March 5, 2024 • 41 mins
March 5, 2024
125. Navigating Home Inspections What Every Buyer Needs to Know
This episode dives into the critical world of home inspections with expert Mike McLendon, unveiling the often-overlooked secrets behind the walls of a house, Mike shares invaluable insights that could save potential homeowners from the unseen pitfalls that lurk in properties, whether brand new or decades old. This episode explores why home inspections are not just a step in the buying process but a pivotal decision that could impact one's biggest investment. From discussing the emotional rollercoaster of house hunting to the technical aspects of ensuring a home is safe and sound, this episode is packed with advice, personal anecdotes, and the reality of dealing with home damages post-disaster. Whether you're a first-time buyer or a seasoned homeowner, this episode is a must-listen, offering a comprehensive guide to making informed decisions and protecting your home against potential disasters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
George Siegal (00:00):
Ever wonder what secrets lie behind the walls of
your home, would you agree?
It's in your best interest tofind out what might be wrong
before you become the owner ofthe house.
Today, we're joined by MikeMcClendon, a home inspector
whose expertise has savedcountless homeowners from unseen
pitfalls.
With Mike's deep dive into homeinspection essentials, learn
(00:21):
why a thorough check is yourbest ally, no matter if it's
brand new or has seen decadespassed by its windows.
I'm George Siegal, and this isHome Owners Be Aware the podcast
that teaches you everything youneed to know about being a
homeowner.
Mike, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Mike McLendon (00:41):
Happy to be here, we're glad to be with you and
talk about some of theseimportant issues with you today.
George Siegal (00:46):
Yeah, there's some really important ones, so
let's jump right into it andtalk about.
As a home inspector, what isthe reason why should home
buyers take a home inspection soseriously?
Tell us how important that partof the process is.
Mike McLendon (01:03):
In the general view of not just Florida-based
but any potential home buyercoming into a transaction, the
purpose of a home inspection isto sort of give you a much
deeper look into the home thatyou're getting ready to purchase
.
For most people, a home is thesingle biggest individual
(01:27):
purchase that they're going tomake in their life.
There's a lot of emotion thatgoes into that.
When we look for homes, when wewant to see happen in a home,
so right off the top, just ingeneral, too often when we're
shopping for houses and stuff,it's about neighborhood, it's
(01:49):
about areas, it's about design,it's about stuff that I want to
see and these kind of things,and those are all important.
Those are the things that endup giving us the memories and
everything else that we carrywith us for the rest of our life
.
But in our marketing materialswe say that the home inspection
(02:11):
we call it the moment of truth,though, and all that we're the
emotion of buying a home meetsthe realities of what that home
really is, and that's reallywhere the home inspector comes
into things in this transaction.
George Siegal (02:27):
I like to say that a lot of people are more
concerned about the icing on thecake than they are the
ingredients.
And so I know, because I'vebeen in the position many times
where you're hoping theinspector doesn't find anything
and it's really kind of theother way around you want them
to find stuff because if theydon't, you're going to end up
paying for it yourself.
Mike McLendon (02:47):
Well, and that's true.
And intellectually, you know,most people know that they want
their inspector to findsomething, but emotionally they
don't.
Yeah, it's what it is.
I mean, I've been fortunate,I've been doing home and so I've
owned my home inspectionbusiness.
(03:07):
We celebrate 25 years inbusiness last September.
George Siegal (03:12):
Congratulations.
Mike McLendon (03:14):
Yeah, we hit 25 years, To my knowledge.
I'm up in the Panhandle ofFlorida.
We're the largest, the longestcontinually operating home
inspection company in thePanhandle up here.
But it's funny, I have seenduring the course of an
inspection, you know where youknow somebody is joining us for
(03:35):
the inspection and they're soexcited and they show up and you
know I can see them.
They've been HGTV to death withall the plans that they're
going to do to this place.
And then during the course ofthe inspection, you know we're
going well, hey, I need you tosee this.
And look, we noticed this here.
And, and you know, there's oneparticular story that just has
(03:57):
always stayed with me this, thisyoung couple, and just
throughout these three hours Ijust watched their whole outnit
change.
You know there's as muchoverhouse and it turned out
there were some, somesignificant underlying issues
with this thing, you know.
But the reality is is that,even though emotionally,
(04:17):
honestly, this young lady, bythe time we were left she was
kind of crushed emotionally butat the same time intellectually
she understood this would havebeen a nightmare, you know, had
we come into this house.
George Siegal (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, if you think about how the process
goes, you're looking for houses,you find something, you kind of
fall in love and you go, oh, Ican see living here, now let me
check and see if it's okay.
But you would never call you inwhen you're just house hunting
because you would be a waste oftime and money.
I mean you have to.
You almost have to fall in lovefirst and then have your heart
broken.
Mike McLendon (04:50):
You do, you know I mean and you do, but but
fortunately the end, even theindustry has changed in the time
that I've been doing this.
You know, and I remember in myearly days, even within the real
estate industry, we weren't aswelcomed as we are today.
You know, and in my early and Ithought again, I started this
(05:13):
in 1998.
And in the early days therewere still a lot of those sort
of old school people that havebeen in real estate for years.
You know that, saw, if you askhome inspectors, oh they're just
guys that's out there to killdeals, so they're just there to
complicate things.
But even through these decadesthe real estate industry has
(05:34):
grown, it's gotten educated andand frankly, my experience, it's
like any industry.
You know, there are people,there are individuals in
particular industries that aremaybe not as above board as they
need to be, but the majority ofreal estate agents that I deal
with they don't want there to beissues with the home, they want
(05:55):
this transaction to go smoothand they want that client to be
very happy, even in the yearsafterwards, you know.
So that's another thing thatI've seen change.
Is that the real estateindustry, or to the point where
there are a lot of firms thatyou know once you cite, you know
once you like, you say, onceyou see it, once you fall in
love, you put your, your name onthat contract.
(06:18):
The first thing the real estateagent now is telling their
clients is we recommend that youget a home inspection.
George Siegal (06:26):
Yeah, and I've had a builder.
I've had a builder thatactually said here's a list of
inspectors I will not let on myproperty and that kind of
worries me then about thebuilder.
I mean, yeah, maybe that man orwoman inspector was was
nitpicky, or maybe they werejust catching a lot of the
builders mistakes.
Mike McLendon (06:43):
Exactly.
You know and it's funny becausethat's another thing that has
changed.
In my early days, builderswould be practically offended if
somebody was asking to have ahome inspector come in and they
would try to throw up roadblocksto us and stuff.
And I remember a couple oftimes I would say give me five
(07:05):
minutes with a builder and I'llget him to understand that this
is a win-win for him.
And this is how my conversationwould go with these builders.
I'd say listen, I Assume thatyou're trying to build the best
house you can build, right?
He goes yeah, of course I am.
You know, we, we believe inwhat we do.
Blah blah, blah blah.
That's fine, you're not here,you're not on this job site for
(07:28):
every nail that's driven, everywire that's pulled, every, every
pipe that's put in here.
You're just not here for everyone of those.
So what you've got happeninghere is you have somebody else
Paying to do a checkup on allthe subs that you're using.
Yeah because if you have asubcontractor who's cutting
(07:49):
corners, you may not know it andyou've got somebody else paying
to check up on that, so whereis the downside here for you?
And Literally, they would go,they go.
I never thought about that way.
George Siegal (08:03):
Yeah, I mean it's good to hear.
I don't know that a few of thebuilders I've worked with would
have thought that way, butbecause they would have thought
they were above mistakes.
Mike McLendon (08:12):
Well, and there is that and and there's a
particular builder in our areathat I'm not gonna name.
We, you know, we're not gonnado that but they have.
In Incredibly and there arelarge, large home builder but
they've thrown up Incredibly bigroadblocks to us making us
increase our, our insurance, theliability insurance things.
(08:37):
They say you're not allowed toget up on the roof, you're not
allowed to go into the atticspaces and they're claiming all
these liability issues and stuff.
But again, I'm like you, itmakes me wonder why I do not
want us going there, you know.
George Siegal (08:53):
Oh yeah, you have to go in the attic, you have to
go up on the roof.
Mike McLendon (08:56):
Yeah, yeah you know, and?
But we tell the clients, youknow.
You know your builder isrestricting us from doing this.
We just want you to know.
That's part of our standards.
But if they tell us we can't,we can't, it's their property.
You know, until they close onthat house, that property, they
own it, you know.
And but again, of all thebuilders we've got in our area,
(09:18):
this is just one that the actuallargest home builder that we
have in our area Welcomes us.
They, they put up literallyzero roadblocks to us.
They're helping us.
They want to know are wemissing anything?
Tell me what's going on, we'llget right on it.
So again it's.
It's like everything in anyindustry there are really good
(09:40):
players.
