Hello everyone and Welcome to another

episode of Selling Greenville your

favorite real estate podcast here in

Greenville, South Carolina, I'm your host

as always Stan McCune realtor right here

in the Greenville area you can find all

of my contact information in the show

notes if you need to reach out to me for

any of your real estate needs and please

as always like, review, subscribe hit the

five star rating button whatever you can

do whether you're watching on YouTube

this is a good one to watch because this

is a conversation I'm having with Jesse

McCormick who I'm going to introduce

here in a moment but if you want to see

him on video this is a good one to look

up on YouTube search for Stan McCune

I've got a selling Greenville podcast

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Greenville and please to get the word

out please like, subscribe, rate, review

all of those things I've already said

and and hopefully doing those things

using me as your realtor all of those

things will help support the show and I

appreciate you guys today I have a

special guest on here it's Jesse

McCormick with Ace Home Inspections the

owner of Ace Home Inspections one of the

Premier home inspectors here in the

Greenville Spartanburg area

Jesse and I have worked together for

a long time I'm pretty selective on who

I work with

and so when he first got into the

business

it took me a while before I was

willing to use them because I already

had inspectors I had used for several

years

but I gave him a shot he did a

great job

I eased him in with some of my

clients everyone has loved everything as

Jesse has done and so I'm

grateful that I asked him to come on the

show and he was willing to do that and

and I think he'll have some

interesting things to share from from

his experiences extensive experience

with inspecting in the Greenville

Spartanburg area so Jesse welcome to the show

thanks so much great to be on and I

appreciate your time today and taking

time to have me on

absolutely so Jesse we're just going

to jump right in here with something

that I know that you're going to be

excited to talk about so

I think in general most people know what

a home inspection is and Loosely

speaking why it's important but if you

could come up with maybe like the number

one misconception that you run into

maybe with the general public or maybe

with realtors in general about home

inspections what would that be if you

could boil it down to like one thing

what would that major misconception that

you run into what would that be

one misconception might just be that

it's like a punch list for the

sellers to address right so I'm coming

to do a home inspection and they think

I'm going to give them this report and

then everything on that list always has

to be done

which isn't the case it's just not

the case now do they come to you

do you get blow back sometimes on that

where it's like the seller won't like

how does that impact you no to be

honest I feel like this is a great

question for a realtor as well because

you know you guys are the ones working

with the clients a lot

but in talking every now and again

I'll talk with people and they'll be

asking me about potential repairs which

again I'm always trying to defer to the

Realtors to some extent with what might

get negotiated into the process

but sometimes they're asking

questions and I'm thinking to myself I

don't know that I'd be asking for that

repair that seems like a fairly minor a

fairly minor item but I have to be

careful about setting expectations and

letting the Realtors also do their job

yeah absolutely and and that's that's

one thing I appreciate is that but

you're good about

communicating what things are minor what

things perhaps are not minor or perhaps

more major and

and I've always appreciated your

accessibility with my clients that they

want to or if I want to clarify

something that you're always you know

willing to shoot a straight insofar as

you can obviously you guys have the most

liability of like anyone in the business

right and it would be terrifying to me

to be in your shoes

but I appreciate I think that as

long as you keep doing a good job that

that liability kind of isn't there

because people understand you know

you're gonna miss some things but as

long as you're working hard people

appreciate that yeah and I'm thankful

the last five years you know I've been

in the business I probably shouldn't say

anything right that's how the saying

goes but have had where someone we

can knock on yeah I know no major issues

or lawsuits so that's

always a positive I hear in the business

it's only a matter of time before

something happens but yeah I do always

try and do a thorough job and

communicate clearly and get to anywhere

I can get to and

a lot of times especially in those

crawl spaces try and go the extra mile

especially when there's other things

that are peaking my concern or interest

in those areas yeah is it kind of is it

kind of annoying to have to to find all

of those minor things are you kind of

like in in your mind like I wish I

didn't have to I wish I didn't have to

put these in here but people are gonna

expect it yeah sometimes you know there

and sometimes it's just the overall

length of the report you know if it's a

shorter report and there's not as many

items I don't mind putting some of those

items in but then if I feel like the

report's getting a little bit long I

almost kind of feel bad like ah you know

this is it could really be condensed to

be more clear but I do need to include

these items but again that's why we have

the helpful tags on there as more of a

minor versus more significant concern

that helps helps you guys and helps the

buyers identify

which items maybe of more concern so

what's kind of the you might not know

this off top of your head because I

didn't prep you for this question but

this is a conversation

so we're gonna kind of go off script

a little bit do you know off the top of

your head kind of roughly what the

longest report is that you've ever done

from a page standpoint I've I've hit 100

Pages before

and I don't think of a house was that

large house in an old house okay

you know in every inspect is a little

bit different I've gotten to where I try

and be clear and concise while also

being very detailed so I'd say typically

a summary report for me just the summary

portion not the full inspection report

you know on a newer home might be

around 10 pages on a typical home might

be 10 to 20 pages but I but I've

definitely had summaries 30 40 pages

