Unlock the secrets of commercial and residential property inspections in Ohio with Jim and Laura, your go-to experts, as they dissect the complexities of state regulations. Have you ever wondered why a home inspector's license is essential for your duplex but not your bustling five-unit apartment building? Together, we'll tackle this regulatory puzzle and reveal how Ohio's laws uniquely shape the real estate landscape, particularly for agents and prospective buyers. We promise to arm you with the knowledge you need to navigate these inspections like a pro, ensuring your ventures stand out and thrive in the competitive Ohio market.
On this episode of Standing Out in Ohio, Jim and Laura uncover the often-misunderstood distinctions between residential and commercial property inspections. With insights into licensing requirements and the nuanced definitions of what constitutes commercial property, they shed light on the legalities that could affect your next real estate transaction. Whether you're a seasoned agent or an ambitious entrepreneur, discover how to maximize your expertise and credentials to ensure successful deals. With our guidance, you'll be well-prepared to make informed decisions in the property inspection process. Don't miss this opportunity to gain a competitive edge!
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Two-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)
Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Scheduled classes
Continuing Education for Ohio Agents Course listings
Facebook Page Facebook
For home buyers: What to expect from a home inspection. YT video for home buyers
Home Buyer and Seller Resources | Habitation Investigation
Heartland Commercial Property Inspections
If you would like to be a guest on the podcast contact us and let us know. You can visit Home (jimtroth.com) and go to the podcast page or message Habitation Investigation.
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 (00:31):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out in
Ohio podcast.
This is Jim with Laura theoffice.
Goddess, hello everyone.
Such a nice voice.
Yeah, all right, so commercialbuilding inspections.
Yeah, all right, so commercialbuilding inspections.
There's confusion for somepeople as to what constitutes a
commercial inspection.
(00:53):
I was looking online becauseI'm trying to check out our
website.
I'm doing it, trying to do somearticle writing and SEO for our
commercial inspection site.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Which is Heartland Commercial Property Inspections.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yep, so trying to improve that and one of the
things that popped up on here.
So a question popped up is whatis considered commercial
property in Ohio?
Okay, so we're going to go overthat because the state of Ohio,
with their licensing of homeinspectors, defined it Right,
(01:34):
which is pretty the normal,standard way it will do.
But most real estate agents donot know that a person does not
have to be licensed to do acommercial building inspection.
In fact, there may be one statethat actually licenses
(01:54):
commercial property inspections.
So we're going to go over thedefinition of that and there are
some crossovers between a homeinspector and a commercial
property inspector.
There are some crossover.
We'll go over those.
First, let's listen to this.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs.
From radon to mold towarranties For a great home
inspection, you really can't gowrong.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Visit homeinspectionsinohiocom All
right, laura, residentialLicensed home inspections.
We know those are a condo, asingle family unit, you know
house, standalone house.
(02:52):
Those are definitelyresidential and you need to be
licensed as a home inspector todo those Duplex that's also even
though if you're buying aduplex and you're going to rent
both sides, it doesn't matter,that is considered residential.
(03:14):
So you need to have a licensedhome inspector inspect that.
Three units and four unitapartment buildings are still
considered residential buildingsas defined by the state of Ohio
, right?
So in order to have a four-unitbuilding inspected, they would
have to be a licensed homeinspector in Ohio to look at
(03:38):
those.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So anything five and above is a commercial property.
Is a commercial property.
Is a commercial property Anybuilding that is used to garner
income.
House of business how else wasthat worded?
Yeah, commercial properties areused for business purposes,
such as generating incomethrough rental or capital gain.
(04:01):
So office buildings, rentalspaces, warehouses, industrial
facility, hotels, all of thoseare considered a commercial
property.
And then any residential fiveunit and above also falls under
that commercial property.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Because that's where Ohio decided to delineate it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
For home inspectors.
They're E&O insurance.
That's how it typically definesresidential versus commercial,
Right, Is it five units?
If it's residential, is it fiveunits or more?
That's commercial.
Now licensed home inspectors inOhio they can definitely
inspect a single family condo,duplex, triplex, fourplex.
(04:48):
They can inspect those.
They can even inspect a fiveunit.
Okay, I think you can go biggeras well for residential and
then be okay, they would nothave to be licensed if it's five
units or higher.
I would recommend, though, ifyou're a real estate agent or a
(05:11):
buyer, that if you arepurchasing a residential
apartment building that has fiveunits or more, you Need someone
who's certified.
If it's a residential, you needto have a licensed home
inspector.
At least you know they have theskills and experience hopefully
the experience for the Buildingof that magnitude For
(05:34):
residential Right.
Just because somebody's likedoesn't mean they're experience.
We've interviewed licensed,especially before, and they no
way no way do they meet ourstandards.
I mean nice guys, it just it,it.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I'm thinking the guy out in the.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Dayton area.
Yeah, nope, nope, nope, nope,so but anyway.
But once you get a but, youdon't have to be licensed to do
commercial in Ohio, and mostagents do not seem to know that,
but there are certificationsthat you can have for commercial
(06:13):
property.
