Buying A House? Demand Proof That Fixes Are Real

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The repair was “done,” but the furnace cabinet was open and a part sat on the door. That moment kicked off a blunt breakdown of how buyers can protect themselves from empty promises, fake receipts, and cosmetic fixes that fail the first cold snap. We share real stories from the field—vents “extended” with gutter downspout, window trim rebuilt with silicone, and invoices from contractors who don’t exist—and turn them into a simple, repeatable playbook for getting repairs you can trust.

We start with readiness and scope: why utilities must be on, access guaranteed, and the repair list written with clear materials and standards. Then we focus on control—why you should choose the contractor, how to verify licenses on state sites, and what real documentation looks like, from itemized invoices to serial-number photos. For bigger risks like electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, and sewer lines, we explain when to require permits and how to use specialist testing such as sewer scoping to avoid expensive surprises after move-in.

If a seller insists on coordinating work, we explain the escrow approach: set a fair amount based on your bids, hold funds through closing, and hire your pro afterward so quality comes first. We also cover when a re-inspection is worth the fee, how to make that visit efficient, and why inspectors and appraisers are the only parties without a financial stake in the deal closing—meaning they’re the ones you want telling you the hard truths. Looking for a smarter path to closing day? Press play, take notes, and use this checklist to keep your home, your money, and your sanity intact. If you find value, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others buy with confidence.

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Alright.
I'm a little frustrated today.

SPEAKER_03 (00:04):
What's that, honey?

SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
Alright, we did an inspection.
And one of our inspectors didthe inspection.
The gas was off of the place.
So of course, then the agentwants us to go back out to
finish the inspection.
Which makes sense.
I'm sorry, we finished theinspection.
It's not our house.

(00:26):
The f house wasn't ready.
So anyway, so we go back.
I go up back out there becausethey have a they now have
batteries in the thermostat.

SPEAKER_03 (00:35):
Oh, they did have batteries?
That was so nice of them.

SPEAKER_01 (00:37):
And the gas is actually on now.
I'm assuming something was notright because you're frustrated.
Well I get there.
First I go I go to thethermostat.
Thermostat says it's 50 degreesin here.
I turn on, I turn up the temp,check the temperature.
Nope, it's set at 70.

SPEAKER_03 (00:55):
You're like, okay, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
This is not working.
So I go downstairs to thebasement, and there's the
furnace.
Cabinet door is completely open,and a part for the furnace is
just sitting on the cabinetdoor.
Oh, that's not laying on thefloor.
So at some point they're gettingit worked on, getting it fixed,
but they totally ignore to tellus that it's not ready.

(01:17):
Do not come out.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18):
To do the inspection, don't come out.

SPEAKER_01 (01:21):
So, which now I did I was able to do the water here.
Yes, water here is working.
But why why would we not comeout when it's all done?
Yeah, so my question is like,all right, say you bought a
house and you had a request orremedy, which is awesome.

(01:41):
You have to.
So after you have this back, yougot the request remedy, you you
want, hey, I want you guys thatget this fixed.
This wasn't working right, orthere's there's a little issue
with it, and they can fix it.
How do you know it was donecorrectly?
Because how many times have wegone back out to do checks and
it wasn't fixed right?

(02:02):
Nine out of ten.
It's most of the time, yes.
And then I remember one house,all right, your plumbing vent.
It's supposed to stick out outof the roof, and what the
plumbing vent does is help yoursewer line and your drain lines
just run smoothly, and thosesewer gases can escape out the
top and everything can drainquickly because you don't have a
pressure, pressure buildup ornegative pressure.

(02:22):
Everything event.
Well, those things here in Ohio,those things are supposed to
stick up about six inches abovethe roof if they go to the roof.
That way you don't have snowblocking them.
Makes sense to me.
Perfect sense, yes.
So the request I know they hadwas hey, we we need this
extended so it doesn't getdoesn't get blocked.
Oh god, this is gonna be bad.

(02:43):
I get there, and what thehomeowner did, the seller, to
extend, he took just a piece ofgutter downspout and just sat
over top of it.
It's not even secured, not eventhe right material.
I mean, it would work a littlebit, but it's not even secured.
It's just pure laziness when youcould have gotten another small
piece of pipe, maybe do a Ferncoconnection to it, do a hose

(03:08):
clamp, hose clamp it on, it'd bedone.
Too lazy.
He wouldn't have got a gutterpiece and laid it up on there.

SPEAKER_02 (03:15):
That's just pathetic.
Like genuinely, that's justpathetic.

SPEAKER_01 (03:20):
And then we have had I think it was an electrician
who's supposed to do some.
We had electrical issues,there's a lot of electrical
issues at houses, especiallyolder houses.
Not uncommon.
It's all repairable.
We got a receipt sent to usshowing that it was fixed.
You looked that receipt up.

