Standing Out in Ohio Podcast

The journey of Selling Our Family Home After 22 Years

Jim Troth

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What happens when you decide to uproot your life and sell a home filled with over two decades of cherished memories? Join us on a heartfelt journey as we recount the emotional rollercoaster of selling our beloved family home of 22 years. From the early days when our daughters were tiny tots, to making the decision to move on, this episode captures the essence of saying goodbye and embracing change. With the help of our trusted real estate agent, Judy Wilson from Howard Hanna, we navigated the selling process with organization and ease, making a potentially chaotic transition feel seamless.

Reflecting on this significant life change, we also revisit the origins of our business, Habitation Investigation, which was conceived just a month after settling into our now-sold home. The story of our business is intertwined with our personal growth and the incredible support from agents like Judy, who have been with us from the start. Tune in to explore themes of community, evolution, and new beginnings, and gain insights into how pivotal relationships can propel us forward, both personally and professionally.

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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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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.

Speaker 1:

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:

Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast. This is Jim and, of course, with me is Laura, the office. Goddess, hello everybody. Man, I couldn't get the words out.

Speaker 3:

It was amusing to me, I noticed.

Speaker 2:

All right, it was amusing to me I noticed. So all right, so big changes for laura and I not. I mean, it's been common, but we'll go over what those changes are.

Speaker 4:

It's all good, uh, but first let's listen to this 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:

All right, laura. Yes, jim, inspections in ohiocom all right laura yes jim what did we do?

Speaker 3:

this morning at 10 today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they were recording this. What happened today?

Speaker 3:

we went and we signed papers to officially sell our house of 22 years. Yes, that we never thought we would do.

Speaker 2:

No, no, when we bought the house, the girls were man. Megan was six months old.

Speaker 3:

right yeah, we moved in Caitlin is 15 months older than her, so she was just barely a little over a year and a half.

Speaker 2:

A year and a half old. Yeah, so yeah, she was close to two, they were like 15 months apart. So, anyway, big changes. So we did that today, two miles apart, but so, anyway, big changes. So we did that today. It's it's been, uh, been interesting, because we never thought we'd ever move from that place. Never thought we'd sell, never thought we'd leave that town no, I mean, we, neither one of us grew up there. You're an import from pennsylvania? Yep, I grew up in uh, but lived in columbus Columbus.

Speaker 3:

Well, I met you in Toledo and I lived in Columbus, lived in Marion, lived in Toledo so anyway, so that happened today.

Speaker 2:

Judy Wilson was the real estate agent that we list with. She is with Howard Hanna out of London yeah, well, she's used Habitation Investigation for years and I have her on her recommended list and you know, we just known her, actually very local. Well, we.

Speaker 3:

We knew her before too, because she grew up in Mechanicsburg. She went to school there, so like we knew her not long after we moved in Did we know her, before she became a real estate agent.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Dude.

Speaker 3:

We've known her for years.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so our company kind of grew along with her.

Speaker 3:

Along with her company, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But I do want to say that could we have sold the house without an agent? Yes, would it have been bumpy and unorganized?

Speaker 3:

yes, so using a real estate agent definitely made it a lot smoother for us to do that well, she had all her shit together and it was do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. We did that, she listed it and within a week, we had an offer.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3:

I wouldn't have wanted to have dealt with it and figured out, you know, like how to let people in and how to do all of that. And she helped with other companies and it was Well some of the things that was done, all right 22 years 22 years of doing a home inspection Right, I started a habitation investigation.

Speaker 2:

22 years 22 years of doing home inspection right, yeah, I started a habitation investigation. Man, it was like a month. Maybe it was a month.

Speaker 3:

We signed our paperwork. We moved in in October. It was filed October 16th. We started habitation November 20th.

Speaker 2:

So, it was like a month before I did the paperwork for Habitation Investigation, so it started at the same time. But years of experience doing home inspections, seeing transactions being somewhat involved in transactions, conversations about real estate transactions but it's one of the things we ended up not expecting to do, but all agents should be able to do this. If your client has, hey, how do I do this, or who you know that can help us do this, that is key and I don't know if a lot of agents, when they do their listing presentation, they, if they actually do that and sell themselves, hey, you get not only me, but I have a list of people that as soon as you know you need something, I can hook you up with them to help them out, cause we needed our, our house, built 1883 at the newest.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's an old house, solid. There's really nothing wrong with it, right?

Speaker 3:

They built them right back then.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, they still built things right. But man, this thing here was still the test of time, that's for sure. I remember going up in the attic space and the wood up there, the rafters, the ceiling joists, actual 2x12 wall metal I thought they were crazy. I'm like look how oversized this looks. And I tried drilling. Remember I tried drilling something, Breaking drill bits on it. Yeah, and it's aged very well.

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, even like the curtain rods. I couldn't drill curtain rods because the wood was too hard.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

That's why we went to the other ones.

Speaker 2:

Well, the tension springs on the inside. Yeah, so it's good house, solid, very solid, but it's 1883, so it's a different standard back then how they did things.

Speaker 2:

So this one had a dirt floor in the basement it's more like a cellar, just a dirt floor cellar, so there's always a little bit of moisture in there. But man, it's really was to the time. Anyway. We needed because we're running the company. We just didn't have time. We don't have time to do the deep cleaning, maybe a hospital. We need help getting some stuff out of a shed. We didn't want to take the shed away Because then that would impact them.

