In Lubbock, Midland, Odessa, Snyder and Colorado City, or for that matter most areas of the South Plains and Permian Basin, we have seen just about everything you could imagine in a property inspection process. We love to help our client's make informed decisions, and that's why we'd love to share this info!
So you are looking for the "perfect" home, and you've found one that is within your price range and in a nice neighborhood. Now it's time to tour the home to see what's inside! So, what you should be wary of prior to making an offer? From a home inspector's point of view, there is not much that would discourage me from purchasing a home; at this point, I've inspected around 4000 homes, so it's very rare for me to see something that surprises me. That said, you are not in the same situation, which might be why you're reading this! Here are a few things that I see from time to time that might make me want to know more about the home if I were a buyer: 1.New cosmetic details on an older home. Let's be real, homes from the 60's didn't have an "open floor plan". If I see a home like this, I wonder how it was done, who did the work, and did they receive the required permits? Unfortunately, the answers to those questions are usually: Wrong, Someone that didn't know what they were doing, & NO. The new cosmetic details can be much simpler, like new interior doors, crown molding, baseboards, flooring, paint, texture. All of these things can certainly make the home look nice, but these items are also cheap and don't require a licensed pro to perform their installation. This means that it was almost certainly cheaper for this work to be done and it also makes a big impression on a potential home buyer. We are visual creatures, so it looks nice and therefore our brain says it must be nice! Almost every home I've inspected that meets the above criteria had numerous significant defects that weren't readily visible without a home inspection! Yet another reason a Double C Home Inspection is crucial. 2. New texture/paint on walls. In any home where you see this, just know that there was a reason this repair was completed. Maybe the damage was innocent, like a chair falling over and hitting a wall, putting a hole in the wall. But sometimes, we see homes where the repair was not so innocent! Texture is a great camouflage for termite damage. The texture will dry and harden once applied and being able to visually establish that termite damage is present becomes nearly impossible! This is why Double C Pest www.doublecpest.com/ provides Termite inspections AND Termite treatments! 3. Septic systems. Septic systems are a perfectly acceptable means of treating waste water. Millions of septic systems exist nationwide. However, we find that the majority in West Texas have not been properly maintained. You would be surprised to know how many home owners don't even know where their septic tank is! How can you maintain something you own if you don't know a thing about it? This is why Double C Home Inspections provides septic system & also sewer camera inspections as an optional service! 4. Older home with big trees in the yard. Let's be real, a tree that manages to survive decades in West Texas is a force to be reckoned with! Sometimes, said tree survives in a yard by finding the sewer drain line under the home and working it's roots into the line. This is why Double C Home Inspections provides sewer camera inspections as an optional service! You would not believe how many homes have some sort of plumbing problem that is completely unknowable without the use of this service! 5. Finally, look around at the home's interior and see if you see small dark stains around light switches, electrical outlets, lights, etc. This could mean that the home has or has had a serious ROACH infestation! Along those lines, if you see live bugs during your tour, this may be a sign that the home has a pest problem! Think about it, how often do you see live roaches? This is because they are generally a nocturnal pest, so live ones in the day time mean they are either fearless or desperate; either of these are bad signs. This is why Double C Pest www.doublecpest.com/ provides a complete pest management plan to fit your needs! The most important part of a home purchase is the home inspection! Don't let anyone convince you otherwise! Cale Cameron
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The Internet is the future of commerce, right? You can use it to buy sneakers, groceries, cars, and now…homes? That’s right. Consumers can simply log onto the nearest computer and snatch up properties without even physically walking through the home in person, thanks to online flippers called iBuyers. IBuyers such as Offerpad, Opendoor, and RedfinNow, make data-driven cash purchases of properties, make minor updates and repairs to the homes, and resell them on the open market. Buyers then purchase the property solely based on the online listing and maybe a 3D virtual tour. With the news of Zillow retreating from the iBuyer market, we could only wonder, is online home buying here to stay? And if so, where? To find out, we decided to analyze which cities are the best and worst for virtual home buyers. based on