January 16, 2025 • 24 mins
Episode 52 – Winter Home Inspections: Challenges & Hidden Advantages
Hosted by John Gscheidmeier with guest Dave Kolesari
Wisconsin winters can be brutal—but did you know they can actually reveal hidden issues in a home inspection? Snow, ice, and freezing temperatures create unique challenges for buyers and inspectors, but they also expose certain problems that might go unnoticed in warmer months.
In this episode, John Gscheidmeier sits down with Dave Kolesari, owner of Homesight, Inc., a veteran-owned inspection company, to discuss how winter conditions affect the home inspection process and what buyers need to know when purchasing a property in cold weather.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Inspecting Snow-Covered Roofs – How inspectors assess roof conditions when snow blocks direct observation
✅ Assessing Grading & Flat Surfaces – Understanding the limitations of winter inspections and how professionals work around them
✅ Winter Inspection Advantages – Surprising ways cold weather can uncover hidden issues that summer inspections might miss
✅ Evaluating Additional Structures – How pools, ponds, sheds, and outbuildings are inspected during winter months
✅ Pro Tips for Home Buyers – What buyers should ask inspectors and how to prepare for a winter home purchase
With thousands of inspections under his belt, Dave Kolesari shares expert insights to help buyers feel confident in their decisions, no matter the season. If you're thinking about buying a home in Wisconsin during winter, this episode is a must-listen!
🎧 Listen to the full episode here: Wisconsin Real Estate Today - Episode 52
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John Gscheidmeier (00:01):
This is John Gescheidmeier of Wisconsin Real
Estate Today, your real estateexpert. This podcast is designed
to equipping people with theteaching and tools they need to
succeed in real estate. I hopeyou enjoy this episode and
subscribe for more real estatecontent. Hey, podcast listeners.
(00:30):
John Gescheidmeier, your host ofWisconsin Real Estate Today and,
today we're bringing back goodfriend Dave Colasare.
I don't did I ask is itKolesari?
Dave Kolesari (00:40):
Kolesari.
John Gscheidmeier (00:40):
Kolesari. Out of all the times we get
together, I should know that.
Dave Kolesari (00:44):
That's alright.
John Gscheidmeier (00:45):
Dave, introduce yourself. You've been
on the show before a coupletimes. We're gonna talk today
about, a timely topic and it'ssomething I thought that the
listeners would find interestingand it is inspections in winter,
advantages and disadvantages.But introduce yourself and your
company.
Dave Kolesari (01:02):
Dave Kolesari Homesite Inspection Services. We
have been around for almost ourtwenty eighth year. We do
Southeastern Wisconsin, doprobably more inspections than
anyone in the state ofWisconsin. We have an eight
person team. We have severaloffices, client care people,
office managers, rate on tax,marketing people.
(01:23):
So basically a small army to getwhat we done get done every
year. And we, last year's weactually did fantastic last
year. We ended up 32% up, whichis, more than what other home
inspection companies can sayfrom what I understand.
John Gscheidmeier (01:40):
Well, I think you you've really perfected your
business to to be start tofinish. I mean, you've got home
warranty under your roof.Correct. Right? That's a third
party vendor, obviously, but weorder it right through your
website.
And it's not just a twelve monthinspection or a warranty. It's a
it's an eighteen month as longas somebody uses you.
Dave Kolesari (02:01):
To inspect a home. Correct?
John Gscheidmeier (02:02):
Inspect a home. Plus you do commercial
buildings, you do pool, you doall that stuff.
Dave Kolesari (02:07):
Yeah. We we try to do all aspects of it. We also
own a mold remediation companythat helps out sometimes times
when agents need someone to dosome mold remediation in a
timely manner. But, yeah,commercial properties, you name
it. We just scheduled a 63 unit,apartment building that we're
gonna do next week.
We let two months ago, we did a400,000 square foot, hotel in
(02:28):
Manitowoc. So it just doesn'tend with residential.
John Gscheidmeier (02:33):
And you're a veteran owned business, which I
love. Thank you for yourservice. Thank you. So let's
dive into the topic at hand. Aswe record this here in January
and we're gonna publish thislater today, it's two degrees
out when I woke up this morning.
Good old Wisconsin.
Dave Kolesari (02:49):
Yep.
John Gscheidmeier (02:49):
When I was in law enforcement, I used to do
presentations across The US ondrug stuff, drug recognition,
all this other stuff I had anexpertise in. And every time
somebody would ask a questionwhen I was like down in Texas,
it was always, How do y'all dothat up there in Wisconsin? And
I would have to remind himthere's no e in Wisconsin, but
(03:10):
it gets cold. People buy homes20, three 60 five, three 60 six
in leap years. What happens whenI shouldn't say what happens.
Let's talk about inspections inwinter.
Dave Kolesari (03:26):
Well, it's funny you ask because last year we put
a presentation together on thepros and cons of inspections
winter. And without a doubt,people ask us when they're
booking a home inspection, youknow, what what about this? What
about that? Most most common, Iguess, question is how about the
roof? How do you look at theroof?
And you know what? There's anequation. If you go to if you go
(03:47):
to the house and you're drivingthere and the house is maybe 60
years old, I'm I'm guessing, youknow, first layer of roof is
gonna last twenty, twenty fiveyears. Second layer is gonna
last twenty, twenty five years.So that brings me up to 50.
So this roof, I'm guessing, isabout 10 to 15 years old without
even getting there. That justfrom the equation of how long
roofs last and how old the houseis. And then what I do is I'll,
(04:10):
you know, try to whisk off alittle bit of snow to see if, if
I can see the condition of theshingles. You know, I, I don't
pretend to know everything aboutthe roof because it is covered
with snow. But sometimes ifyou're lucky, you'll have little
spots of sun that dry or notdry, but melt the snow off and
you can see and either, youknow, make your, observations
(04:32):
correct or incorrect.
And another half of it is, youknow, the attic, getting into
the attic and seeing what youcan see from there because
that's a pro. Because if a roofleaks, you're gonna have an
icicle hanging down, right? Sothat's something you definitely
can't see when it's summer. So,yeah, we may not know everything
about the roof, but we can get agood idea of what's going on
(04:53):
with that roof. And to behonest, if if it really is a
concerning piece, we can we cango back and check it when the
sun melts, to kind of help withthe with the transaction or the
process.
Other things we we we don'tnormally see the condition of
is, you know, your flatsurfaces, your patios, your
sidewalks, your driveways. Whatcondition are they in? Are they
(05:16):
pitched towards the home, whichis really important with, with
water flow? The grading, is thegrading pitch towards the house?
That's something we can't see aswell.
