Michael's View: July 2008

Late last week, the minimum wage was increased by 70 cents. However, as the already sagging housing market continues to get worse and businesses are closing, unemployment rates are rising proportionally.

Now it does not take a rocket scientist to understand, that raising costs in a declining market is not a very good economic strategy. In fact is downright dumb. Moves like this are certain to adversely affect the cost of goods, services and, of course, labor not to mention the impact it will have on those families whose budgets are already strained. The 70 cent increase will be gobbled up in increased costs faster than Pac Man gobbles dots. This is bound to add to more unemployment and inflation.

I really have to hand it to the flawed thinking of the geniuses on Capitol Hill for their lack of insight for helping to make a bad situation even worse. But then, why should they care? Anyway that’s my 2 cents worth…

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

As home inspectors, we are hired to find out what is wrong with the property that we are inspecting, and are quick to start the litany of what is wrong and do not take a moment to say what is good with the property. Think about it. If you were purchasing the property what would you want to hear, the good along with the bad or just the bad? After talking to many real estate professionals, the number one reason that agents go elsewhere for home inspector and drop you is either you “kill too many deals” with strong negative verbiage, blowing things out of peroration or scare the crap out of the potential buyers.

I have learned that a blend of both the good and bad helps make the transaction more palatable. After all, not every property we inspect is ready for the bulldozer. If the property is in a great location or close to a school say so. Think about it, there are at least 10 positive things that you can say about every house that you inspect. After all, the real estate agent’s customer is going to live in the property long after you and the agent are gone. What impression do you want to leave?

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton - Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Today, while inspecting a new property for a former client, I recognized a real estate agent that I had not seen for some time. After a few minutes of small talk and chit chat, I asked how here business was doing and was she busy. She said that she was very busy and had been selling a lot of property.

I congratulated her on her efforts; however, curiosity got the better of me and I had to ask whom she was using to inspect her properties as I used to get almost all her inspections. She told me and was quick to note, that he cheaper and was not as good or as thorough as my inspectors or me. And, she used him because of that and she did not have to work so hard to make the deals go through.

I asked her why she was using me to inspect this house then. Oh! This is for my daughter and her husband. I wanted a good inspector who would catch all the problems so we can negotiate for a better price and I did not want them to have any problems when they moved in.

Kinda makes you wonder...

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Monday Morning Motivator

Good Morning Active|Rain...

Every morning you are handed 24 golden hours. They are one of the few things in this world that you get free of charge. If you had all the money in the world, you couldn't buy an extra hour. What will you do with this priceless treasure? "

— Unknown

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Complete Home Inspections, Inc. | Brentwood, TN 37027

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Michael

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

As I sit in the motel room here in Oak Ridge, TN, waiting for the grand kids festivities in their church play to begin, I cannot help but notice how slowly the blog roll is oozing by by this morning. Generally by 8:00 EST things are really hopping here in the rain... Could it be the wifi that I am using? Did everyone go out and consume too many adult beverages and are sleeping it off? Did the world come to an end and no one told me about it? H-m-m-m.  Where did all the active rainers go?

 

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

When real estate agents and their buyers look at a property, more often than not, they are looking at the aesthetics of the property not the functionality. Initially when the untrained eye looks at this photo, one sees a sees a cool looking stairwell, loft and a nice clean open space.

However to the trained eye of the home inspector, much more comes to view. For example:

1. Even though this is an older property, the balusters (spindles) on the guardrail and handrail exceed the current 4” spacing required for child safety. Agents and buyers need to be aware that small children can slip through those spaces and suffer a nasty fall. 2. Also, equally as important, is the placement of the smoke alarms on both levels of the property. Smoke alarms provide an early warning signal in the event of fire, which may allow you and your family sufficient time to reach safety.

Properly placed smoke alarms are vital for the safety of you and your family. In most states, properties that have been rehabbed need to be brought up to current standards of safety. These are some of the issues found with this property:

1. The alarms were not wired together – when one-alarm signals, all should signal.

2. The alarms were not installed in the bedrooms. Current safety standards require all smoke alarms to be placed in each bedroom and hallway of in each level of the property.

3. There was no function smoke alarm in the basement or the garage.

4. Alarms need to be placed either on the ceiling or within a foot of the ceiling on a vertical wall.

Did you know...

· Smoke alarms monitor the air 24 hours a day, every day. After 10 years, it's been on the job for over 87,000 hours. At this point in its life, it stands a 50/50 chance of failure. Do you want to trust your life to an aged device?. If you don’t know how old your alarm is, or if it is more than 10 years old, replace it.

· The battery back up in all alarms need to be replace every year.

· Smoke alarms need to be tested monthly.

· Vacuum the outside covers periodically to remove dust, dirt particles and insects.

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Unlike the as in the famous poem, The Night Before Christmas, sometimes the prancing and pawing that you hear above your head is not the little, fat, jolly, present leaving elf and his 8 tiny reindeer that we love to have visit us every year. More often than not, it is the overweight, grumpy home inspector trying to squeeze through an attic scuttle hole two sizes too small…

I can’t say that we always bring presents, good tidings and cheer, but we are fun to get a good laugh out of occasionally…

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

I love the older, more experienced properties. Like many of our more ‘experienced’ citizens, there are certainly stories to tell, and a journal of what has historically happened in its life.

Yesterday while inspecting a property not too far from the world famous Opryland Hotel, I ran across this unusual repair by our ol’ buddy Bubba the unhandy handyman. One again, a classic example of how not to support a load-bearing girder.

The blocks were setting on the ground with no concrete foundation (18x18 for Davidson County), the bricks were kinda-sorta professionally mortared together, but the ‘coup de gras’ were the shims of asbestos shingle tiles… Yeah Buddy!

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Home inspecting is not rocket science… Most of it is just plain, common, simple horse sense. Generally, if an item does not look right or isn’t functioning correctly something is wrong which needs to be looked into a little further. The two major problematic areas are generally plumbing and electrical. Unhandy home owners and tradesmen either are not competent in various trade disciplines or just like to take shortcuts or the easy way out while doing home repairs or remodeling.

A classic example of this was while inspecting a rehab yesterday, the basins and the kitchen sink were not draining properly. When I opened the cabinets, the problem was obvious. There were no vents installed in the plumbing system.

Standard plumbing systems use water trap seals to perform the critical function of preventing sewer gas from seeping into living areas. Air pipe venting of some type is commonly used to prevent siphoning of traps. Although this method is simple, reliable and effective, it requires each plumbing fixture to have a lateral return vent that passes into the wall cavity system to a central stack system, or to have its own vertical vent that passes into the framing system of the property and out through the roof.

Another way to achieve this is venting is through the use of Air Admittance Valves. These are mechanical devices designed to maintain trap seals without the need for additional vent piping as described above. They are one-way valves that open only under negative pressure (created when a plumbing fixture is operated). When the water flow stops, gravity closes the valve, preventing the escape of sewer gasses into the property.

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton of Complete Home Inspections, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

As most of you know by now, flexible plastic venting for clothes dryer venting has been banned for use in residential properties for many years because it is considered a fire hazard. But I guess that our 'ol buddy Bubba just hasn't read the latest and greatest on this regulation. Maybe they will come out with a coloring code book one of these days...

I have to admit that the duct tape was the coup de gras...

What do you think?

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Thornton; Complete Home Inspections, Inc. Brentwood, TN, All Rights Reserved.