the number of homes in the area that offer a 3D tour and the average home price.MethodologyWe based our analysis on the 49 most populous cities in the U.S. to ensure high sample sizes of home listings. We focused on the number of nearby homes offering an online 3D tour and relevant factors like home value and average list price in each city. Specifically, we gathered the following factors for each of the 49 cities in our analysis: 3D Listings Weight: 3.00 Zillow Home Value Index Weight: 2.00 For Sale Inventory Weight: 2.75 Median List Price Weight: 2.25 Note: The Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) is a smoothed, seasonally adjusted measure of the typical home value and market changes across a given region and housing type. It reflects the typical value for the region’s homes within the 35th to 65th percentile range. Importantly, ZHVI dollar amounts reflect the typical home value for the region—not the median home value. After collecting the individual city factors above, we assigned each one with an appropriate weight given their importance in determining a city’s value for buying homes online. We then assigned each city a score of 0-5 for each ranking factor based on the raw value and its weight. Individual factor scores were then added together to give each city a final score from 0-50. Higher scores indicate cities are better for buying homes from Zillow online. Nashville and Salt Lake City were not included in the final results due to insufficient data available. The remaining 47 cities were ranked according to their individual factor scores and weights. Read on to see what we found.The 20 Best U.S. Cities for Online Home Buyers, According to ZillowFirst, we looked at the 20 best cities for Zillow home buyers. Offering a whopping 20,244 available properties at a median list price of just over $322,000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the number one city for home buyers. The typical home value is even lower—$225,000—making it even more affordable for those looking to settle into the City of Brotherly Love. Additionally, while not the most on our list, there are 315 listings with 3D showings online for those who want to attend open houses from the comfort of their couch. Just shy of Philadelphia’s city score of 47.62 out of 50, Houston, Texas took second place with a city score of 47.02. The Southern mecca has more than 8,000 more listings than Philadelphia and almost 400 additional online 3D showings, but the higher median list price took the city down a notch for prospective buyers. Going down the list, Chicago, Illinois came in third with a score of 46.92 and Phoenix Arizona was fourth with a score of 44.97. Washington, D.C. rounded out the top five cities for Zillow home buyers with a score of 42.29.The 10 Worst U.S. Cities for Online Home Buyers, According to ZillowSo, what about the worst cities for Zillow home buyers? With a whopping median list price of 1,249,333, we’re not surprised to see San Jose, California score 8.11 out of 50 and take the title as the worst U.S. city for Zillow home buyers. In addition to eye-popping prices, the city only has 104 listings out of 3,029 with 3D showings available. Other large metropolitan areas where homes are notoriously expensive suffered in our ranking as well. We saw San Diego, California, Buffalo, New York, and Memphis, Tennessee on the list in third, ninth, and tenth place, respectively. But where the top 10 worst cities for Zillow home buyers really failed is their lack of 3D tours online. In Hartford, Connecticut, sixth in the ranking, just 2 out of 3,616 listings had them. Likewise in Birmingham, Alabama, which placed eighth, only 3 out of 4,068 listings featured 3D tours.Scores by CityDo you live in one of the top 47 most populous cities in the U.S. and want to know where it ranks in terms of buying a home on Zillow? Check out our full dataset above to find out. We included all the cities in our analysis as well as the raw data for each ranking factor so you can further analyze why your home city did well or not so well in the ranking.Closing ThoughtsWhile Zillow reportedly pulled out of buying homes online due to paying prices they could not recoup when selling them, it’s still very easy for consumers to log on and purchase a home without even setting foot on the front lawn. Some states are better than others for doing this, as we have seen above, but we at Repair Pricer don’t recommend it at all. When you visit a property in person, you gain invaluable information about its condition that you’d never discover through a webcam. Additionally, you should always have a professional home inspection performed to uncover hidden repairs and potential dangers of your new home. This great article is available with additional info from one of our 3rd party vendors at www.repairpricer.com/zillow-homebuyers/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=197900027&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--nw104FzE_xt4RQm2bCpdbIUQ2zyg3hNIytVI5P4YhesI-O4_OjobvJD1H7My4cCYRwaoPWZCl6HEJ9VQOx9wazig3BCJ_yM4sBnDKvUniJWs6Wn0&utm_content=197900027&utm_source=hs_email |
AuthorCale Cameron Archives
January 2025
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