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Old 09-15-2014, 09:50 AM
 
1,782 posts, read 2,730,151 times
Reputation: 5975

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When we sold our house, the young buyer's hired an idiot for a housing inspector.

He found that our oil-fired boiler had some hot water pipes with asbestos. Now mind you, these were down in the basement, but tucked away in the crawl-space portion of our 3/4 basement.

The young buyers were very familiar with old houses and told the housing inspector, "Hey, we're buying a beautiful old house built in 1920. We understand. We saw the asbestos wrap and we're not concerned. We get it."

The housing inspector - in MY kitchen - went nutso on them and started screaming at them, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND what asbestos will do to your lungs and any children you might have? You do NOT want a house with any asbestos in it - anywhere! This is your chance to write this into the contract and FORCE the seller to pay for this right now. That's the right thing to do."

He really went on a rant. I was ready to clobber him.

When the VA inspector did his appraisal, he looked at the asbestos wrap back in the crawl space area and said, "The asbestos looks good. I see it's been encapsulated (with paint). That'll last another 50 years."

I told him, "No, it won't," and told him the story.

He replied, "Why don't people understand, if it's intact and not friable, it's better to leave it undisturbed?"

It ended up costing us $8,000 to have the asbestos abated, in accord with all codes and requirements. And added three weeks to the closing, because of state-mandated paperwork.

I had a friend that hired an inspector and he went under the house and said everything "looked fine." Later, the homeowner discovered that the drain lines under the house leaked like a sieve, and a lot of replumbing work was required.

I'm not impressed with these guys.
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Old 09-15-2014, 10:23 AM
 
Location: Needham, MA
8,525 posts, read 13,902,353 times
Reputation: 7908
Quote:
Originally Posted by RosemaryT View Post
I'm not impressed with these guys.
When you've been to as many home inspections as a real estate agent you start to realize a few things:

1. Not all home inspectors are created equal
2. Even the good ones are not experts on every part of a house
3. There's a significant portion of the house an inspector can't see and therefore cannot inspect
4. Home inspectors can't predict the future - something may look fine today and break the day you move in

In my mind, a home inspector is just the first level of inspection. They're there to raise red flags so that we can follow up on them with someone who is an expert in that part of the house whether it be a roofer, electrician, plumber, or whatever.
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Old 09-15-2014, 10:35 AM
 
Location: Florida -
10,213 posts, read 14,744,041 times
Reputation: 21845
It seems to me that, in the absence of any major issue, most Inspectors feel 'obliged' to find 2-4 items that 'could use' some type of remediation. Perhaps this is because the buyer pays them $300-$400 to find 'potential problems' (which is often used to leverage added seller concessions) --Every home has a few minor issues that could use some type of repair. If the Inspector finds nothing, and the buyer later discovers any type of defect, the inspector is viewed as incompetent. - If they find a few small items, the inspector is viewed as being very detailed and cautious ... and the buyer/seller/realtor may give them a referral or use them again.

Buyers and Sellers simply need to be able (and willing) to distinguish between incidental "defects" that really mean nothing ... and serious issues that could require costly repairs in the future. As part of this 'dance', it is probably smart for a seller to hold about $1000 in 'reserve' to deal with buyers who are unwilling to concede anything.

Last edited by jghorton; 09-15-2014 at 10:48 AM..
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Old 09-15-2014, 10:56 AM
 
Location: Southwestern, USA, now.
21,020 posts, read 19,202,674 times
Reputation: 23648
"You have to move those pipes to the North outside wall."

Building Regulation inspector, that is.
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Old 09-15-2014, 11:05 AM
 
Location: El Dorado Hills, CA
3,720 posts, read 9,954,719 times
Reputation: 3927
You could have said no to the request for repairs. For $8K, it seems like something to hold your ground on. But I don't know your situation and whether the buyer would have cancelled or whether you could have found another buyer quickly.
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Old 09-15-2014, 11:23 AM
 
Location: Mostly in my head
19,855 posts, read 65,591,515 times
Reputation: 19374
I had an inspector tell the buyers that the 3-way switch for the dining room light was defective. You could turn it on from the kitchen or bedroom hall end. Like he had never seen that before.
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Old 09-15-2014, 11:55 AM
 
Location: Brentwood, Tennessee
49,932 posts, read 59,572,875 times
Reputation: 98359
We had a buyer give us a great offer on a big house we were selling, and we were thrilled to have "sold" it after only a week.

During the inspection, he found an old aluminum pie pan in an attic void where there had apparently **once** been a leak years prior. The roof had never leaked since we lived there, and there was no evidence of recent water damage. We had never even been in that void area. Apparently our inspector did not find it noteworthy when we bought it.

