0:00

Ever wonder what secrets lie behind the

0:02

walls of your home , would you

0:04

agree ? It's in your best interest to find out

0:06

what might be wrong before

0:08

you become the owner of the house . Today

0:11

, we're joined by Mike McClendon , a home

0:13

inspector whose expertise has saved countless

0:15

homeowners from unseen pitfalls

0:18

. With Mike's deep dive into home inspection

0:20

essentials , learn why a thorough check

0:22

is your best ally , no matter

0:24

if it's brand new or has seen decades

0:27

passed by its windows . I'm

0:29

George Siegal , and this is Home Owners

0:32

Be Aware the podcast that teaches

0:34

you everything you need to know

0:36

about being a homeowner . Mike

0:38

, thank you so much for joining me today .

0:41

Happy to be here , we're glad to be

0:43

with you and talk about some of these important issues

0:45

with you today .

0:46

Yeah , there's some really important ones , so let's jump right

0:48

into it and talk about . As a home

0:50

inspector , what is the reason

0:52

why should home buyers

0:55

take a home inspection

0:57

so seriously ? Tell us how important that part

1:00

of the process is .

1:03

In the general view of not

1:06

just Florida-based but any

1:08

potential home buyer coming into

1:10

a transaction , the purpose

1:12

of a home inspection is

1:15

to sort of give you a much deeper look

1:17

into the home that you're getting

1:19

ready to purchase

1:21

. For most people , a

1:24

home is the single biggest

1:26

individual purchase that they're going to make

1:28

in their life . There's

1:32

a lot of emotion that goes into that

1:35

. When we look for homes , when

1:38

we want to see happen in a home , so

1:40

right off the top , just in general

1:43

, too

1:45

often when we're shopping for houses and stuff

1:47

, it's about neighborhood , it's about areas

1:51

, it's about design , it's about

1:53

stuff that I want to see

1:55

and these kind of things , and those are all important

1:57

. Those are the things that end up giving us the

1:59

memories and everything else that

2:02

we carry with us for the rest of our life . But

2:05

in our marketing materials

2:08

we say that the home inspection

2:10

we call it the moment of truth , though

2:13

, and all that we're the emotion

2:16

of buying a home meets the

2:18

realities of what

2:20

that home really is , and

2:22

that's really where the home inspector comes

2:24

into things in this transaction

2:27

.

2:27

I like to say that a lot of people are more concerned about

2:30

the icing on the cake than they are the ingredients

2:32

. And so I know

2:34

, because I've been in the position many times where you're

2:36

hoping the inspector doesn't find anything and

2:39

it's really kind of the other way around you

2:41

want them to find stuff because if they

2:43

don't , you're going to end up paying for it yourself

2:46

.

2:47

Well , and that's true . And

2:49

intellectually , you

2:52

know , most people know

2:55

that they want their inspector to find

2:57

something , but emotionally they don't . Yeah

3:00

, it's what it is . I mean , I've

3:02

been fortunate , I've been doing

3:04

home and so I've owned my home inspection

3:07

business . We celebrate 25

3:09

years in business last September

3:11

.

3:12

Congratulations .

3:14

Yeah , we hit 25 years , To

3:16

my knowledge . I'm up in the Panhandle of Florida

3:18

. We're

3:20

the largest , the longest continually operating

3:23

home inspection company in the Panhandle

3:25

up here . But it's

3:27

funny , I have seen during

3:29

the course of an inspection , you know where

3:32

you know somebody is joining

3:34

us for the inspection and they're so excited

3:37

and they show up and you know I can

3:39

see them . They've been

3:41

HGTV to death with

3:45

all the plans that they're going to do to

3:47

this place . And then during the course of the inspection

3:49

, you know we're going well , hey , I need you to see this

3:51

. And look , we noticed this here . And

3:54

, and you know , there's one particular

3:56

story that just has always stayed

3:58

with me this , this young couple , and

4:00

just throughout these three hours

4:02

I just watched their whole outnit

4:04

change . You

4:07

know there's as much overhouse and it turned

4:09

out there were some , some significant underlying

4:11

issues with this thing , you know . But

4:14

the reality is is that

4:16

, even though emotionally , honestly

4:18

, this young lady , by the time we were left she was kind

4:20

of crushed emotionally but at the

4:22

same time intellectually she

4:24

understood this would have been a nightmare

4:26

, you know , had we come into this

4:29

house .

4:30

Yeah , I mean , if you think about how the process goes , you're

4:32

looking for houses , you find something , you kind

4:34

of fall in love and you go , oh , I can see living

4:36

here , now let me check and

4:38

see if it's okay . But you

4:40

would never call you in when

4:42

you're just house hunting because you would be

4:45

a waste of time and money . I mean you have to . You

4:47

almost have to fall in love first and then have your heart

4:49

broken .

