April 14, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of Jim Sells the Suncoast, Jim chats with Rich Carroll from HomeTeam Inspections about the nuts and bolts of home inspections in Florida. From spotting early signs of roof trouble to understanding cast iron pipe risks and navigating local insurance requirements, Rich shares pro insights that can save you money—and major headaches—down the road.
Key Highlights
- Roof Inspections & Coastal Conditions
- Roof Checks: Moisture stains in attics, damaged or lifted shingles, and aging materials are prime indicators of potential roof problems.
- Salt Air Corrosion: Coastal humidity and salt can accelerate rust on metal components like air conditioners and outdoor electrical panels.
- Water & Moisture Concerns
- Most Common Red Flag: Moisture intrusion – from roof leaks to hidden plumbing drips – can cause hidden (and expensive) damage if left unchecked.
- Attic Investigations: Inspectors often spot leaks by observing water stains on roof decking or near pipe penetrations.
- Foundation & Structure
- Signs of Trouble: Settlement cracks in floors or walls, erosion around the slab, and unexplained loose or cracked tiles can indicate potential structural issues.
- Wood-Frame vs. Block: Wood-frame homes are more susceptible to termites and moisture damage but can be maintained with regular treatments and inspections.
- Electrical & Plumbing Systems
- Panel Red Flags: Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Challenger, and certain Sylvania panels are often flagged by insurance due to higher fire risks.
- Cast Iron Pipes: Homes built before the mid-’80s may have aging cast iron drains. A sewer scope inspection is strongly recommended to avoid costly slab removal later.
- Insurance & Additional Inspections
- Four-Point Inspection: Typically required for older homes (often 5-20+ years old) and covers roof, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems in a pass/fail format.
- Wind Mitigation: A must for newer or recently updated roofs to qualify for significant insurance discounts.
- Other Considerations: Termite (WDO) inspections are essential, and specialized checks like sewer scoping can be crucial for older homes.
- Preparing for an Inspection
- Clear Access: Ensure the inspector can reach the attic hatch, electrical panel, HVAC systems, and water heater.
- Utilities On: Keep water, gas, and electricity active so that all fixtures and appliances can be tested.
- Full Disclosure: If there’s a unique setup or hidden switch, provide instructions to avoid “non-functioning” mentions on the report.
What’s Next?
Ready to tackle a home inspection without surprises? Reach out to Jim at jim.ahearn@gmail.com or visit Jim Sells the Suncoast for more tips on staying ahead in Florida’s real estate market. For thorough, team-based inspections around Sarasota, Manatee, and Venice, contact Rich Carroll at HomeTeam Inspections. Knowledge is
A Personal Note from Jim:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jim (00:02):
All right, and welcome to Jim Sells the Suncoast.
Today I am honored to have RichCarroll with me.
He is with home team, homeinspections.
He's been doing this since 2019.
And he has Sarasota Manatee,Venice really the whole Suncoast
area.
So welcome, rich.
Rich (00:20):
Thank you.
Jim (00:21):
So glad you're here.
If anybody that's bought a homeknows, one of the things they do
is you have to get aninspection.
You want to know what's goingon, what you have in your home.
what are the most common issuesthat you encounter during an
inspection on the Sun Coast?
Rich (00:36):
Probably the thing that I feel like is the most important
is looking at the roofs.
The roof, it's your mostimportant, expensive component
of your house.
And it's very important to yourinsurance company.
It's the one that they'refocused on.
And it's the place where.
Not only is it expensive, but ifit does fail on you, you end up
(00:56):
with some pretty expensiverepairs.
Actually, the roof's probablythe biggest thing.
Trying to get a good look at theroof and let people know how
long they have within reason,we've had three hurricanes in
the last couple of years, thateven the best home inspector
goes out and says, 10 years,three hurricanes hit two years.
It's hard on them.
(01:16):
But the idea of trying tounderstand that complexity of
your home, that's probably thebiggest thing is the roof after
that.
Plumbing, one of the things thatwe have down here is we have a
lot of older homes with castiron pipes.
So letting people understand howtheir plumbing works, that's
very important.
I'm asked almost every day, whodo you suggest for HVAC systems
(01:38):
and stuff like that too?
Because, you're talking, if youhave a single system, it's 10
grand.
If you have a double system,it's 20 and you can just count
the number of condenses you haveand multiply it by eight to
$10,000.
Those are expensive, so peoplewanna know about that too.
Jim (01:54):
right.
How do coastal conditions likehumidity and salt water, how do
they impact the longevity of thehome?
Rich (02:01):
So everybody's seen, like the rust or in some cases it's
corrosion.
Older houses in a lot of ourneighborhoods were built around
2000, give or take.
And if you start looking at allthe corners, back when they were
doing stucco on those corners,you had metal corners and they
would stucco up to that metalcorner and paint over it.
(02:21):
So when you go out and you lookat a house in the corner
starting to rust, and you gotrust bleeding through.
That's the corrosion from thatsalt, air and moisture getting
in there and really working onthat metal there.
Jim (02:32):
My editor's great.
we're gonna look like we werebrilliant and seamless.
Rich (02:35):
Anyway where was I going?
So the metal corners.
Jim (02:37):
Stucco.
Rich (02:38):
So the metal corners.
You're gonna see a lot ofcorrosion there.
And there'll be like little rustlines and stuff there.
especially if you get out closeto the water.
a condenser, an air conditioningcondenser that's.
Five, six years old is gonnahave some pretty significant
rust on it just because thatsalt air is just so hard on the
metal and it's gonna attackanything metal closer water,
(02:58):
right?
The more that you're gonna haveto keep things painted and
coated up real good so that theydon't rust.
Condensers.
I've seen that were seven yearsold, looking like they were 30
years old.
The other thing is electricalpanels and stuff that are
outside.
So anything like that, any metalconduit, any electrical panels,
those things will rust through,rust out, and then they'll start
giving you problems because onceyou get moisture and
(03:19):
electricity, you don't have tobe a master electrician to know
that isn't a good combination.
Jim (03:25):
What's the biggest red flag you look for when you're
inspecting a home out here onthe Suncoast?
Rich (03:30):
Okay, moisture more.
Anything else?
One of the things we love, wegot the ocean.
Love the water.
We got some great rivers.
If you own a kayak, it'swonderful place to live.
Even the rainy days are cool.
I'm from the west coast, sowe're used to drizzle nine
months out of the year, whereashere, I mean it rains, it's
done.
Go back outside.
It's cool.
But that's probably the biggestred flag is you want to make
(03:51):
sure the water is staying whereit's supposed to water inside
the house.
Any kind of moisture whatsoeveris going to be destructive.
So the first thing that we'll dois, in fact, everybody that I
train walks through the house,first thing we do is we start
looking at the ceiling for waterstains and watermarks.
Same thing with walls.
any kinda large deterioration ona wall probably, is some kind of
(04:14):
a water staining.
Then if we find anything, firstthing we do is throw a moisture
meter on it.
Let's just make sure there's nowater there, because even if
it's not a roof leak, even ifit's not a leak through a wall
or a slab.
Something like that.
There's a lot of times when youend up with leaks in pipes,
inside lines.
I had one about a month agothat, man, I couldn't find the
leak, but after a while, it'sjust wait a minute.
(04:35):
Do you hear it?
And you can hear this.
And it's a steady drip inside awall.
You can hear it, but youcouldn't see it until we got
down along the baseboard, wherebehind the baseboard it was
clearly leaking.
Moisture's, the biggest thing,any kind of discoloration that
makes you think moisture, thatmakes you question marks, and
(04:56):
that's what you gotta startlooking for
Jim (05:00):
when you see moisture inside.
If you've got that moisturebuildup on there.
Rich (05:05):
Usually it takes a minute for it to happen.
Even with a roof leak.
Unless you have just boom,right?
You have a lot of windcatastrophic failure of the
roof.
You lose a chunk and it startsraining inside.
Most of the time you'll startwith a little dribble and you'll
get a little moisture.
I've had several times where theowner said, I had no idea this
was going on.
(05:26):
and you look at them and yousay, I believe you.
the thing is a lot of us, if youhave a bigger house, you may not
go into every room every day,all the time.
And then when you do go inthere, I'm like the worst house
guest to have.
Don't everyone invite a homeinspector over for dinner?
'cause the first thing they'redoing right is number right
here.
They're looking at your ceiling.
they're looking for any kind ofanything that could be a defect
(05:48):
in a home inspection.
But that's the thing is peoplearen't attuned to necessarily
seeing stains.
That's probably a roof leak andlikely is not.
It could be as simple as just anail rusted out or a nail got
loose and then it startsdripping through and that's
that.
The other one is plumbing leaks.
And a lot of times you havedrain line leaks, and if it's a
(06:09):
drain line leak, you may notnotice a drain line leak because
it only leaks when there's waterin there.
So underneath everybody's sinkis full of stuff.
And you may be a week, twoweeks, a month, into something
before you go Oh.
Everything I own is wet underhere.
What's going on?