SPEAKER_03 (03:38):
Something wasn't right about that whole scenario
to me, and they had a license onit.

SPEAKER_01 (03:44):
Was this the one that's written on like just
yellow notebook, notepad paper?

SPEAKER_03 (03:47):
Yeah, it was something.
There's something, it's been acouple years.

SPEAKER_01 (03:50):
Very non-professional.

SPEAKER_03 (03:51):
I I'm like, something's just not right.
So I pull up that license numberthat didn't exist in the state,
pull up the name that was on it,they're not licensed.
So it was a completely fakereceipt.
And that's not the first timewe've had that happen where
we've gotten fake receipts.

SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
So the question is, then how do you really know if
you have a request for memory,how do you know the work is
actually being done right?
How do you know that that it'sjust well I know the the first
example gave you, I know it'sjust some homeowner just
half-assing it.
I'll I'll slip a downs, justslap a down spout over top of
the pipe.
Call it good and call it good.

SPEAKER_03 (04:29):
You don't really.

SPEAKER_01 (04:30):
Or I've seen I've seen homeowner repairs where the
window trim outside the houserotted.
The whole and I look at it.
Well, here's what I did.
I look at it, I'm looking at thedoing that's right, it's like
really, it's different.
Something's not right.
My spidey sense is going off.
It's not right.
Something's odd, something's offover here.
I go in and touch it.

(04:51):
That whole like bottom fourinches of the of the windowsill,
like trim, solid caulking.

SPEAKER_00 (04:58):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs.
From radon to mall to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go.

(05:19):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_01 (05:25):
So like you couldn't even use wood putty.
You couldn't even, yeah.
You couldn't even dig out allthe rotten spot, shove some wood
putty in there.
That would have at least been abetter idea.
Give it a day to harden thenpaint it.
You couldn't do it, you had togo just go get some bunch of big
tubes of silicone caulk and justsquirt it in there, and then
it's all wavy and spongy.
Probably still got a leak backthere.

SPEAKER_03 (05:47):
That's gonna work well.

SPEAKER_01 (05:49):
So, how do you know?

SPEAKER_03 (05:51):
You don't.
The only way that you know wouldbe to have somebody come back
out and look at everything.

SPEAKER_01 (05:56):
See, and and home inspectors typically don't want
to go back out.

SPEAKER_03 (05:59):
No, because well, and like how many times have we
gone back out and literallystuff wasn't done right?
Or we were told that the gas wason, or that this was on, or that
was on, and that this was fixed,and most of it's not.

SPEAKER_01 (06:13):
Well, it's a waste of inspector's time.
Because for us, we're not gonnalose give up a time slot that
could be done for a whole houseinspection and termine and a
radon test.
We're gonna we're not gonna giveup that whole time slot to come
take a look at something thatreally should only take us less
than an hour to check your yourlist is fixed.

(06:33):
And we and we need to get paidfor this time as well.
Right.
I mean, typically we will go outto a house once to take a look
at it.

SPEAKER_03 (06:41):
And then that next time is a fee.

SPEAKER_01 (06:43):
Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking we almost need to just
always charge a fee.
What because the seller knowswe're coming out.
The seller knows they shouldn'tget their house ready.

SPEAKER_03 (06:53):
Well, I don't think the client should have to pay
for that.
And we've had this discussionbefore.
I I think it should be theseller.
If you don't have your houseready to go and we have to come
back out for any reason, thereis a return trip fee.

SPEAKER_01 (07:07):
Especially if it if we're gonna have the
electricity's off, gas is off,you know things are not repaired
yet, but you know you need tohave these things ready for the
inspection.

SPEAKER_03 (07:16):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (07:17):
You know.
It's not like hey, we go to thehouse, we discover there's you
have a leak in your attic space,which you I I legit sellers
would probably would not know ifthey didn't go in their attic.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't expectthem to know that.
But 100% they should know theycan easily tell, like, hey, I

(07:37):
have no batteries in mythermostat.
I got the cover off my my myfurnace.
I know it's not working.
I haven't had gas or electricityon this place for two months.

SPEAKER_03 (07:47):
Plumbing hasn't been used in two years.
There wasn't a little oldgrandma, there just wasn't
anybody living here.
So yeah, go ahead and test thatout too.

SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
Yeah, so you how you know it was done correctly.
So what you need to do, if youhave your request remedy,
request that your contractorsthat you know go out and do the
work.

SPEAKER_03 (08:07):
That would be the best way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 (08:08):
Do not do not go, yeah, yeah, I'll let the seller
pick the person to fix it, orthe seller says he's pretty
handy, he'll do it.