They're there.
They're not so good players,you know.
But that's where we come in,because you know.
Going back to your originalquestion, you know we are an
Uninterested third party.
I get paid whether that personbuys that house or not.
That's it.
I mean.
You know my, my, my.
(10:00):
Everything ends with this, withthis one, one job for me.
If they buy the house, great,they love me.
Quite frankly, if they end upnot buying the house Because of
what we found, they love me moresometimes because they go wow,
you saved us from a nightmare,you know, and and so, but that's
(10:21):
what, that's what we, that'swhat we bring to the table is
Everybody else not everyone,almost Everybody else involved
in this transaction has a vestedinterest in this house closing,
you know, and we don't.
George Siegal (10:40):
That's good.
I'm glad to hear a good builderstory, because inevitably we
only hear about the bad ones.
Most people don't.
I don't know many people thathave raved about their builder,
although I know there are a lotof great ones.
It's the people that areunhappy that make the most noise
.
Mike McLendon (10:54):
Well, that's exactly right, and it's the same
way with any, with any industry.
The unhappy people, you know,you know they'll.
They'll tell a hundred peopletoo.
You know, I'm the president ofthat team, that's that's my team
.
George Siegal (11:05):
I, I, I live that life now.
It's interesting.
I met you in Panama City wherewe were shooting for our
documentary film built to lastbuyer beware and you educated me
on something that I thought wasfascinating.
I'm always leery of woodhousesI think they're an accident
waiting to happen, especially inFlorida but you showed me how
it's possible to buildwoodhouses that may not
withstand the most powerfulstorms, but they sure give you a
(11:28):
good chance.
Tell us about what somebodyshould be looking for, and by
the time you come in it's toolate.
You almost have to know thatthey did this before the walls
are closed up.
Mike McLendon (11:38):
And that's true.
Yeah, and with some of thethings is, when we shot that
documentary, of course, we werein a house that was partially
constructed, so why all theframing was open.
But yeah, you know, in inFlorida, you can almost take the
state of Florida and cut it inhalf from north to south and and
essentially from Tampa or Lando, that kind of line up there
(12:01):
north, the majority of homebuilding up here is wood, frome
and, and there are some veryEconomic reasons for that as far
as availability of rawmaterials and things like that.
This is a, you know, the timbermarket for this part of the ink
is all in north Florida.
So, you know, wood, timber,lumber, it's just, it's just far
more affordable.
(12:21):
But but the building codes thatthey've been in, instituted in
Florida, take, take that intoaccount.
So, so a good majority of yourhouses spent, especially houses
that are being built along thecoast.
You know, within that, withinthe what we call these high wind
corridors and stuff, eventhough there there would frame,
you know we're doing a lot ofthings that you know, visually
(12:44):
we were able to see is, is, isthat the lumber themselves, is.
You know, traditionally wethink of houses being built with
just two by fours, you know,and a lot of the wood framing is
two by sixes.
First of all so that just givesyou a lot, a lot more stiffness
.
The spacing of how they, theyrun these, you know, up and down
(13:05):
is up or closer together.
So essentially the whole, thewhole structure is just stiffer
to begin with.
But then there's the number ofanchors that that that we're
using when we build, when webuild homes these days too, and
so you know, we've all, ifyou're, if you bought or sold in
(13:26):
Florida or you live in aFlorida house, we all heard the
term hurricane clips and andthings like this, you know.
But but hurricane clips, thesekind of thing, that's sort of
just the minimum, that that'sthe minimum requirement, you
know.
But what?
What we're doing in newerconstruction and higher end
newer construction, again,construction that is now
required in these, in these highwind zones and stuff is, is
(13:49):
we're anchoring these houses too.
Because, again it's, it'sgenerally when a when a house
suffers a catastrophic failureduring these herds and these
high wind things, it's not justthe force of the wind, it's the
vacuums and the pressures thatcan be created when a small
(14:13):
portion of the house may failand maybe something as simple as
a window being busted outwithin the pressures that can
come on the inside of that housestart creating pressures in a
direction that our buildingwouldn't always design for.
We were building from the windcoming outside in, not inside
out, and those kinds of thingsand stuff.
(14:34):
So but hopefully people willwatch the documentary because
it'll be great to see visually.
But we're anchoring all the wayfrom the slab to the very top of
the house and it doesn't matterif it's a single story, two
story, three story.
We have continuous connectionsnow with bolts and anchor rods
(14:56):
and cables and things like thatthat are tied in from the very
bottom of the house that go allthe way through the framing to
the very top and essentiallywhat we're trying to do is keep
that house down and connected toeverything and that's gonna be
around the entire perimeter ofthe home.
(15:16):
And so if you're in the marketand say you're having a home
built, if you're having a homeconstructed, these are
conversations you should havewith your builder.
What are the minimum codes formy area for this and can we
exceed those codes?
(15:36):
What would be the costdifference?
Because sometimes there aresome things that the cost
difference can be substantial,but sometimes maybe not so much.
It's a matter of a couple ofextra bolts and things like this
, and maybe that's worth alittle bit more to give you that
extra strength.
George Siegal (15:54):
Well, to anchor a house like the one you showed
us, where you do the foundationto the first floor, second floor
all the way up to the roof.
That doesn't seem like thatwould add a tremendous amount of
cost to a project.
Mike McLendon (16:06):
I agree with you.
Probably the most expensivepart of that would be the
engineering plans.
The actual material and laboris nothing, but it's like
anything.
You're submitting thesedrawings and stuff like that.
You've got to have certifiedengineers do this, so there are
some professional fees involvedin that, but the actual cost of
(16:28):
doing the work itself is fromwhich would be minimal.
It would be minimal, but it'sthe kind of thing you have to
plan up Again if you're in awhere you're having a house belt
.
It's the thing.
You've got to have thoseconversations early because
you've got to get it in the plan.
It's harder to somehow in themiddle of a go oh, I want to do
this kind of thing.
(16:49):
It's possible, but probably alittle more difficult.
One of the other things too thatwe're doing because we talked
about the impact and thefailures too is our openings.
Again, and, believe it or not,the weakest part of all our
construction whether it be woodframe construction, whether it
be masonry construction, block,those kinds of things the
(17:11):
weakest part of it are ouropenings.
We have to go in and out ofhouses.
We got to have doors, we got tohave windows, we want light, we
want all of those things andwe're not.
We don't want to live in a tank, nobody wants to live in a tank
, and which would be the safestright, but we always got to have
that balance.
So our openings are anotherthing, that there are things you
(17:36):
can do to strengthen thoseopenings.
In the house that we looked at,they were using what we call
impact rated windows.
So those windows are rated forwhat in Florida, what we call a
large missile impact rating iswhat they're called, and
(17:57):
essentially what that means inreal life is for it to pass that
test.
They shoot a nine pound twobefore that thing and I want to
say it's like 30 miles an hourand it's got to withstand it.
And same thing with doors, entrydoors, and so even solid doors
have to have a certain impactrating.
We tend to think of windows andstuff, and this is where a lot
(18:20):
of consumers I've talked to homebuyers and they go oh yeah,
I've got hurricane windows, andunfortunately people use those
terminologies and oftentimeswindows can have wind rates,
which means this window isdesigned to withstand a certain
mile per hour wind, but it maynot be rated for impact, and so
(18:44):
they're two different things andvery often, again, salespeople
whatever oh, hurricane window.
George Siegal (18:51):
Sure.
Mike McLendon (18:51):
Hurricane winds.
They may be, but some peoplethink sometimes they're more
protected than they really arewithin.
They're not, maybe not impactrated, and there's other ways to
provide impact rating too.
If you're in an existing homeand you wanna, because the
question like, well, what can Ido?
I'm in an older home, what arethings I can do to strengthen my
(19:13):
home?
Because I can't clearly rebuildit, I can't go do all these
things from the get go here, butone of the easiest ways that
things that we can do is tostrengthen our openings.
You can do it by replacing yourwindows with impact rating.
They have rated.
If you've lived in Florida,you've seen people with
(19:36):
coverings and different thingsthat they cover their windows
and doors with.
That can add that impactprotection and so on and those
are nice because they're thingsyou can put on and take off.
They don't have to be on there24-7.
So one nice thing abouthurricanes they typically don't
sneak up on us, so we have timeto prep and prepare for them.
George Siegal (19:56):
So one of the criticisms I've heard of wood
and again, I'm not, I don't, youknow, market myself as an
expert, it's just the people Italk to and I try to, you know,
get the best informationpossible is because of the
termite problem that we have inFlorida, that when you have a
wood structure and whether it'ssiding, that's on there, or
stucco, whatever you cover itwith, once water gets in there,
(20:18):
then you get.
You get rot, you get mold, youget termites, and that seems to
be the bigger concern and whythey say block is in a lot of
instances better.