And by that time, since thecabinets are some are nice, but
(06:32):
a lot of the components for thecabinets are made out of
particle board, and that doesnot hold the water very well.
So the first day it's fine, justwipe it off.
Even the third day is probablyfine, just wipe it off.
After that, it's starting to getinto the wood itself and break
that out and cause all kinds ofgrief.
So water, usually my experienceis it takes a little bit of time
(06:53):
to really cause some damagebecause either we don't
recognize it because we don'tsee it, or once we do recognize
it, we wanna wait and see for aday or two to make sure that we
know what's going on.
And then sometimes it's hard toget it fixed, yeah.
Jim (07:07):
Yeah, so I think that says something when the inspector
comes through and says, theremay be damage up there, it's
moist.
Follow up on it.
Rich (07:14):
Yeah and I always tell people too.
And this was something that Ilearned from running factories
was if you have a spot where itleaked, I guarantee you that is
probably your next likely spotto look for leaks too.
So yeah, problems tend to happenin the same spot.
Jim (07:32):
How do you assess the quality and condition of a roof?
Overall, and what on the roofare you looking at?
You're looking at the top,you're looking inside up in the
attic.
What are the, any specificthings you're looking for?
Rich (07:43):
the first thing when we first start out is we'll take a
walk around the house.
We're looking at the guttersthemselves and the soffits and
the fascia to see what kind ofcondition those are in.
With a lot of wind lately, we'veseen a lot of soffits that are
either missing or just damagedand bent up shape.
Gutters, of course we keep aneye on, you wanna look for any
gutters that look like theymight be bleeding water back
(08:05):
into the house, so that can bean issue too.
Then typically what I will dounder normal circumstances, I'll
go up on, walk on the roof andtake a look at the roof itself.
I'm looking for broken tiles,crack tiles, missing tiles.
if it's not a tile roof, thenI'll be looking at shingles and
again, it's the same thing.
It's missing shingles.
It's torn shingles.
(08:25):
If any place where the shinglesare lifted, we get a lot of
wind.
So a lot of times you can lift,you can touch those shingles and
if it comes up in your hand andyou can get your fingers under
it, that's bad.
So we're looking for anythingthat's lifted and then anything
that looks like it could be ahole or should be a hole, if
there's any kind of places whereit's worn out.
After that, we start looking fora thing called granular loss,
(08:48):
and that's on your shingles.
There's a sand up there and theway the shingle works is it's an
asphalt and fiberglass shingle.
once the sand goes away, theultraviolet light starts working
on that fiberglass and thatasphalt and it stops shed and
water like it's supposed to.
And the longevity of the roof,the amount of time it's going to
(09:09):
last is directly related to howmuch of that sand you still have
on those shingles.
And so we're looking at that,trying to assess that.
And then just generally givenage of the roof, of how old is
it?
how much longer will it last?
Give people kind of an idea ofwhat they're looking at right?
When a roof's 40,000 plusdollars.
You wanna know when that billcollector's coming.
Jim (09:30):
Yeah.
And you wanna get as much useout of it as you can,
Rich (09:32):
And that's what I tell people too, in a lot of cases,
the.
roof, whether you are going tojust do a repair or replace a
roof.
Once the repair costs x, thenit's better to just replace it.
And then finally what we'll dois we'll go in the attic and
we'll look for leaks in theattic.
In most cases, if you see aleak, you're not gonna see it on
(09:55):
top of a roof.
You can see missing shingles,you can see something, but leaks
and stuff start out being easierto see in the attic.
If you think about it, a nailis, how wide.
And so if you have a nail holein the top of a roof, it's gonna
be pretty darn hard to see thatlittle tiny hole, right?
But on the inside of the attic,the water goes in and then it
(10:15):
spreads and it makes a big wetstain there.
really having people that gothrough your attic and take a
good look there, that's probablythe best way to find any kind of
a problem that's already there.
Jim (10:27):
Okay.
Rich (10:28):
If your house does not have access to the attic, or if
you don't have access in all theplaces, you may want to think
about where could I put ascuttle, which is just the
porthole that you go up into theattic.
where is a good, safe place toput one of those?
that's one of the maintenancepoints of your house.
You don't want to have somebodygo look at it once in a while.
Jim (10:45):
Don't wait 20 years to find a problem.
Rich (10:47):
And to where the ceiling's falling down and now the entire
bedroom ceiling is now yourright.
Jim (10:51):
Yep.
How do you inspect a Holmesfoundation?
Rich (10:55):
Yeah.
And the inspection is verysimilar.
We're looking for any kind ofmoisture.
Most of the time for the slabs,we're looking for anything that
could be loose crack tilesinside your house, any big
cracks in there.
Those are signs that there's aproblem with it.
We also, as we're walking aroundthe outside of it, we want to
see how your gutters areworking.
Are they dropping water right atthe edge of the slab, because if
(11:15):
it's undermining, we're gonnatell you, put some dirt back in
there, get that pushed back upthere and fix the grade so that
we can push that water furtheraway from the house.
you don't want to make the,pressure of the house against
the slab itself.
You want to get the ground, thedirt, the slab.
All to be one continuousload-bearing device to spread
(11:35):
that weight out.
The other thing you gotta watchout for is just settling cracks.
'cause there's always gonna besome of those, so you wanna
watch out for any kind ofsettling cracks, anything that
looks like it's clearly a crackthere.
And then finally, the last thingyou're looking for is any
moisture at the baseboards or atthe base of the floor.
If you see staining, things likethat.
(11:55):
I'll be honest with you, I findmore roof problems than slab
problems.
For sure.
But every once in a while, yougo out there and you'll find
somebody that's got four cornersof their house that down by the
slab that's chipped out or brokeup or cracked.
And, that needs a little bit ofattention.
You'd have somebody a contractorthat's experienced with fixing
those structural problems outthere and have them actually.
(12:17):
Fix it.
Not just, don't just stuck overit.
You need to actually support it.
Jim (12:22):
are there any specific building materials or
construction styles that aremore prone to problems in this
area?
Rich (12:32):
I suppose I would start out wood frame versus block.
Wood frame houses are alwaysgonna be more susceptible'cause
they're made out of termitefood, that's something that you
want to be prepared for.
So if you have a house that'spredominantly wood, it, they
have several here that have beenhere since, the twenties.
So it's not that they won'texist.
(12:53):
And I've been up in Tampa too,and they have some that are
before the twenties that havebeen around and entire
neighborhoods that are all wood.
It's not that you can't have awood house, you just need to
protect it from the termites,and that means, regular
treatments and somebody checkingit and things like that.
So that would probably be myfirst, if you're gonna look at
what you would watch out for,after that, I'd be concerned if
(13:16):
you're very close to water orthe coast if you don't have your
house set up for impactprotection.
And then as time goes on, Ithink what we're gonna see is
those houses on the coast toohave to be lifted up and raised
up higher because That thosestorm surges were.
They were devastating.
I've been in several houses thathave taken one to four feet of
(13:36):
water and, it's just, it'salmost a start over point at the
house.
they gut'em and start justrepairing them all the way from
scratch, and I think that, whatyou're gonna see is a lot of
that particular style ofbuilding where you have mobile
homes and you have houses thatare sitting, the Florida style
house with the low slope roofreally small down there next to
(13:57):
the water.
I think that's gonna go away.
So those are the two things Iwould say right off the bat That
you're gonna see less and lessof.
And then after that, theinteresting thing I think is
that you're gonna see theinsurance companies push around
and tend to define what we willand won't have for building
here.
It's what you can afford to Andsome of that is, based on
(14:18):
science and some of it's based alittle bit on emotion it feels
and There's gonna be some giveand take there for sure too.
So the insurance companies aregonna start picking what can be
where and how you can do it.
Because we just won't be able toafford to insure something.
And for most of us that can'tshow up with, 500,$600,000 of
cash, you're gonna have to haveinsurance because you're gonna
(14:40):
have to have a mortgage.
there are a couple of thingsthat are probably happening in
the industry that are a littlebit, I am not saying good or bad
one way or the other, but thebuilding practices are faster
than they ever were.
And planned redundancy or theplanned obsolescence is
happening a little bit more.
Some of the components that weuse in our houses used to last a
very long time, and they justflat don't last as long anymore.
(15:02):
Be prepared once their AC unitshit 10 years, once their water
heaters hits 10 years old.
You need to be prepared.
Honestly, I had one that was 27years old in Oregon before I
changed it out.
used to be very common is tohave, those things last a
lifetime.
They're just not anymore.
And so I would say those arethings that you have to be
(15:22):
planning and preparing for.
you need to look at what makesthe most sense.
I've said to people for a longtime if the insurance companies
only give you 20 years on yourshingle roof, Do you really want
a 35 year shingle, a 20 yearshingle or a 50 year shingle.
there's a trade off there andyou gotta figure out what makes
the most sense and that, that'sa personal choice, I think,
(15:44):
right at this point still.
Jim (15:45):
gonna be in the mix of what you're considering.
Rich (15:48):
Exactly.
And a lot of times it comes downto a math test.
If I spend this much money and Ibuy this thing, is it really
better?