But then again, on the flipside, we can see, hey, are there
going to be ice dams in, on thenorth side where there's not a
whole lot of sun? Things thatthat you normally wouldn't see,
like even with a hose faucet.There's a hose faucet dripping
(05:37):
where you get a big icicle wherein summer you wouldn't
necessarily see that. So, thereare some there are some pros and
cons with it, but, it it doesdiminish the view of things, but
we we pretty much can get anidea of what's going on.
John Gscheidmeier (05:52):
Well, I think listeners, when they think of an
attic, they don't realize it'scold up there or it's hot up
there, depending on the time ofthe year.
Dave Kolesari (05:58):
Correct.
John Gscheidmeier (06:00):
With obviously, there's ventilation
and there's a reason why thatis. But you also mentioned
insulation.
Dave Kolesari (06:05):
Yeah. Your attic should be as warm or as cold as
it is outside. Okay? So if it'sone degrees, like I was outside
on a roof yesterday, it was fivedegrees in my own I I almost
froze my fingers off on theroof. But, a a pro is, you know,
if you go to a house in winterand you see that all the snow
has melted off the roof, that'sa sign that you might not have
(06:26):
the best ventilation.
Our value's there. So, that'ssomething that can be verified
once we're in the attic. Butanother thing which we find a
lot of is mold in the attic.Okay? And mold is derived from
having the attic having moisturein it.
It. And it could moisture can bein your attic from a few things.
It can be from, a minimal amountof insulation. It can be from a
(06:50):
lack of ventilation. It can alsobe from, you know, not having
proper air sealing around yourlight fixtures and stuff like
that at the ceiling.
So heat is actually getting intothe attic and if you don't have
the proper ventilation orinsulation, that heat will not
be dissipated and it'llcondensate and create moisture,
you know, because it reaches dewpoint. It's hard to see
(07:10):
sometimes in summer, but inwinter, what are we gonna see,
John? We're gonna see frost.
John Gscheidmeier (07:15):
When I mentioned to you that there's an
unfinished part in my basementwhere it's got fiber fiber
cement on the outside, Tyvekover plywood or OSB, whatever's
out there, studs, and theninsulation, and then plastic.
Mhmm. But I can see the frostingfrom a what must be a pinpoint
leak or something like that, andI would never be able to see
(07:36):
that in the winter.
Dave Kolesari (07:37):
That's right.
John Gscheidmeier (07:38):
You know, so I I remember when I saw that a
year or two ago, which just goesto show you how far I am in
fixing that issue. Far I need toget it done. But I marked it
with a, you know, just with amarker. Leak. Right here.
And so now I gotta and and I'mdoing some projects in my house
and that's one of the things Igotta do. But
Dave Kolesari (07:56):
Yeah. But that's the advantage of of having a
cold winter inspection. It's notall bad. Like, we can't check
things out. Another thing youcan look at is, you know, if you
have plumbing on the outsidewall, so your kitchen is on the
outside wall, your bathroomshower is on the outside wall.
Are there any leaks? Do you seeany heat tape where people are
actually keeping things warm sothat it can drain properly,
(08:17):
showing a persistent, you know,freezing over the years. That's
something else we can look for.So,
John Gscheidmeier (08:25):
And you see those more in older homes,
obviously, because thetechnology and the things we've
learned over the years asbuilders, you know, and I always
get into this discussion. Infact, I just had it on behalf of
one of our agents, who had alisting. There was an attorney
on the other side who was alsothe buyer's agent. Mhmm. I love
attorneys.
I've got an attorney on my teamthat also sells real estate, but
(08:45):
some of them can be a pain.Mhmm. And they bully and this
guy was trying to bully us onground fault circuit
interrupting outlets. You havethings like legal nonconforming
things,
Dave Kolesari (08:56):
you
John Gscheidmeier (08:57):
know, like I believe in 1971 they started to
mandate where GFCI outletsneeded to go. Now they're
everywhere. You know, if youremodel your kitchen, you have
to bring it up to today'sstandards and you have to put
those in and usually in aseries. But, you know, like
venting into the attic, that'sanother one. You and I talk
about this all the time.
(09:17):
What did they do in a nineteenfifties ranch? All that moisture
stopped right in the attic andthe thought was we'll just vent
it out through the venting,which were, you know, not a full
ridge vent back then, but just aseries of, let's say, five or,
you know, four or five vents,aluminum vents.
Dave Kolesari (09:34):
Right. With soffit vents, and it's just
directing somewhere into theattic.
John Gscheidmeier (09:39):
But my point is you can see all those things
now, whereas maybe in the past,you know, it wasn't as evident,
but it doesn't make it wrongnecessarily based on some of the
things that we used to do. Andyou buyers and sellers can
decide how they want tonegotiate that.
Dave Kolesari (09:55):
An attorney's always gonna give you, if he's
on the wrong side of you or theopposite side of you Well, Dave,
I the GFCIs are not needed to beput in.
John Gscheidmeier (10:02):
Let let me tell you something. I put that
guy in his place. I'm justsaying.
Dave Kolesari (10:05):
I have no doubt. I have no doubt.
John Gscheidmeier (10:06):
I mean, he was dead wrong on a lot of these
things. Alright, so let's getback to this. You also mentioned
grading gutters. Talk aboutgrading specifically and and
actually tie it into what yousaid about patios too because
like you go to my patio which isalways, probably see 70% of sun.
Mhmm.
And it's a big patio for themost part when you walk out of
our lower level ranch. And it'sit's kind of grayish, so it it
(10:32):
does attract some sunlight. Youcould probably see that thing,
but if I had five feet of snowout there, you have absolutely
no idea what the grading lookslike. You have no idea what the
patio leveling looks like oranything like that.
Dave Kolesari (10:44):
Right. So, your grading whether well, let's talk
about dirt first. If for everyone foot away from the house,
the grading should be down aboutan inch. And if you can extend
that four to six feet away,that's ideal. You can't always
determine that when there's alot of snow.
Patios, you want it directly,you know, pitched away from the
house as well. Sometimes there'spatios and concrete I mean, it's
not just patios, it's sidewalks,it could be driveways, anything
(11:06):
that's cracked and pitchedtowards the house can direct
water towards the home. So if ifyou don't if you can't see these
areas outside, the next defaultlook would be to go into the
basement and look at thefoundation walls. If you look at
your foundation walls and yousee high stains, high stains is
from high water. So that couldbe related to patios, it can be
(11:26):
related to grading, anythinglike that.
