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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Winter Park FL Divorce Inspection, Home Inspection, Mold Inspection

7  little known ways to negotiate a better deal when purchasing real estate.

 
1. Secure a professional home inspection.
A professional home performance evaluation or home inspection can net you thousands, tens of thousands and even over $100,000!  Don’t worry about spending $400 for a professional inspection if it will return you $5000, make sense?  The key here however, is to hire a professional.  Since this is a relatively small cost start up business, there tends to be a lot of "HGTV Cowboys" in both regulated and un-regulated states.  I could go on all day but my point is that you really need to be careful whom you choose to perform your home inspection because you will find persons on many different levels of competence, with varying experience, different price ranges and dissimilar tool boxes.  I have come up with a list of questions to consider when interviewing potential inspector representatives which can be down loaded from web site for free, look for the book icon at the bottom.  Now even if you plan on doing some major rehab on a house and don’t think you really need the inspection, you just might be right.  Where am I going with this?  Even the most experienced entrepreneurs pay for a professional inspection.  With a professional report in hand and lots of nasty pictures, the smart investor uses it to re-negotiate.  Ask me about the “$100,000 club”  It’s just part of the game and due diligence.
 
2. Prove that paint is not just aesthetic.  
My biggest pet peeve is the condition of the home’s exterior envelope.  As a home owner, if I had not lived through three large hurricanes and TS Fay, it may not make as much sense.  As a professional inspector who saw moisture intrusion evidences in 99% of the homes I inspected after these events, it may not make as much sense.  Becoming familiar with building science has made it crystal clear that in considering existing houses, the better we caulk, seal and paint, the better the house performs.  I can usually provide explanations and pictures of just about every house I inspect on the vulnerabilities of moisture intrusion.  That’s a much longer article.  Ask me for them, I’ll send you a couple.  The next thing I do is to try and identify interior manifestations of intrusion to support my exterior envelope claims.  That’s a great segway into point 3…
 
3. Point out signs of previous moisture intrusion.  
First thing I do is look around the baseboard of exterior walls.  I look for stains that might indicate previous or active intrusion.  I look for delaminated baseboards.  Where there is separation of baseboard and walls, moisture may have been the cause.  I will often peer behind baseboards and pull carpet to prove my point.  Look for stains around windows.  Look for rust on carpets where metal feet from furniture once rested.  Use your nose.  Musty smells are often mold metabolizing.
 
4. Use known defective building products to your advantage.  
Just about no matter when your house was built, there are materials of construction that have proven to historically perform less than reliable or unsafe.  Electrical components, plumbing parts, old construction techniques, AC systems, interior finishes, appliances, etc.  the list is long and distinguished.  As a matter of fact, you can go to www.recalls.gov and check out the appliances in your own kitchen tonight.  It costs you nothing, even the phone call if you find an appliance on recall, and sometimes you get free stuff.  If you do this as a result of reading this article and find that your own kitchen or furnace has been recalled for some type of safety issue and you get a new appliance or a check, please let me know!  Shoot me an email and let me know what it was and how it went.
 
 
5. Talk to the neighbors and tenants.  
People love to talk.  They will tell you all kinds of things.  One neighbor once told me about some intentionally deceptive things the seller was bragging to him about and he didn’t want to see me harmed because of the ill intent of his soon to be former neighbor.  That was much appreciated!  I always ask tenants, “Hey, if there’s anything you want me to include on my list of stuff to be fixed, let me know.  Maybe the new owner will take care of them for you.”  I also often coach my clients to tell neighbors that they are thinking of buying a house in that neighborhood but their home inspector says the house has (fill in the blank) and you were wondering if they’ve ever had any problems with it.
 
6. Take pictures.  
Presenting a lot of pictures of defects in a home to seller’s or bank mitigators or BPO agents can be quite impactful.  Take really really close pictures of moldy areas.  Use props for scale like when taking pictures of cracks and gaps.  Common items like a pens, pencils or pennies help put things in perspective and helps remove doubt.  Wearing a pair of latex gloves while holding a piece of moldy carpet, drywall or damaged wood evokes an unhealthy and negative emotion you are looking for.
 
7. Model other experts.  
WWSD?  What Would Sharon (Restrepo) Do?  Or Ron LeGrand or Dave Lyndahl?  These people are successful because they’ve done certain things certain ways.  You can read and research to your hearts content, which is always advised, but that will take a lifetime and you can get a concise answer from a local expert with a simple question.  Becoming a member or maintaining your membership in your local Real Estate Investor Association will pay for itself over and over and over.  Join a master mind group.  Hire a mentor.  Take a class, it’s tons less expensive than attending a university and only takes a few hours.  Join a webinar or teleseminar.  Don’t be afraid to purchase course material, it’s tons less expensive than trial and error.
 
I could go on but you get my drift.  If you’ve got other ideas or comments please don’t be shy, email me at jon@inspectagator.  If we all stick together, nobody gets burned!
 


1 comment:

  1. Great Article.

    If you want to post some of your artcles on my blog let me know and I will grant you acess.

    ReplyDelete