Category Archives: Home inspections

January Tips for Spring Home Sellers

Posted on 01/24/2011 | Leave a comment

It’s the end of January. People have been stuck in their homes for 2 months now with this winter. But just as gardeners are scanning through the seed catalogs dreaming of warmer weather, homeowners are thinking of getting their homes ready to put on the market when spring comes. (I’m sure it will arrive … eventually.)

I’ve had several calls from sellers this month to discuss what they need to do now while they’re stuck inside. Might as well start working on the to-do list when there isn’t much else to do except shovel snow and shiver.

Best time to put the home on the market?

I recommend having it ready to put the for-sale sign in the yard at least by the first week of March. Lest you think that sounds far away, it’s only 5-weeks from now. That’s not much time if you have much work to do.

Concerned about a buyer’s home inspection?

If you’ve not kept up with home maintenance or if you’ve done some work without getting proper building permits, you might choose to hire a home inspector to allow you to fix things in advance so they don’t become deal-killers later when you have an offer. If you didn’t get building permits that were required, you’ll have to disclose that on the Residential Property Disclosure Form that must be given to the buyer. Call me for names of some reputable home inspectors.

Is your carpet & paint in tip-top shape?

I just did this fix-up in December, so I can make recommendations if you don’t want to paint yourself. Carpet installation should NOT be a DIY project. While it’s not inexpensive to do these repairs, you’ll get the money back in price or time on the market. Call me for names of companies that will give discounts.

Do you need to de-clutter?

You know it’s got to be done, don’t you? Yes, I know it’s not fun, but … it will need to be packed for your move anyway, so start early. If you haven’t used it for 6-months, make it go away. You can consider giving it to charity or sell it to consignment shops or simply trash it. I called 1-800-GOT-JUNK to get rid of some old, old furniture that I no longer wanted. I can get you a discount.

Not sure what you need to do?

Give me a call and we can schedule an appointment to discuss further. That’s one of the services I do for my clients.

Copyright © 2011. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Central Ohio, Fix-ups, Home inspections, Home selling process, Homes, Homes for sale, Sellers

Tagged central ohio real estate market news, tips for home sellers

Mitigating for radon in central ohio

Posted on 11/25/2010 | Leave a comment

I made a video of a recent radon mitigation installation. Since the home had two crawl spaces in addition to a finished basement, the work was more comprehensive than it would be in an unfinished full basement. The crawl spaces had to be sealed with a system to suck out the air coming from the ground below.

If you want to read more about radon, plus see an EPA map of where radon is more prevalent, read my post from 2008: Radon Testing Is Common in Central Ohio

The company that did the work in the video is Radon Systems in Westerville, OH. Call them at 614-891-6526.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Fix-ups, Home inspections, Homes, Powell Ohio

Tagged central ohio real estate market news, radon mitigation

The importance of local building codes & home inspections

Posted on 04/29/2010 | Leave a comment

Here’s another helpful tip for home buyers. When you get into contract on your next home, one of the first things you’ll need to do is contact a home inspector to set up a time for a home inspection. Your Realtor® may give you a few names on their suggested list or you may get the info from a friend or co-worker.

Have you thought about how you will know to select a “good” inspector? Or are you going to shop based only on price and availability? Will you be asking for credentials? Did you know that a home inspector in Ohio doesn’t have a license or any monitoring as to their credibility?

While I know money can be tight when buying a home, please don’t shop based on price! You’ll get what you pay for, and it could prove to be “penny-wise, pound-foolish”. You want to select someone that absolutely knows what they’re doing because it can cost you dearly later if the inspector does a poor job.

When interviewing the inspectors, there is an area of questioning that you might not consider, but should. Ask them which county they do most of their inspections. If that county doesn’t match the county of the home you’re buying, ask them how familiar they are with the building codes of the county the home is in. If the inspector isn’t all that familiar with your county, they may answer in a round-about way. Put a red-flag by this person’s name.