4:50

You do , you know I mean and you do , but

4:53

but fortunately the end , even

4:55

the industry has changed

4:57

in the time that I've

4:59

been doing this . You know , and I remember in my

5:01

early days , even

5:04

within the real estate industry , we

5:07

weren't as welcomed as we are today

5:09

. You know , and in

5:11

my early and I thought again , I started this in 1998

5:14

. And in the early days there were still a lot

5:16

of those sort of old school people

5:19

that have been in real estate for years . You know

5:21

that , saw

5:23

, if you ask home inspectors , oh they're just guys

5:25

that's out there to kill deals , so they're just there to complicate

5:28

things . But even through

5:30

these decades the real

5:32

estate industry has grown

5:34

, it's gotten educated and

5:38

and frankly , my experience , it's like any

5:40

industry . You know , there are people

5:42

, there are individuals in particular

5:44

industries that are maybe not as above board

5:46

as they need to be , but the majority

5:49

of real estate agents that I

5:51

deal with they don't want there

5:53

to be issues with the home , they

5:55

want this transaction to go smooth and

5:57

they want that client to be very happy , even

5:59

in the years afterwards , you know . So

6:02

that's another thing that I've seen change . Is

6:04

that the real estate industry , or

6:07

to the point where there are a lot

6:09

of firms that you know once

6:12

you cite , you know once you like , you say , once you

6:14

see it , once you fall in love , you

6:16

put your , your name on that contract . The

6:18

first thing the real estate agent now

6:21

is telling their clients is we recommend

6:23

that you get a home inspection .

6:26

Yeah , and I've had a builder . I've had a

6:28

builder that actually said here's a list of inspectors

6:30

I will not let on my property and

6:33

that kind of worries me then about the builder

6:35

. I mean , yeah , maybe that man or woman inspector

6:38

was was nitpicky , or

6:40

maybe they were just catching a lot of the builders mistakes

6:42

.

6:43

Exactly . You know and it's funny because that's

6:45

another thing that has changed . In

6:48

my early days , builders

6:50

would be practically offended

6:53

if somebody was

6:55

asking to have a home inspector

6:58

come in and they would try to throw up roadblocks

7:01

to us and stuff . And I remember a

7:03

couple of times I would say give me five

7:05

minutes with a builder and I'll

7:07

get him to understand that this

7:09

is a win-win for him . And this

7:11

is how my conversation would go with these builders

7:13

. I'd say listen , I

7:17

Assume that you're trying to build the best house you can

7:19

build , right ? He goes yeah , of course I am . You know , we

7:21

, we believe in what we do . Blah blah , blah blah . That's fine

7:24

, you're not here , you're

7:26

not on this job site for every nail

7:28

that's driven , every wire that's pulled

7:30

, every , every pipe that's put in here . You're

7:33

just not here for every one of those . So

7:35

what you've got happening here is

7:37

you have somebody else Paying

7:40

to do a checkup on all the

7:42

subs that you're using . Yeah

7:44

because if you have a

7:47

subcontractor who's cutting

7:49

corners , you may not know it

7:51

and you've got somebody else

7:53

paying to check up on

7:55

that , so where is the downside here for you

7:57

? And Literally

7:59

, they would go , they go . I never thought about

8:01

that way .

8:03

Yeah , I mean it's good to hear

8:05

. I don't know that a few of the builders

8:07

I've worked with would have thought that way , but because

8:10

they would have thought they were above mistakes .

8:12

Well , and there is that and and there's

8:15

a particular builder in our area

8:17

that I'm not gonna name . We , you know

8:19

, we're not gonna do that but they have . In

8:23

Incredibly and there are large

8:25

, large home builder but

8:27

they've thrown up Incredibly big

8:30

roadblocks to us making us

8:32

increase our , our insurance

8:35

, the liability insurance

8:37

things . They say you're not allowed to get up

8:39

on the roof , you're not allowed to go into

8:41

the attic spaces and they're claiming

8:43

all these liability issues

8:45

and stuff . But again , I'm like you

8:48

, it makes me wonder why I

8:50

do not want us going there , you

8:52

know .

8:53

Oh yeah , you have to go in the attic , you

8:55

have to go up on the roof .

8:56

Yeah , yeah you know , and ? But

8:59

we tell the clients , you know . You know your builder

9:01

is restricting us from doing this . We

9:03

just want you to know . That's part of our standards . But

9:05

if they tell us we can't , we can't

9:08

, it's their property . You know , until they close

9:10

on that house , that property , they

9:12

own it , you know . And but

9:14

again , of all the builders we've

9:16

got in our area , this is just one

9:18

that the actual largest

9:21

home builder that we have in our

9:23

area Welcomes us

9:25

. They , they put up literally

9:28

zero roadblocks to us . They're

9:30

helping us . They want to know are we missing

9:32

anything ? Tell me what's going on , we'll

9:34

get right on it . So again it's

9:37

. It's like everything in any industry

9:39

there are really good players . They're there . They're

9:42

not so good players , you know . But that's

9:44

where we come in , because you

9:46

know . Going back to your original question , you know

9:48

we are an Uninterested

9:51

third party . I get

9:54

paid whether that person

9:56

buys that house or not . That's

9:58

it . I mean . You know my , my , my . Everything

10:01

ends with this , with this one , one

10:04

job for me . If they buy the house , great

10:06

, they love me . Quite frankly

10:08

, if they end up not buying the house Because

10:11

of what we found , they love me more

10:13

sometimes because they go wow , you

10:15

saved us from a nightmare , you

10:17

know , and and so

10:20

, but that's what , that's what

10:22

we , that's what we bring to the table

10:24

is Everybody else not

10:26

everyone , almost Everybody

10:29

else involved in this transaction

10:32

has a vested interest

10:34

in this house closing , you

10:36

know , and we don't .

