The ROI of Comprehensive Home Inspections

Are you wasting your money on unnecessary inspections? Join us as we challenge the odd advice of hiring multiple specialized contractors for a single property review. Jim and Laura break down a real-life scenario where an agent suggested this impractical and costly approach, and they illuminate how a professional home inspection from companies like Habitation Investigation presents a far more effective solution. Think of home inspectors as the general practitioners of the real estate world—they have the expertise to identify issues and recommend specialists, saving you both time and money.

By tuning in, you'll understand why a comprehensive home inspection is such a valuable investment in your real estate journey. You'll not only gain insights into the ROI of home inspections but also learn how these evaluations provide peace of mind and informed decision-making. Whether you're buying, selling, or advising on property, this episode promises to arm you with the knowledge to safeguard your investment efficiently. Don't miss out on this essential discussion that could save you thousands and protect your biggest asset: Your life and your home.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

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 0:30

Hey everybody, Welcome to the Standing Out and Hot Podcast. This is Jim, and with me is Hi everyone.

Speaker 3 0:37

It's Laura.

Speaker 2 0:40

The office. Goddess, you know your role, you know your title. So, roi, return on investment. Return on investment I'm assuming everybody knows that they may not know the abbreviation, but they should know. If you're investing in something, you should get a return on it. Ideally, right? At least that's the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal. Dealing Right, at least that's the goal. That's the goal. That's the goal. Some people well, I remember a home, no, yeah, we had a buyer contact us. He wants to do the whole house inspection for him. He told me that his agent said no, don't get a home inspector. Why don't you go get an electrician, a plumber, an HVAC guy and a roofer? Have them all come out and take a look at the house. And a structural guy, a siding guy have them come take a look. A foundation guy Get all the people to come out and take a look. And you know darn well, first of all, it's hard to get somebody to show up.

Speaker 3 1:41

Much less. Contractors Just show up, much less between different companies.

Speaker 2 1:44

Contractors, just come to take a peek at your stuff instead of working on it.

Speaker 3 1:48

Because that's not a guarantee.

Speaker 2 1:50

Yeah, I added all that stuff up and you'll be surprised how much that came up to.

Speaker 3 1:55

But anyway, this is the price of an inspection.

Speaker 2 1:57

But first let's listen to this.

Speaker 4 2:00

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 2:25

All right. So if that guy did what the agent wanted, assuming you could even get all those people to show up on the same two to three-hour time frame to get those inspections out, which I guarantee is almost impossible You'd have to have everybody had nothing going on which tells me they're probably not any good, but anyway, and you should just keep on going, adding up, getting the roofer, the foundation, the electrician, the plumbing, the hvac guy I think I a siding guy, it was like 18, 1900 easily and that was years ago that was years ago.

Speaker 2 3:04

That was years ago. Well, yeah, it's probably closer to $25,000, $3,000 now to get that. And the buyer said, yeah, he told me to do this. I'm like he's like I think I'd rather. I'm like yeah, yeah, because you're not going to get those people together, I think our bill is maybe like $400. Right.

Speaker 3 3:22

Significantly cheaper.

Speaker 2 3:25

So we talk about return on investment. Home inspection is a heck of a deal, right, because you're going to get. We're not experts in any one field of construction or anything like that but we are really good generalists, right, especially Habitation Investigation. Our guys are really guys and gals are very trained. They're good. They'll let you know if you need to get a specialist in to repair something.

Speaker 3 3:50

I would liken us to a general practitioner. You go in, you see the general practitioner. They listen to your heart, to your lungs. If there's any concern with your blood pressure, your heart, they send you to a cardiologist. With your blood pressure, your heart, they send you to a cardiologist. With your lungs, they send you to a pulmonologist. We're very similar to that in that, like you said, we know general information about all the systems of the house. We know when you need to pay extra for that specialist.

Speaker 2 4:18

Yep, exactly. Plus well, let's say we can't do repair work Right. Plus well, let's say we can't do repair work Right. A general practitioner can do some stuff, but he's not a heart surgeon. So the general practitioner is not going to go repair your heart, repair your lungs, so somewhat similar, but we are not doctors, of course. But the ROI, and then I got to think about this. I'm like what is the ROI of doing some of the services that we do? Because the termite okay, say we do it, termite with inspection is 75 bucks.