And you have to do yourresearch.
Jim (15:57):
When,
Rich (15:58):
so when you're, I love older style stuff too.
Personally, some of these placeswith the older style homes, I
think they're cool looking.
They give you that flavor ofFlorida, yeah.
So I hate to see everythingchange and turn into something
else, but you know that, that'spart of life, right?
Jim (16:12):
How do you evaluate the plumbing and electrical systems
in a home?
Rich (16:15):
There are several of them that are flagged by insurance
companies.
They don't like them.
They're for various rea usuallyand it sounds like I'm saying
the insurance people are badguys and they're not.
What it is what it is.
They're worse than bad guys.
They understand math.
That's right.
That's why they're bad people isthey get math.
It makes sense to'em.
If you have so many of X andless than 1% of them start
(16:39):
fires, that's a good one.
But if you have so many of Y and22% of them start fires, they
don't want you to use thoseanymore.
They're doing us a favor inreality, right?
So if you have a Federal Pacificpanel, if you have a stab lock
panel, if you have a GTESylvania panel, those are
flagged, those are all flaggedchallengers flagged now too.
(17:01):
These are all flagged becausethey have a higher incidence of
failure.
So what do we do?
We go into a house, we look tosee what kind of a panel you
have.
We'll take a look at it, we'llopen it up, see how it's wired.
The world does not love solidstrand aluminum wiring.
It is notorious for, again,starting fires and not being as
safe as regular copper wires.
(17:22):
So people want copper.
That being said.
There are ways to remediate thataluminum too, but again, it's
not as well liked as the other.
So we're gonna look for copper,aluminum, solid strand or multis
strand.
Then once we get done with that,we're gonna check all your
outlets and make sure all thelights go on and the fans go on.
(17:42):
So basically make sure anyelectrical appliance is
functioning.
Keep in mind your inspector islooking for functioning.
That doesn't mean if it's ugly,that's not our job, yeah.
What do you think about how itlooks?
I said, you know what, to behonest with you if you want me
to decorate your house, youbetter get used to wagon wheels
and steer horns, because that'swhat I like.
(18:02):
And at that point, nobody caresabout my opinion on aesthetics
and how it looks.
But in your inspector, that'swhat his job is.
Does it or does it not function?
And if it functions it's doingits part.
We're gonna look for any placewhere there's any kind of fire
hazards.
Are there exposed wiressomewhere?
Do you have the right kind ofcovers on your exterior outlets?
Lights work.
(18:22):
Do they function like they'resupposed to?
That's really our goal there isto make sure that the electrical
system is working andfunctional.
We're gonna make sureeverything's grounded.
We're gonna make sure it's wiredcorrectly to the extent that we
look at it, which is to sayoutlets and.
Fans now,
Jim (18:38):
right?
Rich (18:39):
We're not going to take things apart.
That's one thing that your homeinspector shouldn't do.
We're allowed to observe.
But if you want somebody to gointo the wall and take apart the
electrical system or open up,inspection from conduit and
stuff like that, you need to getan electrician to do that.
Our job is to say, Hey.
Here's something that you needto get an electrician to take a
(18:59):
look at.
'cause it does not look right.
Jim (19:01):
We expect it to do X and it did Y
Rich (19:04):
Same thing with plumbing.
Exact same thing.
If we go and we look at it andsay that is not hooked up, how
we would normally see it?
We think you should have aplumber look at it to make sure
that's gonna continue workingfor you.
That's one of the other things,people that are doing houses, if
you're building a house, theyhave certain milestones they're
looking for, right?
And a week before the house isready to close, you walk people
(19:26):
through and that's a milestone.
And the house closes, that's amilestone and they hit 12
months.
And that's another milestone.
Once the house closes, it goesfrom the building manager to the
warranty side.
And then once it's a year old,then the warranty's right gone
on.
Almost everything.
Our look at, it's a little bitdifferent.
We look at is it functioning andhow long and how is it
functioning?
So if we look at a new build.
(19:48):
Is that gonna work for the nextfive years, or is that going to
fail three years down the road?
It's a, there's a differentperspective too, at the way
people look at things, and Ithink that's important too.
Jim (19:59):
Yeah, and I think one of the things you're alluding to is
did it work in the manner it'ssupposed to work,
Rich (20:04):
Yeah.
And that's where it comes downto, right?
It's, does it work in the mannerthat it was intended.
And that sometimes Is anabsolute firm.
Yes.
And other times it's not somuch.
And maybe you look at it andjust say, you know what, I don't
care if the light and the fancome on every time you hit the
button.
What's important to me is thatthe light comes on and as long
as that's working, don't care.
(20:25):
And that's where your inspectionis.
Yours too.
You can do.
Jim (20:29):
Do you do anything with the overall energy efficiency of a
home when you're doing aninspection?
Rich (20:34):
I do not, but there are several people out there that do
efficiency, Okay.
Type of inspections.
It's a different animal I wouldsay.
Not as popular here as otherplaces.
I know in California when I wasthere, they had people that,
that's all they focused on wasjust the efficiency and the
(20:55):
carbon footprint of your house.
And how to minimize that.
I don't really do that, but Iknow that you can find people
that will,
Jim (21:03):
how can homeowners prepare for a home inspection so that
it's a smooth process?
Rich (21:09):
So there's a handful of things that we're gonna have to
do.
We're gonna have to be able toget to the majority of the stuff
in your house, right?
Where in some cases you're tolddeclutter the house, and so you
take everything outta the houseand you put it in the garage,
but you stack it all on thewater heater and against the
electrical panel.
(21:30):
First off, we're gonna want togo up in the attic'cause if we
do a wind or just a regular homeinspection, we need to be able
to get it in the attic and.
Don't take this the wrong way.
I'm pretty good about gettinginto weird spots, but I am not
going to crawl into an attic ifI have to crawl over your
240,000 Corvette.
It's just not gonna happen.
(21:51):
and I'm telling you, it hurts alot worse to fall out of an
attic and land on a$240,000 car.
Than it does on a Pinto, sowe're gonna not crawl over
those, and to be fair, the pointI'm trying to make is we need
access to stuff.
For your four point, we have tobe able to get to your water
heater.
We have to get to the airhandler and the condenser.
(22:14):
We have to be able to get to allthe plumbing.
We have to be able to get to theelectrical panel and we're gonna
have to be able to get thereenough that we can take the
cover of it off.
I had a house today with a.
Stacked washer and dryer, andit's right up against an
electrical panel and it's allhooked up to water.
And I just had to say, yeah, Igotta be able to get into there
(22:35):
and I don't move washer anddryer because those hoses are
notorious for breaking.
And after talking with therealtor.
She just said the listingagent's coming over.
I'll talk to him about it andsee what we can do.
And I thought as long as we allknow and we're all going to do
this together, I'm happy tohelp.
What I'm saying is I just don'twanna be responsible for a
(22:57):
broken water line that I can'treally do anything about.
So needless to say, before Ieven got a chance to go in there
and talk to him, he goes, oh,not a problem.
I'll move it outta the way Hemoves.
It outta the way.
And then the guy that was withme we always go out and clean,
we go out two at a time atleast.
So broke the hose, and so theyhad to run in there really quick
and do the quick shut out, downthe water as fast as you can on
(23:19):
this house.
And so it's just one of thosethings, right?
There, there's things that arejust notorious that we have to
get to.
So electrical panel, you have tobe able to get to and take the
cover off.
Need to be able to get in theattics.
That's the first thing.
The first thing you can do tomake it a smooth process is make
sure that we can get toeverything we need to.
The next thing I would say ismake sure that some of the stuff
(23:40):
that's, if you have somethingthat's really weird and it's
hard to figure out how to work.
If The refrigerator work, youhave to crawl up on a ladder and
crank a handle up in the atticand then stand on one foot and
spin around.
Yeah.
Make sure that, that stuff isvery easy for us to figure out
because if it's really difficultfor us to figure out how to make
(24:03):
something work, we're just gonnasay, does not function.
Recommend you talk to the ownerabout how to make it work.
Where did we hide the switch tothe pool light?
Where did we hide the switch tothe blower, to the spa?
I had one the other day.
It was hilarious.
There's not a switch over in thepool stuff.
There's not a switch on the oneone of the bathrooms had a light
switch in it.
it just so happened that whenthe person that was working with
(24:23):
me was testing all the switchesin the bathroom, they go, what
does this do?
I'm like, the floor went on.
How did that happen?
And so you back in, find whotouched what and so if you have
stuff like that make it assimple as possible because
otherwise you end up with this.
It doesn't work.
and'cause there's a limit to howlong we're gonna look for a
switch that's somewhere.
(24:44):
I one time went up and there'sA-G-F-C-I reset above the
kitchen in the attic again.
We flagged that and said,listen, you need to take that
out of there.
'cause A-G-F-C-I that says youhave to go up from the attic to
reset your hood, fan for youroven.
That's a bad place for it.
But if you have something likethat, let us know ahead of time,
(25:05):
because otherwise you're gonnaget home and that hood fan's not
gonna work for three weeks andthen it's gonna dawn on you.