10:40

That's good . I'm glad to hear a good

10:42

builder story , because inevitably we

10:44

only hear about the bad ones . Most people don't . I

10:46

don't know many people that have raved about

10:48

their builder , although I know there are a lot of great ones . It's

10:51

the people that are unhappy that make the most noise .

10:54

Well , that's exactly right , and it's the same way with

10:56

any , with any industry . The unhappy people

10:58

, you know , you know they'll . They'll

11:01

tell a hundred people too . You know , I'm

11:03

the president of that team , that's that's my team

11:05

.

11:05

I , I , I live that life now . It's interesting

11:07

. I met you in Panama City where

11:10

we were shooting for our documentary film built

11:12

to last buyer beware and you educated

11:15

me on something that I thought was fascinating . I'm

11:17

always leery of woodhouses I think they're an

11:20

accident waiting to happen , especially in Florida but

11:22

you showed me how it's possible to build woodhouses

11:24

that may not withstand the most powerful

11:26

storms , but they sure give you a good

11:29

chance . Tell us about what somebody should be looking

11:31

for , and by the time you come in it's too late

11:33

. You almost have to know that they did this

11:35

before the walls are closed up

11:37

.

11:38

And that's true . Yeah , and with some of the things

11:40

is , when we shot that documentary , of course , we were in

11:43

a house that was partially constructed

11:45

, so why all the framing was open . But

11:47

yeah , you know , in in Florida

11:49

, you can almost take the state

11:51

of Florida and cut it in half from

11:54

north to south and and

11:56

essentially from Tampa

11:58

or Lando , that kind of line up there north

12:01

, the majority of home building up here

12:03

is wood , frome and , and there

12:05

are some very Economic reasons

12:07

for that as far as availability of raw materials

12:10

and things like that . This is a

12:12

, you know , the timber market for

12:15

this part of the ink is all in north Florida . So

12:17

, you know , wood , timber , lumber , it's just

12:19

, it's just far more affordable . But

12:22

but the building codes that they've been in , instituted

12:25

in Florida , take , take that into account

12:28

. So , so a

12:30

good majority of your houses spent , especially houses

12:32

that are being built along the coast . You

12:34

know , within that , within the what we call these high wind

12:36

corridors and stuff , even though

12:39

there there would frame , you

12:41

know we're doing a lot of things that

12:43

you know , visually we were able to see is , is

12:46

, is that the lumber themselves , is

12:48

. You know , traditionally we think of

12:50

houses being built with just two by fours

12:53

, you know , and a lot of the wood framing

12:55

is two by sixes . First

12:57

of all so that just gives you a lot , a lot more stiffness

13:00

. The spacing

13:02

of how they , they run these , you know

13:04

, up and down is up or closer

13:07

together . So essentially the whole

13:09

, the whole structure is just

13:11

stiffer to

13:13

begin with . But then there's the number

13:15

of anchors that that that we're

13:17

using when we build , when we

13:20

build homes these days too , and

13:22

so you know , we've all , if

13:24

you're , if you bought or sold

13:26

in Florida or you live in a Florida house , we

13:28

all heard the term hurricane clips and

13:30

and things like this , you know . But

13:33

but hurricane clips , these kind of thing , that's

13:35

sort of just the minimum , that that's the minimum requirement

13:38

, you know . But what ? What we're doing

13:40

in newer construction and higher

13:42

end newer construction , again , construction

13:45

that is now required in these , in these high

13:47

wind zones and stuff is , is

13:49

we're anchoring these houses too

13:51

. Because , again it's , it's

13:54

generally when a when a house

13:57

suffers a catastrophic failure during

13:59

these herds and

14:01

these high wind things , it's not just

14:03

the force of the wind , it's

14:06

the vacuums and the pressures

14:08

that can be created when

14:12

a small portion

14:14

of the house may fail and

14:16

maybe something as simple as a window being

14:18

busted out within the pressures

14:20

that can come on the inside

14:22

of that house start creating pressures

14:25

in a direction that our

14:27

building wouldn't always design for . We

14:29

were building from the wind coming outside

14:31

in , not inside out , and those kinds of things

14:33

and stuff . So

14:36

but hopefully people will watch the documentary

14:38

because it'll be great to see visually . But

14:41

we're anchoring all the way from the slab

14:43

to the very top of the

14:45

house and it doesn't matter if it's a single story

14:47

, two story , three story . We

14:50

have continuous connections now with

14:53

bolts and anchor

14:55

rods and cables and

14:57

things like that that are tied in from

14:59

the very bottom of the house that go all the way

15:01

through the framing to the very top and

15:04

essentially what we're trying to do is

15:07

keep that house down

15:09

and connected

15:11

to everything and that's

15:13

gonna be around the entire perimeter

15:15

of the home . And

15:19

so if you're in the market and say you're having

15:21

a home built , if you're having a home

15:23

constructed , these

15:26

are conversations you should have with

15:28

your builder . What

15:30

are the minimum codes for my area

15:32

for this and

15:34

can we exceed those

15:36

codes ? What would be the cost difference

15:39

? Because sometimes there are some

15:41

things that the cost difference can be substantial

15:43

, but sometimes maybe not so much . It's

15:45

a matter of a couple of extra bolts

15:48

and things like this , and maybe that's worth

15:50

a little bit more to give you that extra

15:53

strength .