What are your thoughts on howyou have to maintain it if you
do have a woodhouse?
Mike McLendon (20:32):
Yeah, and again, you know, if cost is not an
issue, if everything's an evenplaying field, you know the
answer is is a blockhouseprobably better?
You know my answer would be yes, it is, but costs are a factor,
you know.
They factor into every, everypart of everything we do in our
lives and stuff.
(20:52):
So, yeah, so it's like anything, block homes can also get
termites and they can get waterand they can get all those kind
of things.
The first two homes that Iowned were in Jacksonville,
florida, which is North Florida,but they were both concrete
block homes, you know, but myroof and structure and
(21:14):
everything wasn't there, and inboth of those I had termites up
in my roof.
You know termites are, they'reterminal little buggers.
You know there's a will,there's a way, you know.
So that's an issue for all ofus.
But you're right that you know,once you introduce water to
wood you're creating theenvironment for for termites,
(21:38):
you know, because, again,termites need two things to
survive, like anything, theyneed food and water.
You know, unfortunately, foodis a lot of the materials we
build with, so our defense is tokeep water away and again in.
So again, the answer to thequestion, in very basic, is
preventative maintenance.
(21:58):
You keep up.
You keep your house treated.
There are very effectivetermite treatments out there
today and typically most mosttermite companies.
Once you have a house treated,they will offer a bond which is
like an insurance policy to comealong with it.
So once they treat it, they'rebonding you against future
(22:19):
damage as long as you maintainyour treatments with them.
Even if you were to end upgetting termites or having
damage done, you know they wouldbe obligated to make the
repairs for those, and it's likeanything.
Have it inspected regularly,you know.
So what it boils down to in ashort answer is it's
(22:40):
preventative maintenance.
You know and keep up with whatyou're doing.
George Siegal (22:44):
Now, if you walk around your house with a thermal
camera, would that show youmaybe where there's water
intrusion or that there's somekind of something going on
behind those walls?
Is that any value?
Mike McLendon (22:53):
It is a value, it's not a, it's not x-ray.
It's not x-ray.
So a thermal camera showsbasically the surface
temperature and you're lookingat, and even some of the most
powerful ones.
And again, the thermal camerathat you're a home inspector is
going to have or somebody that'sdoing that kind of stuff, it's
(23:17):
not going to be these 20, 30, 40, $50,000 cameras that you see
in all your military videos thatyou watch, you know.
So they're going to be limitedin their scope but they could
identify a significant problem.
We use thermal cameras in ourinspection.
Not every home inspector does,but it is an option that we do
(23:39):
and it can very easily.
A thermal camera probably can'tshow you well, look, you've got
termites right there.
If it did, it would be prettymuch a massive investigation
that probably you would havefound anyway.
But what a thermal camera cando is it can alert you to
moisture problems.
(23:59):
Going back to your earlierquestion about getting water
into things and stuff, becauseas materials get wet, you know
if we're getting water intrusioninto you know into that cavity
between the outside of the houseand the drywall that we see on
the inside.
If you're getting water inthere, that water is changing
(24:22):
the temperature of whatever it'stouching, and that's what an
infrared, that's what a thermalcamera does.
It sees temperature, so it cansometimes very well be a glues
into an area that we've got asubstantial temperature
difference in this wall righthere and that needs to be
investigated to figure out why.
(24:42):
Why is this happening here?
George Siegal (24:45):
Okay Now another problem I have that I've seen
happen because it's happened tome and it's happened to me in
multiple houses that I've ownedis that whoever built it did a
half ass job on engineering itfor air conditioning and heat.
So certain rooms get warmer,certain rooms are colder, and,
for example, the office that I'msitting in right now.
I had to put a split system airconditioning unit in it because
(25:06):
the temperature was always fourdegrees warmer than the rest of
the house and some people willgo that's not a big deal.
Well, if you keep your house at78 degrees and your office is
at 82, it's a very big deal.
How do you catch those things?
Mike McLendon (25:20):
And again, that would be something that would be
difficult during the course ofa normal home inspection to be
quite on to.
That's probably something thatis not going to be caught.
That would be outside of ourscope of expertise.
George Siegal (25:35):
Yeah, I've never caught it.
Mike McLendon (25:36):
No, no, no.
And now, if you werespecifically wanting to check
that, you would probably have tohire an HVAC company to go in
and do that.
And it's a good thing for me tolet you know and let your
viewers and listeners know too,because as a home inspector, I
(25:57):
come into a house we haveroughly about three hours.
Is what about how much aboutwhat we spend in an average size
house?
And here's what I tell peoplesaid as a home inspector, we
have to be a little bit of anexpert and a whole bunch of
different trades.
You know we're.
I'm not a licensed roofer, I'mnot a licensed electrician, I'm
(26:18):
not a licensed plumber, I'm nota licensed H bag guy.
We have to know a little bitenough About those trades to
identify major concerns andissues and things like that.
You know.
So what we do do and I willtake in the course of my time
and doing home inspections.
In the course of a homeInspection, though, sometimes
(26:40):
you just walk into a room andyou instantly go.
This room seems warmer, youknow, I feel it.
Am I obligated, under mystandards of practice, to Note
that in my home inspection?
Probably not, because I can'tspecify, specify why.
There could be a lot of reasons, but it's an easy enough thing
(27:03):
to say this needs to be furtherinvestigated.
George Siegal (27:07):
You know, yeah, I wish everybody would do that.
Mike McLendon (27:09):
I mean, that cost me a lot of money to fix that
sure, yeah, yeah and but, um,but even, and again, I'm not
trying to defend, you know, thedifferent trades or anything
like that, but the reality is isyou can do the best formulas
because typically, just on thespecific issue with an HVAC
system, you know there areformulas.
(27:30):
They use a square footage of ahouse, cubic feet, this and that
, and that's just a math formulathat they use as far as how
they lay that out.
But then you get into thisspecific specifics of a room and
sometimes just where the suncomes in, or, and too often,
what will happen is that plangets done during the planning
(27:51):
stages and and this is probablythe most common cause of like a
situation that maybe you're inbut then during the course of
building, they go oh, we wantthis wall moved over to here or
there, and they make some slightadjustments, not understanding
the cascading Consequences thatit can happen to man, you're a
lot nicer than I am.
George Siegal (28:10):
I think they're saving money and they go Okay,
let's just throw this together,but, but, but I like your
attitude a lot better.
I think you have a betterapproach.
Now Tell me about the my safeFlorida home Program and how
people can utilize that whenthey're buying a house.
Mike McLendon (28:22):
Yeah, now, the my safe Florida home is something
that Florida has.
It's actually not new.
It actually came back,originated back in the 2000s.
There was a year I don'tremember the exact year there
was one year where they had fourmajor storms Chris Cross across
Florida and it just wasdevastating and and afterwards
(28:44):
they they instituted this and itwas a program to help
homeowners Strengthen or theyused to work harden their homes
Against storms.
So it's gone through a numberof iterations and then, of
course, the economy went bad andthe funding went away for it.
So it it never really went away, but it sort of Was dying on
(29:06):
the vine out there because therewas just simply no money in the
budget for it.
But over these last couple years, the government here in Florida
and the legislator have hasmade it a priority to fund it,
and so the my safe Florida homeprogram is a program where,
first of all, you they've gotthey've got their website.
I think it's just my safeFlorida home that you can go to,
(29:27):
you can register and the firstthing you can do is you can get
a free home inspection.
Now, it's not the kind of homeinspection that you would do
when you're purchasing a house,but it's a.
It's an inspection specificallydesigned to to identify Ways,
things in your home that youcould do that would strengthen
(29:47):
or harden your home againsthurricanes and high wind events.
So it gives you a roadmap.
And, just for full disclosure,I'm not doing that.
I don't work for the my safeFlorida home program and I don't
.
I don't get any work from them,so everybody's clearing that.
But it's a.
It's a free resource that's outthere for any resident in the
state of Florida, first of all,and then, depending on the
(30:10):
funding bill, I was like, rightnow, before we started here,
they, the legislator, justauthorized another hundred and
seventy six million dollars toit, but the program right now is
at a standstill because thatadditional hundred seventy six
million was allocated to fundthe applications that are
already been submitted, and soit this exists exact point in
(30:35):
time.
Right now they're not takingnew applications.
There's tens and tens ofthousands that are already in
there, but it's a good problemto keep an eye on, because
here's what's great about theprogram if you do Certain these
things, and when we say certainthings, we're talking about new
types of roofs, putting inhurricane cliffs, impact windows
, that all these differentthings that we've been talking
(30:57):
about, that you can do.
If you do some of these, youcan actually get grants To
offset the cost.
They will, they they're notpaying for all of it.
