As so many of us have had roof replacements completed on our homes, it is so importsnt that you make sure to ask your roofer to check all gas appliance vents in your home and attic. This can cause a potentially unsafe condition in your home!

Lots of unusual weather, including lots of hail this year in West Texas.

​The most frequent question I'm getting lately is: "How damaged is the roof from hail, and should we have it replaced?"

Answers:
Just because your town had a hail storm roll through does not mean your roof has *ANY* hail damage.
Just because the roofing contractor has a sign in the neighbors yard, does not mean your roof has hail damage.
Hail damage can depend on the size, quantity, and direction that the hail fell from the sky. It can also depend on the brand, style, age, and quality of the roof covering materials.
It may sometimes make sense to wait until spring/summer are past to replace your roof. (I mean, who wants to replace their roof twice in one year?)
It's rare to see a roof leak caused by hail damage.

Call your insurer as soon as you've found a home to put in a contract on. They'll likely send a rep out to check the roof themselves and make a determination on whether they'll insure it.

I'm here to help! Don't hesitate to call, text, or email!

-Cale-

There are lots of times in our lives when we may need to walk away.
Relationships
Jobs
Arguments
Desserts....

One of the most important times you need to be ready to walk away is during the home buying process. 
So many times after a home inspection, I will see the alarm bells and red flags in front of a perspective buyers eyes and I'll wonder what they'll do next. As I mentioned in my previous post, it's not for me to decide whether or not a buyer should buy a home or not. But I can provide them with the information they need to make the most informed decision possible. No home inspection company on earth can find every defect in a home, but the best inspection companies like Double C Home Inspections will give their client all of the readily identifiable information available on the day of inspection to allow the home buyer to decide: Ask for repairs, or Not? Ask for a reduction on the home price, or Not? 
Walk away, or Not?
As a home buyer, all of the power to make these decisions is in your hands!

The TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire" was a huge phenomenon in the US many years ago.

Did you know it's still on the air today? 

Anyway, one of the most famous catchphrases from the show was "Phone a friend". The purpose of course was to allow the contestant to actually call a friend to help with answering their question in order to win. The friend didn't make the final decision, but they sometimes greatly influenced the contestants' decision. The best "friends" even went against the contestants inclination on the right answer, and saved them from losing it all.

I can't help you with winning a million dollars, but I can help you with deciding on whether or not to make one of the biggest purchases you'll ever make. You need at least one person in your corner that's going to tell you the truth, whether you want to hear it or not. That's where I come in. I have no allegiance to Real Estate Agents, or anyone else involved in your home purchase. I simply want to help you make the decision, one way or the other. People are often surprised when I say that I don't care if they buy the home or not. That's not my call. It's yours. 

​But before you make that call, Phone a friend!

At this point, I've inspected over 2,000 homes in West Texas. Huge homes, tiny homes, old homes, and brand new construction homes. The one thing each and every one of these properties had in common were that each one had defects. I have yet to see a perfect home.

One thing that won't show up on a home inspection report are cosmetic defects. The reason cosmetic defects don't appear on most conscientious home inspectors inspection reports is because cosmetic problems are generally in the eye of the beholder.

However, as a home buyer, you should be in tune with whether or not your prospective home has cosmetic effects or not. The reason it should matter to you is simply due to the law of averages. If the person installing the baseboards installed them wrong, they also did other work in the home, & you can bet they did that wrong too. What about the areas you can't see? What about the areas you can see and don't know if it's right or wrong?

The moral of the story is this, when looking at a home, don't think about where your couch will go, or how your kids room will be set up as much as you think about whether this home will be safe, quality built, and stand the test of time. I know that's not easy! But its necessary.