15:54

Well , to anchor a house like the one you showed us , where

15:56

you do the foundation to the first floor

15:58

, second floor all the way up to the roof . That

16:01

doesn't seem like that would add a tremendous amount

16:03

of cost to a project .

16:06

I agree with you . Probably the most expensive

16:08

part of that would be the

16:11

engineering plans . The actual material

16:14

and labor is nothing , but

16:16

it's like anything . You're submitting these drawings

16:18

and stuff like that . You've got to have certified engineers

16:21

do this , so there are

16:23

some professional fees involved

16:25

in that , but the actual cost of doing

16:28

the work itself is from which

16:30

would be minimal . It would be

16:32

minimal , but it's the kind of thing you have to plan

16:34

up Again if

16:36

you're in a where you're having a house belt . It's

16:39

the thing . You've got to have those conversations early

16:41

because you've got to get it in the plan . It's harder

16:43

to somehow in the

16:45

middle of a go oh , I want to do this kind

16:48

of thing . It's possible

16:51

, but probably a little more difficult . One

16:54

of the other things too that we're doing because

16:56

we talked about the impact and the failures

16:58

too is our openings

17:01

. Again , and , believe it or not , the weakest

17:03

part of all our construction whether

17:06

it be wood frame construction , whether it be masonry

17:09

construction , block , those kinds of things the

17:11

weakest part of it are our openings . We

17:13

have to go in and out of houses . We got to have

17:15

doors , we got to have windows , we want

17:17

light , we want all of those things and

17:22

we're not . We don't want to live in a tank , nobody

17:24

wants to live in a tank , and which

17:26

would be the safest right , but

17:29

we always got to have that balance . So

17:32

our openings are another

17:34

thing , that there are things

17:36

you can do to strengthen those

17:38

openings . In

17:41

the house that we looked at , they were using

17:43

what we call impact rated

17:45

windows . So

17:48

those windows are rated for

17:50

what in Florida , what we call a large

17:52

missile impact rating is what

17:54

they're called , and

17:57

essentially what that means in real

17:59

life is for it to pass that test

18:01

. They shoot a nine pound two before

18:04

that thing and I want to say it's

18:06

like 30 miles an hour and it's got to

18:08

withstand it . And same

18:11

thing with doors , entry

18:13

doors , and so even solid doors have

18:16

to have a certain impact rating . We tend to think

18:18

of windows and stuff , and

18:20

this is where a lot of consumers I've talked to

18:22

home buyers and they go oh yeah , I've got hurricane

18:24

windows , and unfortunately

18:26

people use those terminologies and

18:29

oftentimes windows

18:31

can have wind rates , which

18:33

means this window is designed

18:35

to withstand a certain mile per

18:37

hour wind , but

18:40

it may not be rated

18:42

for impact , and so they're two

18:44

different things and very often , again

18:47

, salespeople whatever oh , hurricane window

18:49

.

18:51

Sure .

18:51

Hurricane winds . They may be , but

18:54

some people think sometimes they're more protected

18:56

than they really are within . They're

18:58

not , maybe not impact rated , and

19:00

there's other ways to provide impact rating

19:02

too . If you're in an existing home

19:05

and you wanna , because the question

19:07

like , well , what can I do ? I'm in

19:09

an older home , what are things I can do

19:12

to strengthen my home

19:14

? Because I can't clearly rebuild

19:16

it , I can't go do all these things

19:18

from the get go here , but

19:22

one of the easiest ways that things that we can do is

19:25

to strengthen our openings . You

19:27

can do it by replacing your windows with impact

19:29

rating . They

19:32

have rated . If you've lived

19:34

in Florida , you've seen people with coverings

19:36

and different things that

19:38

they cover their windows and doors with

19:40

. That can add that

19:43

impact protection and so on and

19:45

those are nice because they're things you can put on and take off . They don't

19:47

have to be on there 24-7 . So one

19:49

nice thing about hurricanes they typically

19:51

don't sneak up on us , so we have time

19:53

to prep and prepare for

19:55

them .

19:56

So one of the criticisms I've heard of wood

19:58

and again , I'm not , I don't , you

20:01

know , market myself as an expert , it's

20:03

just the people I talk to and I try to , you know , get the best

20:05

information possible is because

20:07

of the termite problem that we have in Florida

20:10

, that when you have a wood structure and

20:12

whether it's siding , that's on there , or

20:14

stucco , whatever you cover it with , once water

20:16

gets in there , then you get

20:18

. You get rot , you get mold

20:21

, you get termites , and that seems to be

20:23

the bigger concern and why they

20:25

say block is in a lot of instances better

20:27

. What are your thoughts on how you have

20:29

to maintain it if you do have a woodhouse ?