long and in reports like that I'm not

including a lot of other pictures in the

report unless it's a defect other than

just the outside pictures the inside

pictures where some of these

you know some homes that are maybe

newer construction or don't have as many

items I might have a few more pictures

of just different areas or different

things when I'm saying hey here's this

item in the house or here's that items

in the house it's just sharing facts or

if it's already going to be a long

report then I you know I'm just trying

to make things as clear as possible yeah

yeah for sure for sure do you do you

feel like typically those longer sports

do you find the buyers tend to be

blindsided by that or or have they kind

of already been prepared going in okay

this is going to be a long report yeah I

mean usually Realtors like yourself do a

great job prepping

you know prepping the client so if

it's an older house or a house that's

kind of obviously you know has some just

general routine maintenance or disrepair

just hasn't been up kept well usually

you know Realtors are kind of prepping

their clients say this is going to be a

little bit longer because I'll have some

interaction with the buyers but a lot of

that comes with again as you know from

you talking with them day in and day out

and getting them prepared for things if

there is anything that comes up on an

inspection report that I think might be

a surprise to both the buyer and the

realtor a lot of times I might

especially something more significant

I'll try and text or call the the

realtor as I think I've done

with you a few times before just to give

you a heads up yeah I really appreciate

that like yeah there's no knowing

knowing that my client's not going to be

you know knowing that I have a little

bit advanced notice that okay the floor

is about to fall out due to termite

damage is helpful yeah and again that's

what I'll try and do to prep you so

you're not getting a call from your

client and and you're you're out in left

field and you have no idea and you

haven't seen the report yet and you're

just kind of shooting from the hip I'll

try and get you know yourself and other

Realtors a heads up on some of those

items yeah extremely helpful so what's

what's an example of something that

you've caught during a home inspection

that was like okay you you knew when you

caught it and after communicating with

all the parties that you you truly saved

like a ton of money or or potentially

saved a buyer from getting into

something I couldn't handle yeah

I think one recent thing that

happened just just a few weeks ago I was

doing a group of duplexes right so

there's three brand new construction

duplexes and

so I was there for all day doing

those those three all in the same

location but it took me the full day for

all three of those and

the actual when I found this it was

actually the buyer the investor and the

Builder were all like at the property

not necessarily in the house but at that

property sure and and there was some

just real small staining on a baseboard

and I've I found active moisture and

basically I found an active leak the

Builder had been through that house the

investor had been through that house and

they were getting ready to close in the

next few days and they were going to

have tenants moving in about two weeks

later so I think that would be the one

of the situations where all parties

involved are very thankful because

catching catching that moisture early on

and letting the Builder get a

dehumidifier out there adjust the issue

get it tidied up no not a big deal

everyone's thankful whereas two weeks

later you have tenants living in the

property and you have mold that's been

growing because moisture has gone

undetected yep that that turns into a

bit more of a nightmares that's one

thing that comes to mind yeah I mean if

if you get a tenant and they're on a

one-year lease you know it my experience

with a lot of tenants because you know I

have rental properties oftentimes those

little things they're just going to kind

of not even though they might notice it

but if it's not like directly impacted

them if they just see some standing on

the baseboard they probably won't say

anything to their property manager and

yeah that absolutely can be something

that just builds up and becomes a

massive issue so yeah that's a great

example example what's something crazy

that you'd come across during an

inspection whether it's like you know I

did an episode recently about like you

know coming across like baby vultures

inside of a house but so it could be

something like that where you just like

came across something unexpected or just

like a crazy defect or something with a

house that that was just like completely

out of the blue yeah I did listen to

that episode that was a good episode I'm

always enjoyed I'm out in the road

just staying tuned in some of the facts

and some interesting stories I

appreciate that I didn't even get into

the I thought about later I was like I

should have talked about that time that

I was showing a house that we had

been inside of it for 10 minutes and I

walked into the master bedroom and made

eye contact with someone in the bed

unexpectedly that that one will have

to the full story will have to wait

for another day yeah interesting

yeah so one time I was near downtown

Greenville and I was on the roof of a

house like looking at a house and

there's a house next door that was a

little bit like run down

but still occupied I could tell it

was occupied and they had a second story

like kind of a garage apartment it was a

smaller house but there was a roof that

came down right to that garage apartment

out of the corner of my eye I thought I

kind of noticed something on the house

next door and so I turned over and I

look and there's a five or six foot

alligator right on the roof of the house

so your reaction and and my reaction

what people anyone listening to this

might were probably all we probably all

initially had that same reaction and

then I looked a little bit closer and

realized although it appeared at first

and it might be real it definitely

wasn't it was fake but it did thank

goodness it wasn't it did catch me off

guard

what was it like an inflatable alligator

I don't I don't know it almost looks

like a some type of a paper mache or it

wasn't inflatable like it had been up

there permanently it was like it was

like a lighter color than a normal

alligator so it like been sitting out in

the sun like I think they literally just