He told the buyer that he wondered "what else we might be hiding," and she took that as an opportunity to back out.

Some inspectors are very chatty and have no ethical qualms about inserting their opinion where it is not required.
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Old 09-15-2014, 12:01 PM
 
1,782 posts, read 2,730,151 times
Reputation: 5975
Quote:
Originally Posted by NinaN View Post
You could have said no to the request for repairs. For $8K, it seems like something to hold your ground on. But I don't know your situation and whether the buyer would have cancelled or whether you could have found another buyer quickly.
Bad market. And that was NOT our good-luck house. We were very grateful to get out of there.

Nonetheless, that nut set fire to $8,000 of our money.

Disappointing.
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Old 09-15-2014, 12:42 PM
 
Location: Needham, MA
8,525 posts, read 13,902,353 times
Reputation: 7908
Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton View Post
It seems to me that, in the absence of any major issue, most Inspectors feel 'obliged' to find 2-4 items that 'could use' some type of remediation. Perhaps this is because the buyer pays them $300-$400 to find 'potential problems' (which is often used to leverage added seller concessions) --Every home has a few minor issues that could use some type of repair. If the Inspector finds nothing, and the buyer later discovers any type of defect, the inspector is viewed as incompetent. - If they find a few small items, the inspector is viewed as being very detailed and cautious ... and the buyer/seller/realtor may give them a referral or use them again.
No house is without defects. Even brand new homes have some. It might be something as small as a squeaky door, but if I were the buyer I would want it noted in the report.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jghorton View Post
Buyers and Sellers simply need to be able (and willing) to distinguish between incidental "defects" that really mean nothing ... and serious issues that could require costly repairs in the future. As part of this 'dance', it is probably smart for a seller to hold about $1000 in 'reserve' to deal with buyers who are unwilling to concede anything.
This is the key. What is reasonable wear & tear and what is broken/neglected? Too many buyers and sellers blow up deals because they're unreasonable about this distinction.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life View Post
We had a buyer give us a great offer on a big house we were selling, and we were thrilled to have "sold" it after only a week.

During the inspection, he found an old aluminum pie pan in an attic void where there had apparently **once** been a leak years prior. The roof had never leaked since we lived there, and there was no evidence of recent water damage. We had never even been in that void area. Apparently our inspector did not find it noteworthy when we bought it.

He told the buyer that he wondered "what else we might be hiding," and she took that as an opportunity to back out.
Everybody becomes paranoid when buying a house and everybody thinks they're Sherlock Holmes. The theories I hear people spout are unbelievable. Most buyers/sellers are their own worst enemies.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life View Post
Some inspectors are very chatty and have no ethical qualms about inserting their opinion where it is not required.
I love when inspectors start offering their opinion about the condo association, the neighborhood, etc. Absolutely outside of the scope of the inspection.
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Old 09-15-2014, 12:55 PM
 
756 posts, read 828,211 times
Reputation: 886
Exclamation Asbestos:

Quote:
Originally Posted by RosemaryT View Post
When we sold our house, the young buyer's hired an idiot for a housing inspector.

He found that our oil-fired boiler had some hot water pipes with asbestos. Now mind you, these were down in the basement, but tucked away in the crawl-space portion of our 3/4 basement.

The young buyers were very familiar with old houses and told the housing inspector, "Hey, we're buying a beautiful old house built in 1920. We understand. We saw the asbestos wrap and we're not concerned. We get it."

The housing inspector - in MY kitchen - went nutso on them and started screaming at them, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND what asbestos will do to your lungs and any children you might have? You do NOT want a house with any asbestos in it - anywhere! This is your chance to write this into the contract and FORCE the seller to pay for this right now. That's the right thing to do."

He really went on a rant. I was ready to clobber him.

When the VA inspector did his appraisal, he looked at the asbestos wrap back in the crawl space area and said, "The asbestos looks good. I see it's been encapsulated (with paint). That'll last another 50 years."

I told him, "No, it won't," and told him the story.

He replied, "Why don't people understand, if it's intact and not friable, it's better to leave it undisturbed?"

It ended up costing us $8,000 to have the asbestos abated, in accord with all codes and requirements. And added three weeks to the closing, because of state-mandated paperwork.

I had a friend that hired an inspector and he went under the house and said everything "looked fine." Later, the homeowner discovered that the drain lines under the house leaked like a sieve, and a lot of replumbing work was required.

I'm not impressed with these guys.
I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with asbestos. All people need to do is keep it enclosed inside concrete and steel. But asbestos is now regarded as the worst thing ever.
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