Extreme Makeover in Columbus (Whitehall, Franklin: real estate, selling a house, buying)

[Gee]

Did you see the Extreme Makeover that aired this past Sunday? I think it was one of the most emotional episodes that has aired. It took place in Whitehall which is located in eastern Franklin County. BEWARE....The original home was built by Miranda which typically builds poor quality homes with more square footage which sucks home buyers in. When you purchase a new home it is a good idea to have representation by a Realtor. Many buyers do not realize that they can be represented on a new home purchase!!

[Midwest girl at heart]

Gee
Thanks for stating who built the home. I saw bits and pieces of the episode and saw that it was in OH.
Very very appreciated!

[Jenna1234]

Actually I believe that home was built by MI Homes...we know someone who works for them and they confirmed it. MI Homes are quality construction.

[streetcreed]

Correction: It seems the original poster was saying that Miranda built the original house.
M/I built the new one.

[patty1019]

here's another good idea..........get a home inspection from a qualified, certified, home inspector that knows what he's doing. get the inspection "before!!!!"....you buy. for those selling a house it's also a good idea to get a pre-listing inspection to really know how to get top dollar for your home. if you can repair all the small breakages, wear or cosmetic damage this increases the value of your home. at any rate the family who bought that whitehall house should've been paying the city engineer a visit to see why code was not enforced on the building of that house. the city should be ashamed of themselves for allowing such shoddy construction when there are legal codes to protect the consumer from such things. i believe the video of that "old" house should be sufficient evidence in court to show that code violations existed in the previous house. there should be an accounting of all houses built by this same builder in that city to insure that there are no others like it being lived in. undoubtedly there are others out there and people are at risk of being hurt, if not worse. it would be one thing if you were buying a mobile home but this was not the case. this was a stick built home that should've been built to code. how did this get past city inspectors who signed off on this house after it was built? hmmmmm in some cases the builder is the only one doing this inspection (not meaning whitehall per se). sort of like allowing the fox to guard the henhouse isn't it?!! when seeking a home inspector with all the right stuff do your homework and check his credentials. the state of ohio does not currently require home inspectors to be licensed or certified. there is legislation pending on this issue. i cannot tell you how many people i've met who wish they'd have gotten a qualified home inspection. there are too many to count them all. in the end it all came down to money. they trusted their own judgement when viewing their potential new home. some are employed in the building trade. even so they did not see major problems before they closed on the deal. you have to know exactly where to look and you've got to have the tools to do it. you've also got to know what to look for. believe me when i say a certified/qualified home inspector knows what he or she is looking at. can the homeowner say unequivocally what strain of mold exists in their own home? did you know that some strains of mold actually bloom when clorox is applied? that alone was enough for me to look into home inspections myself. we rented a home that "looked" clean, orderly and in good working condition. after the move in the basement flooded 8 times before we were able to correct the problem. we couldn't have known it but when the first storm came through we were faced with water running between the storm windows and the inside ones, down into the walls of the house. the front door had the same problem and all that water ran down the walls of the basement. we never suspected that this was going on or that it had been happening for well over 20 years. yes, you can imagine what that did to our health. whilst trying to deal with allergy attacks, seeking to know the depth of the cause we discovered the air ducts to contain over 4 inches of dust so thick i at first mistook it for insulation. it took the services of an hvac company to clean the entire duct system in the house. it took them over 8 hours to complete this. the dust was matted together like insulation you might find in ducts in a commercial building. the only problem was that it was no insulation!! the hvac people said it would've taken approximately 20 years or more to accumulate that much dust in those ducts. the owners mother, a self professed christian of squeaky clean repute, swore that she'd cleaned those ducts before we moved in. she was a very sweet old lady to be sure. just like my own sweet grandma. well, not....like "my" grandma. we soon discovered that she came into the house while we were away and was often seen by neighbors stealing our tomatoes. yes, even sweet little old ladies cannot be trusted when it comes to money! she wanted very much for us to buy this house. believe me when i say this house was very clean to look at and to all appearances was in good repair. it smelled very clean as well. problem was that the furnace wasn't turned on. the owner gave some excuse and we gave him the benefit of the doubt. we felt we could always get him to fix whatever was not right. that was our next mistake. his schedule didn't allow for this and so he learned to ask us to fix things that weren't right. reimbursed? you bet ya! look, i'm not saying that you should never trust anyone. trust them! just, make sure to get it in writing that the house is all they say it is. don't rely on their word but get an independent observation from someone qualified to do it, a certified home inspector. at least you know afterward what's in need of repair. you know it before you decide to buy. the price of a house can drop or rise given who does those repairs. in the end many opt for the seller to do this in lieu of evading the noise, inconvenience, mess, and trouble with such repairs. when the repairs have been made you can have the home inspector back to reinspect the specific trouble spot. be smart at any rate, do your homework, buying a house is a huge investment of not just money and time, it's your health and safety and that of your family.

[cpflum]

First, the name of the original builder of the home that was torn down was Maronda, not Miranda.

Obviously there were some serious problems with this home, which could be a result of several factors- poor quality control in construction, improvements made by either the original or most recent homeowners that don't meet standards of workmanship, or failure of homeowners to correct minor problems as they occurred. Unless you inspected the home yourself, or viewed a report from a qualified inspector, you can't really say who is to blame, can you?

To say that Maronda builds an inferior quality home is factually incorrect, as Maronda was rated higher in quality of construction than M/I in JD Power's recent evaluation of Columbus builders. Seeing as how they are now the second largest builder in Columbus, is it possible they offer more than just a big home?

Even the best built homes will fall apart if the proper maintenance isn't performed. Whatever the reason for this families problems, the fact is they got a gift when this makeover came around, and they certainly deserved it.

[patty1019]

in the state of ohio you don't have to have any training or certification to become a home inspector, at this time. those inspectors who are certified and qualified, with prior building experience have been trying to get it passed into law that you have to be licensed by the state of ohio to do such work. to date this legislation has not made it to becoming law. in other words.....anyone at any time can decide to become a home inspector without any training whatsoever. they could advertise with flyers they draw up themselves and make multiple copies of. it's cheap now to buy business cards too so just because someone has one dosen't mean they are qualified or certified or that they've got years of experience in the construction trades. then there have been some inspectors who've joined a home inspection group. some require little to no training before they go out to inspect homes. if you're buying a house, that's a huge investment. don't you want the best home inspector with experience that you can get to make sure you aren't getting a pig in a poke. just because a house looks good to you dosen't mean it dosen't have major problems with it. a real estate agent is trained only in dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's in the contracts and laws pertaining to such. they aren't trained to spot problems with a house unless they happen to see them first hand. the worst problems in a house might not even seem to be bad ones to a realtor. therefore he or she might just make a note that they saw something but that it didn't look important enough to them to do anything about it. a qualified/certified home inspector has tools and education to look at a building in such a way that someone else might not have a clue about. the cost of a home inspection can potentially save you thousands of dollars in repair costs, damage, higher heating/cooling bills, etc. some problems can cost you more than that by making you very ill. the cost of a home inspection from a qualified/certified inspector with building experience is well worth it when you compare it to what you could end up paying if you don't. buyer beware.

patty roe
besure home inspection service