had it stored up there and forgotten

about I I don't know so so what do you

have any advice if if you if anyone runs

into an alligator on a roof do you like

run it like a zigzag like Through The

Valleys of the roof or like what any

thoughts on that I mean if there's a

pool nearby that had a deep end I'd be

going straight for the defense trying to

get off that roof that that would be my

two cent yeah if that water was deep

enough yep you know get away from that

alligator

all right so let's change gears a

little bit here so

over the years you purchased a few

investment properties and I've I've

helped you with some of those

now you're now you're a licensed

realtor so you're you're kind of

handling some of that in-house for

for those types of things which which I

can appreciate

but you know it's it's interesting

because for me when I walk into a house

because I you know I have rental

properties I flip houses on the side

I feel like I come in when with a little

bit of a different perspective than just

like your standard retail realtor but

I'm particularly interested in you as a

home inspector when you're just walking

into a house that you're thinking about

buying

what you know it's kind of like the

that scene from the The Hangover Have

You Ever Seen The Hangover movie I I've

not seen that okay so but you've

probably seen the meme where he's like

Pro he's like at the poker table and

like processing like all sorts of

different things you know doing all the

all the odds in his head so I'm kind of

picturing you walking into a house that

you're thinking about buying and doing

all of that like just not even it's kind

of a subconscious thing where you're

just processing all this going on what

but what are kind of like those first

things that it's like okay this is the

absolute first thing that I want to look

at when I'm looking at a house to to

potentially purchase

so this may seem a little bit

probably not the answer you're expecting

or that you're looking for that that's

exactly why I want to hear it

but really it's it's all about the

equity and the value okay

so like before I would even go look

at a house it's more what is the what

does the condition appear like but it's

it's really what's the price of the

house and what's the ultimate value of

the house and how much is it going to

cost to fix it you know because I I

enjoy getting my hands dirty I I enjoy

working on things and and doing some of

the work so

so are there certain are there certain

items that you look at first to

determine that

I mean it's the big ticket items

right so it's like what's the condition

of the roof what's the condition of the

HVAC and depending on the situation or

property like you know windows or are

they all going to need to be replaced or

are they in okay condition

but again Plumbing HVAC roof

electrical you know those would be some

of the big items but again for me I I'm

normally not necessarily saying one of

those would be a deal breaker

necessarily right it really just comes

down to the price of the house which you

know as an investor working with a lot

of investors you know a lot of times you

know I have an inspection someone might

ask me oh can this be fixed or this can

be addressed and that's called that's

always a double-edged sword you know

it's everything of course it can be

fixed you know

but there are some things that are

that are more concerning than others and

some things that could be minor but

may end up being or becoming a little

bit more of an issue down the road and

so there's certain things about a crawl

space you know when I go into a crawl

space if there's a crawl space that's so

tight it's it's going to be hard to get

any work done for me personally because

although I might sub out the work to a

lot of other people I might be doing

some of the work myself if it's a crawl

space that and I'll go on tight crawl

space I don't have a problem doing

inspections there but there sometimes

I'm doing inspections and I'm calling

out things I'm thinking there's no way

I'd be the one that will had to come in

here and

and fix this it's one thing to go in and

snap a picture with a with a camera it's

another thing to actually get in and do

some of the reports yeah for sure some

of those you know what are they

I guess they're like 18 inch crawl

spaces and a few a few older homes like

some of those are tight so yeah yeah if

it's kind of Mill home and then they

added HVAC later on it's underneath the

house those can get pretty tight so are

there any are there any things that for

you again

may not apply to everyone listening but

for you specifically that if you're

buying a home and you're kind of doing

your own self-inspection that's like a

standard I will not buy a home if it has

X or is it for you strictly about

price and assessing how much it would

cost to to rectify the you know whatever

issues are there I'm probably 95 price

and What's it gonna cost to rectify the

issues

again because I have that background

and construction so I enjoy those things

and I know in the upstate you're there's

always going to be you know past

termites or not you should say always

but it's not that unusual especially in

older homes older homes yeah to have

some of those issues so I don't want to

make a blanket statement but that would

be the one thing where if I go in and

it's not just an isolated area here or

there but the more possible pervasive

type of termite thing there will be

I'm not looking and again this is

overstating it but I'm not looking to

rebuild a house from you know completely

so some of those items of termites the

worse the termite damage were to get the

more I start I might start you know just

pausing to think is this something I

really want to move forward with it

again that's just for me personally yep

yep absolutely so one thing I run into

a lot is just kind of buyers being

skeptical that sellers are disclosing

all the issues with their home right I

if you look at the seller's disclosures

oftentimes sellers are just selecting no

there's no problems with everything you

know and it'll be a 50 year old home and

they're saying no there's no problems

with everything it's kind of like okay

it's a 50 year old home there's

something wrong somewhere

that you're not disclosing that's In

fairness the the sellers disclosure is

sometimes it's hard to know like what

fits and what bucket but I'm curious if

you how often you run into things

during an inspection that you feel like

sellers must have known about

but that it appears that they did not

