Ohio, but I'm sure somewhere there is. So here's what happens We'll do an inspection and we will note hey, you got some signs of mice in the attic space or the crawl space.
Speaker 2:Well, later on and then it goes like hey, in our report, hey, you need to have a company come evaluate this and what those pest companies do. Pest and companies do, they will look for the entry points for those things to get in there. The entry points is outside of the scope of the home inspection. Now, if you have a soffit that has a big, huge hole in it, yeah, that's substantial enough damage where a home inspector should report on damaged soffit boards, face boards. If it could be seen Something substantial, yes, but for those little critters like bees, wasps, mice, squirrels, flying squirrels, some of those ones.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Looking for the little tiny entrance holes for those to go into is outside the scope of the home inspection. So if somebody, if you get a home inspection report that says, hey, there's evidence of mice in the crawl space and it doesn't matter, there's an opening somewhere for them to get into and that is outside the scope of the home inspection, I think what the pest inspectors will do is they will sometimes take a UV light and shine it and they use it to look for the urine stains from the rodents coming in.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, especially down in the basement or crawl space On the outside of the house. I really don't know how they do it, because I don't know how they do it because I don't have that license right and they're making, say it's a squirrel, it's going behind the fascia board, right behind the uh gutter, okay you can't see that they have to get up and up and top there.
Speaker 2:So if we or any home sponsor notes that there's hey, you got mice, bees, hornets, you know, attic, wherever you need to contact a pest control company to come in get rid of those things, treat it. But also they should look for the entry points. A little entry point is outside the scope of the home inspection. I don't think any real estate agent wants the home inspector to go. Hey, you have a quarter inch gap over here.
Speaker 3:You can have bees or rodents coming in there because, did you know, their skulls are collapsible 80's aren't going to want that no, but at the same token, if we put in so in the standards, we don't have to mention that we see insects or critters. But we do that because we're nice and we give our clients information. But if we're putting that in our reports, you need to have a company come that deals with that type of pest to look for the entry points, to look for any other areas that they may be in, because, let's face it, if they're up in the attic they started off on the ground level.
Speaker 1:Think about that. One Think about that.
Speaker 2:Mice don't. I've never seen a mouse climb the side of a house or jump off a tree under the roof. Never Imagine they could. I've never seen that.
Speaker 3:I've seen squirrels do that but I've never seen a mouse do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if those things are found, you got to call pest control animal control company to come take care of that issue and look for the entry points. That's outside the scope of the homeless motion.
Speaker 3:And do it before they close, so that you know how much it's going to cost.
Speaker 2:Correct, correct.
Speaker 3:Because that may need to have some type of an amendment.
Speaker 2:Yep, and like you said, laura, if the mice are in the crawl space, they're probably not going to be happy just to stay in the crawl space. There are holes all throughout a house. No house is sealed up tight.
Speaker 3:Mommy mouse and daddy mouse get busy and they get a big family going on. They're going to need to spread out for lots of room. They do.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's why you don't leave food out, because if they can't eat, they're not going to go somewhere else to live. I thought there was another one, but yeah, like Laura said, that's outside the scope. In fact, we can walk. As my example, we can walk over a dead pile of rats in the middle of the kitchen, not mention it in the report and be totally within the standards. The fact that we can do that means if there's a little tiny hole and there's bees coming in, we don't have to mention that. We're totally fine, within the standards, right? I think some buyers get really upset when a person, an agent, tells them oh yeah, they'll take our role.
Speaker 4:They're like no, that is not within the standard.
Speaker 2:And your agent should know the licensing limits and know their role in not confusing you with things Right? But I think that's about it on this one.
Speaker 3:We'll just do another one with the other one, yeah we'll do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had the ideas popping in our head while we were driving and then it's gone by the time we come here. But a little update the house is coming along.
Speaker 3:I don't know if that's something that we've given on this but the siding's on the roof's on Gutters may be going on today, Gutters may be on today.
Speaker 2:What else? Masonry? Everything's framed down to the inside. They started doing insulation on the walls, wiring Maybe the day before. Yeah, wiring's pretty much all done.
Speaker 4:Masonry heater's almost done Masonry heater is almost done.
Speaker 2:The basic structure of it is basically done and right now it's like six and a half seven feet tall yes, the main portion of it and then you're going to have the chimney. The ceiling of that air is going to be about 14 feet high, so it's probably going to go 13, 14 feet high, the rest of the brick going up. So that is underway. You can always check out our Facebook page or my personal Facebook page. You can see pictures there and actually I'll probably put it on the Habitation Investigation page as well, because it is a different type of. I'll call it a fireplace. It's kind of like that, but it's different, and I'm going to add information about that into our fireplace class. So that's how we teach that class, laura.
Speaker 3:Oh cool, You'll have our pictures in.
Speaker 2:Masonry heat will be in there as well. Yeah, I'll probably get a sketch or a diagram as to how they actually operate, because they are different. But other than that, that's it, buddy. Alright, everybody have a good week. Bye-bye, bye.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify or Google Podcasts 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.