20:32

Yeah , and again , you know , if

20:36

cost is not an issue , if everything's an even

20:38

playing field , you know the answer is

20:40

is a blockhouse probably better ? You know

20:42

my answer would be yes , it

20:45

is , but costs

20:47

are a factor , you know

20:49

. They factor into every , every part of everything we do

20:51

in our lives and stuff . So

20:53

, yeah , so it's like anything , block

20:56

homes can also get termites

20:59

and they can get water and they can get all those

21:02

kind of things . The first two homes

21:04

that I owned were in Jacksonville

21:06

, florida , which is North Florida

21:08

, but they were both concrete block homes

21:11

, you know , but my

21:13

roof and structure and everything wasn't

21:15

there , and in both of

21:17

those I had termites up in my roof . You

21:20

know termites are , they're terminal

21:22

little buggers . You know there's a will , there's a way

21:24

, you know . So that's an issue for all of us

21:26

. But you're right that you

21:28

know , once you introduce water

21:30

to wood you're

21:32

creating the environment

21:34

for for

21:37

termites , you know , because , again , termites need two things

21:39

to survive , like anything , they need food and

21:41

water . You know , unfortunately

21:44

, food is a lot of the materials we build

21:46

with , so our defense is to keep

21:48

water away and

21:51

again in . So again , the answer

21:53

to the question , in

21:55

very basic , is preventative

21:57

maintenance . You keep up . You keep your house treated

21:59

. There are very effective termite treatments

22:02

out there today and

22:04

typically most most termite companies

22:07

. Once you have a house treated

22:09

, they will offer a bond which

22:11

is like an insurance policy to

22:13

come along with it . So once they treat

22:16

it , they're bonding you

22:18

against future damage as long

22:20

as you maintain your treatments with them . Even

22:23

if you were to end up getting

22:25

termites or having damage done

22:27

, you know they would be obligated

22:30

to make the repairs for

22:32

those , and it's like anything . Have

22:34

it inspected regularly , you

22:37

know . So what it boils down to in a short

22:39

answer is it's preventative maintenance . You

22:41

know and keep up with what you're

22:43

doing .

22:44

Now , if you walk around your house with a thermal camera , would

22:46

that show you maybe where there's water intrusion or

22:48

that there's some kind of something going on behind

22:50

those walls ? Is that any value ?

22:53

It is a value , it's not a

22:55

, it's not x-ray

22:57

. It's not x-ray . So

23:00

a thermal camera shows

23:02

basically the surface temperature

23:04

and you're looking

23:06

at , and even some of the most powerful

23:09

ones . And again , the thermal camera

23:11

that you're a home inspector is going to

23:13

have or somebody

23:15

that's doing that kind of stuff , it's not going to be

23:17

these 20 , 30 , 40

23:20

, $50,000 cameras that you see in all your

23:22

military videos that you

23:25

watch , you know . So they're

23:27

going to be limited in their scope but they

23:29

could identify a significant problem

23:31

. We use thermal cameras in

23:33

our inspection . Not every home inspector

23:36

does , but it is an option that we

23:38

do and it can very easily

23:40

. A thermal camera

23:42

probably can't show you well , look

23:44

, you've got termites right there . If

23:47

it did , it would be pretty

23:49

much a massive investigation that

23:52

probably you would have found anyway . But

23:55

what a thermal camera can do is

23:57

it can alert you to moisture problems . Going

23:59

back to your earlier question about getting

24:02

water into things and stuff , because

24:05

as materials get wet

24:07

, you know if we're getting water

24:09

intrusion into

24:11

you know into that cavity between

24:14

the outside of the house and the drywall

24:16

that we see on the inside . If you're

24:18

getting water in there , that

24:20

water is changing the temperature

24:23

of whatever it's touching , and

24:25

that's what an infrared , that's what a thermal camera

24:27

does . It sees temperature , so

24:29

it can sometimes very well be a

24:32

glues into an area that we've

24:34

got a substantial temperature difference

24:36

in this wall right here

24:38

and that needs to be

24:40

investigated to figure out why

24:42

. Why is this happening here ?

24:45

Okay Now another problem I have

24:47

that I've seen happen because it's happened to me and

24:50

it's happened to me in multiple houses that I've owned is

24:52

that whoever built it did a half

24:54

ass job on engineering it for

24:56

air conditioning and heat . So certain

24:59

rooms get warmer , certain rooms are

25:01

colder , and , for example , the office

25:03

that I'm sitting in right now . I had to put a split system

25:05

air conditioning unit in it because the temperature

25:07

was always four degrees warmer than the rest of the house

25:09

and some people will go that's not a big deal . Well

25:12

, if you keep your house at 78 degrees

25:14

and your office is at 82 , it's a very big

25:16

deal . How do you catch

25:18

those things ?

25:20

And again , that would be something that would be difficult

25:23

during the course of a normal home inspection

25:25

to

25:28

be quite on to . That's probably something that

25:30

is not going to be caught . That

25:32

would be outside of our scope of expertise .

25:35

Yeah , I've never caught it .

