Don't Wait for Disaster: How a Simple Maintenance Inspection Can Save You Money

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Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.

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Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent, or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way.

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Your path to success starts here.

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Good afternoon, everyone.

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Jamie here again, looking forward to coming to you with another podcast to just help you as a homeowner.

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Have comfort, have peace of mind, know what you're doing in your house, and know how to prevent things from happening.

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Today, we are going to talk a little bit about maintenance inspections and preventative maintenance.

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Now, some of you may be experts at this.

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You know, older generations, they just fix things.

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Things always, you know, if something broke down, you fixed it.

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If you.

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Something starts leaking, you stopped it and so forth.

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You know, we've inspected lots of homes where a homeowner has lived there for 30, 40 years, and the thing's in remarkably good condition.

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And that's really easy to tell the potential new buyer, hey, you got a really good house here.

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This thing's been well maintained and taken care of.

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But that seems to be a thing of the past.

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Newer generations, the throwaway generation.

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If something breaks, throw it away, right?

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We don't fix it.

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You buy things that aren't designed to last.

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They're designed to be thrown away when they.

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When they go bad or whatever.

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And so we're not necessarily looking at those, but on a maintenance inspection, and this is something you can get done anytime, any homeowner, any owner of a building, a commercial structure, a residential, obviously, heck, an rv, we can come in there, inspect it, and look for things that are going to potentially cause you problems down the road, and we can give you some information that will help you to prevent that from happening.

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So, for example, what is covered on a maintenance inspection?

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A maintenance inspection is simply, we're going to come through there in a little bit shorter time frame than a typical home inspection.

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And we're going to check for some basic things.

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We're going to check the roof.

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All right, we're going to check.

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Do you have any new nail pops?

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Do you have tears on your shingles?

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Do you have holes in your shingles?

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Do you have mechanical damage to your roof?

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Is there any areas that look like they might be leaking?

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We're going to look at the flashing.

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Has anything come loose and need caulking done?

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All right, Those are some things that typical homeowner is not going to look at on their house.

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How many of you go on your roof?

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Right.

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Not too many of you.

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And it can be a dangerous place to be.

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Some roofs, you can't even go on.

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You need to look at them from the ground level or at the eaves at the very least, or with binoculars or maybe a drone or something like that.

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Regardless, whatever methodology, we're going to check your roof.

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That's also going to include what's under the roof.

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And that's your attic.

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Right, the attic we're going to check for.

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The attic is easier to check for leaks than on the roof because you can see the effects of the water leaking.

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Yeah.

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You can see staining on the decking.

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You can see staining on the insulation.

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You can see.

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Are there critters that have taken up shop in your attic?

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Are there electrical issues?

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Have the rodents come in and chewed on your wires?

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What's the insulation look like?

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All these things can be checked during a maintenance inspection.

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All right.

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It's not going to be quite as detailed as a thorough home inspection where we're there three hours or more.

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This is going to be more of an hour walkthrough of your house, just checking the major components.

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All right.

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We're not going to go in there and check as much detail.

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We're not going to open windows and check your outlets.

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We're going to expect that the outlets work.

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You're there living, you're using them.

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Right.

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And so we will check for your electrical panel.

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So one thing is the roof.

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Second would be your attic.

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We're going to check your electrical panel.

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All right, Take the COVID off.

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Look for any changes.

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Have wires come loose?

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Is there scorching?

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Is there melting?

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Is there arcing?

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Is there any wires that look like they have just been damaged in some way and need replaced?

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So we're going to check the electrical box.

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We're also going to check the H Vac.

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The H Vac in your house is a crucial component almost in every season.

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And.

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And we're going to run it, we're going to see if there's any signs of a problem.

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Do you have irregular flame pattern?

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Has it been serviced recently?

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Is it dirty?

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Does it sound weird?

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Do you have condensation lines blocked and things like that?

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Those little maintenance items can really save you headaches down the road.

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All right, for example, back to the roof.

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So so far we've covered roof, attic, electrical and H Vac.

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The A roof.

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Very common thing to happen is for a nail to pop up.

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You can just have a little nail pops right up through the shingles.

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It works its way loose.

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This Happens generally if it's not set properly to begin with.

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But sometimes, even if it has been, depending on the freeze and thaw cycles, it'll work its way loose.

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Pops up through the.

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You know, it's hidden, but it pops up through the top that is hiding it.

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And now we have an open pathway for water.

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Snow sits on there, it melts, it seeps, and little by little, it's dripping into your attic.

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And if not taken care of, little by little, it'll come through your ceiling and have it leave an unsightly stain.

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That is a very simple repair.

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But if it's not caught in time, it could have a bigger repair.

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You could have drywall sagging.

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You could have mold buildup either in the attic or the bathroom or bathroom ceiling wherever it comes through.

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I had that happen in my own home.

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That's why I'm thinking bathroom ceiling.

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But we want to catch these problems before they become larger problems.

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I guess you can think of it in kind of a funny way of disciplining a child.

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You want to discipline a child when they're small, when they're easier to control, to correct.

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Correct a problem when they're 18 months, not when they're 15 years old.

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A lot easier.

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Right.

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Similar with a roof and nails going through it.

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So that's one thing we're looking at.

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Another thing we would be looking at is plumbing.

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Now, we're not go through and run all your plumbing like you would on a home inspection because you're living there.

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We assume you're doing that on a daily basis.

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Right.

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But we will go look in those areas where you don't go to.

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You may have a basement, a crawl space somewhere you don't venture to on a regular basis.

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We're going to look for any signs of leaks.

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We're going to look for any kind of wear, particularly if you have older cast iron or galvanized drain pipes.

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Those will start rusting.

