Jim and Laura discuss the critical importance of property inspections even for leased commercial spaces, highlighting a case study of a children's workout facility with dangerous mold conditions.
• Laura conducted air quality testing at a commercial property where children worked out and found dangerous mold levels
• The landlord initially resisted reviewing the inspection report but eventually attempted inadequate repairs
• Follow-up inspection revealed significant water intrusion and ineffective sealing attempts
• Inspections protect both tenants and landlords by documenting building conditions before occupancy
• Triple net leases make tenants responsible for maintenance, making pre-lease inspections even more crucial
• Property condition reflects on your business and impacts customer perception
• Regular maintenance inspections (annually or between tenants) help prioritize repairs and prevent disputes
Be sure to subscribe on Spotify or Google Podcasts to get new, fresh episodes. For more, please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or visit the website of the best Ohio home inspection company at homeinspectionsinohio.com or jimtroth.com.
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
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey everybody, welcome to Standing Out Ohio.
This is Jim and with me isLaura.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
All right, laura.
So we did air quality well,mold testing.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
A day or so later I went a woodshed inspection on
the building that a businessowner is leasing Any place I
would say, yeah, it doesn't care, or that's what we're getting.
It doesn't care, it doesn't fixthings.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
And that was evidenced by what your
inspection showed.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I mean, it wasn't just.
Yeah, I guess you're thereporter.
Anyway, we're going to talkabout the importance of
inspection.
You don't own the place, you'renot buying the building, but
you want to find the space andyou don't have to object
yourself to it.
So let's listen to this.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs from
radon to mold to warranties, Fora great home inspection, you
really can't go wrong.
(01:50):
Visit homeinspectionsinohiocom.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
All right.
So, Lauren, how did this personget in contact?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
They found us online and gave me a call and started
talking.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
They looked for Habitation Investigation.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I think so because it came through Amy.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay, and we have multiple ways you would get a
hold of it Right.
Sometimes through HabitationInvestigation, sometimes through
commercial property inspection.
Okay, or environmentalconsultants or environmental
consultants in Ohio, which theyOkay, so they property
inspection okay, orenvironmental consultants, or
environmental consultant ohiowhich mainly?
But we don't know, okay, sothey big habitat, I think
(02:30):
because amy was telling me aboutit.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
So megan and I were already out doing a bunch of
stuff that day and we workedthis guy in so that we could do
the test, because it soundedlike he really needed to know
something.
So we we met him, went in umceiling, was caving in in the
bathroom and we could see black,fuzzy stuff all in the attic
(02:59):
space.
So I went and did several airtests and they all came back
pretty high.
And the sad thing about it isthat they came back pretty high
after the doors being open allday and just being closed for
four hours prior to my testingso you want like 12 hours yeah,
(03:19):
12 to 24, yeah, and, and youstill get that.
yeah, so did did the mo pestforum?
Um told him, based on what Iwas seeing, that I thought that
the meal was more prevalent upin the attic and probably coming
down through the walls and that, and you know, I wrote up my
(03:43):
report and said nobody should behere because it was also a
place where kids go to work out.
So kids from 8 to 18.
And I'm like they shouldn't bethere.
You shouldn't be there, nobodyshould be there until this is
fixed.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah because the lieutenant told me that a day
later I went back to thehospital, Right, and they had
mainly, mainly looked for acouple of these.
Well, yeah, but remember in themorning we had we had somebody
(04:18):
was in China.
They were alive.
And they come back to the city.
The doctor thought they weresmoking.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So they've been smoking for years.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
It's not that he was a smoker.
He was exercising every threeweeks.
He was out running in Chicagoten times as much as he was
sitting down.
He was a lot more workout.
This place where kids work out,they're breathing more.
They're just lounging Right.
They're going to get more ofwhatever can move in there.
(04:52):
We're not doing VFC.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
But if no one goes, I kind of lean against that.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
But they're breathing a lot of coffee so I wrote up a
report for him and at first thethe seller the seller, the
landlord didn't even want tolook at the report.
He just wanted to call and talkto me and I said no, I'm not
going to get into what he said.
(05:21):
She said if he wants to talk,we can do a zoom meeting.
We can go over the reporttogether.