disclose

yeah and again I'm not always seeing all

those disclosure statements right so I

don't know what that I guess I guess I

guess judging based on communicating

with the realtor or the buyer's agent or

the buyers directly that they're

surprised by something and in your mind

it's like okay yeah the the sellers they

should not be surprised by this the

seller should have disclosed it is that

a common occurrence or not a very common

occur yeah it is fairly common in the

sense that you know the more minor it is

the more I'm inclined to think it's just

the sellers didn't think to include it

on there

but then you know if you've got a sink

that's got a huge crack in it and it's

leaking and the realtor seems surprised

by it when I pointed out you know I'm

wondering you know something fell

through the cracks there yes there's

something something fell through cracks

there yeah so I I do think that there's

something where there's just sellers

that really don't think about certain

items and there's other times I'll tell

you one thing I see

it seems like on a semi-regular basis if

there's rugs or something covering

flooring and I'm thinking this seems

like a unique spot or why is so much of

the floor covered or or why is this

massive oversized piece of carpet in the

bathroom and I move it and the tile

floor is like falling apart and you know

the grout is just the tiles are loose

yeah those are the situations where I'm

I'm kind of I'm kind of wondering if

yeah right is there are there any like

frequent categories like our plumbing

issues kind of the most common of of

those types of things or or roof

issues is there like a certain like

these are typically if a buyer is going

to be blindsided by something this is

typically what it is

I would say that's more crawl space

and again I would say that wouldn't be

something the sellers necessarily trying

to hide yeah but if you you know if you

ask me anything like where's like one

concern you have I could say 10

different categories and then put crawl

space before that and it would that's

where that would happen a lot of times

that's moisture it is moist it would be

moisture related under a scene a sink

that's leaking that you might see in a

vanity but even underneath I'm running

the water for a long period of time so

drain lines or supply lines

at showers if I run water at the

showers for a long time or flush the

toilet a few times there might be a leak

of the flange so you know Plumbing would

probably be one of those items that

would would be top of the list

so in terms of we've we talked a lot

about buyers reactions to things

you know how they respond to seeing

these different items on an inspection

report so one thing I'm kind of curious

about is what are some of the common

things that you come across that you

feel like maybe buyers or Realtors tend

to overreact to maybe something that to

you is minor

still something that needed to be

flagged on the report so it's not like

it's an a nothing but maybe it's you

know to you might be a three out of ten

and the buyer's agent comes at you with

8 out of 10 energy and just kind of

surprises you and maybe there are more

significant things on the report

are there any common things like that

that you're like the I frequently run

into this this kind of thing that people

overreact to yeah you know I don't think

there's any one thing that comes to mind

that people overreact to and you know

keep in mind if I'm talking you know not

always do the Realtors and the clients

meet me on site but occasionally they do

so if I'm talking in that environment

it's not necessarily helpful for me or

for the realtor to

especially for the realtor to be

overly zealous about their concern with

a certain item per se they might ask

some honest questions

but as far as something that someone's

maybe over

just a little bit more emotionally

involved with sometimes they're just

like cosmetic wear on on flooring or or

doors and people come in and they they

get caught up on some cosmetic items

other than that it's just kind of a

pretty broad brush with you know there

might be minor Plumbing things that

people think are a big concern

what about like settling or like

things like that because that's

something that I've run into a lot

there's a lot of misconceptions about

settling specifically where it's like

you know is it structural is it not

structural like what are your thoughts

on that yeah I know that that would be

probably one great example where if it's

on a slab which if it was built in the

last 10 to 20 years here in the upstate

there's a decent chance it was built on

a concrete slab foundation and that's

probably the most common one where it's

very typical to see some minor or some

minor to moderate cracks in the concrete

slab when you're looking at the

perimeter of the foundation

but it's also what I'm looking for

not just those cracks which again are

very can be very typical to see

depending on the size but inside the

home is there any other cracking or any

other obvious signs of correlating

concern that would start to elevate that

concern from just more of a standard

inspection or standard cracking just

minor settling to something that's more

significant concern so yeah that that

would be one that sometimes there's

minor items people would would

underestimate but I do think there's a

danger too where you get so common seeing

the minor ones that trying to tactfully

communicate with a realtor or buyer

if this one's not not minor and it

actually is more significant you know I

did a house just recently that was newer

construction about five years old and

you know you you could see there's

actually under the lvp flooring there's

there's actually a crack with some

vertical displacement in the concrete

that did look to be more of a concern

which again it's very unusual to see

some of that stuff and again it's

something that can be addressed

but some of those items it's a

fine line of it's either not that

bad or some people get so used to

thinking it's not a big deal you have to

make sure to communicate clearly when

this might actually be a bigger deal

yeah let's park on this for a second

because I think listeners might have a

lot of questions about this so so let's

say that you you see some cracking to

the slab you know maybe in the garage

that kind of leads into the house

and now you're kind of like okay I

want to see if there's you know

additional settling in the house that

that I should be concerned about what

are you looking for

