HOME INSPECTION BLOG
10 Tips to Get Your House Ready for Winter
Single-digit temperatures and freezing water can wreak havoc on your house and yard. According to the insurance provider Munich Re, winter weather caused $1 billion in insured losses in 2016. It didn’t have to. The first thing to know is that water damage—particularly...
11 Real Estate Tips to Sell Your First Home Like You’ve Done This Before
By the time you’re ready to sell your first house, you’ll no longer be that starry-eyed buyer who imagines roses and rainbows behind every home with great curb appeal. Every month of housing payments, every surprise plumbing leak, every hour spent tending to the yard...
Home inspection checklist for buyers
When it comes to buying a home, what you see isn’t exactly what you get. You’ll see colorful flowers, freshly painted walls, granite countertops, gleaming hardwood floors and other superficial touches. What you can’t see is the foundation cracks, ancient plumbing,...
12 Tips for Getting the Most out of a Home Inspection
A proper home inspection is your best defense against buying a property that will be a home improvement nightmare. Use these 12 tips to get the most out of your home inspection. Show Up Make sure you are present for the home inspection and be prepared to ask questions...
6 things real estate agents know that house hunters don’t
By age 15, I'd probably been to more open houses than school field trips. My parents moved multiple times when I was growing up and always took me along the house hunting ride with Eileen, our esteemed realtor (and fancy lady) from Century 21. That experience...
How a Home Inspection Works When It’s Your House in the Hot Seat
Like going to the doctor or bringing your car to a mechanic, home inspections can be nerve-racking and traumatic. When it’s your house in the hot seat, even a fairly clean inspection report might sting a bit. News flash: no home is perfect. But you can take steps to...
Your Fall Home Maintenance Checklist
Fall is a good time to take care of big home repair projects before shorter days (and in many areas, ice and snow) make outdoor work too difficult. And if you do live in an area with cold winters, take some time this fall to boost energy efficiency throughout your...
Sellers: What to Do When You Get Bad Home Inspection Results
So your home inspection shows that repairs are needed. Skip the stress and follow these tips from our real estate expert. Most real estate freak-outs are the result of surprises. If your place has some obvious imperfections and you put it on the market, it’s no big...
Home Inspection Checklist: What Homebuyers Need To Know
A home inspection is a professional, third-party inspection of a property that you intend to buy. Its goal is to evaluate the home from a structural and safety standpoint, as well as to ensure you’re buying a hazard-free, up-to-code property that’s a good investment...
Eco-Friendly Relocation
Relocation is often stressful and time-consuming, but rarely do we wonder about the impact the process has on the environment. This is amplified when moving to a smaller house or condominium, and additional decisions have to be made regarding items that must discarded...
Child-Proofing Your Home: 12 Safety Devices to Protect Your Children
About 2.5 million children are injured or killed by hazards in the home each year. The good news is that many of these incidents can be prevented by using simple child-safety devices on the market today. Any safety device you buy should be sturdy enough to prevent...
Home Energy Inspections for Home Buyers
Home inspectors help home buyers understand how much it costs to heat, cool, and operate the home they are about to buy.
An Introduction to Foreclosures
A foreclosure is a process by which a homeowner loses their property, usually to a lender or local government, for failure to pay agreed-upon taxes, payments or fees. Common reasons for foreclosures include: default on loan repayment. The most common way that...
Inspecting Aluminum Wiring
Between approximately 1965 and 1973, single-strand (solid) aluminum wiring was sometimes substituted for copper branch-circuit wiring in residential electrical systems due to the sudden escalating price of copper. After a decade of use by homeowners and electricians,...
Ant Inspection
Ants are among the most prevalent pests in households, restaurants, hospitals, offices, warehouses, and virtually all buildings where food and water can be found. While mostly harmless to humans, ants (especially carpenter ants) can cause considerable building...
Abrasive Blasting for Mold Remediation
Mold in the Home Health concerns related to the growth of mold in the home have been featured heavily in the news. Problems ranging from itchy eyes, coughing and sneezing to serious allergic reactions, asthma attacks, and even the possibility of permanent lung damage...
Home Sales Exceed Pre-Pandemic Levels for the First Time
SEATTLE, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- (NASDAQ: RDFN) — Home sales surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time the week ending July 5, up 2% on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to January and February levels, according to a new report from Redfin...
Summer House Hunting? Here are Some Key Factors to Consider.
Summer is the priciest time to buy a home, but cost isn’t the only challenge in 2020. An uncertain economy and social distancing measures, both the result of the pandemic, have upended homebuying plans for some and changed the process for everyone. Despite the initial...
Buyers and Sellers can Both Survive the Home Inspection
ESCONDIDO – It’s very important for both a home seller and buyer that the property fare well on the inspection, because it means no serious issues have been discovered. But what exactly are the things to watch out for? What’s in the home inspector’s checklist? It...
Advantages of Solar Energy
Solar energy offers considerable advantages over conventional energy systems by nullifying flaws in those systems long considered to be unchangeable. Solar power for home energy production has its flaws, too, which are outlined in another article, but they're dwarfed...