Speaker 3 4:57

Right.

Speaker 2 4:58

Well, we could discover some termites and you need to spend $1,500 to get it treated, or $500, which to get it treated, or $500, which is kind of something the EPA actually is starting to recommend. Just do spot treatments where that issue actually is.

Speaker 2 5:13

Oh, interesting Termites can't see, they're not going to go. Oh, they're treated here and they go around the house on the other side. They can't see, so just treat where they're at. That's the best thing to do. So the ROI on that would be yeah, you spend $75, you might save, we'll say, $1,500.

Speaker 3 5:30

Not a bad return.

Speaker 2 5:31

Not a bad return.

Speaker 3 5:34

That's a 100% back.

Speaker 2 5:36

Yeah, so you may not. We don't find that. You got $75 for peace of mind. That's pretty good.

Speaker 3 5:43

Right.

Speaker 2 5:44

Sewer scope $250. However, that's pretty good. Right Sewer scope $250. However, they have good peace of mind, but that one ROI, on that one, there could be $10,000, $15,000 worth of damage.

Speaker 3 5:56

Our daughter had one for $20,000 when she was looking at a house, and that was five years ago.

Speaker 2 6:00

She did not get that house. No, she did not. But so ROI on that, amazing ROI on that, because that can really make the house unlivable until you get it cleaned up, assuming you have the money to get it fixed. The other thing I was thinking about was the ROI on a chimney scope, because chimney scope getting repairs on your chimney yes, we had somebody who like $8,000 to get their chimney repaired for the issues that were found.

Speaker 3 6:34

It was two chimneys One was $8,000 and one was $2,000.

Speaker 1 6:40

Okay.

Speaker 3 6:41

If I'm recalling correctly. But either way, $8,000 to $10,000 for two chimneys to get repaired.

Speaker 2 6:47

Okay, and my thought, one thought with that okay, let's just call it $10,000.

Speaker 3 6:52

Make it easier for Matt $10,000.

Speaker 2 6:54

Make it easier for Matt. $10,000 repair yes, the inspection could have saved the buyer from unknowingly having $10,000 repair. But also worse, the chimney could have burned the house down, killing people. To me, the return on that is astronomical, Price-wise.

Speaker 1 7:12

Yeah, you can't really it's hard to put the return on that is astronomically.

Speaker 2 7:15

It's hard to put a price on that one. So sewer scope very good return on the money, very important. Can get your house filthy, not livable for a little bit. Chimney can freaking kill you.

Speaker 3 7:28

Burn your whole house down so that one needs to be done. How many house fires are caught each year?

Speaker 2 7:36

There's like 22,000 house fires every year that are caused by the fireplace chimney. And it really doesn't matter too much what I'm seeing, because I've seen pictures, the ones with the metal prefab, with the metal pipe going up through the vinyl-sided chase, the chimney on the outside of the house those can have fires also.

Speaker 3 7:58

It doesn't matter. Nearly 25,000 chimney fires per year, causing damage to structures, injuries and deaths.

Speaker 2 8:09

Yeah. So the ROI on doing the chimney scope Priceless yes, that one. If you have a wood burner and you're going to use it, you need to get that scope.

Speaker 3 8:20

Wait, wait, wait. I feel like I'm in a MasterCard. Commercial Price for a chimney scope $250. Return on investment priceless.

Speaker 2 8:30

Not killing, not murdering your baby priceless, yes.

Speaker 3 8:34

Wasn't that an old MasterCard commercial? Was it MasterCard? Maybe, okay, maybe. I feel like I've heard a MasterCard commercial?

Speaker 2 8:41

I don't remember what it was. But you have to look at the ROI of these things Right, because it's not only is it buying peace of mind, it's saving you annoying expenses, but it also can really save a lot of frustration and potentially save lives.

Speaker 3 8:56

So another question In the past, let's say two weeks, how many burned electrical parts in the panel have we seen coming through text messages? I'm thinking of at least three.

Speaker 2 9:12

We've opened three in the last month. I'm thinking of at least three, Three in the last month, I think three in the last month where we opened up the electrical panel. Take a peek inside there and there's char marks inside where something melted on the main bus bar. We're seeing that In other places as well. Those are fire.