it might be that just the doors

themselves and not just do they not

latch because that's pretty common but

I'm looking to the actually rubber hit

on the door frame itself you know cracks

cracks in the sheetrock separation to

keep sheetrock and and I'll say on slab

homes especially homes that are vacant

whether it's new construction or they're

just vacant homes I'm much more inclined

on the first floor of the home to

actually walk around just in my socks on

the floor because it gives me it gives

me a better feel for through the lvp if

there's any anomalies and any unusual

things in the flooring yeah

that I can see so those are a few

things

and again if it's cracks in the

garage floor that's that's common to see

I mean most of the time a garage floor

is always poured after the actual home

itself so if there's cracks in the

garage that's not as concerning to me

typically whereas if there's evidence of

cracks with a concrete slab itself that

are more moderate to Major cracking or

some displacement or I can see lines

through vinyl plank flooring that that

there's evidence of potential things

that's something I start to to look a

little bit more closely when you say

lines in vinyl plank flooring what do

you mean like lines in between

individual planks no more like you can

you can see a basically seeing a crack

through the flooring itself okay so

like the house house at just in the last

week that I was mentioning earlier I

could actually see a little bit of a

zigzag cracking pattern like the vinyl

flooring itself was intact there wasn't

any obvious concerns but when you shine

the light at just certain angles you can

actually have a little bit of a glare

with the Shadows that shows a little

pattern

of basically what would appear to be

a crack in the concrete and below that

area and again it's common they

typically they're going to have

Expansion Joints that they cut into

concrete so there's certain cracking

that is designed and planned because

it's done at the Expansion Joints to try

and minimize the settling of the

movement or the shifting and you'll see

some of that as well okay all right and

then

my last question on well maybe

on this is so when you're because and

I asked this because I get this question

a lot and so I know that because I get a

lot I know people are going to have it a

lot so like let's say that you're seeing

those settling cracks inside the house

I've heard some people say that they're

really concerned if they see those

cracks coming at a diagonal off door

frames or off window frames what are

your thoughts about that

and you know are there any other

additional like specific concerns you

have with cracks outside of just the the

width of the cracks and the frequency of

them in the in the sheetrock yeah so the

width especially like exterior surfaces

if it's greater than a quarter of an

inch it starts to be elevated concerned

you know diagonal cracking can can be

somewhat more common if it's like

horizontal cracking that's also can be

more of a concern of course you're more

concerned with horizontal than you are

with diagonal typically

yeah but it also again it depends on the

size like on the exterior surfaces if

it's going it's not unusual for there to

be especially older brick homes for

there to be some cracks at the at the

mortar joints but then if that crack

starts to get wider and it's starting to

go through brick and then the other

thing I'm also looking for is moisture

if it looks like there's a drainage

concern where moisture might be coming

up against the foundation or tree roots

might be coming up against the

foundation or maybe there's a lintel

it's it's like where there's a lentil

that is is certainly lentil that's

supporting the brick or the concrete

block is broken or cracked I'm looking

for the cracks but I'm also looking at

other indicators of is there other

concerns

that might be creating this this

might be an ongoing concern versus hey

this happened at some point in the past

but I'm not seeing necessarily any

indications of ongoing concern and this

is for those listening this is the the

value of a home inspector and why even

though I I'm very thorough in my

showings and I I will point out settling

cracks and things of that nature

but I don't quite have the diagnostic

brain that someone like Jesse has of

being able to look on the outside look

on the inside assess all of these

different things it's just a different

level and that's that a good home

inspector does it at

and that's why we as Realtors

don't ever intend to replace home

inspectors because we just we can't take

all of those things into consideration

even those of us that have you know

somewhat of a background in some of

these things so so yeah it's

interesting to hear your process through

that last last thing on the slab thing

and then we'll move on

because this is another one I get a lot

I have some clients that are completely

against slab homes and they only want

you know crawl space or basement

foundations what are your what are your

thoughts on that I think some of it's a

matter of preference

for the individual I mean because

crawl space here in South Carolina

that's going to bring its own issues

potentially with moisture adding a vapor

barrier dehumidifier it's great to be

able to access you know any of the

plumbing so if there's issues you can do

that whereas a slab home you might never

think about anything for 20 years but if

something were to become an issue it's a

whole lot harder to fix a plumbing issue

or otherwise if it's I just ran into

that the other week that was a

a night nightmare in a house where they

previous owners had had tried to move a

sink and then they rerouted plumbing

through the wall and then it started you

know it was on a slab home so they they

didn't do it right and then it started

leaking in the wall and it was just an

absolute disaster that wasn't that

wasn't one that that you inspected by

the way that that wasn't one that got to

the to the level of an inspection that

was one where this walking through it

and the sewers were describing all of

those things we were able to see all not

the sellers actually was tenants were in

there describing everything and it was

just like yeah this is a no-go yeah

no that's so again sometimes

it's a preference some people in times

people and sometimes it depends on where

people are coming from you know people

up north are really used to basements

people down in Florida are really used

to slab homes and it's just kind of

what people are comfortable with yeah