So that's kind of your next lineof defense, not necessarily
defense, but, troubleshooting isif I can't see the grading
outside, I'm gonna go downstairsand take a look at my foundation
walls and see if I can seestains that are relating to some
particular issue of grading andand and patio or concrete is
being, you know, improperlypitched. But, another thing that
(11:51):
we can't inspect is what? Thisis pretty common. It comes up
all all the time and that's theAC unit. You can't operate the
central area
John Gscheidmeier (12:00):
unit.
Dave Kolesari (12:01):
It's 65 degrees in the last twenty four hours.
And and our guys stop it doesn'teven have to be snowing. You
know, no snow. It doesn'tmatter. A day like today
wouldn't you know, if there's nosnow on the ground, it's too
cold to operate it.
There's no one that will operatethe unit, and there's always
somebody in the spring thatcalls us and says their AC is
not working. So I mean, there'snot a whole lot any home
(12:23):
inspector can do. They can lookat it to make sure it's
installed correctly, look forsigns of problems. But as far as
turning up and verifying it'sworking, nobody will do that.
And so therefore, you kind ofdefault to the property
condition report.
Right? What did they put onthere? Did they say it was
working? Was it operating? Andif you go to a property that
doesn't have a propertycondition report or they refuse
(12:43):
to fill it out for whateverreason, you're kind of, you
know, vulnerable there.
You really don't know.
John Gscheidmeier (12:49):
Well, and estate sales, new home
construction, you know, ifthere's a foreclosure, none of
those will require a conditionreport. You know, you mentioned
ACs and I forgot about that.That's a great point. You have
to go back, I think, if you're alisting agent and and I think
people listening know that Ispecialize in listings, although
I'm a great buyer's agent. Butif you list a home in the
(13:13):
winter, especially when there issnow on the ground, you really
should go back and try to getsummer photos if you can of a
lot of different things.
One, I mean, we wanna see whatit looks like in the summer. And
and folks who are selling theirhome always wanna tout their
gorgeous landscaping, theirfoliage, their flowers, their
shrubs, all that stuff thatblooms. Right? So they want
(13:36):
those usually in the listing butalso photos of grading along the
four sides of the house. Whatthe patio looks like, what the
driveway looks like.
Retaining walls look like.Retaining walls, another great
one.
Dave Kolesari (13:49):
Those are expensive.
John Gscheidmeier (13:51):
Well, and I think though that you can do
those just just like with an ACunit. If you know you're going
to be listing in the fall or thewinter, get your AC and your
furnace tuned up in the summer.Right? Have all that stuff, at
least on paper, available to thebuyers. I always make this point
and you and I have gotten toknow each other really well over
the years.
(14:12):
I think well ahead I thinkcompared to most people and I
know you do too. We think about,we collaborate on our
businesses, we think about thefuture of where inspections and
real estate are going, but moreimportantly, I always tell
people if you're thinking aboutselling your home in a year, get
me in that home today. Let'sstart that process together
because if you're not gonna selluntil next spring, it might be
(14:34):
earlier. Let's get some I'llsend my professional people out
to take photos in the summerwhen everything's blooming and
looking great towards thespring. You know, stuff like
that I think that people don'tthink about.
Dave Kolesari (14:44):
That's unique. That's unique, Johnny. That's I
mean, I wish more were likethat. Just more agents were like
that in the fact that, are alittle proactive in in in their
listings and the fact that, youknow, they have that
documentation because thatreally does help, that type of
stuff.
John Gscheidmeier (15:01):
Well, and I've always said an informed
buyer makes the betterdecisions. Right? So the more
information you can give and notthat we just that we thought
we're gonna talk about this, butpre inspections is a great
example. Mhmm. We've beentalking about that a lot.
I've got some announcements tomake in the next month or so
about some programs we'rerunning. But when you have a pre
(15:21):
inspection done on a on aproperty, it gives that buyer
some peace of mind. Now, yeah,there's a risk that the seller
is gonna have to do some thingsthat they didn't know about like
mold in the attic or atticdiscoveries because let's be
honest, most people don't go intheir attic.
Dave Kolesari (15:33):
Right. Right.
John Gscheidmeier (15:34):
I mean, you might on a nineteen twenty or
nineteen thirty or fiftiesduplex in Milwaukee, you know,
where you can walk up there ornot duplex, one of the old style
homes. But most people don't goin their attic. They don't peek
up there. And it forces peopleto to look to look about those
things because wouldn't yourather wanna control the the
(15:56):
buyer's demands long before thebuyer even entered this
equation?
Dave Kolesari (16:00):
It's music to my ears. It's music to my ears.
I've always thought real estatetransactions were backwards.
John Gscheidmeier (16:06):
They are.
Dave Kolesari (16:06):
It it definitely brings you know, and and some
people have the misconceptionthat if I have a if I have a
prelisting inspection, then Ihave to fix everything. No. No.
You don't. You don't have to fixeverything.
You don't have to fix anything.
John Gscheidmeier (16:19):
Correct. Now there are some times when you
shouldn't do it, like an estatesale is a perfect example of
that. If I'm selling, you know,I had to sell my mom's house
when she passed away many yearsago and I mean, I grew up in a
home up until I was 21. Thatwas, you know, fifteen years
ago. No.
But I, you know, all I put onthe condition report is that I
(16:41):
haven't lived here since I was21 years old. I previously I put
the year in there and that I, asthe estate representative, you
never wanna open that up justfor liability reasons. So then
you probably wouldn't. But I,you know, that's like three to
5% of sales, maybe. The rest ofthe time, I just don't
understand why people aren'tdoing more of those.
But
Dave Kolesari (17:02):
Especially in in
John Gscheidmeier (17:02):
But thank God, we're gonna have some stuff
to talk about maybe in a monthish.
Dave Kolesari (17:08):
Hopefully.
John Gscheidmeier (17:08):
No. No. No. We will. Okay.
We will. Alright. So to wrapthings up, I don't think we
talked about things like pools.
Dave Kolesari (17:20):
Correct.
John Gscheidmeier (17:21):
What those are a little tougher as well.
Dave Kolesari (17:23):
We just had somebody an agent call us or
text us. We have like a hotlinefor agents that can text us with
questions. And they, she askedyou, can a pool be inspected if
it's winterized? Well, visually,which is basically nothing.
There's really not a whole lotyou can do about it.
I mean, you can't see if thingsare if the the inlets are
working, the outlets areworking, or is the heater
(17:45):
working? Is the pump working?Are the filters working? You
can't even see if the covearound the pool is pitched
properly away from the home ortowards a home, you know, are
there cracks and movement? Soabove ground pools pools, we
just don't do.