Speaker 3:

If they want to replace that, they can, and they don't have to worry about permits or anything.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

They can just replace it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, the new owners are like no, there's always been a shed, they just fix that one up and. I have to worry about getting a permit from some CD code dude who may be rude. Yep, yep.

Speaker 1:

So, anyway.

Speaker 2:

So I don't know if agents sit down in their listening presentation actually to say I have all these other resources, I can help you get this done. Get it done affordably for you. Anytime I had a question or this done, get it done affordably for you.

Speaker 3:

Anytime I had a question or needed something, within seconds she had a name oh yeah, and half the time she was contacting people for help and getting stuff done and it was just so much nicer than trying to stress.

Speaker 2:

Well, we had no time Because our new house that we built two hours away, like an hour 50 minutes, so basically two hours, yeah, so it it was not easy for us to go do any repair work on the house. To clean it. We did. We did spend a lot of time cleaning and painting painting, getting things all ready, because we never expected to move. But I think if agents if they're going to do listings, they should. Hey, here's what you should do.

Speaker 2:

Six months before you move. Start doing this, start prepping One month out. Stop buying groceries. Yeah, don't buy groceries unless it's something like eggs, milk, cheese, stuff you're going to use. That's going to go bad real quick. Don't stock up on stuff because there's more stuff you're going to have to move. Yeah, there should be a list of that, but anyway, she was very helpful and I do think listening agents should have, I want to say, rolodex of contacts that they can use to help buyers and sellers, and I don't know if they really market themselves that way.

Speaker 3:

Nope, that is a very good idea for them, because it made our lives so much easier.

Speaker 2:

I mean, it really did. Oh, definitely, Definitely.

Speaker 3:

So thank you, Judy.

Speaker 2:

Yep, so anything else has been going on with this.

Speaker 3:

Oh, I finished the one course. Well, two courses in Normie.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I've been doing a lot of education lately.

Speaker 3:

So I have my certification for creating remediation protocols for sensitized individuals.

Speaker 2:

This is regarding mold, and mycotoxins.

Speaker 3:

I'm working on the Norme Pro designation.

Speaker 2:

We should have a separate podcast specifically on mycotoxins. We may have talked about it before briefly and in classes, but we should do a podcast on that we should do some more.

Speaker 3:

Let me see what else.

Speaker 2:

That'd be more for somebody who owns a house and they're living it.

Speaker 3:

The mycotoxins Well, that one. We had an inspector that just did an inspection recently and the guy had three kids and they did a mold test and it came back super high, like really high, okay, and and so that was them purchasing the house and maybe not buying it because how high the mold report came back and he thought that the sellers had moved out because they had gotten sick, which would make sense if they were sick because of the mold and the mycotoxins, because of how high it was.

Speaker 3:

There were a couple of different types of mold in it, so yeah, we get yeah, and but it's easy to. Not necessarily easy to clean up, but it is cleanable it is fixable everything is fixable, you just have to take the time and to do it right well, some while, if you can tell me, we can talk about another podcast.

Speaker 2:

But not everybody gives a gives a darn about mold, right? I mean everybody should at some level, but most people are not hypersensitive to it well, there's that thing at ohio state.

Speaker 3:

Now we've been contacted about that, yep, so there's there's. I think mold is becoming more understood. Maybe that it has more of an impact on some people than others.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Because, like you and I go into a building and I'm sniffly and snotty and sneezing and you're totally fine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we definitely can have this on a separate podcast. That's for sure that topic we should? We should do that try to think what else is there mold class coming up later on this in a few few days. If not, we'll have one coming up eventually. But we've been busy with that, running the company to do a lot more commercial inspections, a lot more commercial inspections A lot more.

Speaker 2:

Commercial inspections have definitely popped up. Residents have gone down a little bit, but it's kind of ebb and flow. Wow, you got. Holidays are coming up. Now you have Halloween, which that's a pretty big holiday. If you look at them, it's actively being decorated. Yeah, that is true, that's a fun holiday. And then we have the elections. Yeah, that is true, that's a fun holiday. And then we had the elections, which everybody goes back and forth the election year, that's always impacting.

Speaker 2:

Things have been good for us, cannot complain at all. So we sold it. We filed a paper to sell the other house, the house we're in now. We don't owe anything on it, correct?

Speaker 3:

Not once I pay off the bills tomorrow, once it hits the account.

Speaker 2:

So housing debt-free, which is nice First time ever in my life. Well, yeah and yeah, because we built this one A bit at a time.

Speaker 2:

A bit at a time. Yep, the only thing we have debt-wise will be the land which hopefully will take care of that time. Yep, and then the only thing we have debt-wise will be the land which hopefully will take care of that fairly. Just a very few short years. But we've been busy Inspections. I've been doing inspections in Athens because we're closer down this area, chillicothe, athens. We're still doing things about Fountain, dayton area, delaware. Yes, we've been busy all over, keeping the spectrum busy as best we can. But that's kind of the updates with us. Anything else really, that's kind of the big news of us starting to get into CE season. We're doing more CE classes.

Speaker 2:

We'll put some more on the site, so that's about it for a quick update for more CE classes and we'll put some more on the schedule. That's about it for a quick update for the life of Jim and Laura. Thank you everybody. 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.