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Cooler, the 6" of copper wire is called pig-tailing. It was a common practice, but now they sell outlets and switches designed for aluminum wiring, which stop losening of connections due to the higher expansion rate.
Sadly, some of this "perfect" decor attitude is being adopted by real estate agents. We're selling our house and the agent thinks everything needs to be pristine and modern. Cost me a lot of money to even meet her half way and she still hasn't sold it. ??
But, TV isn't that far off. I still run into people with big budget projects who scream when they find a high cost surprise.
Dave
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(11-04-2016, 05:23 PM)Snipe Hunter Wrote: It really has nothing to do with that. A home inspection is "Non Invasive". The customer signs a contract stating that he/she understands what that means.
As an inspector, I can open any panel, main or sub panel and I can visually inspect any wiring (or anything else for that matter) in my line of sight. I can't move anything other than something intended to be opened like a door, window, attic hatch etc. I can't even move a throw rug to look at a soft spot in a wood floor or a box away from a wall if I suspect moisture. So, I have to look for wet or water stained boxes. All I can do is note that there was a soft spot that I could not completely inspect. I can't take a cover off an outlet or switch to inspect wiring.
There are a lot of old homes here with knob and tube wiring where the panel and outlets and switches were upgraded but the wiring throughout the house is still knob and tube. Hopefully, I can find it in a crawl space or attic. I'm going to look for it in an old house but if I can't see it, I can't report it being there.
I just recently sold my Mom's house when she passed away ( God rest her soul ) There was 4 locations and they were all lights that had knob and tube wiring. It has been left there even after the house was upgraded in 1962. The reason was my Dad did not have the money to rip through the plaster walls and replace. It was fine and would have been fine for another 100 years. But the home inspector saw the junction box the electrician left that tied the knob and tube to upgraded wire. He mentioned in his report and the buyer got hung up on this and it became a stipulation to fix or the deal falls through. We already went through 3 other deals falling through because of various reasons so I wound up replacing. It really was not that bad. I drilled 1-1/2" holes wherever there were cross members and fished the wires through and took baseboard off and drilled holes through floor plate and pulled new wire. Patched and replaced baseboard. Primed the spots but got away with painting because they were changing colors anyway. Passed inspection and everything was fine.
Older homes and people want pristine. Not going to happen.
John T.
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I think a great deal has to do with the age of the house. Things like knob and tube, l ad or galvanized pipes, asbestos or lead paint are found on houses built at different decades. Seems a good inspector would check for such potential problems. When we bought our condo, the inspector was very good. Did he miss some things? Sure, but he caught a lot of problems.
On the other hand, a Realator got an inspection on the we're selling. What a jerk!! He missed required things, like claiming we didn't have a CO detector, which we did. Claimed we needed to have the house tented for some outside dry rot and then outright lied about torn screens and a dented garage door. I tore them a new one on Yelp!
Dave
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(11-04-2016, 10:33 PM)JTTHECLOCKMAN Wrote: I just recently sold my Mom's house when she passed away ( God rest her soul ) There was 4 locations and they were all lights that had knob and tube wiring. It has been left there even after the house was upgraded in 1962. The reason was my Dad did not have the money to rip through the plaster walls and replace. It was fine and would have been fine for another 100 years. But the home inspector saw the junction box the electrician left that tied the knob and tube to upgraded wire. He mentioned in his report and the buyer got hung up on this and it became a stipulation to fix or the deal falls through. We already went through 3 other deals falling through because of various reasons so I wound up replacing. It really was not that bad. I drilled 1-1/2" holes wherever there were cross members and fished the wires through and took baseboard off and drilled holes through floor plate and pulled new wire. Patched and replaced baseboard. Primed the spots but got away with painting because they were changing colors anyway. Passed inspection and everything was fine.
Older homes and people want pristine. Not going to happen.
(11-09-2016, 06:53 PM)daveferg Wrote: I think a great deal has to do with the age of the house. Things like knob and tube, l ad or galvanized pipes, asbestos or lead paint are found on houses built at different decades. Seems a good inspector would check for such potential problems. When we bought our condo, the inspector was very good. Did he miss some things? Sure, but he caught a lot of problems.
On the other hand, a Realator got an inspection on the we're selling. What a jerk!! He missed required things, like claiming we didn't have a CO detector, which we did. Claimed we needed to have the house tented for some outside dry rot and then outright lied about torn screens and a dented garage door. I tore them a new one on Yelp!
This house was actually inspected while I was in school to take my inspector's exam. My agent (who I generally trust) is a high volume agent who we have used before. She knew I was in the process of becoming an inspector and we hired the inspector she uses because I knew he was popular among the agents. I wanted to see why. I found out why. He missed just about everything. It makes real-estate transactions easier when there aren't any issues with the house.
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(11-09-2016, 07:20 PM)Snipe Hunter Wrote: This house was actually inspected while I was in school to take my inspector's exam. My agent (who I generally trust) is a high volume agent who we have used before. She knew I was in the process of becoming an inspector and we hired the inspector she uses because I knew he was popular among the agents. I wanted to see why. I found out why. He missed just about everything. It makes real-estate transactions easier when there aren't any issues with the house.
I agree there. I had that house sold on 3 different occassions and on 2 of them they went as far as home inspection. The first one was a cake walk and no problems at all. The second one they found everything. But it came down to 3 things major which we resolved and the deal was done. The owners got a good solid dry basement 95 year old home. Hated to see that house go and I pass by every so often and start remembering the many things while growing up there and while my Mom still lived there and I maintained it. Even though it is an old home it will be round for another 100 years.
John T.
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I wasn't going to do anything to my mom's house that I didn't have to do to get it sold. Our realtor suggested not replacing carpet. I think it might have sold better if I had done that. Couldn't really do the allowance thing, but even then, as a seller I think you want to put in new if it's going to cost you the same money.
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Call me crazy, but I'd never use an inspector recommended by the agent.
When you get an inspection, you have to use your head. Hit the seller with the big ticket items, and put the rest on your to-do list.
Eric, I agree with your agent. Spending money on new carpet doesn't add value if the buyer doesn't like it. Same goes for repainting unless the room looks really shabby.
Dave
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11-10-2016, 09:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-10-2016, 09:07 AM by EricU.)
Spending money really depends on how much and how bad things are. I know there are people like me that don't really want to take on any obvious projects when buying a house. There are enough projects under normal circumstances. And clean, new carpet that they don't like is better than dirty old carpet they don't like. I fixed all the plaster and repainted. Not positive it made me money or was worth the time, but it really looked horrible before I did it. I have often said that if I had a time machine, I would go back in time and hid all my mom's hammers, she would drive a nail into the wall on the slightest pretext. And the worst part was that her house had picture rail, so nails weren't even necessary.
Of course, I would never update a perfectly functional bathroom or kitchen before selling. That's just ridiculous. People buy houses and gut new kitchens all the time. The guy that bought my MIL's house to flip came in and really decked out the kitchen and other parts of the house. The house had been sitting for a while. I'm pretty sure it's still sitting, because all the work he did raised the price $100k. Just silly.
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Hey Eric, it's your money, but in the case of dirty carpet, I'd hire a good carpet cleaning company.
When I sold my first home, shampooed the carpet, touched up the paint and planted some flowers in the front garden beds. That was all.
Funny, but you can never predict what will sell a house. The people who bought the house loved the rose bushes I had!
Dave
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