But in ground pools, outside, ifit's winterized and cold, you
just can't do it. You just can'tdo it. So again, I guess you're
(18:07):
probably defaulting to aproperty condition report for
anything that's wrong with it.Now we can get a good idea maybe
at how old the equipment is, butas far as short of running it,
we can't we can't do that.
John Gscheidmeier (18:17):
So I'm gonna take that one step further. As a
pool owner, we have an in groundpool. You've been to my house, I
believe. The, you go back tomaintenance records. Most
homeowners don't close the poolthemselves or open it
themselves.
I tend to open my pool. I don'ttend to close it. It's just a
pain in the ass. I don't feellike dealing with it. But I have
done it.
(18:38):
I know what needs to be done. Iknow what properly you know,
it's just like when you walkinto a home, and I'll use the
word flip. I don't normally likeusing that word. But a bad flip
is easy to spot. You look at themoldings, you look at the base
shoes, you look at, you know,the the miter joints in the
corners, you know, and some ofthe base moldings.
(18:59):
Those were the first indicationsto me that this was a novice
flipper. A novice pool closerprobably doesn't do everything
that they're supposed to do, butall you gotta do is ask the
homeowner who closed the pool,when was it last made, you know,
and by who? There's some reallygood pool companies in Metro
Milwaukee. There's some I wouldavoid. So you can do some You
Dave Kolesari (19:22):
can do that. That's good information.
John Gscheidmeier (19:24):
Yeah. But you gotta you gotta be proactive,
right? You can have an agent whounderstands all that stuff.
Dave Kolesari (19:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier (19:29):
And we all know that unfortunately, agents
are not created equally.
Dave Kolesari (19:33):
Well, without a doubt.
John Gscheidmeier (19:34):
So any wrap up points?
Dave Kolesari (19:37):
Yeah. We didn't talk talk about condensation on
windows. Ah. That that comes upquite a bit. That's something
you can't see so much in That'strue.
In summer. You know, you wantyour This is
John Gscheidmeier (19:46):
the gift that keeps on giving, David.
Dave Kolesari (19:48):
The the condensation, you know, you get
you get into a lot of housesthat have stains around their
windows, but you don't know howmuch kind of what the what the
history is on the condensation.So, I mean, these houses are
built so tight. There's notproper air exchange. And we're
talking newer houses here, ofcourse. And, you know, they
maybe have high humidity intheir house.
I mean, your human body lets offa lot of humidity. Okay? If you
(20:11):
cook a lot, if you have a lot ofplants, if you have fish tanks,
if you have pets, I mean, yougot humidity, humidity,
humidity. So you really don'twant it any higher than like 45%
in your home. And, if you don'thave, like I said, proper air
exchange with an HRV or an ERV,heat recovery ventilator, energy
recover ventilator, Those areusually installed on high, high
end homes where they take airfrom outside, mix it with, with
(20:33):
air that's inside.
And so you have a proper airexchange. It's connected to your
furnace. But that can definitelyreduce the humidity and
condensation levels in yourhouse. But, yeah, you can really
tell it on a on a on a winterday, but not so much on a summer
day.
John Gscheidmeier (20:49):
Well, those condensation, when the seal on
the window fails, the windowpane itself
Dave Kolesari (20:54):
pane leak. Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier (20:55):
It doesn't. It's it's you can't see that
year round. No. And that'simportant for people to know.
Dave Kolesari (20:59):
Unless it's really bad. Right. And that's
why
John Gscheidmeier (21:02):
And it, like, almost gives, like, that moldy
type appearance.
Dave Kolesari (21:05):
Yeah. And it you can't wipe it away. It doesn't
mean your window's gonna leak.It just you have this foggy
appearance inside that willnever wipe away, and and it may
get worse. Happens often.
Some warranties, if you have areally good window, they're
warrantied. Some companies Iknow of, like, twenty years,
they have warranties on them.But, home inspectors the agents
might get a little frustratedwith home inspectors because we
(21:27):
won't necessarily point outwhich window it is because it
could change tomorrow. And so,well, if we see several, you
know, thermal pane window leaks,we'll definitely recommend that
all the windows be reevaluated.
John Gscheidmeier (21:41):
How does one loaded question. How does a
window tech, if you will,evaluate that if it's not
present?
Dave Kolesari (21:50):
I guess a trained eye, they may even have, a
meter. Okay. Or you can use alsouse a thermal, a thermal
insulator or, I'm I'm sorry, aninfrared thermal infrared
camera. Okay. Thank you.
That can sometimes show it aswell.
John Gscheidmeier (22:05):
I never thought about that. You know
what? I think it's important toknow too. Tell me if you
disagree with this, but it's notunusual to see frost build up on
a window or a door in reallycold temperatures especially.
Dave Kolesari (22:18):
No. No. It's not really.
John Gscheidmeier (22:19):
I'm I'm not saying like it's huge. I'm like
full temperature. Line orsomething. Yeah. Yeah.
If you think about the you'reyou're relying on a window.
Right? Which has air trapped inthis to as an insulant. Mhmm.
And an insulator.
You've got, you know, I mean, wekeep our temperature pretty
cold. I won't say how peopledon't wanna come to my house if
(22:40):
they know how cold it is. But,it's just how we live. But let's
say it's 70 degrees, and thenit's minus five outside or minus
10 or worse, especially atnight. I mean, that's a lot to
ask of a window.
Dave Kolesari (22:52):
Yeah. I don't think it's I don't think it's
uncommon.
John Gscheidmeier (22:54):
Especially in some of these old and you
inspect older homes withoriginal windows, you know,
single pane instead.
Dave Kolesari (23:00):
Right. If you get a single pane without a doubt, I
mean, if it's especially thestorms don't work as well as a
thermal pane window.
John Gscheidmeier (23:07):
Well, that's where you put your you know,
manually put the plastic up andstuff like that. Storms on the
outside if if that's It'sdrafty.
Dave Kolesari (23:14):
But, yeah, I mean, if it's really cold, I
wanna see those isolatedincidents where, you know, the
inside's fighting with theoutside and vice versa.
John Gscheidmeier (23:23):
The inside's fighting with the outside. I
love it. Always learn somethingnew. Dave, as we wrap up here,
give, your website, your contactinformation, and how people can
get a hold of you.
Dave Kolesari (23:34):
Sure. Homesiteinc.com. Our number is
(414) 321-1070 and, or clientcare at m homesite dot com.
John Gscheidmeier (23:50):
Appreciate your time and your expertise and
My pleasure. I'm not surprisedyou're up, you know, 32%. I
think that's what you said Yes.From last year. You guys do an
awesome job, and I thinksometimes people place
unrealistic expectations oninspectors.