Oh, that's where that is.
The other thing I would say toois we're not gonna move
furniture or appliances, so ifthere's something that clearly
you need to be able to get to.
Have a clear path to it.
And we open all the windows.
If one of my guys was to standwith his boots, even with
(25:27):
booties on it, on top of yourcouch to open a window, I'd have
to choke'em out.
That's just, they know it.
I know it.
It's just that's how it goesdown, that's just not cool.
Access to stuff that's gonna bethe most important thing.
Anything that's really odd, Iwould leave instructions on how
things work.
I certainly wouldn't try to hideanything because if you hide
stuff, then it just looks likeyou're trying to do something
(25:50):
dishonest, and so then you endup with something in the
inspection report that says, Iaccidentally had to move this
cabinet so that I could show youthis giant hole in the wall.
Jim (25:59):
Yeah.
Rich (26:00):
And maybe you didn't mean to, maybe it wasn't being
tricky, but it certainly does.
Jim (26:04):
Sure that plants that seed.
Rich (26:07):
Yeah.
And doesn't it work best when weall are honest and upfront?
Just say, Hey, this is acondition of the house.
Fixing the roof and making surethere's no leaks should include
making sure that you've, paintedthe ceilings and all that.
Disclose it.
Like you're supposed to.
one of the things that I seethat plants more.
Concern in our client's mind iswhen they go into a house and
(26:29):
they see stains on the ceiling,they don't like that and they're
like, oh man, the roof probablyleaks.
They replaced it a year and ahalf ago.
It probably doesn't, they justhaven't painted the ceilings.
I would think about that.
You have a realtor take theiradvice, they're gonna tell you
not to leave a problem whereit's obvious and where there's
gonna be a question
Jim (26:46):
from.
Rich (26:46):
So to sum that one up, attic access, electrical panel
access AC access, and, waterheater access, those are gonna
be real important.
Then access to anything insidethe house that needs to be
looked at.
I would make sure that you haveyour water on and that you have
your water bill paid and youhave your gas on.
(27:07):
You have your gas bill paidbecause we get to a house and we
are doing the inspection.
If the water's off, say forinstance, if the county stuck a
pin in it, we're not gonna cutthe pin.
We're not, no matter what thecounty, everybody can say it's
okay, but it's not okay.
We're not gonna go around.
The county.
And that means everything onyour fourth point just failed.
(27:28):
Your water heater, your hotwater, your sink, everything
just is gonna show up as did notwork'cause you don't have water.
Jim (27:35):
Sure.
And it sounds like they shouldbe working with their real
estate agent with clearcommunication to guide'em
through.
Are there any inspections thatare often overlooked but should
be prioritized in this area?
Rich (27:50):
So I'd like I talked there about insurance inspections.
First you have a four pointinspection if your house is over
five years old.
If your house is 20 years old,definitely ask your insurance
agent, do I need a four point?
My understanding is 20 yearsold, you definitely have to have
(28:11):
one.
Nowadays, when you get much overfive, eight years old, you're
gonna have to have one.
Work with your insurance agent.
Make that phone call before weget there because almost
everybody tries to bundle andsave you a little bit of money
by being there.
But that's a very importantthing.
There's nothing worse thanfinding out that you waited to
get your four point'cause you'regonna save yourself a couple of
(28:33):
dollars and then you're weekfrom closing and your insurance
is gonna be$8,000 a year becauseof the four point.
So that's all something youshould think about a little bit.
I would definitely get your fourpoint.
If you look at a four point, itis like pass fail for the house.
So if we go into a house and wedo the four point and we find.
(28:55):
Something wrong with theelectrical system, something
wrong with the plumbing systemthat's pass fail.
The insurance company's gonnasay before we insure the house.
You need to fix that.
Jim (29:04):
it.
Rich (29:04):
That's now I'm not an insurance guy.
I can't say that's always howeverybody works, but 99% of them
that I've been involved with,and I do three or four of these
a day they all want that fixed.
If you have a roof that is newerthan a 2002, you're always
better off to get a windmitigation.
(29:26):
I don't know of anybody thatcharges so much money in their
wind mitigation that it won'toffset the deductions you're
gonna get on your homeowner'sinsurance with wind mitigation
if you have a newer roof.
Wind mitigation is a way ofreducing your insurance costs
because your insurance has togive you deductions for each one
(29:48):
of the categories that you arequalified for on a win
mitigation.
So although we can't tell you,oh, it's gonna be$18, we can
tell you are gonna get adeduction for this because you
know it, it's all kindalegislated in there.
So right.
Definitely worth your while forthose two PE inspections are a
good idea, especially if youhave wood or you're close to
(30:11):
where there's going to betermites.
I firmly think that as a rule,they're pretty reasonably priced
It's better to find out that yougot nothing and at least you
have a, you're starting fromsquare one.
Jim (30:22):
the peace of mind of knowing that too goes along.
Rich (30:24):
Just, yeah.
Do you hear or might chewing onthe wood.
Yeah.
Other inspections, if your houseis pre 82, pre 84, I would
definitely recommend a sewerscope.
your home inspection may or maynot determine if you have cast
iron pipe, but they definitelywon't be able to tell you
(30:44):
without a sewer scope if thecast iron pipe is deteriorated
to the point where it bereplaced.
The way we build drain lines inFlorida, especially pre 82, was
you have big three and four inchlines that are.
Sunk into the slab of your home.
They're made outta cast iron.
(31:05):
Cast iron tends to live about 50years.
So anything that's 50 years oldis worth having it scoped.
scoping them is expensive, butit's not as expensive as if you
have to have somebody take aconcrete saw to the, to your
living room.
So it's probably.
One of the least sexyinspections to do.
(31:31):
But in my mind, for the timesthat people call me and say,
Hey, I got a cracked cast ironpipe you didn't tell me about.
And it's I didn't tell you itwas cracked because you didn't
get a sewer scope.
And I did tell you that the ageof your house has a, possibility
of having cast iron, and werecommend that you have somebody
(31:52):
scope it and plumber evaluateit.
Unfortunately you're on your ownwith that one.
'cause we did say that and therisk versus reward is huge, I
guess is what I would say withcast iron pipe.
So I would be aware of that.
I'd also consider that a redflag if somebody says, Hey, you
got cast iron in the vents, oryou got cast iron in the attic.
(32:14):
Not everybody, when they re-pipea house will change those
because they don't deteriorateas much'cause they're not in
constant contact with water.
But, it still could mean thatyou have cast iron everywhere.
Be aware, ask some questions seeif it makes sense.
I've just been going by luckuntil, I started getting into
(32:34):
the home inspection business andlearning a little bit more about
this, and now it's man, I woulddefinitely like to have one of
these older places, but I woulddefinitely not buy someone.
Built in the seventies and nothave somebody stick a camera
down there just to see.
Jim (32:46):
Yeah.
go in knowing what's there andbe forewarned.
Rich (32:50):
Knowledge is always gonna be power, right?
Yep.
You can make any decision youwant.
If you have all the knowledge ofwhich way going to, probably the
outcome, it's worth it.
But the cast iron ones, it'sexpensive if it doesn't work out
those are probably the biggestones that I would say, the other
stuff that you can get, you canhave an HVAC guy come out and go
(33:10):
through your HVAC system.
But by and large and this is myopinion, it's not really a
statement of science.
But once they start hitting 10years, you need to be prepared
because you could get 18 or 20years out of it.
But.
That means you're taking goodcare of it, you're taking very
good care of it.
You're having an HVAC guy comeout and service it regularly,
(33:33):
and you're watching it.
If that isn't the case, youbetter be prepared after 10
years to put another one in.
And those are expensivedecisions.
Without a doubt.
Oh, absolutely.
You can get an electrician tocome in and do a electric
electrical evaluation of theentire house too.
But again, I don't really seethat as being the huge ones.
I would consider the cast ironpipe to be one that I would look
(33:56):
at definitely get a pestinspection.
I think those are worthwhile.
But those are the big ones.
I see.
Jim (34:03):
Cool.
Rich.
Thank you for joining me today.
I really appreciate you comingout.
I learn every time I talk withpeople who are experts in their
field and what they're doing.
So the home inspection vitalwhen you're going into a home,
as you just said, knowledge ispower.
Know what you're getting into.
Anything else you would sayabout a home inspection before
we sign off?
Rich (34:22):
Just a, and this isn't so much a home inspection is it's
more of a commercial forrealtors.
They do a job they have afunction in this process and
they can help you navigate somepretty tricky questions that
come up, and that's the, whatthey're there for.
I may not always say you shouldhave this inspection or that
(34:43):
inspection outside, but I reallyfeel strongly that you should
always have a realtor.
when we work on jobs wherepeople don't have a realtor It's
really difficult for folksbecause there's a lot of really
hard decisions to make and a lotof things that need to be
explained to you, not just onthe house itself, Finding the
house is the first and maybe theeasy part but finding out about
(35:05):
the house, finding out how toown the house.
If you really own the house.
The legalities of owning a housewhat kind of expenses you're
gonna have for the house.