And we have thosecertifications.
Capitation investigation haspeople who are certified for
that.
Heartland commercial propertyinspections has people who are
certified for that.
Heartland Commercial PropertyInspections.
Has people who are certified inUNI Yep and we have one of our
homeless batteries process ofgetting that certification.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So if you're commercially needed, you really
should have somebody who'scertified through.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
CCPIA.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yep.
That is the association we gothrough to get our
certifications.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
It's affiliated with NACHI.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
There are definitely some differences in the
magnitude of these buildings.
What's the largest office space?
120,000 square feet, fivestories.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
It might have been bigger than that, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
We've done that 6,500 square foot.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Warehouse.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Warehouse, all one roof massive.
We did something the other day.
Then there was that one wherethere was the huge warehouse
building, and then the other onethat was similar to a house but
it was the office building yeah, oh yeah that that house was
(07:27):
messed up like that was itlooked like that was the model
house and then, as decades wenton, it became an office and
people were renting it out notowning it, just renting it out
and abusing it and oh and it wasnot taken care of not taken
care of but I do.
I do think a lot of real estateagents do not realize that
(07:47):
there's a difference betweencommercial and home inspection.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, it's under the impression that, as a real
estate agent, if you are goingto sell commercial properties,
there are specific classes thatyou need to take and your own
certifications that you need tohave, as a real estate agent, to
be able to sell commercialthere are certifications, but I
don't know if they're requiredto actually have those.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Just like a home inspector does not need to be
certified to go inspect awarehouse.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
That's a good question, then, because maybe we
should ask somebody that doescommercial properties.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And here's the thing that I like is for commercial.
It does not have to be done.
It's not typically done onlywhen those are purchased because
there's a triple net lease.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
There's the triple net lease, or Maintenance
inspections yes, we do those.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I remember that one roof we looked at it was a
million dollar roof Right and healready had quotes to get that
replaced.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
It was a million dollar roof Right and he already
had quotes to get that replaced.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
It was a million dollars.
They're going to do a 500, like475,000 this year.
Then you're not going to do theother half of it.
It was a million dollar roof.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, and that roof was massive and there were a lot
of issues I've been.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I have spent well over an hour on top of roofs
just walking the roof takingpictures of things.
Hotel roofs, those are allthese big, but when you do a
commercial they can be justsingle item.
Things like just a roof is acommon thing done.
It's just a roof.
Maybe look for moisture issues,we can do that as well.
(09:27):
But there's now here's aquestion.
All right, this would probablybe commercial.
Say, you had a building storeon the bottom, okay, residential
at the top.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
That would still be commercial, because you're
renting that out on top.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, what if you live?
What if you're going buy thebill?
I'm thinking there's a littletv show is the store?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
going to be a store?
Is that whole place going to beconverted into just a house?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
there's a tv show, canadian tv show.
I watched it, it wasconvenience, it was not a bad
show.
It was not a bad show.
But korean family they had aconvenience store downstairs,
they lived upstairs.
Okay, that would, I think would, be considered commercial,
because the building has aportion of it that is purely for
(10:17):
business not, they're stillmaking money on it.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
It would have to fall under commercial.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yes home inspector could still do that well they
could still do that one theycould still do that one, but it
depends on the size and scope.
We've done some very massiveplaces.
You do those, especially withme, often like restaurants.
We've done those and then youdo the phase one.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Which is a requirement from banks often
that if somebody's going to buya commercial property, the bank
wants to make sure there's nohazards in the ground.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
That they're going to end up getting on the hook for
cleaning it up.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, so you're looking for all kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Well, for example we just heard about the post office
.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, there's all kinds of things $5 million to
clean up mercury.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
There's a whole other .
Speaker 2 (11:13):
We can say it'd be like holy crap, things we found
out during phase ones.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Right, okay, that would be fun.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Which is strictly for commercial.
But we did do, you did do aphase one for a group of like
five duplexes.
Remember that.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah and the bank said no you need.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
The bank wanted a phase one done on that.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Yeah, we can talk about that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
But residential versus commercial, there's a
difference between them, if youdo a large commercial.
You definitely want somebodywho's certified to do commercial
property inspection.
There is a difference in thesystem.
The standards are different aswell.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
And you may be required to do a phase one with
a commercial property becausebanks do not want on the hook
for an environmental cleanup ifthey can get out of it, we'll do
it next to another podcast, sothere are some different
requirements with commercialproperties too.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yes, so I think that's about it for this one.
I just think it's importantthat people know that there's a
difference Habitat investigationwith Heartland commercial
property inspection.
We can do your commercialbuilding inspection.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
We can do any of them and the phase ones for them and
any ancillaries.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And a ton of tests if they want it.
Yep.
So I think that's about it forthis one.
Thank you, take care, bye-bye,bye.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio
podcast.
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
company athomeinspectionsinohiocom or
jimtroffcom.
(13:03):
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time.
Learn and go do stuff.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!