Welcome everyone to your favorite real
estate podcast Selling Greenville right
here in lovely Greenville South Carolina
I am your host as always Stan McCune
realtor here in the upstate and just a
reminder as always you can find all my
contact information in the show notes if
you need to reach out to me for any
reason please do
I think we're going to have a great
fall just based on what I'm seeing it
seems like things are really going to
start to pick up in the fall so I'm
pretty excited about that and I'd
love to hear from you if you're
interested in buying or selling please
let me know and as always as well if you
like this podcast please go ahead and
give us a rating make sure you're
subscribed to it so you don't miss any
future episodes we've got a lot of
different things planned and I'm
really excited for that and I want to
make sure it gets out to everyone and
some of you on my email list if you're
not please let me know I want to make
sure that we get this podcast out to
everyone all right today we are going to
be talking about repairs and this has
been something that's been on my mind
for a while different people respond
differently when they get repairs
like a list of repairs if you're a
seller or if you're a buyer you're
getting inspections done and you get
that inspection report that makes it
sound like the house is absolutely
falling apart different people respond
differently once they get that
inspection report or once they have that
contractor tell them what he sees
there's a lot of different variables
to consider and I'm not an inspector I'm
not a contractor so I have to hedge what
I say here but I'm going to talk in some
general terms about what generally
speaking I do freak out about out when I
see something that appears on an
inspection report and what repairs or
what items needed to be repaired that I
do not freak out about generally
speaking when I see them now this again
it's General every case is unique you
have to take all factors into account
different houses are built in different
ways for instance we're going to talk
about some crawl space related things as
part of this podcast well what makes a
major major difference
is whether we're talking about a walk
out crawl space or a crawl space that is
you know basically 18 in high that you
can barely maneuver around in that makes
a big difference when you're talking
about crawl space repairs I'm not
addressing any of that I'm speaking in
more general terms and more General
ideas with regard to what I'm talking
about in this podcast so if you have a
specific issue a specific question that
kind seems like it kind of relat relates
to some of this then you need to talk to
your realtor or your inspector about
that and make sure that you're on the
same page that you don't agree to
something or decide to do something that
could end up costing you thousands of
dollars down the road we want to make
sure that that isn't the
case that said there are some things in
general that when I hear okay this needs
to be repaired this needs to be replaced
I don't immediately freak out
and some of these things the typical
person when they hear it it sounds
really scary and it honestly there was a
time when it sounded scary to me as well
but I've just gotten used to these
things and I've seen how some things are
easier to be fixed than you would guess
and the first thing that I'm going to
discuss is foundation actually a lot of
the stuff is related to Foundation but
Foundation supports that are needed in
one way or another let's say that you
walk into a house usually an older house
and you immediately notice that there's
some sagging
floors well first off let me say it
makes a big difference if the floors are
sagging throughout the house versus if
there's just a little section where the
floors are sagging that could be a lot
of different things that could be
causing that that could be a broken
floor joist that could be a sagging
girder there's a ton of different things
that could be a a pier that's starting
to CR crumble I mean there's all kinds
of different things that could be
causing
that in general if I run into a
situation and and I'm not just speaking
about my clients I'm speaking about as
most of you if not all of you that
listen to this know I have flipped
houses I still do that every now and
then kind of when the right deal that
doesn't take up a ton of my time comes
up I have rental properties I've had
to deal with a lot of different repairs
over the years
if we have a foundation that needs to be
supported in some way but it's it's a
very specific thing there's a very
specific area that needs to be supported
let's say that there is a crumbling Pier
that is a very simple repair in most
cases in most cases let's say that there
are a few floor joists that need to be
replaced in certain situations in a
lot of situations that's a very simple
repair even if you have have a small
girder which kind of holds up the Flor
Joys even if you have a small girder
that needs to be repaired or replaced
or supported in some ways usually those
are not very expensive when I say not