I have no problems with that.
Ended up that he finally satdown and looked at the report
with Earthbinding and decidedthat he was going to attempt to
fix the roof.
I said he needed a new roof buthe thought it would just do a
couple of things and wait forEarthbinding to stop.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Alright, let's go from there.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Let's go from there because you went out after.
That was the goal.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So the landlord would fix it right right, that's not
the last thing you heard that'swhat he was.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
He was going to fix stuff.
That was he was he was.
He was going to pick stuff, buthe was still saying that the
move wasn't as throughout thebuilding, as I said yes, so I go
there to do it because themoisture is actually the day
before.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Apparently they put on two coats of this sealant.
I don't know what it was.
There are no hands, I don'tknow if it worked out, but it
was raining at that point and asI walked up, there was all this
white rain all over the front,and then we're going out the
(06:34):
back and the back.
There's no gutters, there's noproper drain.
Well, very slightly right nextto the property, the slope is
torn.
It looks like a pool of water,right.
Yeah, slope is towards it.
It looks like a pool, right?
Yeah, so all this moisture iscooling up.
And then, as I go along, checkme out.
(06:55):
Right now there is moisture inthe lower part of every single
interior wall.
Here water is leaping in.
We're really just always,though it's not until, probably
always, though it's not until.
And up inside the roof show alot of pictures.
(07:18):
See the white water.
It wasn't going underneath, oh,and little pieces of like
plywood or the outside kind ofseal up the bottom of the rodent
going in there.
But it's sticking out beyondthe bottom, so the reams coming
underneath it was underneath it.
There's a bunch of noise whichwe got bad raining, bad material
(07:41):
sticking out that will pack thewater and it'll build gutter.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Don't happen I see the weight from that stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, sometimes we make pictures during normal
introspection or with a building, like by air and water and RBC.
Sometimes we don't have to havethat camera at a certain angle
to show reflection.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, this you don't.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
This was so easy to see in the water.
But look, it's all white.
That's crazy.
There's milky water all aroundthe outside of this place.
Well, I go up and see the atticspace Okay, checking that out
and I find a couple of cases upthere.
Not surprising, not the mainfocus I'm looking for, but I did
(08:23):
find an active leak up there,others involved in an active
leak.
An active leak up there, othersinvolved in an active leak.
It's filthy, white.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Oh, that made it so nice to identify.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So, yeah, so the sealant is not working.
It didn't seal.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Probably didn't have enough time to cure before rain.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
That may have been a large part of it, but we got it.
If you're doing a rushed job,if you don't have time to do it
properly once, are you reallygoing to have time to multiple
times?
You're spending more time onmultiple tasks than doing it all
(09:07):
at once, especially if you'renot correct, things can be fixed
correctly.
But yeah, I've melted acids andstuff.
I've been doing it all at once,especially if it's not
corrected, things can be fixedcorrectly, but yeah, not here.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Here's something that some people don't get.
You fix it once.
You fix it right and you don'tget all of that damage that you
would get if you just half-assit.
Because of what this guy's done, all that trim around the base
of the barn is wet.
That stuff's all going to haveto come off.
(09:37):
The inside was wet.
There's a lot of damage goingon here that he should take care
of and just be done.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It was an older building.
I expect it should be an olderbuilding.
You and I expect it should bean older building, but you and I
have seen old houses which aremore complex than this.
Yeah, and very minimal issues.
It all depends how well theyare taken care of.
Which reminds me house Iinspected yesterday.
I looked out the cellar and Iassume the listing agent helped
(10:11):
them get things ready.
Nice, I'll show you.
Actually, I put the tablebrochure when you go in the
house to do a brochure and allthat.
They did a very nice job.
Oh, cool, really nice, andthere's no summation, but
nothing.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
But you know they've at least taken care of it,
They've tried to do right bythemselves.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
That's how you give your assume, a home buyer or a
commercial building buyer.
That's how you give them a goodfeeling of what's going on.
But yeah, even I guess a littlemore of this whole episode here
is, even if you're not buying aplace, you know, lease office
space, a building, whatever, getit inspected because that
(10:53):
protects you.