You're not gods. You can't seethrough walls. You just, based
on what we see today, this iswhat it looks like and they're
(24:11):
gonna change tomorrow. Yep. Sothank you.
Some great information.Listeners, appreciate it. My
pleasure. It's great to hear.And as always, if you guys ever
need anything inspectionrelated, homesiteinc.com.
Dave and Jill run an awesomecompany with some awesome
people.
Dave Kolesari (24:25):
Thank you very much.
John Gscheidmeier (24:26):
Take care.
Dave Kolesari (24:27):
Alright. Bye.
John Gscheidmeier (24:29):
This episode of Wisconsin Real Estate Today
has come to a close. Be sure tosubscribe to this podcast and
let others know if you foundthis content useful. Until next
time, make today your best day.
This is John Gescheidmeier of Wisconsin Real
Estate Today, your real estateexpert. This podcast is designed
to equipping people with theteaching and tools they need to
succeed in real estate. I hopeyou enjoy this episode and
subscribe for more real estatecontent. Hey, podcast listeners.
(00:30):
John Gescheidmeier, your host ofWisconsin Real Estate Today and,
today we're bringing back goodfriend Dave Colasare.
I don't did I ask is itKolesari?
Dave Kolesari (00:40):
Kolesari.
John Gscheidmeier (00:40):
Kolesari. Out of all the times we get
together, I should know that.
Dave Kolesari (00:44):
That's alright.
John Gscheidmeier (00:45):
Dave, introduce yourself. You've been
on the show before a coupletimes. We're gonna talk today
about, a timely topic and it'ssomething I thought that the
listeners would find interestingand it is inspections in winter,
advantages and disadvantages.But introduce yourself and your
company.
Dave Kolesari (01:02):
Dave Kolesari Homesite Inspection Services. We
have been around for almost ourtwenty eighth year. We do
Southeastern Wisconsin, doprobably more inspections than
anyone in the state ofWisconsin. We have an eight
person team. We have severaloffices, client care people,
office managers, rate on tax,marketing people.
(01:23):
So basically a small army to getwhat we done get done every
year. And we, last year's weactually did fantastic last
year. We ended up 32% up, whichis, more than what other home
inspection companies can sayfrom what I understand.
John Gscheidmeier (01:40):
Well, I think you you've really perfected your
business to to be start tofinish. I mean, you've got home
warranty under your roof.Correct. Right? That's a third
party vendor, obviously, but weorder it right through your
website.
And it's not just a twelve monthinspection or a warranty. It's a
it's an eighteen month as longas somebody uses you.
Dave Kolesari (02:01):
To inspect a home. Correct?
John Gscheidmeier (02:02):
Inspect a home. Plus you do commercial
buildings, you do pool, you doall that stuff.
Dave Kolesari (02:07):
Yeah. We we try to do all aspects of it. We also
own a mold remediation companythat helps out sometimes times
when agents need someone to dosome mold remediation in a
timely manner. But, yeah,commercial properties, you name
it. We just scheduled a 63 unit,apartment building that we're
gonna do next week.
We let two months ago, we did a400,000 square foot, hotel in
(02:28):
Manitowoc. So it just doesn'tend with residential.
John Gscheidmeier (02:33):
And you're a veteran owned business, which I
love. Thank you for yourservice. Thank you. So let's
dive into the topic at hand. Aswe record this here in January
and we're gonna publish thislater today, it's two degrees
out when I woke up this morning.
Good old Wisconsin.
Dave Kolesari (02:49):
Yep.
John Gscheidmeier (02:49):
When I was in law enforcement, I used to do
presentations across The US ondrug stuff, drug recognition,
all this other stuff I had anexpertise in. And every time
somebody would ask a questionwhen I was like down in Texas,
it was always, How do y'all dothat up there in Wisconsin? And
I would have to remind himthere's no e in Wisconsin, but
(03:10):
it gets cold. People buy homes20, three 60 five, three 60 six
in leap years. What happens whenI shouldn't say what happens.
Let's talk about inspections inwinter.
Dave Kolesari (03:26):
Well, it's funny you ask because last year we put
a presentation together on thepros and cons of inspections
winter. And without a doubt,people ask us when they're
booking a home inspection, youknow, what what about this? What
about that? Most most common, Iguess, question is how about the
roof? How do you look at theroof?
And you know what? There's anequation. If you go to if you go
(03:47):
to the house and you're drivingthere and the house is maybe 60
years old, I'm I'm guessing, youknow, first layer of roof is
gonna last twenty, twenty fiveyears. Second layer is gonna
last twenty, twenty five years.So that brings me up to 50.
So this roof, I'm guessing, isabout 10 to 15 years old without
even getting there. That justfrom the equation of how long
roofs last and how old the houseis. And then what I do is I'll,
(04:10):
you know, try to whisk off alittle bit of snow to see if, if
I can see the condition of theshingles. You know, I, I don't
pretend to know everything aboutthe roof because it is covered
with snow. But sometimes ifyou're lucky, you'll have little
spots of sun that dry or notdry, but melt the snow off and
you can see and either, youknow, make your, observations
(04:32):
correct or incorrect.
And another half of it is, youknow, the attic, getting into
the attic and seeing what youcan see from there because
that's a pro. Because if a roofleaks, you're gonna have an
icicle hanging down, right? Sothat's something you definitely
can't see when it's summer. So,yeah, we may not know everything
about the roof, but we can get agood idea of what's going on
(04:53):
with that roof. And to behonest, if if it really is a
concerning piece, we can we cango back and check it when the
sun melts, to kind of help withthe with the transaction or the
process.
Other things we we we don'tnormally see the condition of
is, you know, your flatsurfaces, your patios, your
sidewalks, your driveways. Whatcondition are they in? Are they
(05:16):
pitched towards the home, whichis really important with, with
water flow? The grading, is thegrading pitch towards the house?
That's something we can't see aswell.
But then again, on the flipside, we can see, hey, are there
going to be ice dams in, on thenorth side where there's not a
whole lot of sun? Things thatthat you normally wouldn't see,
like even with a hose faucet.There's a hose faucet dripping
(05:37):
where you get a big icicle wherein summer you wouldn't
necessarily see that. So, thereare some there are some pros and
cons with it, but, it it doesdiminish the view of things, but
we we pretty much can get anidea of what's going on.
John Gscheidmeier (05:52):
Well, I think listeners, when they think of an
attic, they don't realize it'scold up there or it's hot up
there, depending on the time ofthe year.
Dave Kolesari (05:58):
Correct.
John Gscheidmeier (06:00):
With obviously, there's ventilation
and there's a reason why thatis. But you also mentioned
insulation.