very expensive I mean you know it
might cost you $1,000 or 1,500 or
whatever the case may be but it's not
going to be some people when they hear
Foundation repairs they're thinking
they're mind 20 $25,000 I have never
seen a a found a house foundation
that needed that much repair work
done now of course there have been
some I just I just haven't seen any
obviously that would need to be a very
big house to begin with a very big
foundation but often times Foundation
problems can be fixed without you
having to spend five six 7 $10,000
whatever the case may be don't IM
immediately let your mind go there if
it's a very specific thing in the crawl
space in the foundation that needs to be
repaired now what do I freak out about
when I start seeing
substantial
widespread repairs that are needed in in
the foundation in the crawl space or
whatever the case may be with the
foundation or if we're talking about a
slab Foundation slab
foundations can be tricky you know
if something goes wrong with them that
can start to be a little bit trickier
that's the one of the advantages of a
crawl space Foundation is if something
goes wrong even though crawl spaces tend
to be a little more finicky than a slab
Foundation but if you have a poorly
built slab foundation and things start
to go wrong with that that can be a real
pain to fix now if you have a crawl
space or a base type of foundation and
it needs substantial repair Works we're
talking about you know there's a massive
you know 70ft gerder and the whole thing
needs to be replaced all right so now
we're talking about things that now I'm
starting to freak out about we've got
something that could end up being a lot
more expensive depending on on on the
layout of that Foundation you've got
you know 100 Floor Joys that need to be
replaced or paired or whatever the casee
may be that is at that point now we're
starting to talk about something that is
more of a concern to me because now it's
not just an isolated thing it's
something that impacts a lot of stuff
you know if you're replacing a massive
girder you you have to account for the
floor joist that are sitting on that
gerder and whatnot and you've got
flooring on top of that you've got a lot
of things that need to be that are
interconnected now that need to be
accounted for and so going oops sorry
about that that's going to drive up the
price I I got a little excited there
with my hand gestures and my my ring hit
my hit my desk so I'm sorry about
that that loud noise there you've got
a lot of different things that need to
be addressed at that point now you're
talking about the price going up that's
where I start to freak out again every
case is different you have to look at
everything uniquely not one size
fits-all approach to this but but in
general terms that's how I feel
termite damage all right most people
when they hear that there are active
termites they start to really freak out
really not be interested in that house
at all termite damage is at least down
here in Greenville really really common
I mean listen I went out earlier this
year into the woods with my kids I saw a
you know a piece of wood that was on
the ground that had all kind of what
looked like termite tubes in it I opened
up the wood it was just full of termites
I mean this is right behind my house
okay this is a very common thing in
the South you can't eliminate all of
the termites in this area they serve a
function in the ecosystem all right so
termites in and of themselves aren't bad
but you don't want them in your
house let's say that you've got termite
damage in the crawl space you get an
inspection done and they say well you
know what we have some active termites
here in this corner over here and this
needs to be addressed if I hear that
type of lingo typically I'm not too
worried about that active termites in a
corner of the Cross space probably is
going to be a simple fix you need to get
a contractor out there to look at
that you can have a more detailed
discussion with your inspector about
that what he thinks about that but I'm
typically not freaking out about
something like that what I'm freaking
out about is when there is major and
again similar to the last thing that
we discussed but major widespread damage
particularly if there's a possibility
that it may actually be in the wall so
what can happen is you've got
termites that are in the cross space
that's typically where they start or in
the basement they start down there and
if they kind of run out of things to eat
once they have had their their Heyday
with the crawl space then they will
start going up the walls and eating you
know your studs in the walls and that is
a real big problem right because if they
if they've only done that one little
place okay that's that's not the end of
the world but if they've done that
throughout the house you're talking
about major major repairs so termite
damage in and of itself I'm not
inherently concerned about but if
it's widespread termite damage we're
talking about termites throughout the
crawl space they are active there are
you know