But there I think I want to say, if I remember, they will
sometimes pay up to half of whatthe cost are and Stuff.
So so it's a great resourcethat's out there.
And like, say, even if they'renot, if you're at a point when
(31:19):
you go off just heard about thisanymore but they're not taking,
you can still get the freeInspections and at least for you
, give you a roadmap and youmight go oh, this is something I
could do, or we could do thisand we could do that.
The other benefit that comeswith this is of not only
obviously just making your housefar more prepared for a
hurricane, but but it can alsogarner you significant discounts
(31:43):
on your homeowner's insurance.
One of the things, one of thethings we do here in Florida
when you buy, when you go toinsure your house, most of our
insurance company asked for whatwe call a wind mitigation
inspection form done, and theentire purpose of this form is
to see if you qualify forcertain wind credits in a house.
(32:04):
So if you're living in an olderhome and you don't have
hurricane clips, that's not anincredibly difficult thing to
retrofit and it's not horriblyexpensive.
If you were to add hurricaneclips to your house, you Could
have a wind mitigation done,showing.
You know, have this and justthat.
One thing in some instances Canreduce your policy by a
(32:28):
thousand dollars or more a yearat times and stuff.
So these other things, even ifyou're not getting state money
or what have you, oh, some ofthese improvements can more than
pay for themselves in thereductions You'll get in your
homeowners insurance too.
George Siegal (32:44):
Yeah, everybody should really think about what
they need to do to make theirhome as safe as possible,
because they'll see in our film,they could see in my last film,
the last house standing whenyou become a victim of a
disaster and you've lived thatyourself After Hurricane Michael
it's a long road back, isn't it?
Mike McLendon (33:03):
It's a long road back.
We had a hurricane Michael in2018.
I live in an older home.
My house was built in the 80s,so in the 80s there weren't
certain requirements that arehere today and we suffered
fairly catastrophic damage.
You know, on our home andProbably the in my home, to be
completely Put back to get wasalmost a year.
(33:24):
Took me just shy of a year toget everything back to to where
it was before and it's not.
George Siegal (33:31):
It's not fun, it's not, and I'm always
crushing insurance, theinsurance industry, but you
actually had a good experience,as you told us, but it still
took a year.
Mike McLendon (33:42):
It still took a year, yeah, and so, yeah, I was
fortunate.
I mean, honest to goodness, theinsurance company that I was
with I didn't have to battlethem, I didn't have to argue
with them.
They, their gesture, came out.
He missed some stuff.
We did a supplemental claim andthey didn't dispute anything
that I was asking for.
So, again, I was.
You know, I was fortunate inthat.
(34:03):
But yet still, the biggestproblem that you suffer during
the, during the hurricane, is isthis not isolated?
Your issue is not isolated, andso that's what makes it like
just to talk about bad luck here.
I don't know if it had happenedwhen you were here, but in
January I think it may have beenright.
(34:25):
I don't remember the date wedid.
George Siegal (34:27):
The ninth, I think it was.
Mike McLendon (34:28):
Yeah, I got hit by a tornado.
George Siegal (34:31):
Yeah, Did you have damage from that?
Your house was do you come outof there?
Mike McLendon (34:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
As a matter of fact, tomorrow Ihave another roof being
installed, I have new roofing,but on tomorrow.
George Siegal (34:43):
So we saw that house in Panama City.
That tipped over, yes that'sright.
Mike McLendon (34:47):
That's right.
I can't remember our time.
That's right.
It had just happened.
It had just happened.
But yeah, but what's beendifferent this time?
And it's been interestingbecause we're talking five years
apart here.
It's almost comical.
I've been a native of Florida.
I've lived here literally myentire life.
I'm in my 60s and I've beenthrough hurricanes before, but
(35:12):
the hurricane Michael in 18, wasreally the first time I
suffered any real damage, andthen five years later I got
tornados.
George Siegal (35:21):
That was quite a tornado and the path that it
took.
We saw some houses that werejust obliterated by it.
Mike McLendon (35:26):
They were older, yeah yeah, and again I was very
fortunate because, even thoughmy claim was still a little
substantial structurally, I hadno structural damage this time.
But again, I garnered some ofthat too, some of the upgrades
that I did in putting my houseback together after Hurricane
(35:49):
Michael, because I did.
I took some of those steps tostrengthen it, some of the
framing and things like that.
As we were putting our housetogether, we upgraded, exceeded
what were the codes back in the80s when my house was originally
built and things like that.
But yeah, the bigger struggleand kind of going back, and I
know we're going to start with alittle bit, but the reason
(36:10):
these are such good investmentsup front is when you are trying
to do repairs after asignificant hurricane event,
just the availability ofmaterials, of contractors and
scheduling and things like thatjust make the process that much
harder.
So whatever you can do up frontto keep yourself from having to
(36:31):
be in those positions is somuch better.
George Siegal (36:36):
And the reason that building codes matter.
I had a recent podcast guestRoy Wright, ibhs, where they do
safety tests of structures, andhe showed us that the newer
codes can save a lot of housesfrom tornadoes maybe not an EF-5
that rolls right over yourhouse, but the one that hit
Panama City.
Certainly the older structurestook it a lot worse than the
(36:58):
newer ones.
Mike McLendon (36:59):
Absolutely, and even in Hurricane Michael, that
was what was striking to me as Idrove around.
And I drove there because,again, I've been inspecting now
in this area for 20 plus years,right, so you know, these are
the older neighborhoods, theseare the newer construction
neighborhoods and stuff, and asI went through, just drove
(37:20):
through those neighborhoods, youcould see very distinctive
differences to the level ofdestruction, you know.
And as the newer homes, again,were there some catastrophic
failures of newer homes?
Yeah, there were, but therewere much fewer of them than
there were of older homes.
(37:42):
Yeah exactly right.
Building codes do make adifference.
George Siegal (37:45):
It's awful to see that kind of damage.
So let's wrap this up with someaction items for people.
I'm getting a house, buying ahouse new, old, whatever.
What should I look for in ahome inspector?
What should I want to have afeeling of as I'm hiring that
individual?
Mike McLendon (38:01):
Okay.
So when you're interviewing ahome inspector, here's some
questions you answered, ofcourse.
The first obvious question areyou licensed?
Make sure he's licensed.
I mean, that sort of seemsobvious, but make sure he's
licensed.
Make sure he carries E&Oinsurance.
E&o stands for Errors andEmissions Insurance.
Okay, and that's an insurancethere to protect you.
And Casey does a bad inspection, we carry it.
(38:22):
We are not required by thestate of Florida to carry it.
It's an option, so somethingthey should carry.
Two, will he let you come alongduring the inspection?
You've got home inspectors.
No one wants you there.
Talk to someone else, just talkto someone else.
You need to be able to haveconversations.
(38:44):
Now if he says, well, I don'twant you there for the whole
thing, I want you to come nearthe end, that's fine, you know,
because you get a little gab.
He's trying to get his workdone, that's fine.
You don't want to distract him,but you want a guy that you can
have a conversation with andthat you can ask questions to,
and he's willing to take thetime to explain to you what your
concerns are.
(39:04):
And number two, and the lastthing too, is make sure you tell
him what your concerns are.
One of our standard things.
When we're booking aninspection, when we talk to the
client, they give us the address, blah, blah, blah.
And then one of the questionswe always ask is was there
anything in particular duringyour walkthroughs at the house
that you were concerned about?
(39:25):
Now, sometimes there's sillythings and that's okay, but we
want to know what are yourconcerns?
You know, what is it that you?
You know was you did yourwalkthroughs, did you see
anything?
You went, ooh, what about that?
You know.
And so these are the kind ofthings that, if they're not
willing to have those kind ofconversations with you, there's
plenty of guys that will.
George Siegal (39:45):
Yeah, and guys and men and women, we want to
say that.
Of course yes, Because I hadthe email inspectors on that man
I'd be afraid of if I was abuilder, because those ladies
are tough.
It's you know it's an importantjob and you really don't want
to throw that away.
So hopefully people will heedthis advice.
I mean, that's greatinformation.
(40:06):
And then the typical cost of aninspection usually the range
would be what?
Mike McLendon (40:11):
Probably.
I'd say on average in Floridayou're probably looking to do
$500, $700.
There are different variationsthat typically how big your
house is gonna be more smallerhouses, different add-ons,
different services, things likethat.
Probably in that range.
George Siegal (40:25):
And people should also understand don't gloss
over problems, because if it's aproblem when you're looking at
it in the beginning, it'sprobably gonna be a problem down
the road, and those thingsdon't fix themselves, do they?
Mike McLendon (40:36):
That is correct, and they never get better.
They may not get worse, butthey usually do.
George Siegal (40:43):
Yeah, I think I can attest to that.
So, hey, Mike, thank you somuch for coming on today.