I really feel the realtors, theones that I work with that are
very good, are really expertsat.
Helping you negotiate the wholeprocess.
They keep a lot of balls up inthe air for making the process
(35:25):
work, so everybody's got theirown role in this process.
You got Insurance people thatare helping you.
You got title people, you gotattorneys, you got, your
inspection folks.
there's a lot of moving partsand having the right team to
help you is huge, my opinion.
Absolutely.
Same thing with the inspectionteams.
There's a lot of good inspectorsout there.
I like to think we do a veryreputable job and nothing that
(35:47):
we have to be ashamed of.
There's other people out therethat do a very reputable job.
Nothing to be ashamed of too.
And, just take the time to makesure that your guy is insured,
that he's licensed, that he'sgot some level of experience.
None of us would want to go tothe eye doctor that's doing his.
Third lasing surgery, right?
They all have to have numberthree, but number 30,000 makes
(36:11):
you feel a little moreconfident.
Jim (36:13):
yeah, so I
Rich (36:13):
would look for somebody that's got some experience and
at least a way of vettingthemselves so that they can get
through the process.
Those are the things that justpop into my mind right now.
Appreciate you inviting me.
It's always fun to talk topeople about houses.
it's turned into, a big part ofmy life.
So it's important.
Jim (36:30):
Yeah.
Rich (36:30):
Thank you.
All right, and welcome to Jim Sells the Suncoast.
Today I am honored to have RichCarroll with me.
He is with home team, homeinspections.
He's been doing this since 2019.
And he has Sarasota Manatee,Venice really the whole Suncoast
area.
So welcome, rich.
Rich (00:20):
Thank you.
Jim (00:21):
So glad you're here.
If anybody that's bought a homeknows, one of the things they do
is you have to get aninspection.
You want to know what's goingon, what you have in your home.
what are the most common issuesthat you encounter during an
inspection on the Sun Coast?
Rich (00:36):
Probably the thing that I feel like is the most important
is looking at the roofs.
The roof, it's your mostimportant, expensive component
of your house.
And it's very important to yourinsurance company.
It's the one that they'refocused on.
And it's the place where.
Not only is it expensive, but ifit does fail on you, you end up
(00:56):
with some pretty expensiverepairs.
Actually, the roof's probablythe biggest thing.
Trying to get a good look at theroof and let people know how
long they have within reason,we've had three hurricanes in
the last couple of years, thateven the best home inspector
goes out and says, 10 years,three hurricanes hit two years.
It's hard on them.
(01:16):
But the idea of trying tounderstand that complexity of
your home, that's probably thebiggest thing is the roof after
that.
Plumbing, one of the things thatwe have down here is we have a
lot of older homes with castiron pipes.
So letting people understand howtheir plumbing works, that's
very important.
I'm asked almost every day, whodo you suggest for HVAC systems
(01:38):
and stuff like that too?
Because, you're talking, if youhave a single system, it's 10
grand.
If you have a double system,it's 20 and you can just count
the number of condenses you haveand multiply it by eight to
$10,000.
Those are expensive, so peoplewanna know about that too.
Jim (01:54):
right.
How do coastal conditions likehumidity and salt water, how do
they impact the longevity of thehome?
Rich (02:01):
So everybody's seen, like the rust or in some cases it's
corrosion.
Older houses in a lot of ourneighborhoods were built around
2000, give or take.
And if you start looking at allthe corners, back when they were
doing stucco on those corners,you had metal corners and they
would stucco up to that metalcorner and paint over it.
(02:21):
So when you go out and you lookat a house in the corner
starting to rust, and you gotrust bleeding through.
That's the corrosion from thatsalt, air and moisture getting
in there and really working onthat metal there.
Jim (02:32):
My editor's great.
we're gonna look like we werebrilliant and seamless.
Rich (02:35):
Anyway where was I going?
So the metal corners.
Jim (02:37):
Stucco.
Rich (02:38):
So the metal corners.
You're gonna see a lot ofcorrosion there.
And there'll be like little rustlines and stuff there.
especially if you get out closeto the water.
a condenser, an air conditioningcondenser that's.
Five, six years old is gonnahave some pretty significant
rust on it just because thatsalt air is just so hard on the
metal and it's gonna attackanything metal closer water,
(02:58):
right?
The more that you're gonna haveto keep things painted and
coated up real good so that theydon't rust.
Condensers.
I've seen that were seven yearsold, looking like they were 30
years old.
The other thing is electricalpanels and stuff that are
outside.
So anything like that, any metalconduit, any electrical panels,
those things will rust through,rust out, and then they'll start
giving you problems because onceyou get moisture and
(03:19):
electricity, you don't have tobe a master electrician to know
that isn't a good combination.
Jim (03:25):
What's the biggest red flag you look for when you're
inspecting a home out here onthe Suncoast?
Rich (03:30):
Okay, moisture more.
Anything else?
One of the things we love, wegot the ocean.
Love the water.
We got some great rivers.
If you own a kayak, it'swonderful place to live.
Even the rainy days are cool.
I'm from the west coast, sowe're used to drizzle nine
months out of the year, whereashere, I mean it rains, it's
done.
Go back outside.
It's cool.
But that's probably the biggestred flag is you want to make
(03:51):
sure the water is staying whereit's supposed to water inside
the house.
Any kind of moisture whatsoeveris going to be destructive.
So the first thing that we'll dois, in fact, everybody that I
train walks through the house,first thing we do is we start
looking at the ceiling for waterstains and watermarks.
Same thing with walls.
any kinda large deterioration ona wall probably, is some kind of
(04:14):
a water staining.
Then if we find anything, firstthing we do is throw a moisture
meter on it.
Let's just make sure there's nowater there, because even if
it's not a roof leak, even ifit's not a leak through a wall
or a slab.
Something like that.
There's a lot of times when youend up with leaks in pipes,
inside lines.
I had one about a month agothat, man, I couldn't find the
leak, but after a while, it'sjust wait a minute.
(04:35):
Do you hear it?
And you can hear this.
And it's a steady drip inside awall.
You can hear it, but youcouldn't see it until we got
down along the baseboard, wherebehind the baseboard it was
clearly leaking.
Moisture's, the biggest thing,any kind of discoloration that
makes you think moisture, thatmakes you question marks, and
(04:56):
that's what you gotta startlooking for
Jim (05:00):
when you see moisture inside.
If you've got that moisturebuildup on there.
Rich (05:05):
Usually it takes a minute for it to happen.
Even with a roof leak.
Unless you have just boom,right?
You have a lot of windcatastrophic failure of the
roof.
You lose a chunk and it startsraining inside.
Most of the time you'll startwith a little dribble and you'll
get a little moisture.
I've had several times where theowner said, I had no idea this
was going on.
(05:26):
and you look at them and yousay, I believe you.
the thing is a lot of us, if youhave a bigger house, you may not
go into every room every day,all the time.
And then when you do go inthere, I'm like the worst house
guest to have.
Don't everyone invite a homeinspector over for dinner?
'cause the first thing they'redoing right is number right
here.
They're looking at your ceiling.
they're looking for any kind ofanything that could be a defect
(05:48):
in a home inspection.
But that's the thing is peoplearen't attuned to necessarily
seeing stains.
That's probably a roof leak andlikely is not.
It could be as simple as just anail rusted out or a nail got
loose and then it startsdripping through and that's
that.
The other one is plumbing leaks.
And a lot of times you havedrain line leaks, and if it's a
(06:09):
drain line leak, you may notnotice a drain line leak because
it only leaks when there's waterin there.
So underneath everybody's sinkis full of stuff.
And you may be a week, twoweeks, a month, into something
before you go Oh.
Everything I own is wet underhere.
What's going on?
And by that time, since thecabinets are some are nice, but
(06:32):
a lot of the components for thecabinets are made out of
particle board, and that doesnot hold the water very well.
So the first day it's fine, justwipe it off.
Even the third day is probablyfine, just wipe it off.
After that, it's starting to getinto the wood itself and break
that out and cause all kinds ofgrief.
So water, usually my experienceis it takes a little bit of time
(06:53):
to really cause some damagebecause either we don't
recognize it because we don'tsee it, or once we do recognize
it, we wanna wait and see for aday or two to make sure that we
know what's going on.
And then sometimes it's hard toget it fixed, yeah.
Jim (07:07):
Yeah, so I think that says something when the inspector
comes through and says, theremay be damage up there, it's
moist.
Follow up on it.
Rich (07:14):
Yeah and I always tell people too.
And this was something that Ilearned from running factories
was if you have a spot where itleaked, I guarantee you that is
probably your next likely spotto look for leaks too.
So yeah, problems tend to happenin the same spot.
Jim (07:32):
How do you assess the quality and condition of a roof?
Overall, and what on the roofare you looking at?
You're looking at the top,you're looking inside up in the
attic.
What are the, any specificthings you're looking for?
Rich (07:43):
the first thing when we first start out is we'll take a
walk around the house.
We're looking at the guttersthemselves and the soffits and
the fascia to see what kind ofcondition those are in.