termite tubes or tunnels or whatever you
want to call them throughout the crawl
space there are is wood that if you tap
it with a hammer it just kind of
crumbles all right now we're talking
about major issues we're talking
about substantial repairs that might
need to be done and if you have any
evidence that they are in the walls
that's a big deal there are some INSP
ectors out there that have technology
that they can actually stick a scope
with a camera on the end of it into the
walls now that's really helpful the only
thing to consider there is they need a
way an entry point to go into the walls
and some sellers might not want you to
do that that would be considered a
destructive test you would need to get
permission to do something like that
from the sellers if you're the buyer
but there is there are those options out
there where you can look in the walls
and identify if there if there might
be termite damage in there there's also
some some technology nowadays that
can look behind the walls without it
being destructive my understanding is
that technology still needs to be
perfected at least from inspectors that
I've talked to they don't trust it yet
they've seen instances where it's
missed major things so be careful with
that talk to your
inspector talk to a few inspectors
potentially and see what your options
may be if you think you might be buying
a house that has some major major
termite damage like that here's another
thing that I'm I'm not super concerned
about a broken roof truss you know if
if you have an inspector that goes into
an attic and they identify okay here is
a roof truss that is broken but we
don't see anything on the outside of the
roof you don't see the roof caving in
you don't see you know any anything
else major happening there's just a
cracked broken roof truss I typically
am not going to freak out about that
again if there's no signs of other
things being damaged as a result of this
that can often times be a very simple
solution as simple as just sistering
another 2x4 whatever the case may be
right onto that truss and boom there you
have it you're going to probably need a
structural engineer to sign off on that
make sure that everything is is
according to code and is structurally
sound but that can be a very simple
repair in a lot of instances what I'm
more concerned with and what I do freak
out about if you're on the outside of
the house and we've talked about this
before is a worn out roof and by roof I
don't mean again I'm changing gears from
being inside the attic to now being on
the outside side of the roof where your
shingles are I am much more concerned
about the shingles being worn out and
the roof being worn out for instance if
it's a 20-year roof and we're on year 25
that concerns me a whole lot more than
the broken trust you know why because
sistering a broken truss in order to
make it you know structurally sound
again will probably only cost you you
know maybe maybe at the most like 1,500
or something like that again it depends
on it depends on a lot of different
things but it it's not going to be the
cost of replacing a whole roof cost of
replacing a roof is going to be several
thousand doll and the bad thing about A
Worn Out roof is that you run into a
situation where let's say you have a
hailstorm come through a lot of people
get their roofs replaced as a direct
result at least down here of hail or
wind damage let's say you have a hail
storm roll through if your roof is worn
out your insurance carrier might deny it
on the basis they might deny your
claim on the basis that the roof has
already exceeded its normal lifespan
yes it does have some hail damage on
here but the hail damage isn't causing
any issues the roof is already a dead
roof like this should have been replaced
forever ago and even a small hail storm
or a small Windstorm would have caused
issues I'm much more concerned about
that scenario the roof being worn out
than I am about
you know even a minor roof leak a minor
roof leak on an otherwise good roof
can usually be fixed fairly easily most
roofers will do that you know for a few
hundred just a basic roof repair but
if you've got a roof that is not leaking
but it's well past its lifespan you have
a ticking Time Bomb that's going to cost
you a lot of money and you're not going
to be able to get that replaced by
your insurance most likely and you
might run into an issue with your
insurance down the road they might
decide that your roof was uninsurable so
that's something to consider I've talked
about that before in my
insurance related podcast so if you
want to go back and listen to that
for more information please do air
conditioning here's one that comes up a
lot so we're going through kind of some
of the major things your foundation your
roof how about your AC
or your heat heat is a a similar type of
thing your AC or your furnace they're
not pumping out cold or hot air or
let's say you go into a house you turn
on the AC and for some reason it's not
pumping out cold air I do not
immediately get concerned about that
that could be for a whole lot of reasons