Dave Kolesari (06:05):
Yeah. Your attic should be as warm or as cold as
it is outside. Okay? So if it'sone degrees, like I was outside
on a roof yesterday, it was fivedegrees in my own I I almost
froze my fingers off on theroof. But, a a pro is, you know,
if you go to a house in winterand you see that all the snow
has melted off the roof, that'sa sign that you might not have
(06:26):
the best ventilation.
Our value's there. So, that'ssomething that can be verified
once we're in the attic. Butanother thing which we find a
lot of is mold in the attic.Okay? And mold is derived from
having the attic having moisturein it.
It. And it could moisture can bein your attic from a few things.
It can be from, a minimal amountof insulation. It can be from a
(06:50):
lack of ventilation. It can alsobe from, you know, not having
proper air sealing around yourlight fixtures and stuff like
that at the ceiling.
So heat is actually getting intothe attic and if you don't have
the proper ventilation orinsulation, that heat will not
be dissipated and it'llcondensate and create moisture,
you know, because it reaches dewpoint. It's hard to see
(07:10):
sometimes in summer, but inwinter, what are we gonna see,
John? We're gonna see frost.
John Gscheidmeier (07:15):
When I mentioned to you that there's an
unfinished part in my basementwhere it's got fiber fiber
cement on the outside, Tyvekover plywood or OSB, whatever's
out there, studs, and theninsulation, and then plastic.
Mhmm. But I can see the frostingfrom a what must be a pinpoint
leak or something like that, andI would never be able to see
(07:36):
that in the winter.
Dave Kolesari (07:37):
That's right.
John Gscheidmeier (07:38):
You know, so I I remember when I saw that a
year or two ago, which just goesto show you how far I am in
fixing that issue. Far I need toget it done. But I marked it
with a, you know, just with amarker. Leak. Right here.
And so now I gotta and and I'mdoing some projects in my house
and that's one of the things Igotta do. But
Dave Kolesari (07:56):
Yeah. But that's the advantage of of having a
cold winter inspection. It's notall bad. Like, we can't check
things out. Another thing youcan look at is, you know, if you
have plumbing on the outsidewall, so your kitchen is on the
outside wall, your bathroomshower is on the outside wall.
Are there any leaks? Do you seeany heat tape where people are
actually keeping things warm sothat it can drain properly,
(08:17):
showing a persistent, you know,freezing over the years. That's
something else we can look for.So,
John Gscheidmeier (08:25):
And you see those more in older homes,
obviously, because thetechnology and the things we've
learned over the years asbuilders, you know, and I always
get into this discussion. Infact, I just had it on behalf of
one of our agents, who had alisting. There was an attorney
on the other side who was alsothe buyer's agent. Mhmm. I love
attorneys.
I've got an attorney on my teamthat also sells real estate, but
(08:45):
some of them can be a pain.Mhmm. And they bully and this
guy was trying to bully us onground fault circuit
interrupting outlets. You havethings like legal nonconforming
things,
Dave Kolesari (08:56):
you
John Gscheidmeier (08:57):
know, like I believe in 1971 they started to
mandate where GFCI outletsneeded to go. Now they're
everywhere. You know, if youremodel your kitchen, you have
to bring it up to today'sstandards and you have to put
those in and usually in aseries. But, you know, like
venting into the attic, that'sanother one. You and I talk
about this all the time.
(09:17):
What did they do in a nineteenfifties ranch? All that moisture
stopped right in the attic andthe thought was we'll just vent
it out through the venting,which were, you know, not a full
ridge vent back then, but just aseries of, let's say, five or,
you know, four or five vents,aluminum vents.
Dave Kolesari (09:34):
Right. With soffit vents, and it's just
directing somewhere into theattic.
John Gscheidmeier (09:39):
But my point is you can see all those things
now, whereas maybe in the past,you know, it wasn't as evident,
but it doesn't make it wrongnecessarily based on some of the
things that we used to do. Andyou buyers and sellers can
decide how they want tonegotiate that.
Dave Kolesari (09:55):
An attorney's always gonna give you, if he's
on the wrong side of you or theopposite side of you Well, Dave,
I the GFCIs are not needed to beput in.
John Gscheidmeier (10:02):
Let let me tell you something. I put that
guy in his place. I'm justsaying.
Dave Kolesari (10:05):
I have no doubt. I have no doubt.
John Gscheidmeier (10:06):
I mean, he was dead wrong on a lot of these
things. Alright, so let's getback to this. You also mentioned
grading gutters. Talk aboutgrading specifically and and
actually tie it into what yousaid about patios too because
like you go to my patio which isalways, probably see 70% of sun.
Mhmm.
And it's a big patio for themost part when you walk out of
our lower level ranch. And it'sit's kind of grayish, so it it
(10:32):
does attract some sunlight. Youcould probably see that thing,
but if I had five feet of snowout there, you have absolutely
no idea what the grading lookslike. You have no idea what the
patio leveling looks like oranything like that.
Dave Kolesari (10:44):
Right. So, your grading whether well, let's talk
about dirt first. If for everyone foot away from the house,
the grading should be down aboutan inch. And if you can extend
that four to six feet away,that's ideal. You can't always
determine that when there's alot of snow.
Patios, you want it directly,you know, pitched away from the
house as well. Sometimes there'spatios and concrete I mean, it's
not just patios, it's sidewalks,it could be driveways, anything
(11:06):
that's cracked and pitchedtowards the house can direct
water towards the home. So if ifyou don't if you can't see these
areas outside, the next defaultlook would be to go into the
basement and look at thefoundation walls. If you look at
your foundation walls and yousee high stains, high stains is
from high water. So that couldbe related to patios, it can be
(11:26):
related to grading, anythinglike that.
So that's kind of your next lineof defense, not necessarily
defense, but, troubleshooting isif I can't see the grading
outside, I'm gonna go downstairsand take a look at my foundation
walls and see if I can seestains that are relating to some
particular issue of grading andand and patio or concrete is
being, you know, improperlypitched. But, another thing that
(11:51):
we can't inspect is what? Thisis pretty common. It comes up
all all the time and that's theAC unit. You can't operate the
central area
John Gscheidmeier (12:00):
unit.
Dave Kolesari (12:01):
It's 65 degrees in the last twenty four hours.
And and our guys stop it doesn'teven have to be snowing. You
know, no snow. It doesn'tmatter. A day like today
wouldn't you know, if there's nosnow on the ground, it's too
cold to operate it.