In central Ohio, each county has its own building codes. Some counties have much tougher codes than others. You want your inspector to do the inspection based on the COUNTY’S codes, not on the more general STATE codes. It’s also helpful if the inspector is knowledgeable enough to know what codes were in the past.

Codes change over the years, and it’s important for the inspector to know if the home “met the code of the day” when the home was built. For instance, consider that the home may have met the electrical or plumbing codes when it was built, but improvements in materials since have resulted in code changes. The inspector should know which codes are considered “grandfathered”. As a buyer, you shouldn’t expect a seller to bring everything up to current codes IF the work was done correctly at the time and passed inspection by the county.

In line with this topic – and your inspector can guide you here – watch for DIY work. Some homeowners may think they are more of a handyman than they really are, and will do the work themselves without obtaining a building permit. The Residential Property Disclosure Form, that the seller must complete, has a question that addresses this building permit issue.

TRUE STORY: I showed a FSBO to a buyer. The owner had finished his basement and was very proud of the work he had done. After he was done telling us all about it, I asked if he had obtained building permits for the work. He answered, “No. Those permits are just a way for the County to make money.” WHOOPS! – wrong answer. Plant a big red flag on this home.

Here are some other articles I’ve written about the home inspection process:

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Home buying process, Home inspections, Homes

Tagged central ohio real estate market, local building codes, selecting a home inspector

The grass is always greener …

Posted on 12/18/2009 | Leave a comment

Home buyers have it so much easier today. There are fewer surprises for them once they move in.

The first home I bought as a “we”, was in 1972. It was not customary to have home inspections then. You bought, then when the surprises hit, you considered it a function of home ownership.

Our first home was a small 3BR ranch on ¾ acres. It was just outside the city limits therefore it had a septic system. The leach lines were tiled to the back of the yard. The problem was that the back of the yard was sloped upward … meaning it was higher than the house … AND higher than the septic tank.

S**T DOESN’T FLOW UPHILL

Grass is greener over the septic tank As you can imagine, this caused problems. The previous owner had planted a willow shrub “downstream” of the septic tank. As with all willows, they LOVE moisture and will direct their roots to the “water”. (I use the term “water” loosely here.)

We only lived in the home 4 years, but that willow shrub quadrupled in size. Just like Erma Brombeck’s book, “The grass is always greener over the septic tank”, our lawn was always greener in that section of the yard. This old photo shows the green grass leading to the willow. The leach lines actually ran uphill to the left of this area, and the grass WASN’T greener over the leach lines.

Rural septic systems have improved immensely in the years since. There are more leach lines and owners can flip a switch to use half the lines for a few months, then switch to use the other half to allow the previous lines to do their proper filtering. Some homes have an aeration system which doesn’t require leach lines and processes the “contents” so thoroughly that the outflow is clean enough to drain into the open land, such as a ravine. (They say the water is clean enough to drink, but I think I’ll pass on that.) Then there is the “mound” system which is above ground and quite involved in how it must be built.

I must say these new systems, while better, wouldn’t be nearly as much fun or provide as much joking within the family and our friends, as watching the willow double in size every year.

FUTURE ARTICLES ON THIS “HANDYMAN’s DREAM HOME”:

Outflow pipe from a sump pump should be longer than 1-foot to avoid burning up the motor & flooding the basement during a hard rain.
Why a laundry chute shouldn’t dump the clothes on the furnace.
Why burgundy carpet is a bad thing for kitchen floors.
Think twice before you decide to paint the basement ceiling black.

Copyright © 2009. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Fix-ups, Home inspections, Homes, Humor

Tagged septic tank

Radon Testing is common in central Ohio

Posted on 09/30/2008 | 2 Comments

One of the inspections home buyers usually schedule in central Ohio is a test for radon. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas produced by the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water. The test is done during the inspection phase of the Purchase Contract. The test will cost the buyer between $110 to $150, depending upon the company the buyer hires to do the test.