With a lot of wind lately, we'veseen a lot of soffits that are
either missing or just damagedand bent up shape.
Gutters, of course we keep aneye on, you wanna look for any
gutters that look like theymight be bleeding water back
(08:05):
into the house, so that can bean issue too.
Then typically what I will dounder normal circumstances, I'll
go up on, walk on the roof andtake a look at the roof itself.
I'm looking for broken tiles,crack tiles, missing tiles.
if it's not a tile roof, thenI'll be looking at shingles and
again, it's the same thing.
It's missing shingles.
It's torn shingles.
(08:25):
If any place where the shinglesare lifted, we get a lot of
wind.
So a lot of times you can lift,you can touch those shingles and
if it comes up in your hand andyou can get your fingers under
it, that's bad.
So we're looking for anythingthat's lifted and then anything
that looks like it could be ahole or should be a hole, if
there's any kind of places whereit's worn out.
After that, we start looking fora thing called granular loss,
(08:48):
and that's on your shingles.
There's a sand up there and theway the shingle works is it's an
asphalt and fiberglass shingle.
once the sand goes away, theultraviolet light starts working
on that fiberglass and thatasphalt and it stops shed and
water like it's supposed to.
And the longevity of the roof,the amount of time it's going to
(09:09):
last is directly related to howmuch of that sand you still have
on those shingles.
And so we're looking at that,trying to assess that.
And then just generally givenage of the roof, of how old is
it?
how much longer will it last?
Give people kind of an idea ofwhat they're looking at right?
When a roof's 40,000 plusdollars.
You wanna know when that billcollector's coming.
Jim (09:30):
Yeah.
And you wanna get as much useout of it as you can,
Rich (09:32):
And that's what I tell people too, in a lot of cases,
the.
roof, whether you are going tojust do a repair or replace a
roof.
Once the repair costs x, thenit's better to just replace it.
And then finally what we'll dois we'll go in the attic and
we'll look for leaks in theattic.
In most cases, if you see aleak, you're not gonna see it on
(09:55):
top of a roof.
You can see missing shingles,you can see something, but leaks
and stuff start out being easierto see in the attic.
If you think about it, a nailis, how wide.
And so if you have a nail holein the top of a roof, it's gonna
be pretty darn hard to see thatlittle tiny hole, right?
But on the inside of the attic,the water goes in and then it
(10:15):
spreads and it makes a big wetstain there.
really having people that gothrough your attic and take a
good look there, that's probablythe best way to find any kind of
a problem that's already there.
Jim (10:27):
Okay.
Rich (10:28):
If your house does not have access to the attic, or if
you don't have access in all theplaces, you may want to think
about where could I put ascuttle, which is just the
porthole that you go up into theattic.
where is a good, safe place toput one of those?
that's one of the maintenancepoints of your house.
You don't want to have somebodygo look at it once in a while.
Jim (10:45):
Don't wait 20 years to find a problem.
Rich (10:47):
And to where the ceiling's falling down and now the entire
bedroom ceiling is now yourright.
Jim (10:51):
Yep.
How do you inspect a Holmesfoundation?
Rich (10:55):
Yeah.
And the inspection is verysimilar.
We're looking for any kind ofmoisture.
Most of the time for the slabs,we're looking for anything that
could be loose crack tilesinside your house, any big
cracks in there.
Those are signs that there's aproblem with it.
We also, as we're walking aroundthe outside of it, we want to
see how your gutters areworking.
Are they dropping water right atthe edge of the slab, because if
(11:15):
it's undermining, we're gonnatell you, put some dirt back in
there, get that pushed back upthere and fix the grade so that
we can push that water furtheraway from the house.
you don't want to make the,pressure of the house against
the slab itself.
You want to get the ground, thedirt, the slab.
All to be one continuousload-bearing device to spread
(11:35):
that weight out.
The other thing you gotta watchout for is just settling cracks.
'cause there's always gonna besome of those, so you wanna
watch out for any kind ofsettling cracks, anything that
looks like it's clearly a crackthere.
And then finally, the last thingyou're looking for is any
moisture at the baseboards or atthe base of the floor.
If you see staining, things likethat.
(11:55):
I'll be honest with you, I findmore roof problems than slab
problems.
For sure.
But every once in a while, yougo out there and you'll find
somebody that's got four cornersof their house that down by the
slab that's chipped out or brokeup or cracked.
And, that needs a little bit ofattention.
You'd have somebody a contractorthat's experienced with fixing
those structural problems outthere and have them actually.
(12:17):
Fix it.
Not just, don't just stuck overit.
You need to actually support it.
Jim (12:22):
are there any specific building materials or
construction styles that aremore prone to problems in this
area?
Rich (12:32):
I suppose I would start out wood frame versus block.
Wood frame houses are alwaysgonna be more susceptible'cause
they're made out of termitefood, that's something that you
want to be prepared for.
So if you have a house that'spredominantly wood, it, they
have several here that have beenhere since, the twenties.
So it's not that they won'texist.
(12:53):
And I've been up in Tampa too,and they have some that are
before the twenties that havebeen around and entire
neighborhoods that are all wood.
It's not that you can't have awood house, you just need to
protect it from the termites,and that means, regular
treatments and somebody checkingit and things like that.
So that would probably be myfirst, if you're gonna look at
what you would watch out for,after that, I'd be concerned if
(13:16):
you're very close to water orthe coast if you don't have your
house set up for impactprotection.
And then as time goes on, Ithink what we're gonna see is
those houses on the coast toohave to be lifted up and raised
up higher because That thosestorm surges were.
They were devastating.
I've been in several houses thathave taken one to four feet of
(13:36):
water and, it's just, it'salmost a start over point at the
house.
they gut'em and start justrepairing them all the way from
scratch, and I think that, whatyou're gonna see is a lot of
that particular style ofbuilding where you have mobile
homes and you have houses thatare sitting, the Florida style
house with the low slope roofreally small down there next to
(13:57):
the water.
I think that's gonna go away.
So those are the two things Iwould say right off the bat That
you're gonna see less and lessof.
And then after that, theinteresting thing I think is
that you're gonna see theinsurance companies push around
and tend to define what we willand won't have for building
here.
It's what you can afford to Andsome of that is, based on
(14:18):
science and some of it's based alittle bit on emotion it feels
and There's gonna be some giveand take there for sure too.
So the insurance companies aregonna start picking what can be
where and how you can do it.
Because we just won't be able toafford to insure something.
And for most of us that can'tshow up with, 500,$600,000 of
cash, you're gonna have to haveinsurance because you're gonna
(14:40):
have to have a mortgage.
there are a couple of thingsthat are probably happening in
the industry that are a littlebit, I am not saying good or bad
one way or the other, but thebuilding practices are faster
than they ever were.
And planned redundancy or theplanned obsolescence is
happening a little bit more.
Some of the components that weuse in our houses used to last a
very long time, and they justflat don't last as long anymore.
(15:02):
Be prepared once their AC unitshit 10 years, once their water
heaters hits 10 years old.
You need to be prepared.
Honestly, I had one that was 27years old in Oregon before I
changed it out.
used to be very common is tohave, those things last a
lifetime.
They're just not anymore.
And so I would say those arethings that you have to be
(15:22):
planning and preparing for.
you need to look at what makesthe most sense.
I've said to people for a longtime if the insurance companies
only give you 20 years on yourshingle roof, Do you really want
a 35 year shingle, a 20 yearshingle or a 50 year shingle.
there's a trade off there andyou gotta figure out what makes
the most sense and that, that'sa personal choice, I think,
(15:44):
right at this point still.
Jim (15:45):
gonna be in the mix of what you're considering.
Rich (15:48):
Exactly.
And a lot of times it comes downto a math test.
If I spend this much money and Ibuy this thing, is it really
better?
And you have to do yourresearch.
Jim (15:57):
When,
Rich (15:58):
so when you're, I love older style stuff too.
Personally, some of these placeswith the older style homes, I
think they're cool looking.
They give you that flavor ofFlorida, yeah.
So I hate to see everythingchange and turn into something
else, but you know that, that'spart of life, right?
Jim (16:12):
How do you evaluate the plumbing and electrical systems
in a home?
Rich (16:15):
There are several of them that are flagged by insurance
companies.
They don't like them.
They're for various rea usuallyand it sounds like I'm saying
the insurance people are badguys and they're not.
What it is what it is.
They're worse than bad guys.
They understand math.
That's right.
That's why they're bad people isthey get math.
It makes sense to'em.
If you have so many of X andless than 1% of them start
(16:39):
fires, that's a good one.
But if you have so many of Y and22% of them start fires, they
don't want you to use thoseanymore.
They're doing us a favor inreality, right?
So if you have a Federal Pacificpanel, if you have a stab lock
panel, if you have a GTESylvania panel, those are
flagged, those are all flaggedchallengers flagged now too.
(17:01):
These are all flagged becausethey have a higher incidence of
failure.
So what do we do?
We go into a house, we look tosee what kind of a panel you
have.
We'll take a look at it, we'llopen it up, see how it's wired.
The world does not love solidstrand aluminum wiring.