There's no one that will operatethe unit, and there's always
somebody in the spring thatcalls us and says their AC is
not working. So I mean, there'snot a whole lot any home
(12:23):
inspector can do. They can lookat it to make sure it's
installed correctly, look forsigns of problems. But as far as
turning up and verifying it'sworking, nobody will do that.
And so therefore, you kind ofdefault to the property
condition report.
Right? What did they put onthere? Did they say it was
working? Was it operating? Andif you go to a property that
doesn't have a propertycondition report or they refuse
(12:43):
to fill it out for whateverreason, you're kind of, you
know, vulnerable there.
You really don't know.
John Gscheidmeier (12:49):
Well, and estate sales, new home
construction, you know, ifthere's a foreclosure, none of
those will require a conditionreport. You know, you mentioned
ACs and I forgot about that.That's a great point. You have
to go back, I think, if you're alisting agent and and I think
people listening know that Ispecialize in listings, although
I'm a great buyer's agent. Butif you list a home in the
(13:13):
winter, especially when there issnow on the ground, you really
should go back and try to getsummer photos if you can of a
lot of different things.
One, I mean, we wanna see whatit looks like in the summer. And
and folks who are selling theirhome always wanna tout their
gorgeous landscaping, theirfoliage, their flowers, their
shrubs, all that stuff thatblooms. Right? So they want
(13:36):
those usually in the listing butalso photos of grading along the
four sides of the house. Whatthe patio looks like, what the
driveway looks like.
Retaining walls look like.Retaining walls, another great
one.
Dave Kolesari (13:49):
Those are expensive.
John Gscheidmeier (13:51):
Well, and I think though that you can do
those just just like with an ACunit. If you know you're going
to be listing in the fall or thewinter, get your AC and your
furnace tuned up in the summer.Right? Have all that stuff, at
least on paper, available to thebuyers. I always make this point
and you and I have gotten toknow each other really well over
the years.
(14:12):
I think well ahead I thinkcompared to most people and I
know you do too. We think about,we collaborate on our
businesses, we think about thefuture of where inspections and
real estate are going, but moreimportantly, I always tell
people if you're thinking aboutselling your home in a year, get
me in that home today. Let'sstart that process together
because if you're not gonna selluntil next spring, it might be
(14:34):
earlier. Let's get some I'llsend my professional people out
to take photos in the summerwhen everything's blooming and
looking great towards thespring. You know, stuff like
that I think that people don'tthink about.
Dave Kolesari (14:44):
That's unique. That's unique, Johnny. That's I
mean, I wish more were likethat. Just more agents were like
that in the fact that, are alittle proactive in in in their
listings and the fact that, youknow, they have that
documentation because thatreally does help, that type of
stuff.
John Gscheidmeier (15:01):
Well, and I've always said an informed
buyer makes the betterdecisions. Right? So the more
information you can give and notthat we just that we thought
we're gonna talk about this, butpre inspections is a great
example. Mhmm. We've beentalking about that a lot.
I've got some announcements tomake in the next month or so
about some programs we'rerunning. But when you have a pre
(15:21):
inspection done on a on aproperty, it gives that buyer
some peace of mind. Now, yeah,there's a risk that the seller
is gonna have to do some thingsthat they didn't know about like
mold in the attic or atticdiscoveries because let's be
honest, most people don't go intheir attic.
Dave Kolesari (15:33):
Right. Right.
John Gscheidmeier (15:34):
I mean, you might on a nineteen twenty or
nineteen thirty or fiftiesduplex in Milwaukee, you know,
where you can walk up there ornot duplex, one of the old style
homes. But most people don't goin their attic. They don't peek
up there. And it forces peopleto to look to look about those
things because wouldn't yourather wanna control the the
(15:56):
buyer's demands long before thebuyer even entered this
equation?
Dave Kolesari (16:00):
It's music to my ears. It's music to my ears.
I've always thought real estatetransactions were backwards.
John Gscheidmeier (16:06):
They are.
Dave Kolesari (16:06):
It it definitely brings you know, and and some
people have the misconceptionthat if I have a if I have a
prelisting inspection, then Ihave to fix everything. No. No.
You don't. You don't have to fixeverything.
You don't have to fix anything.
John Gscheidmeier (16:19):
Correct. Now there are some times when you
shouldn't do it, like an estatesale is a perfect example of
that. If I'm selling, you know,I had to sell my mom's house
when she passed away many yearsago and I mean, I grew up in a
home up until I was 21. Thatwas, you know, fifteen years
ago. No.
But I, you know, all I put onthe condition report is that I
(16:41):
haven't lived here since I was21 years old. I previously I put
the year in there and that I, asthe estate representative, you
never wanna open that up justfor liability reasons. So then
you probably wouldn't. But I,you know, that's like three to
5% of sales, maybe. The rest ofthe time, I just don't
understand why people aren'tdoing more of those.
But
Dave Kolesari (17:02):
Especially in in
John Gscheidmeier (17:02):
But thank God, we're gonna have some stuff
to talk about maybe in a monthish.
Dave Kolesari (17:08):
Hopefully.
John Gscheidmeier (17:08):
No. No. No. We will. Okay.
We will. Alright. So to wrapthings up, I don't think we
talked about things like pools.
Dave Kolesari (17:20):
Correct.
John Gscheidmeier (17:21):
What those are a little tougher as well.
Dave Kolesari (17:23):
We just had somebody an agent call us or
text us. We have like a hotlinefor agents that can text us with
questions. And they, she askedyou, can a pool be inspected if
it's winterized? Well, visually,which is basically nothing.
There's really not a whole lotyou can do about it.
I mean, you can't see if thingsare if the the inlets are
working, the outlets areworking, or is the heater
(17:45):
working? Is the pump working?Are the filters working? You
can't even see if the covearound the pool is pitched
properly away from the home ortowards a home, you know, are
there cracks and movement? Soabove ground pools pools, we
just don't do.
But in ground pools, outside, ifit's winterized and cold, you
just can't do it. You just can'tdo it. So again, I guess you're
(18:07):
probably defaulting to aproperty condition report for
anything that's wrong with it.Now we can get a good idea maybe
at how old the equipment is, butas far as short of running it,
we can't we can't do that.
John Gscheidmeier (18:17):
So I'm gonna take that one step further. As a
pool owner, we have an in groundpool. You've been to my house, I
believe. The, you go back tomaintenance records. Most
homeowners don't close the poolthemselves or open it
themselves.
I tend to open my pool. I don'ttend to close it. It's just a
pain in the ass. I don't feellike dealing with it. But I have
done it.