Your contact information, howpeople can reach out to you,
we'll all be in the show notesof the podcast, but I really
appreciate your time.
Mike McLendon (40:56):
Absolutely, it's great.
George Siegal (40:57):
I know a lot of you have stories good and bad
about your experiences as ahomeowner.
There's a contact form in theshow notes.
Fill it out and I look forwardto having you on a podcast to
share your story.
Thank you for listening.
I'll see you next time.
Ever wonder what secrets lie behind the walls of
your home, would you agree?
It's in your best interest tofind out what might be wrong
before you become the owner ofthe house.
Today, we're joined by MikeMcClendon, a home inspector
whose expertise has savedcountless homeowners from unseen
pitfalls.
With Mike's deep dive into homeinspection essentials, learn
(00:21):
why a thorough check is yourbest ally, no matter if it's
brand new or has seen decadespassed by its windows.
I'm George Siegal, and this isHome Owners Be Aware the podcast
that teaches you everything youneed to know about being a
homeowner.
Mike, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Mike McLendon (00:41):
Happy to be here, we're glad to be with you and
talk about some of theseimportant issues with you today.
George Siegal (00:46):
Yeah, there's some really important ones, so
let's jump right into it andtalk about.
As a home inspector, what isthe reason why should home
buyers take a home inspection soseriously?
Tell us how important that partof the process is.
Mike McLendon (01:03):
In the general view of not just Florida-based
but any potential home buyercoming into a transaction, the
purpose of a home inspection isto sort of give you a much
deeper look into the home thatyou're getting ready to purchase
.
For most people, a home is thesingle biggest individual
(01:27):
purchase that they're going tomake in their life.
There's a lot of emotion thatgoes into that.
When we look for homes, when wewant to see happen in a home,
so right off the top, just ingeneral, too often when we're
shopping for houses and stuff,it's about neighborhood, it's
(01:49):
about areas, it's about design,it's about stuff that I want to
see and these kind of things,and those are all important.
Those are the things that endup giving us the memories and
everything else that we carrywith us for the rest of our life
.
But in our marketing materialswe say that the home inspection
(02:11):
we call it the moment of truth,though, and all that we're the
emotion of buying a home meetsthe realities of what that home
really is, and that's reallywhere the home inspector comes
into things in this transaction.
George Siegal (02:27):
I like to say that a lot of people are more
concerned about the icing on thecake than they are the
ingredients.
And so I know, because I'vebeen in the position many times
where you're hoping theinspector doesn't find anything
and it's really kind of theother way around you want them
to find stuff because if theydon't, you're going to end up
paying for it yourself.
Mike McLendon (02:47):
Well, and that's true.
And intellectually, you know,most people know that they want
their inspector to findsomething, but emotionally they
don't.
Yeah, it's what it is.
I mean, I've been fortunate,I've been doing home and so I've
owned my home inspectionbusiness.
(03:07):
We celebrate 25 years inbusiness last September.
George Siegal (03:12):
Congratulations.
Mike McLendon (03:14):
Yeah, we hit 25 years, To my knowledge.
I'm up in the Panhandle ofFlorida.
We're the largest, the longestcontinually operating home
inspection company in thePanhandle up here.
But it's funny, I have seenduring the course of an
inspection, you know where youknow somebody is joining us for
(03:35):
the inspection and they're soexcited and they show up and you
know I can see them.
They've been HGTV to death withall the plans that they're
going to do to this place.
And then during the course ofthe inspection, you know we're
going well, hey, I need you tosee this.
And look, we noticed this here.
And, and you know, there's oneparticular story that just has
(03:57):
always stayed with me this, thisyoung couple, and just
throughout these three hours Ijust watched their whole outnit
change.
You know there's as muchoverhouse and it turned out
there were some, somesignificant underlying issues
with this thing, you know.
But the reality is is that,even though emotionally,
(04:17):
honestly, this young lady, bythe time we were left she was
kind of crushed emotionally butat the same time intellectually
she understood this would havebeen a nightmare, you know, had
we come into this house.
George Siegal (04:30):
Yeah, I mean, if you think about how the process
goes, you're looking for houses,you find something, you kind of
fall in love and you go, oh, Ican see living here, now let me
check and see if it's okay.
But you would never call you inwhen you're just house hunting
because you would be a waste oftime and money.
I mean you have to.
You almost have to fall in lovefirst and then have your heart
broken.
Mike McLendon (04:50):
You do, you know I mean and you do, but but
fortunately the end, even theindustry has changed in the time
that I've been doing this.
You know, and I remember in myearly days, even within the real
estate industry, we weren't aswelcomed as we are today.
You know, and in my early and Ithought again, I started this
(05:13):
in 1998.
And in the early days therewere still a lot of those sort
of old school people that havebeen in real estate for years.
You know that, saw, if you askhome inspectors, oh they're just
guys that's out there to killdeals, so they're just there to
complicate things.
But even through these decadesthe real estate industry has
(05:34):
grown, it's gotten educated andand frankly, my experience, it's
like any industry.
You know, there are people,there are individuals in
particular industries that aremaybe not as above board as they
need to be, but the majority ofreal estate agents that I deal
with they don't want there to beissues with the home, they want
(05:55):
this transaction to go smoothand they want that client to be
very happy, even in the yearsafterwards, you know.
So that's another thing thatI've seen change.
Is that the real estateindustry, or to the point where
there are a lot of firms thatyou know once you cite, you know
once you like, you say, onceyou see it, once you fall in
love, you put your, your name onthat contract.
(06:18):
The first thing the real estateagent now is telling their
clients is we recommend that youget a home inspection.
George Siegal (06:26):
Yeah, and I've had a builder.
I've had a builder thatactually said here's a list of
inspectors I will not let on myproperty and that kind of
worries me then about thebuilder.
I mean, yeah, maybe that man orwoman inspector was was
nitpicky, or maybe they werejust catching a lot of the
builders mistakes.
Mike McLendon (06:43):
Exactly.
You know and it's funny becausethat's another thing that has
changed.
In my early days, builderswould be practically offended if
somebody was asking to have ahome inspector come in and they
would try to throw up roadblocksto us and stuff.
And I remember a couple oftimes I would say give me five
(07:05):
minutes with a builder and I'llget him to understand that this
is a win-win for him.
And this is how my conversationwould go with these builders.
I'd say listen, I Assume thatyou're trying to build the best
house you can build, right?
He goes yeah, of course I am.
You know, we, we believe inwhat we do.
Blah blah, blah blah.
That's fine, you're not here,you're not on this job site for
(07:28):
every nail that's driven, everywire that's pulled, every, every
pipe that's put in here.
You're just not here for everyone of those.
So what you've got happeninghere is you have somebody else
Paying to do a checkup on allthe subs that you're using.
Yeah because if you have asubcontractor who's cutting
(07:49):
corners, you may not know it andyou've got somebody else paying
to check up on that, so whereis the downside here for you?
And Literally, they would go,they go.
I never thought about that way.
George Siegal (08:03):
Yeah, I mean it's good to hear.
I don't know that a few of thebuilders I've worked with would
have thought that way, butbecause they would have thought
they were above mistakes.
Mike McLendon (08:12):
Well, and there is that and and there's a
particular builder in our areathat I'm not gonna name.
We, you know, we're not gonnado that but they have.
In Incredibly and there arelarge, large home builder but
they've thrown up Incredibly bigroadblocks to us making us
increase our, our insurance, theliability insurance things.
(08:37):
They say you're not allowed toget up on the roof, you're not
allowed to go into the atticspaces and they're claiming all
these liability issues and stuff.
But again, I'm like you, itmakes me wonder why I do not
want us going there, you know.
George Siegal (08:53):
Oh yeah, you have to go in the attic, you have to
go up on the roof.
Mike McLendon (08:56):
Yeah, yeah you know, and?
But we tell the clients, youknow.
You know your builder isrestricting us from doing this.
We just want you to know.
That's part of our standards.
But if they tell us we can't,we can't, it's their property.
You know, until they close onthat house, that property, they
own it, you know.
And but again, of all thebuilders we've got in our area,
(09:18):
this is just one that the actuallargest home builder that we
have in our area Welcomes us.
They, they put up literallyzero roadblocks to us.
They're helping us.
They want to know are wemissing anything?
Tell me what's going on, we'llget right on it.
So again it's.
It's like everything in anyindustry there are really good
(09:40):
players.
They're there.
They're not so good players,you know.
But that's where we come in,because you know.
Going back to your originalquestion, you know we are an
Uninterested third party.
I get paid whether that personbuys that house or not.
That's it.
I mean.
You know my, my, my.
(10:00):
Everything ends with this, withthis one, one job for me.
If they buy the house, great,they love me.