It is notorious for, again,starting fires and not being as
safe as regular copper wires.
(17:22):
So people want copper.
That being said.
There are ways to remediate thataluminum too, but again, it's
not as well liked as the other.
So we're gonna look for copper,aluminum, solid strand or multis
strand.
Then once we get done with that,we're gonna check all your
outlets and make sure all thelights go on and the fans go on.
(17:42):
So basically make sure anyelectrical appliance is
functioning.
Keep in mind your inspector islooking for functioning.
That doesn't mean if it's ugly,that's not our job, yeah.
What do you think about how itlooks?
I said, you know what, to behonest with you if you want me
to decorate your house, youbetter get used to wagon wheels
and steer horns, because that'swhat I like.
(18:02):
And at that point, nobody caresabout my opinion on aesthetics
and how it looks.
But in your inspector, that'swhat his job is.
Does it or does it not function?
And if it functions it's doingits part.
We're gonna look for any placewhere there's any kind of fire
hazards.
Are there exposed wiressomewhere?
Do you have the right kind ofcovers on your exterior outlets?
Lights work.
(18:22):
Do they function like they'resupposed to?
That's really our goal there isto make sure that the electrical
system is working andfunctional.
We're gonna make sureeverything's grounded.
We're gonna make sure it's wiredcorrectly to the extent that we
look at it, which is to sayoutlets and.
Fans now,
Jim (18:38):
right?
Rich (18:39):
We're not going to take things apart.
That's one thing that your homeinspector shouldn't do.
We're allowed to observe.
But if you want somebody to gointo the wall and take apart the
electrical system or open up,inspection from conduit and
stuff like that, you need to getan electrician to do that.
Our job is to say, Hey.
Here's something that you needto get an electrician to take a
(18:59):
look at.
'cause it does not look right.
Jim (19:01):
We expect it to do X and it did Y
Rich (19:04):
Same thing with plumbing.
Exact same thing.
If we go and we look at it andsay that is not hooked up, how
we would normally see it?
We think you should have aplumber look at it to make sure
that's gonna continue workingfor you.
That's one of the other things,people that are doing houses, if
you're building a house, theyhave certain milestones they're
looking for, right?
And a week before the house isready to close, you walk people
(19:26):
through and that's a milestone.
And the house closes, that's amilestone and they hit 12
months.
And that's another milestone.
Once the house closes, it goesfrom the building manager to the
warranty side.
And then once it's a year old,then the warranty's right gone
on.
Almost everything.
Our look at, it's a little bitdifferent.
We look at is it functioning andhow long and how is it
functioning?
So if we look at a new build.
(19:48):
Is that gonna work for the nextfive years, or is that going to
fail three years down the road?
It's a, there's a differentperspective too, at the way
people look at things, and Ithink that's important too.
Jim (19:59):
Yeah, and I think one of the things you're alluding to is
did it work in the manner it'ssupposed to work,
Rich (20:04):
Yeah.
And that's where it comes downto, right?
It's, does it work in the mannerthat it was intended.
And that sometimes Is anabsolute firm.
Yes.
And other times it's not somuch.
And maybe you look at it andjust say, you know what, I don't
care if the light and the fancome on every time you hit the
button.
What's important to me is thatthe light comes on and as long
as that's working, don't care.
(20:25):
And that's where your inspectionis.
Yours too.
You can do.
Jim (20:29):
Do you do anything with the overall energy efficiency of a
home when you're doing aninspection?
Rich (20:34):
I do not, but there are several people out there that do
efficiency, Okay.
Type of inspections.
It's a different animal I wouldsay.
Not as popular here as otherplaces.
I know in California when I wasthere, they had people that,
that's all they focused on wasjust the efficiency and the
(20:55):
carbon footprint of your house.
And how to minimize that.
I don't really do that, but Iknow that you can find people
that will,
Jim (21:03):
how can homeowners prepare for a home inspection so that
it's a smooth process?
Rich (21:09):
So there's a handful of things that we're gonna have to
do.
We're gonna have to be able toget to the majority of the stuff
in your house, right?
Where in some cases you're tolddeclutter the house, and so you
take everything outta the houseand you put it in the garage,
but you stack it all on thewater heater and against the
electrical panel.
(21:30):
First off, we're gonna want togo up in the attic'cause if we
do a wind or just a regular homeinspection, we need to be able
to get it in the attic and.
Don't take this the wrong way.
I'm pretty good about gettinginto weird spots, but I am not
going to crawl into an attic ifI have to crawl over your
240,000 Corvette.
It's just not gonna happen.
(21:51):
and I'm telling you, it hurts alot worse to fall out of an
attic and land on a$240,000 car.
Than it does on a Pinto, sowe're gonna not crawl over
those, and to be fair, the pointI'm trying to make is we need
access to stuff.
For your four point, we have tobe able to get to your water
heater.
We have to get to the airhandler and the condenser.
(22:14):
We have to be able to get to allthe plumbing.
We have to be able to get to theelectrical panel and we're gonna
have to be able to get thereenough that we can take the
cover of it off.
I had a house today with a.
Stacked washer and dryer, andit's right up against an
electrical panel and it's allhooked up to water.
And I just had to say, yeah, Igotta be able to get into there
(22:35):
and I don't move washer anddryer because those hoses are
notorious for breaking.
And after talking with therealtor.
She just said the listingagent's coming over.
I'll talk to him about it andsee what we can do.
And I thought as long as we allknow and we're all going to do
this together, I'm happy tohelp.
What I'm saying is I just don'twanna be responsible for a
(22:57):
broken water line that I can'treally do anything about.
So needless to say, before Ieven got a chance to go in there
and talk to him, he goes, oh,not a problem.
I'll move it outta the way Hemoves.
It outta the way.
And then the guy that was withme we always go out and clean,
we go out two at a time atleast.
So broke the hose, and so theyhad to run in there really quick
and do the quick shut out, downthe water as fast as you can on
(23:19):
this house.
And so it's just one of thosethings, right?
There, there's things that arejust notorious that we have to
get to.
So electrical panel, you have tobe able to get to and take the
cover off.
Need to be able to get in theattics.
That's the first thing.
The first thing you can do tomake it a smooth process is make
sure that we can get toeverything we need to.
The next thing I would say ismake sure that some of the stuff
(23:40):
that's, if you have somethingthat's really weird and it's
hard to figure out how to work.
If The refrigerator work, youhave to crawl up on a ladder and
crank a handle up in the atticand then stand on one foot and
spin around.
Yeah.
Make sure that, that stuff isvery easy for us to figure out
because if it's really difficultfor us to figure out how to make
(24:03):
something work, we're just gonnasay, does not function.
Recommend you talk to the ownerabout how to make it work.
Where did we hide the switch tothe pool light?
Where did we hide the switch tothe blower, to the spa?
I had one the other day.
It was hilarious.
There's not a switch over in thepool stuff.
There's not a switch on the oneone of the bathrooms had a light
switch in it.
it just so happened that whenthe person that was working with
(24:23):
me was testing all the switchesin the bathroom, they go, what
does this do?
I'm like, the floor went on.
How did that happen?
And so you back in, find whotouched what and so if you have
stuff like that make it assimple as possible because
otherwise you end up with this.
It doesn't work.
and'cause there's a limit to howlong we're gonna look for a
switch that's somewhere.
(24:44):
I one time went up and there'sA-G-F-C-I reset above the
kitchen in the attic again.
We flagged that and said,listen, you need to take that
out of there.
'cause A-G-F-C-I that says youhave to go up from the attic to
reset your hood, fan for youroven.
That's a bad place for it.
But if you have something likethat, let us know ahead of time,
(25:05):
because otherwise you're gonnaget home and that hood fan's not
gonna work for three weeks andthen it's gonna dawn on you.
Oh, that's where that is.
The other thing I would say toois we're not gonna move
furniture or appliances, so ifthere's something that clearly
you need to be able to get to.
Have a clear path to it.
And we open all the windows.
If one of my guys was to standwith his boots, even with
(25:27):
booties on it, on top of yourcouch to open a window, I'd have
to choke'em out.
That's just, they know it.
I know it.
It's just that's how it goesdown, that's just not cool.
Access to stuff that's gonna bethe most important thing.
Anything that's really odd, Iwould leave instructions on how
things work.
I certainly wouldn't try to hideanything because if you hide
stuff, then it just looks likeyou're trying to do something
(25:50):
dishonest, and so then you endup with something in the
inspection report that says, Iaccidentally had to move this
cabinet so that I could show youthis giant hole in the wall.
Jim (25:59):
Yeah.
Rich (26:00):
And maybe you didn't mean to, maybe it wasn't being
tricky, but it certainly does.
Jim (26:04):
Sure that plants that seed.
Rich (26:07):
Yeah.
And doesn't it work best when weall are honest and upfront?
Just say, Hey, this is acondition of the house.
Fixing the roof and making surethere's no leaks should include
making sure that you've, paintedthe ceilings and all that.
Disclose it.
Like you're supposed to.
one of the things that I seethat plants more.
