Buying a house for the first time
By Frank G. Ross
Recently, a fellow inspector and I were reminiscing about how the
home inspection industry has changed since the days when we were
first-time homebuyers. My friend shared this experience with me.
“I remember when my wife and I bought our first house many years
ago. Some friends of ours had just purchased their first home and
told us about one near them that was for sale by owner. We went to
look at it that night.
It was a fixer-upper, a three-bedroom home with a partly finished
basement. The owners had to sell to move into their new home. We
offered them $3,000 less than they paid for it and they accepted
immediately.
Walking through the house prior to closing, we knew we had our work
cut out for us. We saw the crayon marks on the walls, doors, even
the ceiling. We decided the carpet had to go, so no need for a drop
cloth when we painted. The basement was partly finished, with a
cute little wood stove already in place.
The day after we moved in I went out to meet the neighbors. I
looked across the street at my new house for the first time.
Immediately my eye went to the carport roof. Rather than
continuing parallel to the roofline of the house, it sloped
noticeably away from the house, its gable end as much as six inches
lower than where it joined the house.
Closer inspection revealed the cause: no footings had been poured
for the posts holding up the end of the carport. They had merely
been set on top of the concrete slab. In no time the weight of the
roof on the posts cracked the slab and in less than five years that
side of the slab had dropped several inches, causing the rust damage
on the basement wood stove.
You see, the chimney was on the same end of the house, and as one
end of the carport roof dropped, the other end separated from the
house. This created a nifty little crack that collected water and
channeled it into the chimney, where it found the stovepipe and
continued down to the basement. There the water sat, rusting out
the stove. That’s what I found the first day. Of course the list
grew as time went on.
We made two mistakes when we bought that house. First, we should
have had a Realtor negotiating for us. We had no idea what
comparable homes were selling for, and given the market and
condition of the home, a Realtor could have gotten a better price.
We also paid too many closing costs. Paying a Realtor would have
saved us money. Fortunately, the home appreciated rapidly and we
netted a profit when we sold.”
Home Inspections were not common then, especially for low-end
homebuyers. But hiring a professional home inspector would have
saved them money, too. A good inspector starts an inspection across
the street. He looks at the roofline, grading of the lot, and more.
A home inspector would have shown my friend the roof, the cracks,
and the rusted stove before he owned them. If he (or she) were a
good inspector he would have asked about their plans to upgrade the
house and his written report would have helped them plan their
fix-up expenses more wisely. For example, all Pillar To Post
inspectors include a Construction and Remodeling Cost Estimate Guide
and a Home Depot Basic Home Repair CD-ROM with their written report.
If current market conditions have put you in search of your first
home, make sure you have professionals on your side. Find a Realtor
experienced in representing buyers, and ask him or her for
references. Then when you make an offer on a home, hire a
full-time, insured, professional home inspector. Attend the
inspection if you can, ask questions, and go over the written report
with your inspector and your Realtor. You’ll be dollars and years
ahead.
Frank Ross is a Certified Utah Home Inspector for Pillar to Post
Professional Home Inspection and a full member of the National
Association of Certified Home Inspectors and a member in good
standing with the Utah Better Business Bureau. Readers may contact
Mr. Ross at (435) 867-6400 or
frank.ross@pillartopost.com
or
www.pillarposthomeinspection.com