and a lot of the possibilities for why
that might be happening are not going
to necessity itate you replacing the
entire unit it may just be a coil for
instance that needs to be replaced it's
not going to be tons and tons of
money some freeon you know thing things
like that that need to be replaced that
yeah it'll be a few hundred but it's
we're not talking about necessarily the
entire system again depending on the
situation when I first see that it's not
producing cold air or hot air the
next thing that I want to look at is how
old is the system if this system is
still within its normal lifespan it can
be fixed and that's not something that
I would necessarily be too
concerned about depending on depending
on whether the system is running and and
whatever the case may be there's a again
a lot of factors to consider I'm just
talking about my initial reaction but
what I do freak out about when it comes
to repairs and when it comes
specifically to to issues related to
H an HVAC unit
is if it is working but it's like a
20-year-old unit and at that point
that's a unit that is well past this
lifespan and again you're running into a
similar situation with the worn out roof
where it's a ticking time bomb and
that's a big expense it's going to be
you know maybe four five $6,000
depending on the size of the unit and
you don't want to have to to have to
keep patching it you know a lot of
people can can do that they might have a
20-year-old unit and they have patch a
gazillion times in one way or another
you know every time it fails you know
they do this or that and those of you
who have had this type of experience
with cars you know that that is not the
way to do things you know it's it's it's
when you get like an old car and
everything keeps failing and you keep
putting duct tape on the car so to speak
you keep doing these basic things just
to keep it going at some point that
vehicle needs to be replaced and at some
point it will completely die out to
the point that it no longer makes sense
to patch it up it would cost way too
much you would have too many different
things that you would have to patch up
and you just need to replace the vehicle
same thing with your HVAC unit with your
furnace at some point they just reach
that age where it no longer can be
patched and you've got a unit that seems
like it's working you know you get your
inspection report and they say
everything seems to be good but it's a
20-year-old unit I'm worried about that
because 20-year-old units don't
normally function very well so if they
are that's great for the person that
is living in the house at that time
but it's a ticking time bomb and it's
going to be a big expense when it just
dies on its own again your insurance is
not going to be able to Warrant that now
maybe if you have a home warranty you
might able to get some help on the home
warranty but a lot of home warranties
won't cover the entire cost of the
unit they might cover partial cost of
the unit but not the entire cost so
you need to keep all of that in mind
and last but not least we're going to go
back to the crawl space and I again
there's a little bit of overlap with
this in my homeowners insurance
podcast that I did but standing water in
the crawl space after a flood I am not
worried about standing water water in a
crawl space after a flood after a flash
flood or after several days of rain
every crawl space has standing water in
it in Greenville South Carolina after a
flash flood we had another one I mean we
have had so many of these we had another
flash flood just on Friday I believe it
was I'm recording this podcast on
July 28th it was crazy I mean like I
was literally driving through it and
there were like for all practical
purposes waterfalls coming out of you
know different different communities and
different shopping centers on the
side of the street I mean it was like
nothing that I had ever seen before
cuz I normally don't drive around in it
but I was I was heading to a
meeting and in just a matter of 10
minutes there was already like 6 to 8 in
in some areas 6 to 8 Ines of rainwater
in the streets and there was I went
through one area where the water was
already above the sidewalk you couldn't
even see the sidewalk I mean it was
crazy you get that that water has to go
somewhere and you've got a house that's
on a cross Space Foundation that water
it has to go in there and it's it takes
a while to dry out it's not just going
to dry out in a day or two so I'm not
freaking out if there is a rare flash
flood event and the water you know
you see standing water in there even
several inches of standing water in
there right at After the flood The Day
After the flood whatever the case may be
I'm not personally freaking out about
that but let's say that you have several
weeks of dry weather right and you go in
your inspector goes into that crawl
space and he does some moisture readings
for for the wood and he comes back and
says you know what the the wood in
this crawl space is it has some high
moisture levels I I've read some 22
% readings I read some some 30%