The inspector will place a small testing device (silver box in photo) in the basement for a 48-hour period. The device will periodically sample the air. At the end of the test, it will produce a graph of the readings, then average them for each of the two 24-hours periods. The overall average is then used to determine whether mitigation is recommended. The EPA suggests that people not have long-term exposure to radon readings at or above 4.0pCi/L. (non-scientific people shorten this to “4 pico curies”.)

If the reading suggests mitigation, then a company is hired that does such work. Costs vary according to the layout and size of the basement and the subsequent amount of materials required. The least expensive that I’ve seen a mitigation cost is around $1000.

In doing the mitigation, the company will seal the sump pump with a special cover, cover any crawl space with heavy plastic and perhaps, caulk cracks in the concrete floor. As shown in this photo, a plastic pipe will run from the pump to an exterior wall, then be extended to the exterior.

On the outside a fan will be installed that will be sucking out the air from the spaces that are likely to be contributing to radon entering the home. This is primarily the sump pump but a pipe may also be installed under the plastic in the crawl space.

The outside fan and piping is usually installed in a somewhat hidden location if possible. Sometimes there are options on placement of this equipment, so you want to discuss with the mitigation company what the location options are. Keep in mind that this fan runs all the time. While it’s not much louder than the fan on your furnace, you may not want to listen to it if it’s near your deck.

I’ve not included any of the scientific information on radon in this post. You can read to your heart’s content on this EPA page where there are many detailed articles. You can also view a U.S. map or an Ohio map (scroll down the page to see Ohio map) of radon concentrations.

Is your pest inspector a little “bug-ey”?

Posted on 08/21/2008 | 5 Comments

When buyers purchase a home, they can have several types of inspections performed. One of those is a pest inspection which checks for evidence of wood-damaging insects such as termites, carpenter bees and carpenter ants.

If such insects are found, the inspector is to note on the official form whether the insects are LIVE or DEAD, whether they have done any DAMAGE to the home, and whether there is evidence of any kind of TREATMENT having been done to try to control them.

Lots of us have bugs, like those in the photo, in the corners of our basements. Yucky little spiders, little pill-bugs, and fast-moving centipedes. Other than being creepy-crawly, they don’t do damage.

Most pest inspectors will thoroughly check the inside and outside of the home and go up into the crawl space in the basement or the attic, looking for harmful critters. They look into places that homeowners often avoid.

Because they are in these hidden areas, there is a certain level of trust that both buyers and sellers must have in the ethics of the inspector. It’s just too easy for them to “plant” dead bodies to convince the seller to pay for a treatment. After all, with the inspection only costing around $60, but with a treatment costing $200 and up, they make their money on the treatment. The company should do an honest, thorough inspection … not try to solicit extra business in the form of a treatment.

Several years ago I had an experience with a particular inspector who “found” carpenter ants in the home of my seller. The inspector left an invoice for the seller along with a couple partial dead bodies in a baggie. Just as the bugs in the photo, after awhile it’s hard to tell one bug from another when their body has decayed. Well, the inspector picked the wrong seller to try to scam. The seller was a PhD entomologist. He KNEW he didn’t have carpenter ants by the sump pump and KNEW that the partial body was a pill-bug not an ant.

Recently this same inspector was hired to do the inspection for a seller. I alerted the seller to be on the lookout and if the inspector should say that there were damaging insects, that he should be challenged to show evidence and damage.

It seems the inspector hasn’t changed his ways in the interim years. He magically found a dead carpenter ant but could not show any damage or any evidence of live ants. Oh yes … if the seller agreed to have the treatment RIGHT THEN it would only cost $200 but would cost $250 if he had to come back another day. The seller said ‘no, thanks’.

What is sad is that the buyer just spent money for an inspection that is perhaps meaningless. A good rule of thumb when hiring a pest inspector is to inquire whether they also do treatments or if they leave behind an invoice. If the inspector answers ‘yes’ to either question, it might be best to call someone else for the inspection. As a buyer, you want the inspector working for YOU, not focused on trying to scam the seller for additional money.