for sure what about

going back to the reactions

element of things are there things that

you feel like people under react to that

they should take more seriously that

that you know that you run into that

you're just kind of surprised like oh

wow they they don't seem to be too

worried about that but like I would be

worried about that

I don't know

about being worried about things you

know sometimes I might have a

conversation that the HVAC is or I might

mention the hvac's 20 years old or 25

years old and it might be functioning

fine and that's that's no worries but

you know sometimes people try and Corner

me does that mean I'll get like five

more years out of it or what and that's

where I kind of gotta you know tap the

brakes a little bit I mean it's it's 20

or 25 years old I mean you might go

anywhere but I can't really predict the

future so that that's one of those

unique ones I would say yeah for sure

yeah I have I had one of those where

it was

and I'm pretty sure you did the

inspection for this this was years ago

but there was two AC units one was

pretty new and the other was 30 years

old and it was like well this is when

the market was so hot you couldn't

really ask for repairs it just people

were just declining repairs basically

and so it's just kind of like well

we'll we'll get a a home warranty you

know to cover the the 30 year old HVAC

we did we go to the final walkthrough

and that HVAC was not working at all and

thankfully the sour was completely

amenable to it and the seller replaced

it and closing was the next day and the

sellers AC person replaced it prior to

closing the next day so there it was it

was a great situation it was like if if

we had closed one day earlier it would

have been on my client's dime for having

replaced it

but it just kind of worked out that

way

doesn't always work out that way but no

and there are certain indicators will

look for to you know I'll look for to

flag things with an HVAC depending on

the age that it could be a concern but

but nothing really beats testing the

system when it's 95 degrees out there

right you know because you don't

really know what it's going to do until

then and then some people I'll kind of

jumping into something else some people

sometimes think that I'm my inspection

is like a specialist inspection the

reality of reality of it is I'm trying

to do a very thorough inspection but I'm

not doing the same pressure testing and

other things with an HVAC system so

sometimes if it's an older system the

clients might want to consider having an

HVAC guy come out to actually do

pressure testing and delta T and and get

more thorough readings in addition to to

my general inspection so that's yeah

something else that I again don't don't

try and unnecessarily communicate that

That's essential but there's certain

situations where people want to know

that's that's what I can recommend with

some of those older components of it at

home yeah for sure

so another question I get a lot from

people and I know that you do radon

inspections

for those listening that don't know

radons is the second leading cause of

lung cancer in the U.S second to I guess

cigarettes right smoking that's correct

what percentage of radon tests are

coming back with elevated levels of

radon per what the EPA standards I guess

yeah so the EPA standard is 4.0 so you

want your 4.0 what PC pcio okay

so that's just the that you know how

it reads out

but there are I would say probably

about 20 or so of the radon test that I

do come back high okay

above above four

and I will say there's there's a

little bit of a correlation because

people buying a newer construction home

aren't as likely to get a radon test

and people buying like walkout

basement homes

might be a little bit more likely to

get a radon test that being said it's

it's extremely unusual I shouldn't say

extreme unusual it's unusual to see

radon in newer homes but I have tested I

have why is that

well now if it's been built in the

last 10 years in the upstate a lot of

times there's a passive system that's in

place so the passive says even though

the passive system doesn't have a fan on

it or anything you feel like it's still

accomplishing something it is and then

also too the the how they do the

foundation with putting the vapor

barrier down and the gravel it's more

sealed whereas an older home might be

more prone to have some con some cracks

in the concrete or just it allows air up

into the home

in an easier way that being said I've

tested new construction home a brand new

construction home that had high radon

you know I have tested you know a home

that's five years old that has high rate

on so I as soon as you start saying it

has to be this or it has to be that

there's always those those outliers yeah

for sure but I would say generally about

20 of the homes I test have and again it

is something that there's mitigation so

that's something that oftentimes a

seller will just address and fix and if

it already has a passive system in place

oftentimes it's as simple as adding a

you know a fan

in the Attic where they've got it set

up for a fan already most of the time to

that system to make it an active system

yeah and and when you say fan not not

just like a box fan in the Attic you're

saying just for those listening the an

actual radon company will put a device

that's essentially a fan on the on the

radon pipe that'll essentially just act

like a vacuum sucking the radon gas up

is that is that what you're yeah

typically it might be like a four inch

PVC type of plumbing pipe and they're

just putting a fan onto that that sucks

the air from underneath the home and the

radon from underneath the home and pulls

it straight out and releases it into the

air where it can just go out in the air

instead of getting trapped inside of the

home and so we've got a lot of out of

state people listening to this podcast

that most of my listeners are from

out of state actually

so one thing I've learned is that people

coming from like the northeast or

perhaps even the Midwest they're they're

used to seeing radon levels you know

really high 50 60 pcio or whatever the

the correct whatever the terminology

is so for those 20 that are high what

are kind of the numbers that you're

typically seeing I mean most of the time

here in the upstate what I'm seeing is

between four and eight okay and for

those that are listening they may not

know this the levels of radon do vary

that's why the test has to be at least

48 Hours oftentimes I'll try and run

mine for 60.

