The Most Valuable Home Inspection in Central Florida. No one does what we do, we include in our inspections a free mold assessment, free safety recall checks on all major appliances, and a customized report right on site.
Why would you waste money on a home inspection?
For the same reason you do a title search. For the same reason you hire a professional realtor or attorney or the same reason you purchase insurance. Duhhhh.
Those words and thoughts deserved their own paragraph. A written explanation should not be necessary amongst this audience. Not considering the on-line and paper research you do (I’ll leave that to those smarter and more experienced than I) how much time do you spend analyzing a potential investment property from the sticks and bricks location itself? There are always exceptions, so applying the probable and most common set of circumstances, would you say half and hour? An hour maybe? An hour and a half? That’s a lot of time wondering around counting how many toilets you’ll need to procure, how much carpet you’re going to need or deciding on what kind of landscaping will project a comfortable and happy sub-conscious image. Pretty fair guess though isn’t it? After all this you pretty much know what you’re going to do and how much this rehab is going to cost. The more experience you have, the closer to the “right” number you’re presumably going to be. Those of us with less experience might get pretty close but hey, you’ve thrown in a few hundred or couple thousand bucks for TIFs (things I forgot). Now you’re set. You do the rehab and you’re all fired up. One of four likely scenarios…1 You do everything right, your buyer/tenant/insurance company loves the house and the deal goes down like Tebow from the three. Scenario 2, During the rehab you discover that your insurance company was only kidding and they will not cover a series of known defective products in your house and the ultimatum is to get rid of it, rewire it, replumb it, reroof it, rewhatever it or they’ll get rid of you. This whole investment thing is a little more risky than you thought. Scenario 3, You find stuff you didn’t discover during your walk through and estimating escapades. So, you adjust and pay a little or lot more than you originally bargained for in your estimate. You replace, rewire, replumb, reroof, rewhatever. Scenario 4 You complete the rehab and your buyer brings in some schmoe like me that has been doing professional home inspections since 1998 and who spends 5 hours fine toothing your DaVinci work of art. I do my job and inform my client (your buyer) of all the skeletons in the attic, the snakes in the electrical panels, the disgusting schtuff on the evaporator coils and other liability land mines. Bonus scenario 5, You engaged the services of a professional home inspector when you bought the house, drastically reduced your liability and managed your risk like a pro. You’ve budgeted for a new fridge with a failed condenser fan, repaired the over fused circuits, upgraded some pool and electrical liabilities. You’re ready to roll. Your buyer/renter has little to negotiate a lower offer with you because you were prepared. Did I mention that on the front end, you revealed these things to the bank/seller/BPO agent and negotiated a better deal before you ever closed? Now, you da man or wo-man! Just imagine that you made a deal with your spouse that with the money you saved or made that you were going out to dinner and a movie or going on a vacation or buying that “get a man” dress! Yes, you are, da man or wo-man!
I would also throw in the obligatory Michael Gerber/Ray Kroc make it a system you “sexy in that dress” entrepreneur! Everything your business does should be a system. If you are a home pro, how will the business survive and thrive without YOU in it? Your staff/contractors/wife/husband/kids should be able to do most of what you do without you, otherwise all you have is another job. Your job should be the entrepreneur duties only. Do you think Lou Brown, Ron LeGrand or Donald Trump do their own inspections? Do you think Lou Brown, Ron LeGrand or Donald Trump use liability issues and professional inspections to their advantage? So shouldn’t farming out the bricks and mortar recon be part of your system?
If a professional inspection is part of your business, should you attend? Our company recommends that you attend the inspection for several reasons. One is that you get educated in the process thus becoming more valuable to your business and better prepared to evaluate similar situations in the future. The inspector is human and can overlook things, so the more eyes the better! If the home inspector and termite inspector are two different people, the client now has two trained people in the attic and/or crawl space. If you’re an advanced investor, attendance may not be necessary. You should be spending your time on creating more business. Send your assistant if you can though for all the reasons mentioned above. One incredible way to kick start this business is to attend the CFRI bus trip. The Junkers to Jewels is an amazing weekend that is worth far more than you’ll spend and it’s coming up soon! Thanks for your questions and commentaries! Jon can be reached at 407.678.HOME or at jon@inspectagator.com with other ideas. If we all stick together, nobody gets burned!
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