(18:38):
I know what needs to be done. Iknow what properly you know,
it's just like when you walkinto a home, and I'll use the
word flip. I don't normally likeusing that word. But a bad flip
is easy to spot. You look at themoldings, you look at the base
shoes, you look at, you know,the the miter joints in the
corners, you know, and some ofthe base moldings.
(18:59):
Those were the first indicationsto me that this was a novice
flipper. A novice pool closerprobably doesn't do everything
that they're supposed to do, butall you gotta do is ask the
homeowner who closed the pool,when was it last made, you know,
and by who? There's some reallygood pool companies in Metro
Milwaukee. There's some I wouldavoid. So you can do some You
Dave Kolesari (19:22):
can do that. That's good information.
John Gscheidmeier (19:24):
Yeah. But you gotta you gotta be proactive,
right? You can have an agent whounderstands all that stuff.
Dave Kolesari (19:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier (19:29):
And we all know that unfortunately, agents
are not created equally.
Dave Kolesari (19:33):
Well, without a doubt.
John Gscheidmeier (19:34):
So any wrap up points?
Dave Kolesari (19:37):
Yeah. We didn't talk talk about condensation on
windows. Ah. That that comes upquite a bit. That's something
you can't see so much in That'strue.
In summer. You know, you wantyour This is
John Gscheidmeier (19:46):
the gift that keeps on giving, David.
Dave Kolesari (19:48):
The the condensation, you know, you get
you get into a lot of housesthat have stains around their
windows, but you don't know howmuch kind of what the what the
history is on the condensation.So, I mean, these houses are
built so tight. There's notproper air exchange. And we're
talking newer houses here, ofcourse. And, you know, they
maybe have high humidity intheir house.
I mean, your human body lets offa lot of humidity. Okay? If you
(20:11):
cook a lot, if you have a lot ofplants, if you have fish tanks,
if you have pets, I mean, yougot humidity, humidity,
humidity. So you really don'twant it any higher than like 45%
in your home. And, if you don'thave, like I said, proper air
exchange with an HRV or an ERV,heat recovery ventilator, energy
recover ventilator, Those areusually installed on high, high
end homes where they take airfrom outside, mix it with, with
(20:33):
air that's inside.
And so you have a proper airexchange. It's connected to your
furnace. But that can definitelyreduce the humidity and
condensation levels in yourhouse. But, yeah, you can really
tell it on a on a on a winterday, but not so much on a summer
day.
John Gscheidmeier (20:49):
Well, those condensation, when the seal on
the window fails, the windowpane itself
Dave Kolesari (20:54):
pane leak. Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier (20:55):
It doesn't. It's it's you can't see that
year round. No. And that'simportant for people to know.
Dave Kolesari (20:59):
Unless it's really bad. Right. And that's
why
John Gscheidmeier (21:02):
And it, like, almost gives, like, that moldy
type appearance.
Dave Kolesari (21:05):
Yeah. And it you can't wipe it away. It doesn't
mean your window's gonna leak.It just you have this foggy
appearance inside that willnever wipe away, and and it may
get worse. Happens often.
Some warranties, if you have areally good window, they're
warrantied. Some companies Iknow of, like, twenty years,
they have warranties on them.But, home inspectors the agents
might get a little frustratedwith home inspectors because we
(21:27):
won't necessarily point outwhich window it is because it
could change tomorrow. And so,well, if we see several, you
know, thermal pane window leaks,we'll definitely recommend that
all the windows be reevaluated.
John Gscheidmeier (21:41):
How does one loaded question. How does a
window tech, if you will,evaluate that if it's not
present?
Dave Kolesari (21:50):
I guess a trained eye, they may even have, a
meter. Okay. Or you can use alsouse a thermal, a thermal
insulator or, I'm I'm sorry, aninfrared thermal infrared
camera. Okay. Thank you.
That can sometimes show it aswell.
John Gscheidmeier (22:05):
I never thought about that. You know
what? I think it's important toknow too. Tell me if you
disagree with this, but it's notunusual to see frost build up on
a window or a door in reallycold temperatures especially.
Dave Kolesari (22:18):
No. No. It's not really.
John Gscheidmeier (22:19):
I'm I'm not saying like it's huge. I'm like
full temperature. Line orsomething. Yeah. Yeah.
If you think about the you'reyou're relying on a window.
Right? Which has air trapped inthis to as an insulant. Mhmm.
And an insulator.
You've got, you know, I mean, wekeep our temperature pretty
cold. I won't say how peopledon't wanna come to my house if
(22:40):
they know how cold it is. But,it's just how we live. But let's
say it's 70 degrees, and thenit's minus five outside or minus
10 or worse, especially atnight. I mean, that's a lot to
ask of a window.
Dave Kolesari (22:52):
Yeah. I don't think it's I don't think it's
uncommon.
John Gscheidmeier (22:54):
Especially in some of these old and you
inspect older homes withoriginal windows, you know,
single pane instead.
Dave Kolesari (23:00):
Right. If you get a single pane without a doubt, I
mean, if it's especially thestorms don't work as well as a
thermal pane window.
John Gscheidmeier (23:07):
Well, that's where you put your you know,
manually put the plastic up andstuff like that. Storms on the
outside if if that's It'sdrafty.
Dave Kolesari (23:14):
But, yeah, I mean, if it's really cold, I
wanna see those isolatedincidents where, you know, the
inside's fighting with theoutside and vice versa.
John Gscheidmeier (23:23):
The inside's fighting with the outside. I
love it. Always learn somethingnew. Dave, as we wrap up here,
give, your website, your contactinformation, and how people can
get a hold of you.
Dave Kolesari (23:34):
Sure. Homesiteinc.com. Our number is
(414) 321-1070 and, or clientcare at m homesite dot com.
John Gscheidmeier (23:50):
Appreciate your time and your expertise and
My pleasure. I'm not surprisedyou're up, you know, 32%. I
think that's what you said Yes.From last year. You guys do an
awesome job, and I thinksometimes people place
unrealistic expectations oninspectors.
You're not gods. You can't seethrough walls. You just, based
on what we see today, this iswhat it looks like and they're
(24:11):
gonna change tomorrow. Yep. Sothank you.
Some great information.Listeners, appreciate it. My
pleasure. It's great to hear.And as always, if you guys ever
need anything inspectionrelated, homesiteinc.com.
Dave and Jill run an awesomecompany with some awesome
people.
Dave Kolesari (24:25):
Thank you very much.
John Gscheidmeier (24:26):
Take care.
Dave Kolesari (24:27):
Alright. Bye.
John Gscheidmeier (24:29):
This episode of Wisconsin Real Estate Today
has come to a close. Be sure tosubscribe to this podcast and
let others know if you foundthis content useful. Until next
time, make today your best day.
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