Ever wonder what a home inspector really looks for? Or were you curious what they’re not allowed to look at? Listen in as Rick reveals more secrets of the trades!
Charlie
Welcome to the trade secrets inspections podcast because you need to know, here’s your host, Rick Kooyman. Hey there, it’s Charlie McDermott, and I am back with Rick Kooyman, Rick, the owner of trade secrets inspections, Rick, how you doing?
Rick
Very good. Good to have you with me, Charlie, Thanks.
Charlie
Yeah, yeah. And again, you know, this is awesome. You’re putting this podcast out there to help folks, not just in the Southwest Florida market, but all over and I really appreciate your expertise and really tap into that expertise. In this episode, I have a handful of questions here that you probably get all the time. And you could probably, you know, answer these with two eyes tied behind your back and your arms close, or maybe I have that reversed. But anyway, you get the idea. So let me start with the first question. So when it comes to general inspections for the home, you know, what, what all is included in that general inspection?
Rick
Yeah, absolutely. I get asked that question all the time, what is included in the general inspection? To start with, you know, the basic definition, if you will, or what Wikipedia would tell you is that a home inspection is just a visual examination of what is essentially the major systems of the house, by Florida standards. And it can be limited to just a short list of things like structure, roof, exterior, your heating and cooling system, your plumbing, and your electrical, and, of course, parts of the interior. But depending on what inspection company you are working with, everybody’s got different what we call standards of practice, or SOP. And those are established by our training councils. We here at Trade Secrets, in particular, we follow what is known as FABI or the Florida Association of Building Inspectors, which, as the name implies, is focused straight on Florida. And the special needs, if you will, because of its environment, and its unique challenges. A lot of other inspection companies out there are following the international standard. So that applies to Alaska, just the same as it does Florida. Um, so you know, there’s a difference between who pick, it does matter. But yeah, we follow FABI where we have a far more detailed list of our standards. And then we follow it pretty tightly. It’s a pretty inclusive list includes everything from your kitchen appliances, you know, to the roof to the yard and how it draining, and everything in between.
Charlie
So interesting. Yeah, that again, another important piece, especially in Florida I never thought about how the yard is draining. I never even thought about that.
Rick
Wow. Yeah, for sure. Come rainy season, people find out they’re underwater. They’re not too happy when they tried to give him a dog.
Charlie
Oh, but you know, again, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a rainy season until we moved down here. And fortunately, on a lot on the higher part of the island here in Fort Myers Beach. But we have we have neighbors right down the street that you know, with enough rain, that water literally they’re there outside sometimes slowing the traffic in the in the neighborhood, slowing cars down, because the you know, the waves that are created. Yeah. Right. Go right in.
Rick
Right. For sure. Some of the older houses definitely out on the island communities that, yeah, that the water drains accumulates and these low spots that you don’t realize you’re there. And lo and behold, you’re like, wow, that happened really fast.
Charlie
Yeah. Wow. So how about the limitations was, are there any limitations when it comes to the Home Inspection?
Rick Kooyman
Yeah, unfortunately, there’s always going to be limitation. So, you know, obviously, we’re not like a futurist. And we can’t predict the future things, unfortunately. And as much as I would love the superpowers, and I can’t see through walls…
Charlie
wouldn’t it be great?
Rick
…but I have some special tools that can help me almost see through walls and and I make use of those quite liberally. But yeah, I still am just like every other human out there and fallible and have my limitations. So yeah, in that regard, for sure. And there are other things, you know, it’s not a property appraisal we’re doing. It’s not a code inspection, we’re not doing the same thing to cities, and in you know, in their inspection protocols going to do and we don’t do health and biological things and geological and you know, environmental hazards too much. We’ve just, you know, there are standards we stick to but for sure, some limitations do exist. That’s why we have that standards and practice to, you know, ultimately define exactly what it is we’re going to do. You know, so if anybody really wants to know and dig into it, it’s readily available. It’s on our website. They can go to FABI and look at it. It’s not meant to be a secret.
Charlie
Yeah. How about during the buying process, you know, a lot going on, what, you know, is there an optimal time to schedule an inspection?
Rick
Yeah, for sure. Particularly in today’s market, things are going very fast. There’s many, many offers being put in. And time contingency is becoming a big factor. So that alone, you know, has its own problems, or no, you want to get a three day offer period, that’s pretty tight to get some stuff done. And, get answers that are worth having. And maybe cost of, you know, what those problems are gonna entail. Outside of the radical type of markets where things are moving that fast, there’s normally a 12, or 15 day period for your due diligence. And right off the bat, as soon as you put that offer in, your very next step should be to search out the best inspection company you can get. That is where you are being looked out for. Your realtor can be your best friend in the world, but ultimately, they’re getting paid by a sales closing happening, we do our job straight from a fee for cost of doing the report, we’re not associated with any contract and service provider, the realtor, we’re completely independent, third party educated, knowledgeable on what’s what you were putting your heart in balance and into. So right from the beginning, you want to get that lined up, you want to make sure you’re working with the best people for your dollars, it’s not the place to save money on, you don’t want to save 100 bucks out of the inspection because one guy can get it done in an hour is half the cost. It’s just not where you want to save your money. But uh, you know, that’s where that happens at right after the inspection, or right after the offer, you set up your inspection, it generally takes about three to four hours to do a standard inspection on a typical property, you want to make sure that everything’s turned on, and you want the house to be as it’s going to be when you live in it as possible, because that’s our time to be in there. I can only assess it. For that amount of time when I’m there, I can only report on what I saw when I was there. You know, again, I can’t predict the future. So there’s, you know, the limitation of the report is just a snapshot, if you will, of that little three hour period that I was in there. And while I’m in there, my objective is to really go through and utilize all of it systems and components and mechanical systems that may or may not be used often.