because the levels do fluctuate and

go up and down if for example there's

bad bad thunderstorms and there's a lot

of you know barometric pressure variants

it can tend to be a time that there's

more radon that's released from the

ground so that reading has to be taken

over at least a minimum of a 48 hour

period

but yeah most of my readings if they're

high they're between four and eight

and then if they're you know it's

very typical for me to get readings you

know all the time between one and three

three point five I mean it's it's if

it's below one it's almost unusual

unusually low whereas a typical

reading would be like one to three okay

and are you seeing fewer this is my last

write-on question I promise are you

saying do you see fewer in Spartanburg

County than Greenville County elevated

radon levels I do and there's a

there's a map of the US that will show

different areas but typically the

upstate that where it's a little bit

more of a rocky type of soil that's

where it's going to be more prevalent

to have higher rate on so typically I do

see more in like the Greenville area as

opposed to say Anderson or Spartanburg

yeah and that's why I asked because I

was curious you know I've seen that EPA

map that I was curious if you

anecdotally if if you've experienced

that as well so that's interesting I I

have but and again to be honest there's

sometimes in those other areas there's

not as many people that request

the the radon test so it's you know a

smaller sample size to pull from but for

sure so you mentioned new construction

earlier and and of course new

construction has been a a massive part

of everyone's business the past few

years it started because nobody could

could everyone kept getting outbid in

the multi-offer situations in the covet

era and now it's pivoted that there's

just not enough resale homes

on the market and so people now are

pivoting to new construction because

they can't find anything else so I'm

sure you've seen an uptick in your new

construction work I certainly have in

terms of of representing buyer clients

for new construction

but I'm curious you know

sometimes people don't realize that that

they should have a home inspector

go into new construction

and I've even had actual Builders try

to talk me out of it and say well we've

got the county inspectors the county

inspectors do a very thorough inspection

I'm just like I have communicated with

the county inspectors they are not doing

a thorough inspection I'm sorry

so with all of that in mind I always

encourage my my buyer clients when

they're getting new construction to have

a home inspection 99 of them do

because they see the value of it

but to prove it to those listening

I'm curious what are some things that

you've caught that that stand out in

your mind in a new construction home

that the County inspector just would

have never caught

yeah so there yeah I have done a like

you mentioned a lot more the past couple

years new construction that certainly

increased quite a bit here in the

upstate for me and I'll say too there

are some builders that have their own

in-house or they have their own third

you know separate company that comes in

to do new construction inspections and

that can be great and very helpful and

some of those guys do a great job but

of course I am a little bit biased

but I do think it could be helpful to

maybe have someone that you know and

trust that's going to do a thorough job

as opposed to relying on

someone that the builders haven't come

out that again they may do a great job

in a throw job but that might not be the

case so what's an example of something

that you thought an example

one thing where hot water and two

bathrooms so I'm going and testing the

water a lot of times it might get

reversed at the actual sink where they

switch the water lines or the hot and

the cold and Al's had a new construction

home this is like a 500 000 plus I mean

it was a nice new construction home

you know a little bit larger home and

the Builder was there like oh yeah I

know the the bathroom upstairs I know

with this the sink hot water is Switched

well I got to testing the shower the

sink and then I realized that actually

in the wall at two of the bathrooms they

had switched the line so there was hot

water running to two toilets no no in

the shower but there was hot water

running to two toilets so

thankfully no bidets were at the

house so there was no issues on that

front

they that was something that

was you know you don't want to be paying

for hot water or into your toilet every

time you're just flushing it down the

drain every time so yeah well yeah not

to mention wear and tear on the on the

water heater you know even if it's

tankless you don't want it to have that

wearing it wear and tear on it so

yeah that's funny and yeah and if you

have a have a bidet you know that's a

that's a hot tush that that would be

I've got one other funny story in

regards to new construction man go for

it and and water because it seems

like the water always provides an

interesting story so I'm out at home I'm

doing an inspection of course on new

construction or any vacant homes

especially I'm always running the water

for an extended period of time so I'm

upstairs I have all the water on of

course I'm checking for leaks initially

when I turn that water on and it just so

happens the cleaners were downstairs at

the houses I was doing this new

construction home and all of a sudden I

hear this like yelling and screwing

around and something about turning the

water off so I turned the water off and

I go downstairs and again this is new

construction so no one's living there

and I go downstairs and there is water

all over the floor down downstairs which

it's unfortunate but it's also much more

fortunate that that's me that is

happening to instead of the buyers once

they're inside the home and what had

happened is there was a clean out cap in

the wall

that there was never a cap put on it so

someone had just shoved a rag into a cap

and the sheetrock guys had come in and

they had sheet rocked right over top of

that cap and I think even just normal

use the water was still was just going

down the pipe and no one would notice it

but because I had several fixtures

running upstairs all at the same time it

blew the rag out of that cap that wasn't

really capped it was just the pipe in

the wall that wasn't capped at all and

so

thankfully the cleaners were there

they got everything cleaned up I stopped

running the water and saved the clients

from a big big headache of finding that

process later but that was a very

interesting experience for me with a

little bit of a flooded house there on a

new construction yeah no doubt yeah

there was a nice one that you caught

this was again several years ago you

might not even remember it it wasn't

technically new construction but for all

intents and purposes it was it was a

one-year-old home that had not yet been

lived in even though it had been

purchased but then the person never

actually moved in and then after a year

they decided to sell it

and it had they construction

Rubble in the shower drain and you

caught that the that the drain was was

slow draining and it turned out to be a

massive expense they they ended up you

know backing out they were able to get

their earnest money back and everything

that was before the era of termination