SPEAKER_03 (08:16):
Because the seller did such a great job with all of
the stuff before that we foundduring the inspection.

SPEAKER_01 (08:22):
Correct, correct.
No, I have had, I'll be honest,I'll do this.
I was at a home inspection, um,testing some outlets, GFCI
outlet did not did not work.
Okay.
Seller was there.
He was an electrician because Isaw all the tools.
I go, hey, just you know, yougot one GFC that's not tripping.
He goes, like, oh, you you isokay if I change it?

(08:44):
Yeah, go and change it.
Let me know what's done, I'llcome back and retest it.
No problem.
It works fine.
He's an electric yeah, he's anelectrician.
He knows all the evidence wasthat he is an electrician and he
and it was working correctly.
He's done.
So that's cool.
I have no problem with that.
But most homeowners are notelectricians, plumbers, it and

(09:05):
they would take care of theirhouse if they if they well,
ideally, they would take care oftheir own house.
Yeah, but you know how thecobbler, the cobbler's children
have no shoes, right?
So, yeah, how do you know?
I mean, you could hire the homeinspector to go back out, and
and the home inspector shouldcharge you for that because
their time is is valuable.

SPEAKER_02 (09:26):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
They're protecting you, yeah.
But the best thing really is toget receipts from a contractor
that you pick.
So we have seen fake receipts.
Yes, fake license numbers, fakecompanies, fake everything.

SPEAKER_03 (09:43):
I I think it's a better idea if you pick the
people that do the repairs.
Now, obviously, don't have yourpeople gouge the seller because
that's not going to work.
Have it be a fair market valuefor their services, or have them
put it into escrow as part ofthe contract negotiations, and

(10:05):
then you go ahead and you getwhatever fixed off of the escrow
money and the seller getswhatever's left over.
I mean, there's there's a coupleways to do it, but yeah, you you
some of this stuff we've seen isamazing.

SPEAKER_01 (10:17):
I mean, so ideally you can totally trust people,
but you can't.
No, you can't.
You can't.
I mean, some you gotta have agood relationship with somebody
to to trust them.
But yeah, this is I mean, it'sreal estate, there's money
involved.

SPEAKER_03 (10:34):
Anytime there's money, that's one of the
motivators.

SPEAKER_01 (10:37):
Some people do not get paid unless unless the house
closes, so you're more of afactor to take into
consideration is whether or notthey're gonna care if things are
done correctly.

SPEAKER_03 (10:48):
Well, and in this whole real estate transaction,
literally the only peopleinvolved in the real estate
transaction that it doesn'tmatter to are the home
inspectors and the appraisers.
They have no skin in the game asto whether or not that house
sells.
They go out, they do theirappraisal, call it good.

(11:10):
We go, we do our inspection, andthat's it.
It is what it is for for both ofthose types of companies.

SPEAKER_01 (11:16):
Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 (11:17):
Beyond that, everybody else involved in that
transaction stands to make moneyfrom it.

SPEAKER_01 (11:22):
And and the inspection company makes money
as long as they do an inspectionand they do it extremely
accurate for the client.
Because the client could comeafter the inspector if they
screw things up.
Now, here in Ohio, that islimited to the price of the home
inspection, but still they wantto make they they need they want
to make that money and they wantto keep it.

(11:44):
And the way to keep it is do athorough job and honest.
Right.
Where the where the otherprofessions, I'm not saying
people are dishonest, but theythey have no skin in the game if
if uh if if they're they'rewrong on a couple of things, or
the house has issues.
If that if the person moves inthe house, has a bad sewer line,
doesn't affect their agent any.

(12:06):
They already got theirappraiser, Annie.
It doesn't affect them, doesn'taffect the loan officer any.
Bank don't care.
You still owe you still owe it.

SPEAKER_03 (12:15):
So you still owe that mortgage.

SPEAKER_01 (12:16):
Yes.
So when you have a homeinspection, first of all, you
must have a home inspectiondone, and then you really,
really should have the sewerline checked.
Always get that scope.
Yes.
So I think I I think I was juston this one, but trust the home
inspector.
But I'd be honest, we do notwant to go out and do rechecks
again.
No, I know.
It's not worth the time.

SPEAKER_03 (12:37):
No, it's not, and then we've been lied to so many
times.

SPEAKER_01 (12:40):
I've had agents get mad at us because the things
weren't done, weren't fixed,right?

SPEAKER_03 (12:43):
I'm like, don't it's not our job.
We didn't fix it in the firstplace.
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
I'm just I'm just telling you, we're reporting
what it is.
I didn't, I'm not killing thedeal.
The house is committing suicide.
We're just reporting how badlythe the seller took care of the
place, right?
That's the facts.
All right, thank you, everybody.
Bye guys, bye bye.