Mr._johngalt
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2002
- Messages
- 4,801
wildcat said:
No particular reason. Just my gut I guess. BTW, can we get
th back? This Grand Banks character is way too verbose
for my taste. Brevity man, brevity!
JG
JG & Real Estate people
- Thread starter wildcat
- Start date
No particular reason. Just my gut I guess. BTW, can we get
th back? This Grand Banks character is way too verbose
for my taste. Brevity man, brevity!
JG
Spanky
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Grand Banks,
What is a reasonable fee for an experienced builder?
Spanky
cute fuzzy bunny
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
You should pay between 300 and 500 dollars and it should take about 4 hours. Do not use the one the realtor uses, as they've been programmed to find $300-500 worth of 'problems' and not dig too deeply and screw up the sale.
Look for someone who has or still does do home building, find out how many inspections they've done (should be more than a few hundred), and see if they have "errors and omissions insurance". If they have that and they screw up and miss something, you have a shot at getting at least partially reimbursed for the repair work by the inspectors insurance.
Also, even though many states require a homeowner to get a pest inspection (rot and insect), get your own. The last two pest inspections I paid for as a homeowner, one walked around the outside of the house for about 2 minutes, jotted down a couple of pieces of bad trim and left. The last guy showed up, slapped a sticker on the water heater that said he was here, and sent me a clean report. Which absolutely worked fine for me...
Big stuff to check yourself before you make the spend...slope at least an inch or two every 3 feet away from the house, no large 'uphills' adjacent to your lot unless you have a heck of a drainage system (ie, you do NOT want a house in your backyard thats 50' uphill from you), gutters with good drainage away from the house. Concrete or driveway adjacent to the home is at least 4-6" below the slab or foundation crown. Doors and windows open and close smoothly with no gaps around them. Put a ball down in the middle of each room and make sure it doesnt roll anywhere. Ask seller if he paid to have work done on the place or did it himself...the latter should set off alarm buzzers...ask him to tell you all about what he did, most DIY-ers will gush endlessly. Write it all down and ask the inspector to focus on that. Get in the basement or crawl space and check the foundation for cracks, cracked beams and any wet areas or standing water. Get in the attic and do the same. Should take you about an hour and you might just find enough to warrant not bothering with the property anymore.
Oh yeah, and read any sellers disclosures documents VERY closely for downplayed problems before you even make an offer. They have to disclose stuff they know about, but some people are very good at 'marketing' the problems. Most people breeze by those documents during the closing when its too late. I remember seeing the disclosure for the house above with the defective siding; the disclosure read something like "some areas of siding may need some maintenance or repair/replacement". Doesnt sound like $15,000 now, does it?
If nothing else, in an average home you'll probably find a couple of thousand bucks worth of stuff to fix. If the problems are widespread, you also might panic the seller a little into dropping the price to keep you around, because once you've told him about the problems, he has to disclose them to subsequent buyers.
I've also decided to avoid buying anything older than 10 years. I've found that many homes built today, especially in california, really dont hold up well past 50 years and the building booms brough in a lot of poorly trained contractors who did shoddy work. Even newer stuff isnt necessarily built right but at least the problems havent had time to fester too long.
Look for someone who has or still does do home building, find out how many inspections they've done (should be more than a few hundred), and see if they have "errors and omissions insurance". If they have that and they screw up and miss something, you have a shot at getting at least partially reimbursed for the repair work by the inspectors insurance.
Also, even though many states require a homeowner to get a pest inspection (rot and insect), get your own. The last two pest inspections I paid for as a homeowner, one walked around the outside of the house for about 2 minutes, jotted down a couple of pieces of bad trim and left. The last guy showed up, slapped a sticker on the water heater that said he was here, and sent me a clean report. Which absolutely worked fine for me...
Big stuff to check yourself before you make the spend...slope at least an inch or two every 3 feet away from the house, no large 'uphills' adjacent to your lot unless you have a heck of a drainage system (ie, you do NOT want a house in your backyard thats 50' uphill from you), gutters with good drainage away from the house. Concrete or driveway adjacent to the home is at least 4-6" below the slab or foundation crown. Doors and windows open and close smoothly with no gaps around them. Put a ball down in the middle of each room and make sure it doesnt roll anywhere. Ask seller if he paid to have work done on the place or did it himself...the latter should set off alarm buzzers...ask him to tell you all about what he did, most DIY-ers will gush endlessly. Write it all down and ask the inspector to focus on that. Get in the basement or crawl space and check the foundation for cracks, cracked beams and any wet areas or standing water. Get in the attic and do the same. Should take you about an hour and you might just find enough to warrant not bothering with the property anymore.
Oh yeah, and read any sellers disclosures documents VERY closely for downplayed problems before you even make an offer. They have to disclose stuff they know about, but some people are very good at 'marketing' the problems. Most people breeze by those documents during the closing when its too late. I remember seeing the disclosure for the house above with the defective siding; the disclosure read something like "some areas of siding may need some maintenance or repair/replacement". Doesnt sound like $15,000 now, does it?
If nothing else, in an average home you'll probably find a couple of thousand bucks worth of stuff to fix. If the problems are widespread, you also might panic the seller a little into dropping the price to keep you around, because once you've told him about the problems, he has to disclose them to subsequent buyers.
I've also decided to avoid buying anything older than 10 years. I've found that many homes built today, especially in california, really dont hold up well past 50 years and the building booms brough in a lot of poorly trained contractors who did shoddy work. Even newer stuff isnt necessarily built right but at least the problems havent had time to fester too long.
Home inspectors
Agreed. And follow the guy around while he does the inspection-- you'll learn a lot and most of them love to teach. The talking will also remind them of things that they might otherwise forget to check.
Better inspectors bring a wooden baton to rap the fascia/soffett boards for termite damage, a receptacle checker to verify that electrical receptacles are correctly wired to ground or for GFCIs, and will check the operation of every appliance. This means they'll be starting the dishwasher, stove/burners, washer/dryer, etc (whatever's included in the sale of the home). They might also want to trip GFCIs or service-panel breakers.
They'll also check all the faucets (possibly including a mineral hardness conductivity check), all sink drains & drainpipes (for leaks or other telltale stains) and toilets.
Some inspectors may not do crawl spaces or attics. You'll want to know that ahead of time. Perhaps they'll compromise by shining a light into the space from outside and discussing it with you.
Agreed. And follow the guy around while he does the inspection-- you'll learn a lot and most of them love to teach. The talking will also remind them of things that they might otherwise forget to check.
Better inspectors bring a wooden baton to rap the fascia/soffett boards for termite damage, a receptacle checker to verify that electrical receptacles are correctly wired to ground or for GFCIs, and will check the operation of every appliance. This means they'll be starting the dishwasher, stove/burners, washer/dryer, etc (whatever's included in the sale of the home). They might also want to trip GFCIs or service-panel breakers.
They'll also check all the faucets (possibly including a mineral hardness conductivity check), all sink drains & drainpipes (for leaks or other telltale stains) and toilets.
Some inspectors may not do crawl spaces or attics. You'll want to know that ahead of time. Perhaps they'll compromise by shining a light into the space from outside and discussing it with you.
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