fees so they didn't have to worry about

that

but that was a a huge

Lifesaver for them because that was like a

yeah we got a quote from someone it

would have been like a four or five

thousand dollar repair so it was that

was a huge a huge one so I've seen it

firsthand

I'm curious We're Not Gonna name

names

I just want to know high level

are there certain Builders and again

we're not going to say which ones but

that you're kind of on high alert for

that you're just like there's probably

going to be more issues or there's a

higher likelihood of more issues or do

you find that that's not the case that

it's more just from one Community to the

next that really the the Builder itself

doesn't really matter

you know it's funny I get asked that

question a fair amount

interesting and really what I've come

to realize in my at least in my

experience

that sometimes it's really the

superintendent over the specific sites

so it's not always a specific company

that there's this big issue with or

things always go perfect with but it

seems like it's because I might be going

back and I might end up doing two or

three inspections in the same community

and it just seems like there's a

correlation oftentimes with the project

manager that's overseeing a certain site

or certain you know set of homes that no

matter what Builder they're working for

it's the actual individual on site

so for example several years ago when

I went to a home it wasn't ready to

inspect and then they ensure they

assured me it was ready to inspect I

went back out for a second or third time

and when I went back out

I go in the house and I realize there's

a toilet that's not even installed

that would kind of give you an

indication of how that inspection as a

whole was yeah

yep so there not so much the

individuals much as just the person

overseeing each each home in the process

which would which would answer the

question as it's more of a community to

community that's correct yeah type of

now that being said

from a realtor standpoint there are

certain in my opinion certain builders

that are more likely to hire good

supervisors than others and I know

several supervisors that have said

the same thing but they've also they

would also agree with you that even

among the the good Builders as it were

that there are there can be bad

supervisors that

wreak havoc on an entire Community

and that's a shame when that happens

yeah and sometimes not this is not

always the case by any stretch because

sometimes you have some younger

supervisors that are really diligent and

make an effort to do a great job but

sometimes there might be

like new construction homes that are

priced at the lower price points

they might be more likely to have

supervisors that aren't quite as

experienced

as some of the higher priced

subdivision which again I'm making

it's not really I'm making a blanket

statement but that's not true in every

situation sure but there is a little bit

of a correlation where sometimes again

the the nicer communities generally the

supervisors in those communities have

have there's a reason they're

supervising some of those nicer

communities

the ones that aren't expensive there

still could be some ones that you know

they're fine and they're they're they're

fairly well Built Homes

and there might be some other ones

where the guy that's a supervisor it

might be his first time as a supervisor

and some things might be slipping

through the cracks yeah no doubt all

right last question and then I'm going

to let you go

I'm a realtor always have to always

have to ask a question like this are

there certain things that you as a home

inspector notice that good Realtors do

that others don't specifically from the

standpoint of once it comes to you as a

home inspector are there certain things

that you or let me ask it this way are

there certain things that you wish that

more Realtors did that the good good

ones do that

better prepare their clients or better

help you as as an inspector well also I

work with a lot of different realtors

I'll put a plug-in for you right now on

the air I do think you do a great job

I'm not just saying that because you're

having me on I didn't I'm not I'm not

asking for you to do that but I do

appreciate that I know I'm not I'm not

someone to say something I don't mean

but I you know do a great job working

with your clients that's why I've done

some stuff with you in the past thank

you but I would say a lot of the

realtors that I work with

I seem to work best with realtors that

really have their clients best interest

in mind so you know I'm never looking to

kill a deal you as a realtor you're not

looking to kill a deal but there might

be some situations where as a home

inspector I'm just trying to provide

honest feedback of the current condition

of the home and convey that accurately

without unnecessarily scaring people and

I think some of the best realtors that I

work with they understand that and they

also want what's best for their clients

and the fact that I try and provide a

a detailed thorough report that is

concise

they appreciate that whereas you know

some Realtors if I bring something up

in a report or I'm a little bit too

detailed and they have a feeling that

it's going to kill the deal then you

know they might be a little bit

irritated if I'm you know too detailed

on certain things sure yeah and again so

I think the realtors that that I you

know gel with the most and respect the

most is is the ones that are just trying

to be honest and help their clients and

they really want what's best for their

clients and that's how can we work

through a situation that's come up with

the inspection let's move forward or if

the clients for whatever reason really

decide this isn't the best property for

them

you know those Realtors are okay with

saying okay this is this this happens

occasionally let's find something else

for you and let's find something that

you really you know want to be in or

want to be at so I think that would be

kind of one thing that comes to mind

yeah no that's great that's that's super

helpful all right Jesse I really

appreciate your time do you have any

any last things you'd like to say to the

audience anything you that you

weren't able to get out during our I

think so enjoy listening it'll be a

little bit strange listening to this one

if I decide to go back and and do

that while I'm on the road hearing

myself talk but no I appreciate you

and all you do and do for your clients

and thanks for having me on it's

weird it is all about hearing yourself I

I don't

hardly ever listened to an entire

episode I usually do listen to the

entirety of these interviews because

it's just helpful for me to hear how I'm

interviewing people but it is it's

incredibly weird

I don't I don't enjoy doing that

specifically

but I really appreciate you

coming on and and for taking your very

valuable time

so that was Jesse McCormick Ace Home

Inspections if you need him just go

ahead and reach out to me I'll pass

along his contact information of course

all of my clients all my buyer

clients

I connect with Jesse so you don't

have to worry about that

but that's it for today's episode

I appreciate all you guys for listening

like, review, rate, subscribe my contact

information is in the show notes I

appreciate you guys and we'll talk

again next time