Inspector gadget to the rescue

So now that we are out of attorney review the next big step is the inspection!! I was pretty nervous about our inspection. As I've mentioned in an earlier blog there had been an offer on the house and those buyers backed out after they conducted their inspection. Our realtor said that she got the impression from the seller's realtor that these previous buyers had just started looking - put in an offer - and decided they weren't actually ready to move forward with the house and backed out on the first legal part they could. I really tried to hold on to that thought but I was still really worried that something major was wrong with the house and we would need to walk away, leaving behind this house we were falling in love with ... and the $495 for the inspection and $350 for legal costs!

We scheduled our inspection for this past Tuesday morning at 9:30am. If you are buying a house with someone I highly suggest you both be at the inspection. I know it's a pain to take off work but in the long run it will be sooo much better. This way you both hear everything that the inspector says first hand and can ask any questions that pop into your head. I know in other aspects of our house buying experience I'll get some info from our realtor or attorney, go back and share it with my husband, and he comes up with 5 questions - 3 I had asked myself and 2 I didn't think to ask. Also you are both able to talk with your realtor after and get her opinions on some of the items that popped up on the inspection and what things she thinks you should ask the seller to handle. I would also suggest that you schedule your inspection as soon as humanly possibly once you get out of attorney review. In almost all housing contracts you'll be given 14 days to do an inspection after you get out of attorney review. You'd think 2 weeks was a long time but you'd be surprised how quickly that flies by!

A great suggestion that I got from one of my friends before our inspection (Thanks Sam!!) was to bring a camera with you and take pictures and maybe a video or two of the inside of the house. I know a lot of you out there have already been thinking about how you want to decorate your new house (cause that's exactly what I've been doing) so documenting each room will help you to visualize the space better. For us, the listing for our house only had about 9 or 10 pictures posted - it only showed part of the basement, 3 out of 4 of the bedrooms, and left off the sun room and the 1/2 bath. When we did our inspection I took about 50 more pictures of the house, making sure to get multiple angels of each room. This will help us think about which bedroom we want to be our room, how we want to set-up the living room, and what color to paint the kitchen! Bonus: Now you can show all your friends and relatives your awesome new house on the go! = )

Another good inspection suggestion I have for you guys is - don't try to write down everything your inspector says. If you're like me you are a note taking freak! I carry my house-buying notebook with me everywhere and documented as much as I could about each house we saw. I was figuring on doing the same during our inspection, HOWEVER, as it turns out, it's much more beneficial to pay attention and soak in what your inspector is saying at that moment. I did write down a few "how to maintain" tips our guy gave us but for the most part I followed along with my eyes and ears open and pen down. Trust me if anything major comes up in your inspection you won't need to write it down to remember it. Now, I can only attest to what our inspector did but, we received our report 24 hours after the inspection was over with everything he said the day before along with all the helpful pictures he took. Knowing we were getting this within 24 hrs of the inspection definitely helped squash my no note taking phobia. Everything was still fresh in my mind from the day before and now I had a detailed list of things that was waaaaay more organized and to the point than anything I could have written down.      

During your inspection do not hesitate to stop your Mr. Gadget and ask questions. Remember he does this for a living - this is routine to him - he'll try his best to go slow for your benefit and point things out to you as he goes along but for the most part he knows what he's looking for and will be taking his own notes and pictures for his report. If he skips past something you would have liked him to check, chances are he did check it out and it was nothing worth mentioning. I'm sure he'll be happy to go over it with you and this way you won't be wondering what that crack in the ceiling really meant. I have to say I loved our inspector. He was thorough and super polite and understanding. He pointed out to us all of the things he would be marking on his report. This way when we got the report the next day we weren't surprised with anything he had listed. He also didn't make us feel like an idiot when we asked questions. He took the time to go over anything we wanted to know and made us feel really comfortable about the items that did come up on the inspection.

When the inspection was over we got the chance to talk with our realtor for a few minutes about the repairs she thought we should ask for just based on the more important issues that arose. We were actually pretty lucky and our list contained more nit-picky items rather then major issues. For example the conductor pole that received the electrical wires from the street was not bolted into the siding - when the previous owners replaced the siding X# of years ago the contractor didn't reattach the brackets for the pole. Our inspector has to note that because it is something we should be aware of and have fixed but will take two seconds worth of work to handle. All in all our report sited 52 items. Had I not been at the inspection and just received the report I think I would have starting crying. Luckily I knew a lot of what was listed was general items to address at some point, like the pole. Out of the 52 items he sited we only found 3 things pressing enough to go back to the sellers to ask them to fix. These were: evidence of termites in the garage, a leaky (although super tiny at this point) water main pipe coming into the house, and the joists under the sun room needed to be braced better.

Our inspector also tested for radon and I'm hoping to get the results of that test back today. For those of you that aren't familiar with what radon is (like me) I'll fill you in. The condensed version is radon is a gas that comes from the ground and can seep into your house through cracks in the foundation. It does contain radioactive isotopes (not the fun superhero building kind) so it is important to test for, especially if your buying a house with a basement. The test is pretty cool - the inspector has a round piece of charcoal in a container and leaves the container in the basement for 48 hours. He picks it up after the 48 hr mark and sends it to the lab. The lab does its thing and if the results are 4 or higher you, or the seller, need to remedy the situation. The remedy isn't that complicated but you would need to hire a contractor to come in and vent property so any gases that do come in to the house are being pushed back out. There are 3 different tiers you could fall into when it comes to radon. Tier 1 is 25% or more of the homes in your general area has had a radon test report a 4 or higher result, Tier 2 is 5%-24% of homes test positive, and Tier 3 is less then 5% tested positive. My husband and I are buying a house in Middlesex County, NJ. Middlesex is listed as a Tier 2 with 15% of the houses tests showing results of a 4 or higher. If you felt ambitious and had nothing else to do you can go online and Google radon test results in your area. That's how I found out what the Middlesex county number was.

Since we haven't gotten the results of the radon test yet our list of repairs were sent to the sellers attorney with a note basically saying stay tuned for the radon test results. This way we could at least get the process started on the repairs we know need to be made. Our attorney just sent the list to the sellers attorney today so I don't know how the sellers will respond yet. Our realtor thinks given the sellers situation (it's an estate sale) and the fact that they had someone back out after the inspection already that we have a pretty good shot at them agreeing to do the repairs we've asked for. After you complete your inspection I definitely recommend sitting down with your inspector and realtor for a few minutes and get their opinion on what they think you should ask to be fixed. Use their expertise to your advantage. Your realtor should have a good idea of the seller based on his/her calls to their realtor and should be able to make a pretty good guess at what they'll agree to fix. In the end its up to you what you ask for but it's best to get as much info as possible to provide you with the best and least stressful outcome!


*******************UPDATE*******************

We got our radon test results and ... drum roll please ... it came back as a .4!! Less then 1! Wooohoo!! We're so relieved! I'm really hoping that not having to ask the home owners to take care of a radon issue will make it easier for them to say Yes to our repair list. Keep those fingers crossed everyone! ; )