home inspection
Feb. 20th, 2004 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanYesterday I dragged my sorry ass out of bed at oh-dark-thirty (literally - it was still dark outside, ugh) to get to the home inspection. The short version is that the inspector found a lot of issues -- some we knew about, some we didn't -- and now we are going to ask the sellers to reduce the selling price. This weekend we'll discuss what number to ask for, and on Monday we'll communicate it to them and hope that they will commence negotiating.
First I had to drive Isaac to daycare (35 minutes west) and then drive myself back into town to the house (45 minutes east). I got there around 8:10, which isn't bad all things considered. The inspection was supposed to start at 8 and they did get underway without me (as I had told them they could). Present were myself, Brian (the friend buying the house with me), David (our realtor), and Dan the inspector.
Well, four and a half hours later, I was exhausted and ravenous and somewhat discouraged, but I sure learned a lot, and now I know the house pretty well! Dan did find a lot of problems, including some we had known about and some we hadn't.
The major things seem to be:
a. Termite damage in the "sills" (big pieces of wood that sit atop the foundation and basically hold up the house). Dan felt that the termite damage was pretty old, but since it's winter, we can't know whether termites are still around; if they are, they'd be hibernating now. Dan also felt it was evident that there had been no inspection for termites, because the way he found the damage was by poking the wood with a long pointy thing, and it was obvious that no one else had been doing similar poking. He did think there might be evidence that someone had sprayed for termites at some point, though.
b. The furnaces are ancient. Even I with no expertise at all in these matter could tell. They are quite clearly old coal-burning furnaces that were converted to oil-burning. Dan said they probably run at about 10-15% efficiency. Also, the low-water cutoff mechanisms (which turn off the burner if the water level gets too low) don't work, and there isn't an automatic system to refill the water tanks. The water tanks themselves are both fairly old (like maybe 10 years) and have minor issues.
c. The electrical system only provides 60 amps to each unit; nowadays that's usually not enough for normal household activity such as refrigerator, TV, washer/dryer, computer(s), lighting, etc. It's managable, but not ideal.
d. Several of the pipes carrying waste water from the sinks and toilets are corroded. Also some of the pipes related to the boilers have corrosion.
e. Asbestos. Lots and lots of it.
f. Structural issues in the roof/attic, which Brian and David seemed to think were less serious than Dan thought. I personally don't have a clue about this stuff so I'm going to defer to them. David used to do construction before he went into real estate, and Brian has a fair amount of amateur fixit experience, so I'll trust them to decide about that. The roof itself is in decent shape, thank goodness.
g. Almost none of the outlets, or the lighting fixtures, are grounded. Also neither kitchen has counter outlets, which is as much a convenience thing IMO, but also Dan seemed to be saying that there are regulations now. Anyway I would certainly want to put in at LEAST one pair of outlets along my kitchen counter, for the electric can opener / blender / food processor / toaster....
The sloping of floors in the upstairs unit (Brian's) didn't concern Dan much. He felt that it was related to the construction of the frame (I could go into detail but it would just bore you) and is basically a cosmetic issue, not a structural problem. I think Brian was relieved to hear that.
There's also an issue where apparently a radiator in Brian's unit leaked and caused water damage to the ceiling in my unit. Dan tested it with a little doohickey that measures the moisture level and it was dry; however, if people were actually living there and using the radiator, it might start to leak again and the problem recur. But Dan seemed to think it could fairly easily be fixed. The kitchen ceiling will need repairing too though.
There's a lot more but those are the things that stick out in my mind. Dan emailed us a report, including lots of digital pictures (he said that his digital camera is his best tool; he also took a lot of notes in a PocketPC - technology really has revolutionized things!), which is very useful.
So, we are sending a letter today to the estate lawyer saying that we found some problems and want to discuss. Then on Monday, we'll send another letter to the sellers' realtor, Manny, giving him an actual number for the amount of money we want knocked off the price. The reason we're doing it this way is that we'd rather do the negotiating through Manny, but he's on vacation this week and our contract requires us to provide the sellers with the results of our inspection today.
Brian and I will be getting together over the weekend to go over the inspection report and decide how much to ask the sellers to take off. I'm guessing that we'll probably come up with a number for how much we think the repairs would cost, and then ask for about 2/3 of that, and settle for about 1/3.
We also (finally!) made the decision of which lawyer to hire. A guy I know from chorus (which is also how I know our realtor).
Anyway, that's the inspection report. It really was interesting and I learned a lot, but it was also daunting. Part of me is excited about getting people in and fixing everything up and making it great, but the other part is like "augh! more money!" and "augh! I just wanna move in already!" Alas.
Oh, and I'm still sick. sigh. TGIF!!!
First I had to drive Isaac to daycare (35 minutes west) and then drive myself back into town to the house (45 minutes east). I got there around 8:10, which isn't bad all things considered. The inspection was supposed to start at 8 and they did get underway without me (as I had told them they could). Present were myself, Brian (the friend buying the house with me), David (our realtor), and Dan the inspector.