Quite frankly, if they end upnot buying the house Because of
what we found, they love me moresometimes because they go wow,
you saved us from a nightmare,you know, and and so, but that's
(10:21):
what, that's what we, that'swhat we bring to the table is
Everybody else not everyone,almost Everybody else involved
in this transaction has a vestedinterest in this house closing,
you know, and we don't.
George Siegal (10:40):
That's good.
I'm glad to hear a good builderstory, because inevitably we
only hear about the bad ones.
Most people don't.
I don't know many people thathave raved about their builder,
although I know there are a lotof great ones.
It's the people that areunhappy that make the most noise
.
Mike McLendon (10:54):
Well, that's exactly right, and it's the same
way with any, with any industry.
The unhappy people, you know,you know they'll.
They'll tell a hundred peopletoo.
You know, I'm the president ofthat team, that's that's my team
.
George Siegal (11:05):
I, I, I live that life now.
It's interesting.
I met you in Panama City wherewe were shooting for our
documentary film built to lastbuyer beware and you educated me
on something that I thought wasfascinating.
I'm always leery of woodhousesI think they're an accident
waiting to happen, especially inFlorida but you showed me how
it's possible to buildwoodhouses that may not
withstand the most powerfulstorms, but they sure give you a
(11:28):
good chance.
Tell us about what somebodyshould be looking for, and by
the time you come in it's toolate.
You almost have to know thatthey did this before the walls
are closed up.
Mike McLendon (11:38):
And that's true.
Yeah, and with some of thethings is, when we shot that
documentary, of course, we werein a house that was partially
constructed, so why all theframing was open.
But yeah, you know, in inFlorida, you can almost take the
state of Florida and cut it inhalf from north to south and and
essentially from Tampa or Lando, that kind of line up there
(12:01):
north, the majority of homebuilding up here is wood, frome
and, and there are some veryEconomic reasons for that as far
as availability of rawmaterials and things like that.
This is a, you know, the timbermarket for this part of the ink
is all in north Florida.
So, you know, wood, timber,lumber, it's just, it's just far
more affordable.
(12:21):
But but the building codes thatthey've been in, instituted in
Florida, take, take that intoaccount.
So, so a good majority of yourhouses spent, especially houses
that are being built along thecoast.
You know, within that, withinthe what we call these high wind
corridors and stuff, eventhough there there would frame,
you know we're doing a lot ofthings that you know, visually
(12:44):
we were able to see is, is, isthat the lumber themselves, is.
You know, traditionally wethink of houses being built with
just two by fours, you know,and a lot of the wood framing is
two by sixes.
First of all so that just givesyou a lot, a lot more stiffness
.
The spacing of how they, theyrun these, you know, up and down
(13:05):
is up or closer together.
So essentially the whole, thewhole structure is just stiffer
to begin with.
But then there's the number ofanchors that that that we're
using when we build, when webuild homes these days too, and
so you know, we've all, ifyou're, if you bought or sold in
(13:26):
Florida or you live in aFlorida house, we all heard the
term hurricane clips and andthings like this, you know.
But but hurricane clips, thesekind of thing, that's sort of
just the minimum, that that'sthe minimum requirement, you
know.
But what?
What we're doing in newerconstruction and higher end
newer construction, again,construction that is now
required in these, in these highwind zones and stuff is, is
(13:49):
we're anchoring these houses too.
Because, again it's, it'sgenerally when a when a house
suffers a catastrophic failureduring these herds and these
high wind things, it's not justthe force of the wind, it's the
vacuums and the pressures thatcan be created when a small
(14:13):
portion of the house may failand maybe something as simple as
a window being busted outwithin the pressures that can
come on the inside of that housestart creating pressures in a
direction that our buildingwouldn't always design for.
We were building from the windcoming outside in, not inside
out, and those kinds of thingsand stuff.
(14:34):
So but hopefully people willwatch the documentary because
it'll be great to see visually.
But we're anchoring all the wayfrom the slab to the very top of
the house and it doesn't matterif it's a single story, two
story, three story.
We have continuous connectionsnow with bolts and anchor rods
(14:56):
and cables and things like thatthat are tied in from the very
bottom of the house that go allthe way through the framing to
the very top and essentiallywhat we're trying to do is keep
that house down and connected toeverything and that's gonna be
around the entire perimeter ofthe home.
(15:16):
And so if you're in the marketand say you're having a home
built, if you're having a homeconstructed, these are
conversations you should havewith your builder.
What are the minimum codes formy area for this and can we
exceed those codes?
(15:36):
What would be the costdifference?
Because sometimes there aresome things that the cost
difference can be substantial,but sometimes maybe not so much.
It's a matter of a couple ofextra bolts and things like this
, and maybe that's worth alittle bit more to give you that
extra strength.
George Siegal (15:54):
Well, to anchor a house like the one you showed
us, where you do the foundationto the first floor, second floor
all the way up to the roof.
That doesn't seem like thatwould add a tremendous amount of
cost to a project.
Mike McLendon (16:06):
I agree with you.
Probably the most expensivepart of that would be the
engineering plans.
The actual material and laboris nothing, but it's like
anything.
You're submitting thesedrawings and stuff like that.
You've got to have certifiedengineers do this, so there are
some professional fees involvedin that, but the actual cost of
(16:28):
doing the work itself is fromwhich would be minimal.
It would be minimal, but it'sthe kind of thing you have to
plan up Again if you're in awhere you're having a house belt
.
It's the thing.
You've got to have thoseconversations early because
you've got to get it in the plan.
It's harder to somehow in themiddle of a go oh, I want to do
this kind of thing.
(16:49):
It's possible, but probably alittle more difficult.
One of the other things too thatwe're doing because we talked
about the impact and thefailures too is our openings.
Again, and, believe it or not,the weakest part of all our
construction whether it be woodframe construction, whether it
be masonry construction, block,those kinds of things the
(17:11):
weakest part of it are ouropenings.
We have to go in and out ofhouses.
We got to have doors, we got tohave windows, we want light, we
want all of those things andwe're not.
We don't want to live in a tank, nobody wants to live in a tank
, and which would be the safestright, but we always got to have
that balance.
So our openings are anotherthing, that there are things you
(17:36):
can do to strengthen thoseopenings.
In the house that we looked at,they were using what we call
impact rated windows.
So those windows are rated forwhat in Florida, what we call a
large missile impact rating iswhat they're called, and
(17:57):
essentially what that means inreal life is for it to pass that
test.
They shoot a nine pound twobefore that thing and I want to
say it's like 30 miles an hourand it's got to withstand it.
And same thing with doors, entrydoors, and so even solid doors
have to have a certain impactrating.
We tend to think of windows andstuff, and this is where a lot
(18:20):
of consumers I've talked to homebuyers and they go oh yeah,
I've got hurricane windows, andunfortunately people use those
terminologies and oftentimeswindows can have wind rates,
which means this window isdesigned to withstand a certain
mile per hour wind, but it maynot be rated for impact, and so
(18:44):
they're two different things andvery often, again, salespeople
whatever oh, hurricane window.
George Siegal (18:51):
Sure.
Mike McLendon (18:51):
Hurricane winds.
They may be, but some peoplethink sometimes they're more
protected than they really arewithin.
They're not, maybe not impactrated, and there's other ways to
provide impact rating too.
If you're in an existing homeand you wanna, because the
question like, well, what can Ido?
I'm in an older home, what arethings I can do to strengthen my
(19:13):
home?
Because I can't clearly rebuildit, I can't go do all these
things from the get go here, butone of the easiest ways that
things that we can do is tostrengthen our openings.
You can do it by replacing yourwindows with impact rating.
They have rated.
If you've lived in Florida,you've seen people with
(19:36):
coverings and different thingsthat they cover their windows
and doors with.
That can add that impactprotection and so on and those
are nice because they're thingsyou can put on and take off.
They don't have to be on there24-7.
So one nice thing abouthurricanes they typically don't
sneak up on us, so we have timeto prep and prepare for them.
George Siegal (19:56):
So one of the criticisms I've heard of wood
and again, I'm not, I don't, youknow, market myself as an
expert, it's just the people Italk to and I try to, you know,
get the best informationpossible is because of the
termite problem that we have inFlorida, that when you have a
wood structure and whether it'ssiding, that's on there, or
stucco, whatever you cover itwith, once water gets in there,
(20:18):
then you get.
You get rot, you get mold, youget termites, and that seems to
be the bigger concern and whythey say block is in a lot of
instances better.
What are your thoughts on howyou have to maintain it if you
do have a woodhouse?
Mike McLendon (20:32):
Yeah, and again, you know, if cost is not an
issue, if everything's an evenplaying field, you know the
answer is is a blockhouseprobably better?
You know my answer would be yes, it is, but costs are a factor,
you know.
They factor into every, everypart of everything we do in our
lives and stuff.