25:36

No , no , no . And now

25:39

, if you were specifically wanting to check

25:41

that , you would probably

25:43

have to hire an HVAC

25:45

company to go in and do that . And

25:48

it's a good thing for me

25:51

to let you know and let your viewers and listeners

25:54

know too , because as

25:56

a home inspector , I come into a house

25:58

we have roughly about

26:01

three hours . Is what about how much

26:03

about what we spend in an average size

26:05

house ? And here's what I tell people

26:08

said as a home inspector , we have to be

26:10

a little bit of an expert and a

26:12

whole bunch of different trades . You

26:14

know we're . I'm not a licensed

26:16

roofer , I'm not a licensed electrician , I'm not

26:18

a licensed plumber , I'm not a licensed H bag

26:21

guy . We have to know a little

26:24

bit enough About those

26:26

trades to identify major

26:29

concerns and issues and things

26:31

like that . You know . So what we do do

26:33

and I will take in the course of my time

26:35

and doing home inspections . In the

26:37

course of a home Inspection , though , sometimes

26:40

you just walk into a room and you instantly

26:42

go . This

26:44

room seems warmer , you

26:47

know , I feel it . Am

26:49

I obligated , under my

26:51

standards of practice , to Note

26:55

that in my home inspection ? Probably not

26:57

, because I can't specify , specify

26:59

why . There could be a lot of reasons , but

27:01

it's an easy enough thing to say

27:04

this needs to be further investigated

27:06

.

27:07

You know , yeah , I wish everybody would do that .

27:09

I mean , that cost me a lot of money to fix

27:11

that sure , yeah , yeah and

27:13

but , um , but

27:15

even , and again , I'm not

27:17

trying to defend , you know , the different

27:19

trades or anything like that , but the reality

27:21

is is you can do the best formulas

27:24

because typically , just on the specific

27:26

issue with an HVAC system , you know there

27:29

are formulas . They use a square footage

27:31

of a house , cubic feet , this and that , and

27:33

that's just a math formula that they use

27:36

as far as how they lay that out

27:38

. But then you get into this specific

27:40

specifics of a room and sometimes

27:42

just where the sun comes in

27:44

, or , and too

27:46

often , what will happen is that plan

27:49

gets done during the planning stages

27:51

and and this is probably

27:53

the most common cause of like a situation

27:55

that maybe you're in but then during the course

27:58

of building , they go oh , we want

28:00

this wall moved over to here or there , and they

28:02

make some slight adjustments , not

28:04

understanding the cascading Consequences

28:07

that it can happen to man , you're a lot nicer

28:09

than I am .

28:10

I think they're saving money and they go Okay , let's

28:12

just throw this together , but , but , but I

28:14

like your attitude a lot better . I think you have a better approach

28:16

. Now Tell me about the my safe Florida

28:18

home Program and how people

28:20

can utilize that when they're buying a house .