Concern in our client's mind iswhen they go into a house and
(26:29):
they see stains on the ceiling,they don't like that and they're
like, oh man, the roof probablyleaks.
They replaced it a year and ahalf ago.
It probably doesn't, they justhaven't painted the ceilings.
I would think about that.
You have a realtor take theiradvice, they're gonna tell you
not to leave a problem whereit's obvious and where there's
gonna be a question
Jim (26:46):
from.
Rich (26:46):
So to sum that one up, attic access, electrical panel
access AC access, and, waterheater access, those are gonna
be real important.
Then access to anything insidethe house that needs to be
looked at.
I would make sure that you haveyour water on and that you have
your water bill paid and youhave your gas on.
(27:07):
You have your gas bill paidbecause we get to a house and we
are doing the inspection.
If the water's off, say forinstance, if the county stuck a
pin in it, we're not gonna cutthe pin.
We're not, no matter what thecounty, everybody can say it's
okay, but it's not okay.
We're not gonna go around.
The county.
And that means everything onyour fourth point just failed.
(27:28):
Your water heater, your hotwater, your sink, everything
just is gonna show up as did notwork'cause you don't have water.
Jim (27:35):
Sure.
And it sounds like they shouldbe working with their real
estate agent with clearcommunication to guide'em
through.
Are there any inspections thatare often overlooked but should
be prioritized in this area?
Rich (27:50):
So I'd like I talked there about insurance inspections.
First you have a four pointinspection if your house is over
five years old.
If your house is 20 years old,definitely ask your insurance
agent, do I need a four point?
My understanding is 20 yearsold, you definitely have to have
(28:11):
one.
Nowadays, when you get much overfive, eight years old, you're
gonna have to have one.
Work with your insurance agent.
Make that phone call before weget there because almost
everybody tries to bundle andsave you a little bit of money
by being there.
But that's a very importantthing.
There's nothing worse thanfinding out that you waited to
get your four point'cause you'regonna save yourself a couple of
(28:33):
dollars and then you're weekfrom closing and your insurance
is gonna be$8,000 a year becauseof the four point.
So that's all something youshould think about a little bit.
I would definitely get your fourpoint.
If you look at a four point, itis like pass fail for the house.
So if we go into a house and wedo the four point and we find.
(28:55):
Something wrong with theelectrical system, something
wrong with the plumbing systemthat's pass fail.
The insurance company's gonnasay before we insure the house.
You need to fix that.
Jim (29:04):
it.
Rich (29:04):
That's now I'm not an insurance guy.
I can't say that's always howeverybody works, but 99% of them
that I've been involved with,and I do three or four of these
a day they all want that fixed.
If you have a roof that is newerthan a 2002, you're always
better off to get a windmitigation.
(29:26):
I don't know of anybody thatcharges so much money in their
wind mitigation that it won'toffset the deductions you're
gonna get on your homeowner'sinsurance with wind mitigation
if you have a newer roof.
Wind mitigation is a way ofreducing your insurance costs
because your insurance has togive you deductions for each one
(29:48):
of the categories that you arequalified for on a win
mitigation.
So although we can't tell you,oh, it's gonna be$18, we can
tell you are gonna get adeduction for this because you
know it, it's all kindalegislated in there.
So right.
Definitely worth your while forthose two PE inspections are a
good idea, especially if youhave wood or you're close to
(30:11):
where there's going to betermites.
I firmly think that as a rule,they're pretty reasonably priced
It's better to find out that yougot nothing and at least you
have a, you're starting fromsquare one.
Jim (30:22):
the peace of mind of knowing that too goes along.
Rich (30:24):
Just, yeah.
Do you hear or might chewing onthe wood.
Yeah.
Other inspections, if your houseis pre 82, pre 84, I would
definitely recommend a sewerscope.
your home inspection may or maynot determine if you have cast
iron pipe, but they definitelywon't be able to tell you
(30:44):
without a sewer scope if thecast iron pipe is deteriorated
to the point where it bereplaced.
The way we build drain lines inFlorida, especially pre 82, was
you have big three and four inchlines that are.
Sunk into the slab of your home.
They're made outta cast iron.
(31:05):
Cast iron tends to live about 50years.
So anything that's 50 years oldis worth having it scoped.
scoping them is expensive, butit's not as expensive as if you
have to have somebody take aconcrete saw to the, to your
living room.
So it's probably.
One of the least sexyinspections to do.
(31:31):
But in my mind, for the timesthat people call me and say,
Hey, I got a cracked cast ironpipe you didn't tell me about.
And it's I didn't tell you itwas cracked because you didn't
get a sewer scope.
And I did tell you that the ageof your house has a, possibility
of having cast iron, and werecommend that you have somebody
(31:52):
scope it and plumber evaluateit.
Unfortunately you're on your ownwith that one.
'cause we did say that and therisk versus reward is huge, I
guess is what I would say withcast iron pipe.
So I would be aware of that.
I'd also consider that a redflag if somebody says, Hey, you
got cast iron in the vents, oryou got cast iron in the attic.
(32:14):
Not everybody, when they re-pipea house will change those
because they don't deteriorateas much'cause they're not in
constant contact with water.
But, it still could mean thatyou have cast iron everywhere.
Be aware, ask some questions seeif it makes sense.
I've just been going by luckuntil, I started getting into
(32:34):
the home inspection business andlearning a little bit more about
this, and now it's man, I woulddefinitely like to have one of
these older places, but I woulddefinitely not buy someone.
Built in the seventies and nothave somebody stick a camera
down there just to see.
Jim (32:46):
Yeah.
go in knowing what's there andbe forewarned.
Rich (32:50):
Knowledge is always gonna be power, right?
Yep.
You can make any decision youwant.
If you have all the knowledge ofwhich way going to, probably the
outcome, it's worth it.
But the cast iron ones, it'sexpensive if it doesn't work out
those are probably the biggestones that I would say, the other
stuff that you can get, you canhave an HVAC guy come out and go
(33:10):
through your HVAC system.
But by and large and this is myopinion, it's not really a
statement of science.
But once they start hitting 10years, you need to be prepared
because you could get 18 or 20years out of it.
But.
That means you're taking goodcare of it, you're taking very
good care of it.
You're having an HVAC guy comeout and service it regularly,
(33:33):
and you're watching it.
If that isn't the case, youbetter be prepared after 10
years to put another one in.
And those are expensivedecisions.
Without a doubt.
Oh, absolutely.
You can get an electrician tocome in and do a electric
electrical evaluation of theentire house too.
But again, I don't really seethat as being the huge ones.
I would consider the cast ironpipe to be one that I would look
(33:56):
at definitely get a pestinspection.
I think those are worthwhile.
But those are the big ones.
I see.
Jim (34:03):
Cool.
Rich.
Thank you for joining me today.
I really appreciate you comingout.
I learn every time I talk withpeople who are experts in their
field and what they're doing.
So the home inspection vitalwhen you're going into a home,
as you just said, knowledge ispower.
Know what you're getting into.
Anything else you would sayabout a home inspection before
we sign off?
Rich (34:22):
Just a, and this isn't so much a home inspection is it's
more of a commercial forrealtors.
They do a job they have afunction in this process and
they can help you navigate somepretty tricky questions that
come up, and that's the, whatthey're there for.
I may not always say you shouldhave this inspection or that
(34:43):
inspection outside, but I reallyfeel strongly that you should
always have a realtor.
when we work on jobs wherepeople don't have a realtor It's
really difficult for folksbecause there's a lot of really
hard decisions to make and a lotof things that need to be
explained to you, not just onthe house itself, Finding the
house is the first and maybe theeasy part but finding out about
(35:05):
the house, finding out how toown the house.
If you really own the house.
The legalities of owning a housewhat kind of expenses you're
gonna have for the house.
I really feel the realtors, theones that I work with that are
very good, are really expertsat.
Helping you negotiate the wholeprocess.
They keep a lot of balls up inthe air for making the process
(35:25):
work, so everybody's got theirown role in this process.
You got Insurance people thatare helping you.
You got title people, you gotattorneys, you got, your
inspection folks.
there's a lot of moving partsand having the right team to
help you is huge, my opinion.
Absolutely.
Same thing with the inspectionteams.
There's a lot of good inspectorsout there.
I like to think we do a veryreputable job and nothing that
(35:47):
we have to be ashamed of.
There's other people out therethat do a very reputable job.
Nothing to be ashamed of too.
And, just take the time to makesure that your guy is insured,
that he's licensed, that he'sgot some level of experience.
None of us would want to go tothe eye doctor that's doing his.
Third lasing surgery, right?
They all have to have numberthree, but number 30,000 makes
(36:11):
you feel a little moreconfident.
Jim (36:13):
yeah, so I
Rich (36:13):
would look for somebody that's got some experience and
at least a way of vettingthemselves so that they can get
through the process.
Those are the things that justpop into my mind right now.
Appreciate you inviting me.
It's always fun to talk topeople about houses.
it's turned into, a big part ofmy life.
So it's important.
Jim (36:30):
Yeah.
Rich (36:30):
Thank you.
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