(20:52):
So, yeah, so it's like anything, block homes can also get
termites and they can get waterand they can get all those kind
of things.
The first two homes that Iowned were in Jacksonville,
florida, which is North Florida,but they were both concrete
block homes, you know, but myroof and structure and
(21:14):
everything wasn't there, and inboth of those I had termites up
in my roof.
You know termites are, they'reterminal little buggers.
You know there's a will,there's a way, you know.
So that's an issue for all ofus.
But you're right that you know,once you introduce water to
wood you're creating theenvironment for for termites,
(21:38):
you know, because, again,termites need two things to
survive, like anything, theyneed food and water.
You know, unfortunately, foodis a lot of the materials we
build with, so our defense is tokeep water away and again in.
So again, the answer to thequestion, in very basic, is
preventative maintenance.
(21:58):
You keep up.
You keep your house treated.
There are very effectivetermite treatments out there
today and typically most mosttermite companies.
Once you have a house treated,they will offer a bond which is
like an insurance policy to comealong with it.
So once they treat it, they'rebonding you against future
(22:19):
damage as long as you maintainyour treatments with them.
Even if you were to end upgetting termites or having
damage done, you know they wouldbe obligated to make the
repairs for those, and it's likeanything.
Have it inspected regularly,you know.
So what it boils down to in ashort answer is it's
(22:40):
preventative maintenance.
You know and keep up with whatyou're doing.
George Siegal (22:44):
Now, if you walk around your house with a thermal
camera, would that show youmaybe where there's water
intrusion or that there's somekind of something going on
behind those walls?
Is that any value?
Mike McLendon (22:53):
It is a value, it's not a, it's not x-ray.
It's not x-ray.
So a thermal camera showsbasically the surface
temperature and you're lookingat, and even some of the most
powerful ones.
And again, the thermal camerathat you're a home inspector is
going to have or somebody that'sdoing that kind of stuff, it's
(23:17):
not going to be these 20, 30, 40, $50,000 cameras that you see
in all your military videos thatyou watch, you know.
So they're going to be limitedin their scope but they could
identify a significant problem.
We use thermal cameras in ourinspection.
Not every home inspector does,but it is an option that we do
(23:39):
and it can very easily.
A thermal camera probably can'tshow you well, look, you've got
termites right there.
If it did, it would be prettymuch a massive investigation
that probably you would havefound anyway.
But what a thermal camera cando is it can alert you to
moisture problems.
(23:59):
Going back to your earlierquestion about getting water
into things and stuff, becauseas materials get wet, you know
if we're getting water intrusioninto you know into that cavity
between the outside of the houseand the drywall that we see on
the inside.
If you're getting water inthere, that water is changing
(24:22):
the temperature of whatever it'stouching, and that's what an
infrared, that's what a thermalcamera does.
It sees temperature, so it cansometimes very well be a glues
into an area that we've got asubstantial temperature
difference in this wall righthere and that needs to be
investigated to figure out why.
(24:42):
Why is this happening here?
George Siegal (24:45):
Okay Now another problem I have that I've seen
happen because it's happened tome and it's happened to me in
multiple houses that I've ownedis that whoever built it did a
half ass job on engineering itfor air conditioning and heat.
So certain rooms get warmer,certain rooms are colder, and,
for example, the office that I'msitting in right now.
I had to put a split system airconditioning unit in it because
(25:06):
the temperature was always fourdegrees warmer than the rest of
the house and some people willgo that's not a big deal.
Well, if you keep your house at78 degrees and your office is
at 82, it's a very big deal.
How do you catch those things?
Mike McLendon (25:20):
And again, that would be something that would be
difficult during the course ofa normal home inspection to be
quite on to.
That's probably something thatis not going to be caught.
That would be outside of ourscope of expertise.
George Siegal (25:35):
Yeah, I've never caught it.
Mike McLendon (25:36):
No, no, no.
And now, if you werespecifically wanting to check
that, you would probably have tohire an HVAC company to go in
and do that.
And it's a good thing for me tolet you know and let your
viewers and listeners know too,because as a home inspector, I
(25:57):
come into a house we haveroughly about three hours.
Is what about how much aboutwhat we spend in an average size
house?
And here's what I tell peoplesaid as a home inspector, we
have to be a little bit of anexpert and a whole bunch of
different trades.
You know we're.
I'm not a licensed roofer, I'mnot a licensed electrician, I'm
(26:18):
not a licensed plumber, I'm nota licensed H bag guy.
We have to know a little bitenough About those trades to
identify major concerns andissues and things like that.
You know.
So what we do do and I willtake in the course of my time
and doing home inspections.
In the course of a homeInspection, though, sometimes
(26:40):
you just walk into a room andyou instantly go.
This room seems warmer, youknow, I feel it.
Am I obligated, under mystandards of practice, to Note
that in my home inspection?
Probably not, because I can'tspecify, specify why.
There could be a lot of reasons, but it's an easy enough thing
(27:03):
to say this needs to be furtherinvestigated.
George Siegal (27:07):
You know, yeah, I wish everybody would do that.
Mike McLendon (27:09):
I mean, that cost me a lot of money to fix that
sure, yeah, yeah and but, um,but even, and again, I'm not
trying to defend, you know, thedifferent trades or anything
like that, but the reality is isyou can do the best formulas
because typically, just on thespecific issue with an HVAC
system, you know there areformulas.
(27:30):
They use a square footage of ahouse, cubic feet, this and that
, and that's just a math formulathat they use as far as how
they lay that out.
But then you get into thisspecific specifics of a room and
sometimes just where the suncomes in, or, and too often,
what will happen is that plangets done during the planning
(27:51):
stages and and this is probablythe most common cause of like a
situation that maybe you're inbut then during the course of
building, they go oh, we wantthis wall moved over to here or
there, and they make some slightadjustments, not understanding
the cascading Consequences thatit can happen to man, you're a
lot nicer than I am.
George Siegal (28:10):
I think they're saving money and they go Okay,
let's just throw this together,but, but, but I like your
attitude a lot better.
I think you have a betterapproach.
Now Tell me about the my safeFlorida home Program and how
people can utilize that whenthey're buying a house.
Mike McLendon (28:22):
Yeah, now, the my safe Florida home is something
that Florida has.
It's actually not new.
It actually came back,originated back in the 2000s.
There was a year I don'tremember the exact year there
was one year where they had fourmajor storms Chris Cross across
Florida and it just wasdevastating and and afterwards
(28:44):
they they instituted this and itwas a program to help
homeowners Strengthen or theyused to work harden their homes
Against storms.
So it's gone through a numberof iterations and then, of
course, the economy went bad andthe funding went away for it.
So it it never really went away, but it sort of Was dying on
(29:06):
the vine out there because therewas just simply no money in the
budget for it.
But over these last couple years, the government here in Florida
and the legislator have hasmade it a priority to fund it,
and so the my safe Florida homeprogram is a program where,
first of all, you they've gotthey've got their website.
I think it's just my safeFlorida home that you can go to,
(29:27):
you can register and the firstthing you can do is you can get
a free home inspection.
Now, it's not the kind of homeinspection that you would do
when you're purchasing a house,but it's a.
It's an inspection specificallydesigned to to identify Ways,
things in your home that youcould do that would strengthen
(29:47):
or harden your home againsthurricanes and high wind events.
So it gives you a roadmap.
And, just for full disclosure,I'm not doing that.
I don't work for the my safeFlorida home program and I don't
.
I don't get any work from them,so everybody's clearing that.
But it's a.
It's a free resource that's outthere for any resident in the
state of Florida, first of all,and then, depending on the
(30:10):
funding bill, I was like, rightnow, before we started here,
they, the legislator, justauthorized another hundred and
seventy six million dollars toit, but the program right now is
at a standstill because thatadditional hundred seventy six
million was allocated to fundthe applications that are
already been submitted, and soit this exists exact point in
(30:35):
time.
Right now they're not takingnew applications.
There's tens and tens ofthousands that are already in
there, but it's a good problemto keep an eye on, because
here's what's great about theprogram if you do Certain these
things, and when we say certainthings, we're talking about new
types of roofs, putting inhurricane cliffs, impact windows
, that all these differentthings that we've been talking
(30:57):
about, that you can do.
If you do some of these, youcan actually get grants To
offset the cost.
They will, they they're notpaying for all of it.
But there I think I want to say, if I remember, they will
sometimes pay up to half of whatthe cost are and Stuff.
So so it's a great resourcethat's out there.
And like, say, even if they'renot, if you're at a point when
(31:19):
you go off just heard about thisanymore but they're not taking,
you can still get the freeInspections and at least for you
, give you a roadmap and youmight go oh, this is something I
could do, or we could do thisand we could do that.