Speaker 2 9:32

That's another fire waiting to happen well, I remember the one chimney scope I did. I mean, yeah, it was an old house. People did not have an inspection, they moved from out. I think they moved from jersey. If I remember right, they moved from jersey. They came in and he goes yeah, I want to get this checked out before we use it come this fall or something like that. Now he's probably you mustn months from being cold enough to start burning it. So I looked up at the normal gaps between the old fireplace. I get so far up all of a sudden the terracotta flew. It's gone. It is completely missing, like it all cracked and fell down and that means what.

Speaker 2 10:11

Okay, you got your let's go from the outside in. Okay, you got your let's go from the outside in. Okay, you got your bricks around the outside the chimney.

Speaker 3 10:16

Right.

Speaker 2 10:18

And as you go beyond those going toward the middle, there's a little tiny gap.

Speaker 3 10:23

Okay.

Speaker 2 10:24

And then you got your terracotta tile flue for the smoke and heat to go through.

Speaker 3 10:29

So the thing that sticks up, that they put the little cap on.

Speaker 2 10:31

Yes, you got the terracotta flue.

Speaker 3 10:33

So that whole thing was gone.

Speaker 2 10:34

At the top.

Speaker 3 10:35

yes, so what does that mean in terms of him burning stuff? Were you able to see the attic?

Speaker 2 10:43

I couldn't see the attic on this one, which I have before, but I'll get to that. So what does it mean? As it goes up, the gases and heat are not going to go stay contained the way they're supposed to. They can escape out the sides.

Speaker 3 10:54

So sparks.

Speaker 2 10:56

Sparks. Yep, and I have seen where terracotta flew. It was damaged so you had big gaps in it and sections missing of it, but behind that I could see the structure of the attic, the wooden structure. Wow, rachel Ray.

Speaker 2 11:17

The chef their house caught fire. This is kind of common. They start fires in the attic space because, like I jokingly said before, the chimney is a red-headed stepchild of the house. They ignore it. They pay attention to it Christmas and Thanksgiving because they want to use it and that's about it. But in her house and this is common you get some gaps and cracks up there. The heat goes up into the attic space, the little gaps and then causes a trap there within that confined space up there and the wooden structure. It gets to the point where it'll ignite easily and the whole thing goes. So I think, roi, the two most important things to do is the chimney scope and the sewer scope.

Speaker 3 12:12

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 12:14

Other than that, you should always get the whole house inspection done, because that is far more that's so cost efficient than hiring every single profession to come in and check out the electrical, the plumbing, the cooling, the heating system, the roof structure. First of all, all those guys. You know they may have licenses for what they do. They don't know how to write a freaking report. Well, and not only that. How many times we've had people hey, can you check this roof out? Roof out for us, like large commercial, we maybe can't get to, they don't know how to a right report. They're terrible. I hired a guy to look at who's a large commercial building. They had a big boiler system for the entire building.

Speaker 3 12:58

I remember this, yeah.

Speaker 2 13:00

It took over a week to get that inspection report regarding the boiler you could have done it much easier. It was a shaded report. I had more information than they provided In your own report, in my own report because I took notes. I took notes myself because I didn't know what all they were going to get, because they were never really clear. So I took notes and put it all together myself. It was far better. I never hired anyone else.

Speaker 3 13:24

No, not ever again, since then.

Speaker 2 13:26

They were cheap.

Speaker 3 13:29

I understand why they were cheap. Well, you get what you pay for, and we learned that too.

Speaker 2 13:31

Yeah, so we do it ourselves. It's better quality, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 13:34

Definitely.

Speaker 2 13:36

So anyway, rny always have the home affection and never skip the chimney scope and the sewer scope.

Speaker 3 13:41

Right.

Speaker 2 13:43

And this is going to vary, but somebody has kids with allergies asthma they probably should get a mold test. Also Cancer chemical sensitivities.

Speaker 3 13:51

We could take care of all of that stuff too.

Speaker 2 13:53

And that's because it's more personal. Someone has sensitivities, things like that.

Speaker 3 14:00

But I don't know of anybody that can survive a house fire, not I, nope, no superheroes I know of.

Speaker 2 14:05

So anyway, that's it, thank you everybody. Take care and bye-bye. I know so anyway that's it.

Speaker 1 14:11

Thank you everybody. Take care and bye-bye. 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.