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You can get blisters in them where they rust from the inside out.

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And then over time you get leaks.

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And so we would look for something like that for copper water lines.

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Same thing.

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You can get little green pinholes on the bottom that are basically rusting, corroding from the inside out.

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And we look for something like that.

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So with the maintenance inspection so far.

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A maintenance inspection.

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Excuse me.

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So far we have the roof, the attic, the electrical panel and the H Vac, and then the plumbing.

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All right, we can look at the plumbing lines easy enough if it's an unfinished area.

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If not, you just have to look for signs that there's a problem above the finished section.

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Right.

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Sometimes you might see a stain or something developing like that.

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Another thing that we can do is foundation.

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It's kind of rare to have, if you have a great foundation when you buy the house, for it to change, but things do happen.

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And so we're going to check your foundation out for any new signs of cracking, movement, moisture entry, and that sort of thing.

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So this is quite a lot to look at in an hour.

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And if it's a much bigger house than normal, maybe it takes a little more than an hour.

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But this is basically we just call a maintenance inspection.

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We're just cruising through.

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We're checking out the major components of the home.

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Your roof, your attic, your electrical panel, your H vac, your plumbing pipes, and of course, your foundation.

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And that should give us a really good indication of if there's any significant potential problems down the road.

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Now, it might not be, but if you don't take care of this.

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Okay, your grading and drainage outside has settled right here.

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And now you're having water set against the wall.

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You want to finish your basement.

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What if you do that and then it starts seeping through the wall?

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So let's fix the grading and drainage outside before you do anything else.

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Just some tips like that that can help you know what to do and.

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And what to look out for.

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So how often should these maintenance inspections be done?

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Well, things change.

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Things break overnight.

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Your water heater works one day, it doesn't work the next.

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I mean, that just happens.

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We recommend every year, just like you get your H Vac serviced every year, or you should.

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You need to get a maintenance inspection every year.

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We can cruise through there at a reduced price in about an hour and tell you if anything is up with your home, if anything new is going on that you need to be aware of and, you know, just to remind you of cleaning your gutters, making sure you got drainage going away from the house, and so forth.

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We also want to give you information.

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Maybe you forgot.

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How old is my furnace again?

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How old is the water heater and so forth.

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And that can help you, give you peace of mind and keep.

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Keep running well on your house.

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So how do you find a professional for a maintenance inspection?

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Well, call us, call a home inspection company.

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We have specially made pricing and report templates.

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You'll get a emailed copy of a report so you have it on file.

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You can keep records of it.

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And just if you do go to sell it someday, you pull out this list.

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Let's Say you've had the home 10 years and you've had 10 maintenance inspections.

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Pull that pack of reports out and say, here, this is what I've done to maintain this house over the years.

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That's going to be a great selling point for a potential buyer.

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So that's going to affect home value.

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If a buyer knows that you have taken care of the home, they're going to feel much more confident.

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I would say you would be much more likely to get the price that you're asking if it's been reasonably priced and it's not going to result in anything big, even if they buy their own home inspection, which they're fully entitled to.

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And happens many of the times.

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You know, if you've had this thing inspected every year, I'm just using this example, every year for 10 years, there's likely not going to be anything there that's significant, that's found in a new inspection by a different company.

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So one of the best examples I can give of a maintenance inspection that I did one time, it was an area in an attic that was very difficult to get through.

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You had to go upstairs, you had to go into a closet, move the clothes aside, get in through a hatch, climb in, then climb up to the upper part of the attic.

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Nobody had ever been there since they had bought this house.

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And what I found up there was a couple of things.

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One, a gigantic bird nest.

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All right, Birds are getting in somewhere.

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Well, birds and their droppings create toxic situations, and they can create a mess up there.

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They could get in your exhaust ducts.

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They can mess with, you know, H vac duct work up there.

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And other critter.

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If they're getting in, other critters can get in too.

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And so there was a big nest up there.

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And also one of the ducts from the bathroom had come loose, and it was just discharging air right onto the sidewall of the attic instead of going outside.

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This was creating a large black spot on the attic.

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It was getting moldy already.

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Now imagine that same home with the large bird nest already and the ductwork, the exhaust duct going against the side of the attic.

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Imagine that with about three to four years more of use without being seen, imagine how large that could have got.

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Imagine how much mold could have been created in that attic because of the moisture coming from the bathroom.

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So that's just a little example of something that we find on a maintenance inspection that's relatively easy to correct right now, four years down the road, that might be a huge problem to correct.

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So Think of it in those terms.

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Same with the roof.

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Minor repairs every year on a roof are not unusual.

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In fact, it's something that should be done.

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A roof is not.

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Let's slap it on and worry about it in 20 years.

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A roof is something that needs to be maintained.

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It bears the brunt of the weather, the sun and all that.

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And you need to maintain that just like you would a vehicle.

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And so those are just some little examples of things that we found that have been helpful to homeowners.

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Can you do it yourself?

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Sure, if you have the knowledge.

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If you know what to look for, try it yourself.

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And I think that's better than nothing.

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But I think you would gain insight at least one time.

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Bring a home inspector out to look through your house.

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Maybe you can glean some information on what to look for down the road.

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But I would say in conclusion, you need to invest in preventative maintenance for a safe and long lasting home.

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This is going to help your home value.

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I know real estate agents that want us to do maintenance inspections on homes that they have sold.

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So when that homeowner decides to sell again with that agent, hopefully then they have this record of care and it helps to increase the value and helps everybody's pocketbook.

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So thanks for listening.

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Get your home inspected.

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Give us a call.

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We can help you out.

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Have a great day.

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Thank you for listening.

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This week you can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

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For more information about Gold Key inspection services, go to goldkeyinspect.com.