28:22

Yeah , now , the my safe Florida home is something

28:25

that Florida has . It's actually not

28:27

new . It actually came back , originated

28:30

back in the 2000s . There

28:32

was a year I don't remember the exact year there

28:35

was one year where they had four major

28:37

storms Chris Cross across Florida

28:39

and it just was devastating

28:41

and and afterwards

28:44

they they instituted this and it was a program

28:46

to help homeowners

28:48

Strengthen or they used to work

28:50

harden their homes Against

28:54

storms . So it's gone through

28:56

a number of iterations and then , of course , the

28:58

economy went bad and the funding went away

29:00

for it . So it it never really went

29:02

away , but it sort of Was

29:05

dying on the vine out there because there was just simply

29:08

no money in the budget for it . But over these

29:10

last couple years , the

29:12

government here in Florida and the legislator

29:15

have has made it a priority to

29:17

fund it , and so the

29:19

my safe Florida home program is a program

29:21

where , first of all , you they've got they've got their website

29:23

. I think it's just my safe Florida home that

29:26

you can go to , you can register and

29:28

the first thing you can do is you can get a free

29:31

home inspection . Now

29:33

, it's not the kind of home inspection that you would do when you're

29:35

purchasing a house , but it's a . It's

29:38

an inspection specifically designed

29:40

to to identify

29:42

Ways , things in your home

29:44

that you could do that would

29:47

strengthen or harden your home

29:49

against hurricanes and high wind

29:51

events . So it gives you

29:53

a roadmap . And , just for full disclosure

29:55

, I'm not doing that . I don't work

29:57

for the my safe Florida home program

29:59

and I don't . I don't get any work from them , so

30:02

everybody's clearing that . But it's a . It's a free

30:04

resource that's out there for any resident

30:06

in the state of Florida , first of all

30:08

, and then , depending on the funding

30:10

bill , I was like , right now , before we started here , they

30:14

, the legislator , just authorized another

30:16

hundred and seventy six million dollars

30:18

to it , but

30:22

the program right now is at a standstill

30:24

because that additional hundred seventy six million was

30:26

allocated to fund the applications

30:29

that are already been

30:32

submitted , and so it this

30:34

exists exact point in time . Right

30:36

now they're not taking new

30:38

applications . There's tens and tens

30:40

of thousands that are already in there , but

30:42

it's a good problem to keep an eye on , because

30:45

here's what's great about the program if

30:47

you do Certain these

30:49

things , and when we say certain things , we're talking about new

30:52

types of roofs , putting in hurricane cliffs , impact

30:55

windows , that all these different things that we've been talking about

30:57

, that you can do . If you do some of

30:59

these , you can actually get grants

31:01

To offset the cost

31:04

. They will , they they're not paying for all

31:06

of it . But there I think I want to say

31:08

, if I remember , they will sometimes pay up to half

31:10

of what the cost are and

31:12

Stuff . So so it's

31:14

a great resource that's out there . And like

31:16

, say , even if they're not , if you're at a point

31:18

when you go off just heard about this anymore but they're not taking

31:21

, you can still get the free Inspections

31:24

and at least for you , give

31:26

you a roadmap and you might go oh , this is

31:28

something I could do , or we could do this

31:30

and we could do that . The other benefit

31:32

that comes with this is of

31:34

not only obviously just making your

31:36

house far more prepared for a hurricane

31:39

, but but it can also

31:41

garner you significant discounts on

31:43

your homeowner's insurance . One of

31:45

the things , one of the things we do here in Florida

31:47

when you buy , when you go to insure your house , most

31:50

of our insurance company asked for what we call a wind

31:52

mitigation inspection form done

31:54

, and the entire purpose of this form

31:57

is to see if you

31:59

qualify for

32:01

certain wind credits in

32:04

a house . So if you're living in an older home

32:06

and you don't have hurricane

32:08

clips , that's not an incredibly

32:11

difficult thing to retrofit

32:13

and it's not horribly expensive . If

32:16

you were to add hurricane clips to your

32:18

house , you Could have a

32:20

wind mitigation done , showing . You know , have this

32:22

and just that . One thing

32:24

in some instances Can reduce

32:27

your policy by a thousand dollars

32:29

or more a year at times and stuff

32:31

. So these other things , even if you're

32:34

not getting state money or what have you , oh

32:36

, some of these improvements can more

32:38

than pay for themselves in

32:41

the reductions You'll get in your homeowners insurance

32:43

too .

32:44

Yeah , everybody should really think about what

32:47

they need to do to make their home

32:49

as safe as possible , because they'll see in our

32:51

film , they could see in my last film , the last house

32:53

standing when you become a victim of a

32:55

disaster and you've lived that yourself After

32:59

Hurricane Michael it's a long road

33:01

back , isn't it ?

33:03

It's a long road back . We had a

33:05

hurricane Michael in 2018 . I

33:07

live in an older home . My house was built in the 80s , so

33:10

in the 80s there weren't certain requirements

33:12

that are here today and we suffered

33:14

fairly catastrophic damage . You know

33:16

, on our home and Probably

33:19

the in my home , to be completely

33:21

Put back to get was

33:23

almost a year . Took me just shy of a year

33:26

to get everything back to

33:28

to where it was before and it's

33:31

not .

33:31

It's not fun , it's not

33:34

, and I'm always crushing insurance , the insurance

33:36

industry , but you actually

33:38

had a good experience , as you

33:40

told us , but it still took a year .

33:42

It still took a year , yeah , and so , yeah

33:44

, I was fortunate . I mean , honest to goodness , the

33:47

insurance company that I was with I didn't have

33:49

to battle them , I didn't have to argue with them

33:51

. They , their gesture , came out . He

33:53

missed some stuff . We did a supplemental

33:56

claim and they didn't dispute anything

33:58

that I was asking for . So

34:00

, again , I was . You know , I

34:02

was fortunate in that . But yet still

34:04

, the biggest problem that you suffer

34:06

during the , during the hurricane , is

34:09

is this not

34:11

isolated ? Your issue

34:13

is not isolated , and so that's what

34:15

makes it like just to talk about

34:17

bad luck here . I don't

34:20

know if it had happened when you were here , but

34:22

in January I think it may have

34:24

been right . I don't remember the date we

34:26

did .

34:27

The ninth , I think it was .

34:28

Yeah , I got hit by a tornado .

34:31

Yeah , Did you have damage from that

34:33

? Your house was do you come out of there ?

34:34

Yeah , yeah , yeah . As a matter of fact

34:37

, tomorrow I have another

34:39

roof being installed , I have new roofing

34:41

, but on tomorrow .

34:43

So we saw that house in Panama City . That

34:45

tipped over , yes that's right .

34:47

That's right . I can't remember our time . That's right

34:49

. It had just happened . It had just happened

34:51

. But yeah

34:53

, but what's been different this time ? And

34:56

it's been interesting because we're talking

34:58

five years apart here . It's

35:01

almost comical . I've been

35:03

a native of Florida . I've lived here literally my entire

35:05

life . I'm in my 60s and

35:07

I've been through hurricanes

35:11

before , but the hurricane

35:13

Michael in 18 , was really the first time I suffered

35:15

any real damage , and then five

35:18

years later I got tornados .

35:21

That was quite a tornado and the path

35:23

that it took . We saw some houses

35:25

that were just obliterated by it .

35:26

They were older , yeah yeah , and again

35:29

I was very fortunate because

35:32

, even though my claim was

35:34

still a little substantial structurally

35:36

, I had no structural damage this time

35:38

. But again , I

35:42

garnered some of that too , some

35:44

of the upgrades that I did in putting

35:46

my house back together after

35:48

Hurricane Michael , because

35:51

I did . I took some of those steps to strengthen

35:53

it , some of the framing and things like that

35:55

. As we were putting our house together , we

35:57

upgraded , exceeded what

36:00

were the codes back in the 80s when

36:02

my house was originally built

36:04

and things like that . But yeah , the bigger struggle

36:06

and kind of going back , and I know we're going to start with a little

36:08

bit , but the reason these are such good

36:10

investments up front is

36:13

when you are trying to do repairs

36:15

after a significant hurricane event

36:17

, just the availability of materials

36:20

, of contractors and scheduling

36:23

and things like that just make

36:25

the process that much harder

36:27

. So whatever you can do up front

36:29

to keep yourself from having

36:31

to be in those positions is

36:34

so much better .

