As a home inspector I can tell you first hand that the disclosure statements filled out by the seller of a home are rarely worth the paper they are printed on. I realize that may not be what many want to hear but it's true in many cases. I realize it's the law for a seller of a home to fill this piece of paper out, and there can be serious consequinces when your not factual and truthful on that statement. Does that seem to make buyers scared to make purchases? It appears that it doesn't make people afraid to buy a house and many times it's simply out of ignorance. Ignorance is not excempt to the law, however, ignorance is bliss when it comes to the sellers disclosure statement.
While doing home inspections, I often come across these disclosure statements laying on the kitchen counter and I always help myself to a peek. It is extremely disturbing to me the amount of times I see all of the pages filled out and many of the items marked “Do not know”. I wonder how can someone live at a place and not know things about the house they live at.
Sometimes I will come out of a home inspection with a laundry list of items in need of repair. Some are quite obvious while others tend to be somewhat hidden by an apparent “cover up”. Home Inspectors are specially trained in finding defects in homes. After performing thousands of Home Inspections, Inspectors get a certain instinct on what to look for and where to find them, and this holds true ESPECIALLY in older homes. Case in point, I did a home inspection a while back of a fairly new house less than 10 yrs old. When I walked into the master bathroom I notice flower arrangements and towels folded neatly around the whirpool tub area. The sellers were present and I asked if they had the house built by a contractor or did they built it themselves. The answer was "my husband built the house" and that is always a concern. Now to a good Home Inspector that should immediately raise a red flag. After only a few minutes of being master bathroom and moving some of the flowers and towels around, it became painfully obvious that problems exist.
When I started moving the flowers and towels around I found damaged tile and grout missing in area's at the tub, also moving the arrangement of the large basket and area rug I found even more issues. I realized that the tile was cracked and grout was missing almost everywhere under the rug, looking furthur the prblem surfaced! They have installed tile directly on the wood subfloor and that is one thing you never do! If you install the tile to the directly onto the wood subfloor or underlayment any movement or shift will cause these types of issues. You can probably guess where I am going with this. In looking at the sellers disclosure statement EVERYTHING was checked “Do not know”.
Moral of the story, do not for one second accept everything that is listed on a sellers disclosure statement! It is a sad reality that in today’s world, you simply cannot trust people, ESPECIALLY when it comes to money. The absolute BEST thing you can do when purchasing a home is to hire an experienced Home Inspector to inspect the home prior to signing on that dotted line for good. And not just any Home Inspector but one that is experienced and understand the componets in which he is hired to inspect. Protect yourself, your family and your investment. Your peace of mind is well worth a few hundred bucks when buying a home!
PROVIEW Professional Home Inspections is a locally owned business in Owensboro, Ky and has over 40 yrs experience in the construction industry. We have performed Home Inspections longer that any other company in the city of Owensboro and is a "FullTime" inspection company with over 16yrs experience. We are licensed with the state of Kentucky and "Certified Home Inspector" with "InterNACHI" International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, member of "KREIA" Kentucky Real Estate Inspectors Association.
Call today for more information!
270-485-2662
Email:
proviewpro@gmail.com
Website:
www.proviewinspections.info
While doing home inspections, I often come across these disclosure statements laying on the kitchen counter and I always help myself to a peek. It is extremely disturbing to me the amount of times I see all of the pages filled out and many of the items marked “Do not know”. I wonder how can someone live at a place and not know things about the house they live at.
Sometimes I will come out of a home inspection with a laundry list of items in need of repair. Some are quite obvious while others tend to be somewhat hidden by an apparent “cover up”. Home Inspectors are specially trained in finding defects in homes. After performing thousands of Home Inspections, Inspectors get a certain instinct on what to look for and where to find them, and this holds true ESPECIALLY in older homes. Case in point, I did a home inspection a while back of a fairly new house less than 10 yrs old. When I walked into the master bathroom I notice flower arrangements and towels folded neatly around the whirpool tub area. The sellers were present and I asked if they had the house built by a contractor or did they built it themselves. The answer was "my husband built the house" and that is always a concern. Now to a good Home Inspector that should immediately raise a red flag. After only a few minutes of being master bathroom and moving some of the flowers and towels around, it became painfully obvious that problems exist.
When I started moving the flowers and towels around I found damaged tile and grout missing in area's at the tub, also moving the arrangement of the large basket and area rug I found even more issues. I realized that the tile was cracked and grout was missing almost everywhere under the rug, looking furthur the prblem surfaced! They have installed tile directly on the wood subfloor and that is one thing you never do! If you install the tile to the directly onto the wood subfloor or underlayment any movement or shift will cause these types of issues. You can probably guess where I am going with this. In looking at the sellers disclosure statement EVERYTHING was checked “Do not know”.
Moral of the story, do not for one second accept everything that is listed on a sellers disclosure statement! It is a sad reality that in today’s world, you simply cannot trust people, ESPECIALLY when it comes to money. The absolute BEST thing you can do when purchasing a home is to hire an experienced Home Inspector to inspect the home prior to signing on that dotted line for good. And not just any Home Inspector but one that is experienced and understand the componets in which he is hired to inspect. Protect yourself, your family and your investment. Your peace of mind is well worth a few hundred bucks when buying a home!
PROVIEW Professional Home Inspections is a locally owned business in Owensboro, Ky and has over 40 yrs experience in the construction industry. We have performed Home Inspections longer that any other company in the city of Owensboro and is a "FullTime" inspection company with over 16yrs experience. We are licensed with the state of Kentucky and "Certified Home Inspector" with "InterNACHI" International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, member of "KREIA" Kentucky Real Estate Inspectors Association.
Call today for more information!
270-485-2662
Email:
proviewpro@gmail.com
Website:
www.proviewinspections.info