The other benefit that comeswith this is of not only
obviously just making your housefar more prepared for a
hurricane, but but it can alsogarner you significant discounts
(31:43):
on your homeowner's insurance.
One of the things, one of thethings we do here in Florida
when you buy, when you go toinsure your house, most of our
insurance company asked for whatwe call a wind mitigation
inspection form done, and theentire purpose of this form is
to see if you qualify forcertain wind credits in a house.
(32:04):
So if you're living in an olderhome and you don't have
hurricane clips, that's not anincredibly difficult thing to
retrofit and it's not horriblyexpensive.
If you were to add hurricaneclips to your house, you Could
have a wind mitigation done,showing.
You know, have this and justthat.
One thing in some instances Canreduce your policy by a
(32:28):
thousand dollars or more a yearat times and stuff.
So these other things, even ifyou're not getting state money
or what have you, oh, some ofthese improvements can more than
pay for themselves in thereductions You'll get in your
homeowners insurance too.
George Siegal (32:44):
Yeah, everybody should really think about what
they need to do to make theirhome as safe as possible,
because they'll see in our film,they could see in my last film,
the last house standing whenyou become a victim of a
disaster and you've lived thatyourself After Hurricane Michael
it's a long road back, isn't it?
Mike McLendon (33:03):
It's a long road back.
We had a hurricane Michael in2018.
I live in an older home.
My house was built in the 80s,so in the 80s there weren't
certain requirements that arehere today and we suffered
fairly catastrophic damage.
You know, on our home andProbably the in my home, to be
completely Put back to get wasalmost a year.
(33:24):
Took me just shy of a year toget everything back to to where
it was before and it's not.
George Siegal (33:31):
It's not fun, it's not, and I'm always
crushing insurance, theinsurance industry, but you
actually had a good experience,as you told us, but it still
took a year.
Mike McLendon (33:42):
It still took a year, yeah, and so, yeah, I was
fortunate.
I mean, honest to goodness, theinsurance company that I was
with I didn't have to battlethem, I didn't have to argue
with them.
They, their gesture, came out.
He missed some stuff.
We did a supplemental claim andthey didn't dispute anything
that I was asking for.
So, again, I was.
You know, I was fortunate inthat.
(34:03):
But yet still, the biggestproblem that you suffer during
the, during the hurricane, is isthis not isolated?
Your issue is not isolated, andso that's what makes it like
just to talk about bad luck here.
I don't know if it had happenedwhen you were here, but in
January I think it may have beenright.
(34:25):
I don't remember the date wedid.
George Siegal (34:27):
The ninth, I think it was.
Mike McLendon (34:28):
Yeah, I got hit by a tornado.
George Siegal (34:31):
Yeah, Did you have damage from that?
Your house was do you come outof there?
Mike McLendon (34:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
As a matter of fact, tomorrow Ihave another roof being
installed, I have new roofing,but on tomorrow.
George Siegal (34:43):
So we saw that house in Panama City.
That tipped over, yes that'sright.
Mike McLendon (34:47):
That's right.
I can't remember our time.
That's right.
It had just happened.
It had just happened.
But yeah, but what's beendifferent this time?
And it's been interestingbecause we're talking five years
apart here.
It's almost comical.
I've been a native of Florida.
I've lived here literally myentire life.
I'm in my 60s and I've beenthrough hurricanes before, but
(35:12):
the hurricane Michael in 18, wasreally the first time I
suffered any real damage, andthen five years later I got
tornados.
George Siegal (35:21):
That was quite a tornado and the path that it
took.
We saw some houses that werejust obliterated by it.
Mike McLendon (35:26):
They were older, yeah yeah, and again I was very
fortunate because, even thoughmy claim was still a little
substantial structurally, I hadno structural damage this time.
But again, I garnered some ofthat too, some of the upgrades
that I did in putting my houseback together after Hurricane
(35:49):
Michael, because I did.
I took some of those steps tostrengthen it, some of the
framing and things like that.
As we were putting our housetogether, we upgraded, exceeded
what were the codes back in the80s when my house was originally
built and things like that.
But yeah, the bigger struggleand kind of going back, and I
know we're going to start with alittle bit, but the reason
(36:10):
these are such good investmentsup front is when you are trying
to do repairs after asignificant hurricane event,
just the availability ofmaterials, of contractors and
scheduling and things like thatjust make the process that much
harder.
So whatever you can do up frontto keep yourself from having to
(36:31):
be in those positions is somuch better.
George Siegal (36:36):
And the reason that building codes matter.
I had a recent podcast guestRoy Wright, ibhs, where they do
safety tests of structures, andhe showed us that the newer
codes can save a lot of housesfrom tornadoes maybe not an EF-5
that rolls right over yourhouse, but the one that hit
Panama City.
Certainly the older structurestook it a lot worse than the
(36:58):
newer ones.
Mike McLendon (36:59):
Absolutely, and even in Hurricane Michael, that
was what was striking to me as Idrove around.
And I drove there because,again, I've been inspecting now
in this area for 20 plus years,right, so you know, these are
the older neighborhoods, theseare the newer construction
neighborhoods and stuff, and asI went through, just drove
(37:20):
through those neighborhoods, youcould see very distinctive
differences to the level ofdestruction, you know.
And as the newer homes, again,were there some catastrophic
failures of newer homes?
Yeah, there were, but therewere much fewer of them than
there were of older homes.
(37:42):
Yeah exactly right.
Building codes do make adifference.
George Siegal (37:45):
It's awful to see that kind of damage.
So let's wrap this up with someaction items for people.
I'm getting a house, buying ahouse new, old, whatever.
What should I look for in ahome inspector?
What should I want to have afeeling of as I'm hiring that
individual?
Mike McLendon (38:01):
Okay.
So when you're interviewing ahome inspector, here's some
questions you answered, ofcourse.
The first obvious question areyou licensed?
Make sure he's licensed.
I mean, that sort of seemsobvious, but make sure he's
licensed.
Make sure he carries E&Oinsurance.
E&o stands for Errors andEmissions Insurance.
Okay, and that's an insurancethere to protect you.
And Casey does a bad inspection, we carry it.
(38:22):
We are not required by thestate of Florida to carry it.
It's an option, so somethingthey should carry.
Two, will he let you come alongduring the inspection?
You've got home inspectors.
No one wants you there.
Talk to someone else, just talkto someone else.
You need to be able to haveconversations.
(38:44):
Now if he says, well, I don'twant you there for the whole
thing, I want you to come nearthe end, that's fine, you know,
because you get a little gab.
He's trying to get his workdone, that's fine.
You don't want to distract him,but you want a guy that you can
have a conversation with andthat you can ask questions to,
and he's willing to take thetime to explain to you what your
concerns are.
(39:04):
And number two, and the lastthing too, is make sure you tell
him what your concerns are.
One of our standard things.
When we're booking aninspection, when we talk to the
client, they give us the address, blah, blah, blah.
And then one of the questionswe always ask is was there
anything in particular duringyour walkthroughs at the house
that you were concerned about?
(39:25):
Now, sometimes there's sillythings and that's okay, but we
want to know what are yourconcerns?
You know, what is it that you?
You know was you did yourwalkthroughs, did you see
anything?
You went, ooh, what about that?
You know.
And so these are the kind ofthings that, if they're not
willing to have those kind ofconversations with you, there's
plenty of guys that will.
George Siegal (39:45):
Yeah, and guys and men and women, we want to
say that.
Of course yes, Because I hadthe email inspectors on that man
I'd be afraid of if I was abuilder, because those ladies
are tough.
It's you know it's an importantjob and you really don't want
to throw that away.
So hopefully people will heedthis advice.
I mean, that's greatinformation.
(40:06):
And then the typical cost of aninspection usually the range
would be what?
Mike McLendon (40:11):
Probably.
I'd say on average in Floridayou're probably looking to do
$500, $700.
There are different variationsthat typically how big your
house is gonna be more smallerhouses, different add-ons,
different services, things likethat.
Probably in that range.
George Siegal (40:25):
And people should also understand don't gloss
over problems, because if it's aproblem when you're looking at
it in the beginning, it'sprobably gonna be a problem down
the road, and those thingsdon't fix themselves, do they?
Mike McLendon (40:36):
That is correct, and they never get better.
They may not get worse, butthey usually do.
George Siegal (40:43):
Yeah, I think I can attest to that.
So, hey, Mike, thank you somuch for coming on today.
Your contact information, howpeople can reach out to you,
we'll all be in the show notesof the podcast, but I really
appreciate your time.
Mike McLendon (40:56):
Absolutely, it's great.
George Siegal (40:57):
I know a lot of you have stories good and bad
about your experiences as ahomeowner.
There's a contact form in theshow notes.
Fill it out and I look forwardto having you on a podcast to
share your story.
Thank you for listening.
I'll see you next time.
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