It's Raining Again--Quick Let's Inspect!

I love to see properties and conduct inspections in the rain. It isn't about romance or peeling out on slick driveways, it's about the opportunity to hunt for water--the destroyer of homes. That's right, when better to look for signs of water infiltration, to check around windows, in basements, attics, and crawl spaces. Grading and drainage can even be noted. Is the decomposed granite walk holding up? Is that a blotch on the dining room ceiling? Is the water pooling next to the South side? I want to know!

The climate here, in many respects, is so forgiving that people overlook the weather hardiness of their homes. Who cares about a void in the siding, or if double-hung sashes rattle a bit in the wind, it ain't exactly artic air spilling in. True enough, but if it's water penetrating a poorly knit-together roof line, or gaining entry through an attic fan, or flowing beneath a masonry foundation--there could be expensive consequences.

I know there's a lot of agents who don't like to get their Prada slip-ons dirty, who spend look-see time chatting about flat-screen placement and dried flower arrangements, who prefer the interior of their dark, new model Mercedes with the light-up visor vanity, to an attic covered in fiberglass batts or a damp cellar with a leaky water heater. That ain't me. I'm out there to look at houses and look at 'em I do.

Don't get me a wrong, I'm not down on "fixers". I bought a heavy fixer; and, I've sold a lot of fixers from "heavy" to "light". If you're a buyer looking to get into the bottom middle of this market, you'll likely acquire a property with condition issues. My motto is: the buyer deserves to know. If there's something wrong with a system, if there's structural compromise, the buyer deserves to know. Hey, nobody's got X-ray vision, nobody can see into walls, and you can't necessarily uncover all that's wrong with a property--but you try to, and the agent's eyes should be part of that effort.