Well, four and a half hours later, I was exhausted and ravenous and somewhat discouraged, but I sure learned a lot, and now I know the house pretty well! Dan did find a lot of problems, including some we had known about and some we hadn't.
The major things seem to be:
a. Termite damage in the "sills" (big pieces of wood that sit atop the foundation and basically hold up the house). Dan felt that the termite damage was pretty old, but since it's winter, we can't know whether termites are still around; if they are, they'd be hibernating now. Dan also felt it was evident that there had been no inspection for termites, because the way he found the damage was by poking the wood with a long pointy thing, and it was obvious that no one else had been doing similar poking. He did think there might be evidence that someone had sprayed for termites at some point, though.
b. The furnaces are ancient. Even I with no expertise at all in these matter could tell. They are quite clearly old coal-burning furnaces that were converted to oil-burning. Dan said they probably run at about 10-15% efficiency. Also, the low-water cutoff mechanisms (which turn off the burner if the water level gets too low) don't work, and there isn't an automatic system to refill the water tanks. The water tanks themselves are both fairly old (like maybe 10 years) and have minor issues.
c. The electrical system only provides 60 amps to each unit; nowadays that's usually not enough for normal household activity such as refrigerator, TV, washer/dryer, computer(s), lighting, etc. It's managable, but not ideal.
d. Several of the pipes carrying waste water from the sinks and toilets are corroded. Also some of the pipes related to the boilers have corrosion.
e. Asbestos. Lots and lots of it.
f. Structural issues in the roof/attic, which Brian and David seemed to think were less serious than Dan thought. I personally don't have a clue about this stuff so I'm going to defer to them. David used to do construction before he went into real estate, and Brian has a fair amount of amateur fixit experience, so I'll trust them to decide about that. The roof itself is in decent shape, thank goodness.
g. Almost none of the outlets, or the lighting fixtures, are grounded. Also neither kitchen has counter outlets, which is as much a convenience thing IMO, but also Dan seemed to be saying that there are regulations now. Anyway I would certainly want to put in at LEAST one pair of outlets along my kitchen counter, for the electric can opener / blender / food processor / toaster....
The sloping of floors in the upstairs unit (Brian's) didn't concern Dan much. He felt that it was related to the construction of the frame (I could go into detail but it would just bore you) and is basically a cosmetic issue, not a structural problem. I think Brian was relieved to hear that.
There's also an issue where apparently a radiator in Brian's unit leaked and caused water damage to the ceiling in my unit. Dan tested it with a little doohickey that measures the moisture level and it was dry; however, if people were actually living there and using the radiator, it might start to leak again and the problem recur. But Dan seemed to think it could fairly easily be fixed. The kitchen ceiling will need repairing too though.
There's a lot more but those are the things that stick out in my mind. Dan emailed us a report, including lots of digital pictures (he said that his digital camera is his best tool; he also took a lot of notes in a PocketPC - technology really has revolutionized things!), which is very useful.
So, we are sending a letter today to the estate lawyer saying that we found some problems and want to discuss. Then on Monday, we'll send another letter to the sellers' realtor, Manny, giving him an actual number for the amount of money we want knocked off the price. The reason we're doing it this way is that we'd rather do the negotiating through Manny, but he's on vacation this week and our contract requires us to provide the sellers with the results of our inspection today.
Brian and I will be getting together over the weekend to go over the inspection report and decide how much to ask the sellers to take off. I'm guessing that we'll probably come up with a number for how much we think the repairs would cost, and then ask for about 2/3 of that, and settle for about 1/3.
We also (finally!) made the decision of which lawyer to hire. A guy I know from chorus (which is also how I know our realtor).
Anyway, that's the inspection report. It really was interesting and I learned a lot, but it was also daunting. Part of me is excited about getting people in and fixing everything up and making it great, but the other part is like "augh! more money!" and "augh! I just wanna move in already!" Alas.
Oh, and I'm still sick. sigh. TGIF!!!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 08:26 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-20 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 08:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 12:08 pm (UTC)Asbestos sounds scary to me! Of course my grandfather's beach house that we spent many a summer weekend at when I was growing up is shingled in the stuff so obviously it can depend on the form it is in...
no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 01:08 pm (UTC)I'd want all of the points you mentioned fixed, but this would be the show-stopper for me. More houses are lost in this country to termites than fires. If there is extensive damage, the whole house is a write-off.
e. Asbestos. Lots and lots of it.
This is really a problem only if you want to proceed with (f) structural changes to the roof; if left undisturbed, it should be okay. It may be a minor issue when you redo the wiring or plumbing. Here, the government will remove the asbestos for you free of charge but you have to move out so the guys in the space suits can do their thing.
Have you lawyer add all the items to be fixed to your contract.