36:36

And the reason that building codes matter . I had a recent

36:38

podcast guest Roy Wright , ibhs

36:41

, where they do safety tests

36:43

of structures , and he

36:45

showed us that the newer codes can

36:48

save a lot of houses from tornadoes maybe

36:50

not an EF-5 that rolls right over your house

36:52

, but the one that hit Panama

36:54

City . Certainly the older structures

36:56

took it a lot worse than the newer ones .

36:59

Absolutely , and even in Hurricane Michael

37:01

, that was what was striking to me

37:04

as I drove around

37:06

. And I drove there because , again , I've been inspecting

37:09

now in this area for

37:11

20 plus years , right , so you

37:13

know , these are the older neighborhoods , these are

37:15

the newer construction neighborhoods and

37:17

stuff , and as I went through

37:19

, just drove through those neighborhoods , you

37:22

could see very distinctive

37:24

differences to the level of

37:26

destruction , you know . And

37:30

as the newer homes

37:32

, again , were there some catastrophic

37:34

failures of newer homes ? Yeah , there were , but

37:36

there were much fewer of them than

37:38

there were of older homes . Yeah

37:42

exactly right . Building codes do make a difference .

37:45

It's awful to see that kind of damage . So

37:47

let's wrap this up with some action items for

37:49

people . I'm getting a house , buying a

37:51

house new , old , whatever . What

37:53

should I look for in a home inspector ? What should

37:55

I want to have a feeling

37:57

of as I'm hiring that individual

37:59

?

38:01

Okay . So when you're interviewing a home

38:04

inspector , here's some questions you answered , of course . The first

38:06

obvious question are you licensed ? Make sure he's licensed

38:08

. I mean , that sort of seems obvious , but make

38:10

sure he's licensed . Make sure he carries

38:12

E&O insurance . E&o stands

38:15

for Errors and Emissions Insurance

38:17

. Okay , and that's an insurance there

38:19

to protect you . And Casey does a bad

38:21

inspection , we carry it . We

38:24

are not required by

38:26

the state of Florida to carry it . It's an

38:28

option , so something they should

38:30

carry . Two , will

38:33

he let you come along

38:35

during the inspection ? You've got home inspectors

38:37

. No one wants you there . Talk

38:40

to someone else , just talk to someone else . You

38:42

need to be able to have conversations . Now

38:45

if he says , well , I don't want you there for the whole thing

38:47

, I want you to come near the end , that's fine

38:49

, you know , because you get a little gab

38:52

. He's trying to get his work done , that's fine . You don't want to distract

38:54

him , but you want a guy

38:56

that you can have a conversation with

38:58

and that you can ask questions to , and

39:00

he's willing to take the time to explain

39:03

to you what your concerns are . And

39:05

number two , and the last thing too

39:07

, is make sure you tell him what your

39:09

concerns are . One of our standard things . When

39:11

we're booking an inspection , when

39:13

we talk to the client , they give us the address , blah , blah

39:15

, blah . And then one of the questions we always

39:18

ask is was there anything

39:20

in particular during your walkthroughs

39:22

at the house that you were concerned

39:24

about ? Now , sometimes there's silly

39:27

things and that's okay , but we want to

39:29

know what are your concerns ? You know

39:31

, what is it that you ? You know was you did your

39:33

walkthroughs , did you see anything ? You went

39:35

, ooh , what about that ? You know

39:37

. And so these are the kind of things that , if they're

39:39

not willing to have those kind of conversations

39:41

with you , there's plenty

39:43

of guys that will .

39:45

Yeah , and guys and men and women , we want to say

39:47

that . Of course yes , Because I had the email inspectors

39:49

on that man I'd be afraid of if I was a

39:51

builder , because those ladies are tough . It's

39:55

you know it's an important job

39:57

and you really don't want to throw that

39:59

away . So hopefully

40:02

people will heed this advice . I

40:04

mean , that's great information . And

40:06

then the typical cost of an inspection usually the

40:09

range would be what ?

40:11

Probably . I'd say on average in Florida you're

40:13

probably looking to do $500 , $700

40:15

. There are different variations that

40:17

typically how big your house is gonna be more

40:20

smaller houses , different add-ons , different

40:22

services , things like that . Probably in that

40:24

range .

40:25

And people should also understand don't gloss over problems

40:27

, because if it's a problem when you're looking at it in

40:29

the beginning , it's probably gonna be a problem

40:31

down the road , and

40:33

those things don't fix themselves , do they

40:36

?

40:36

That is correct , and they never get

40:38

better . They may not get worse , but

40:41

they usually do .

40:43

Yeah , I think I

40:45

can attest to that . So , hey , Mike , thank

40:47

you so much for coming on today . Your contact information

40:49

, how people can reach out to you , we'll all be in the show notes

40:52

of the podcast

40:54

, but I really appreciate your time .

40:56

Absolutely , it's great .

40:57

I know a lot of you have stories good and

41:00

bad about your experiences as a homeowner

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. There's a contact form in the show

41:04

notes . Fill it out and I look forward to having

41:06

you on a podcast to share your

41:09

story . Thank you for listening

41:11

. I'll see you next time .