readings which at that point you know
you've got potential fungal growth
that at that point even if there's no
standing water in in the crawl space I
am more concerned about that because
that indicates the crawl space is not
drying out properly and I am not happy
with a crawl space that's not drying out
properly so so the real test of the
Cross space isn't right after the big
flood it's it's after several weeks of
dry weather and of course if you're if
you're in a situation where you know it
rained a few weeks ago and you know
it it's it's kind of been wet off and on
and the crawl space is dry that's even
better but if the crawl space is
still has moisture in it but outside
it's been dry for a while that's a
really bad sign and I'm more concerned
about that than I am about the
moisture levels and standing water and
whatnot a immediately after a flood
again there's a lot more to consider
when it comes to that there are a lot of
different reasons why there might be
high moisture I'm not getting into all
of that I'm just saying my initial gut
reaction because people here's what
happens when you get an inspection
report as a buyer or as a seller when
when you receive that inspection report
from the buyer it's very easy to have an
emotional reaction to it
and more often than not the emotional
reaction is not proportionate to the
difficulty level of repairing
whatever the item is that needs to be
repaired and so my point is strictly
some of these things we need to tone
down the emotion a little bit so that we
can think straight because when you're
responding emotionally different
things go on in your brain that cause
you to not be able to make a good
decision you might find yourself backing
out of a contract you shouldn't back out
of or you might find yourself not
agreeing to repairs as a seller that you
should agree to and that now you're
you're again risking your contract that
you have on your house you're risking
that falling through because you're
super concerned about oh man you know
I've got to fix this broken trust in my
my attic in yeah in my attic that I
never knew about I've been living here
for years and there's never been a
broken I never knew about a broken trust
and that sounds like a really expensive
repair no I'm not going to do that
well guess what if you don't do that
the buyer is probably going to back out
and most likely is going to get their
earnest money back so it would make more
sense don't let the whole deal fall
through I just had one of these earlier
this year I used the broken trust
illustration because I literally just
had literally just had this happen
back in January it was flagged by the
inspector the sellers they didn't know
anything about it they they built the
house probably that trust broke very
shortly after they built it it was a
20-year-old house they never had any
issues with the roof and they were just
like we didn't know anything about this
you know what is this going to cost I
actually had to get up in that attic I
was scared to death because I mean this
is a a big attic but the trusts were
were low I had to you know
carefully walk around there I was
scared to death I was going to find
my feet going through their ceilings
somewhere thankfully that didn't happen
I had to do that actually for the
structural engineer that was involved
because Structural Engineers are so
backed up right now that in order to
save time to make sure that we could
close on time he had me go up there and
snap some photos for him so that he
could give a rough idea to the people
that were going to repair the
contractor that was going to repair the
Truss he could basically draw out for
them what what they needed to do so
that when he came out to actually look
at it it would already be done he
wouldn't have to make multiple trips
charge more money cause more time and
more headache and potentially delay the
transaction so that ended up I I
believe that the trust repair ended up
being less than $1,000 it was not
that big of a
deal and it was able to be done in in
a few hours and we were able to make it
work but you might hear that as a buyer
and freak out you might hear that as a
seller and freak out most of the time
these things can be solved if you don't
have construction
experience you need to to hold off on
the emotional reaction until you
actually talk to someone that can give
you some firm pricing you might find
that some of these items are not as
important as they sound or not as
expensive as they sound well that's all
for today's episode again all my contact
information is in the show notes
hopefully we will have some dry weather
here and not more flash flooding because
I don't like the flash flooding to
cause issues all the time it's always
causing issues at least here in 2020
we've had so many of them tons of issues
with our closings hopefully that won't
happen we can stay dry we can close some
deals looking forward to a good next
couple of months if you need anything
again reach out to me text me call me
email me and stay safe until next time
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