Because I believe the sameplace, the landlord, at one
point, was telling them thatthey damaged the air
conditioning unit, but he hadevidence that no, it was not.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
The air conditioning had never even been on.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
It looks like it had not been even connected for a
while.
There was no refrigerant.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, the tenant before him said he'd never had
air conditioning.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, so current tenant, our client, was able to
yeah, for my students it's not athing, but it makes the
landlord Looks easier.
Yeah that, or fully unaware ofknow where we're going with that
, with that building.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
But he can't claim that.
No, no, he cannot claim that.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
But yeah, if you're buying or not, you need to get
it inspected.
And if you own a building,especially one that you don't
occupy.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
You should always get it inspected, every year.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Maintenance inspection?
Yeah, at least Wow.
Every two or three years, getit looked at or if you're
changing tenants get it lookedat.
I've done that before.
Somebody don't lease theircondo out.
I came in to do an inspection.
So when that tenant leaves,they know, they know like no, no
, this is new damage.
Here's all the pictures I thinkextra pictures of the.
(12:13):
So they're leaving somefurniture as well, so I took
pictures of furniture as well.
But yeah, you always you needto protect yourself and it's
good you need that protectsyourself and is good.
Risk management and maintenance.
You can help prioritize what todo.
You can't fix it If you don'tknow how to fix it.
You can do it with a vision Inthis place, lots of visions that
(12:35):
I think have probably beenignored for many years.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
There's something called a triple net lease in
commercial real estate.
If I'm renting from somebodyand I do a triple net lease,
that means that I'm responsiblefor the upkeep of that building.
So having an inspection priorto going into that lease and
(13:03):
into that building is going toprotect you, because then you're
going to have this was thecondition when I moved in and
it's going to protect you downthe road, because we've actually
seen companies where they'vebeen in litigation with tenants
and the tenants are like no,this wasn't like this.
This was like this when wemoved in, but they hadn't had an
(13:23):
inspection done, so they had noproof of anything.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh yeah, so you need it's protecting yourself.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, so either from the landlord's perspective or
from the tenant perspective, aninspection is a very good way to
protect yourself and show thecondition prior to somebody
moving in.
Show it as soon as they moveout and it's better for everyone
.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Inspections really don't have a side.
No, it is what it is.
This came up the other day.
We did a previous strip-off acouple weeks ago and we're just
waiting for the buyer to show upand talk to some things.
And we're just waiting for thebuyer to show up and talk to
some things and we're talking tothe agent the buyer's agent,
lots of things.
(14:11):
And somebody said, well, yeah,that depends on what side of the
transaction you're on.
And I'd say, well, faxshouldn't have a sign.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
What'd they say?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
And the agent goes yeah, you're right.
I mean, it's just facts.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, it's the condition of the building period
end story and it's everybodyknows.
Going in, you know what youneed to fix and then you know if
any new damage has been done,if any other things have been
lagging behind getting fixed.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
It's just more it's going to pop up sooner or later.
I think that's it for this one.
Always get it inspected.
Based on the message of thisProtect yourself, Get it
inspected.
Protect yourself If you're aworkout place for this example
protect your clients that arecoming in.
Can you imagine being a dentistand you're a workout place, for
example, or text your clientsthat are coming in?
(15:04):
Can you imagine being a dentistand you rent the space and then
your clients get sick becausethey're old all over the place?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
They're not going to talk to you.
Yeah, you're done.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
You're done, and this is something brought up in the
commercial perspective.
You have a parking lot that'sjunk.
You're customizing your windowsthat are rebuilt or not, like
you want to stop in your storewith a parking lot that's a
massive pothole that looks likejunk, but you're like all right,
(15:39):
this is quality out here.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
What's the quality?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
inside yeah, it needs very functional, looks safe,
looks inviting.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Upkeep maintenance.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Don't be a slumlord.
Don't be a slumlord, yep, allright everybody.
Thank you, bye, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on Spotifyor Google Podcasts to get new,
fresh episodes.
Be sure to subscribe on Spotifyor Google Podcasts to get new,
fresh episodes.
For more, please follow us onInstagram, twitter and Facebook,
or visit the website of thebest Ohio home inspection
(16:17):
company athomeinspectionsinohiocom or
jimtroffcom.
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H.
And click on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
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