Charlie
Good stuff, good stuff. So, Oh, my goodness, you know, what 1000 people moving into Florida every day, the latest reports. There’s a lot of new construction out there. What about, you know, these new builds? Do we need an inspection for new construction?
Rick Kooyman
Yeah, that is a fantastic question. Absolutely. Now, you will talk to your builder and they might have the best intentions in the world in they’re always gonna say we want to offer the best product. And I and there’s oftentimes a lot of limitations they’ll put on having a third party inspection done regardless, it is very important. Again, it’s the third party thing. It’s the independent eye, but you know that there’s no, there’s no skin in the game for it for me other than keeping you happy and making sure that I tell you everything you need to know, why does the new home need inspected? It was built by people like humans. And especially in today’s market, they’re pressured under time these houses are being put together in record amount of time. It is not uncommon for a trade to have to make do with what they have on site when they’re there, put something together. And that generally means it wasn’t put together, specifically maybe perfectly. know, getting done with that day’s goal is sometimes more important than you know, making sure everything was done exactly perfect. And if you can’t get what you need to use what you have be a creative, which happens a lot. For once you get in that house, your biggest opportunity is right before you sign the contract for acceptance. So your walk through is when you have the most leverage with your builder because they want that final payment. So that’s the really key time to want to find out what’s right and what’s wrong. And that’s when you’re going to get immediate attention and repairs from the builder. The other time we do we recommend this regardless is your home goes with a 12 month warranty, typically, you know, a new home builder gives it a warranty. Well, 11 months, you should be calling your local inspection company and saying, Hey, we want to have an 11 month inspection. And again, it’s the same thing we’re going to tell you, what’s up, what’s working, is it installed correctly? You know, are the systems functioning? Are they functioning together efficiently? No, this is a new home, it’s gonna never be better than it is. Generally, at that 11 month time, you know, people think it’s at the beginning. But it’s really after the initial Shakedown, that that houses, that’s as good as it’s gonna get, until something else happens or changes is added to it. So yeah, once again, that list that timing that 11 month period, seem very important stuff, especially when you’re spending the money you’re spending on housing.
Charlie
Thats a real good tip, wouldn’t have even thought of that! good stuff! So, how about engineer versus home Inspector? Do I need an engineer? Or do I need a home inspector?
Rick Kooyman
Yeah, another super question. I just got this one the other day, I had a customer call me with a bunch of questions about how the Home Inspection was gonna go and, and what was important and whatnot. And she was decided that she only could have it done by an engineer, she was from a different state. And that was their general practice up there. That was what she expected to happen. My advice to people on that: engineer comes at things with a whole different approach. If you think you need a serious structural analysis of something, that there’s something deficient with the home, then at some point, yes, you will probably want to discuss it with an engineer, it’s actually part of my protocols to point these things out, and specifically tell you, hey, you need to speak with an engineer, or maybe not, maybe you just need to go speak with a general contractor, I can assure you engineers charge a lot for their time, their reports are going to be much more expensive than ours. And ultimately, our whole industry is focused around doing that product, writing that report, we go through hundreds of hours, literally of training, with that focus that priority. That’s not the role of an engineer, that’s, you know, they can produce a report about a property for you. But it’s going to be written in a whole different form with a whole different set of protocols. And ultimately, when a customer chooses that route, they end up paying a lot, and being disappointed in what they got, because the engineer was concerned that, you know, things were built to the math, and it worked. Right. And not about functionality and quality or, you know, installing workmanship and life expectancies on things and, then there’s the topic of insurance. Insurance is one of the huge concerns in today’s market. And it’s one of the specialties in home inspectors that, you know, we are the agent to the insurance industry as far as writing the documents that they write their protocols and their underwriting use, for writing those policies. So ultimately, we’re the ones that are going to have the best answers for you on what is going to happen or what to expect insurance engineers, not even involved in that field.
Charlie
Wow. Wow. Well, good luck, love it. I’m learning. I’m taking notes here.
Rick Kooyman
Fantastic.
Charlie
Yeah. Great, great information. appreciate you sharing all that. And, you know, we’ll look forward to learning more in the next episode, who knew there was all this to learn about home inspections…
Rick Kooyman
I got hours and hours of stuff, I can teach about, please I can’t wait to share.
Charlie
And yeah, it’s our number one most important asset right. Not only do we live in it, but especially in Florida, it’s appreciating seemingly every day in this market. So let’s take care of it right.
No doubt about that, for sure. We’ll talk in the next episode. All right, Charlie, thank you. Take care.
Thanks for listening to the trade secrets inspections podcast. To learn more about trade secrets inspections, go to www dot trade secrets inspections dot com or call 239 537 1186
Transcribed by https://otter.ai