One of the best decisions you can make to protect yourself, your family, and your home is to make sure you have functioning smoke alarms in the correct locations of your home. Per the National Fire Protection Association, these guidelines are below:

Installing your smoke alarms correctly - and making sure they are in working order - is an important step to making your home and family safer from fire.It’s important to have enough smoke alarms in your home. Fire research has demonstrated that with today’s modern furnishings, fires can spread much more rapidly than in the past when more natural materials were used. Because of this, having a sufficient number of properly located smoke alarms is essential to maximize the amount of available escape time. For many years NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, has required as a minimum that smoke alarms be installed inside every sleep room (even for existing homes) in addition to requiring them outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home. (Additional smoke alarms are required for larger homes.) Homes built to earlier standards often don’t meet these minimum requirements.

Check today! Make it happen! Protect those you care about, and your property!

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As you are home shopping in preparation to purchase your next property, I can help you with what you should be looking for when it comes to a "solid" home. 
By solid, I mean a home that may have fewer problems than other homes.

First, a defect free home doesn't exist. Or at least I haven't inspected it! 
Second, always look past the "lipstick". The nice paint, tile,  lovely counter top, etc are not relevant to the structure of the home. 
Third, the neighborhood can be a good indicator of what the home you're looking at might have looked like prior to going up for sale. If the neighbors homes are rough, chances are this one was too prior to you seeing it. Maybe not, but probably.
Fourth, hire me after you've found it. Be ready to walk away from the home if needed. I know it's easy to get attached to a home prior to purchase, but try not to be. You'll be in a better position for negotiation if you're not.

Call me if you have other questions regarding where to go from here. I can help!

So you're looking for a home, and find one. Now, you need to get a pro to inspect it for you.

Who do you hire? There are a wealth of choices in West Texas right now since, like most real estate markets nationwide, our market is hot.

A few things I've learned having been a licensed pro for several years, and having performed thousands of inspections for real! clients to this point:

If the inspector is the cheapest one, it's either because that inspector is new, is doing anything they can to get even one inspection, or does not provide a thorough inspection. 

If the inspector is trying to book the inspection on a weekend, they are either part-time (read highly inexperienced), desperate to get even one inspection, or are from out of the area and service West Texas part time. Believe it or not, there are several inspectors that have swooped into our area from San Antonio and Fort Worth. Ask yourself, realistically, how would an inspector from Central or North Texas know anything about the homes in our area? Our neighborhoods? Local home builders?

If the inspector has a great reputation from REAL clients online (not made up or fake reviews from people that don't exist) then your next step is giving them a call, text, email or booking an inspection with them online. Pick their brain.  Share your concerns. Don't just hire the first one to answer, or the cheapest inspector from out of the area. 

You will likely be disappointed if you don't do your homework!

BEWARE of the part time home inspectors!

Despite the fact that West Texas does not receive much rain, this does not mean that moisture intrusion into a home is not possible. I inspect roughly 400 homes annually, and I can tell you that the opportunities for moisture intrusion are taken for granted by roofing contractors, builders, handymen, and homeowners daily. Sometimes it's the little things on a structure that can make a big difference, and other times, it's obvious problems that are allowing your home to be damaged by moisture intrusion, and associated defects.
Let's look at a West Texas home with a potentially major moisture intrusion problem:
​

Here we have a closet with an obvious moisture intrusion problem. It may be easy to assume that the water made it's way into the home from the wall, but in my experience, this may not be true. Water has a way of traveling in unusual ways. Could the water have made it's way into the home from the roof above, and traveled down the wall into the home? 

This home had a flat roof, meaning virtually no slope to the roof. Though many areas of the country might not consider designing this type of roof for a home due to being in regions of the country with more precipitation, it is not rare for our area.  The roof covering at this home had been poorly installed, and the roof layer was not adhering to the structure below, in addition to many other areas of defects on the roof.  This is why the water in the closet could be the result of roof leaks. 

The rear wall of the home could be the source of the leak. This home had a masonry exterior cladding, and the cladding was in contact with the soil at many locations on the exterior. Why does this matter? Because the opportunity for moisture intrusion, termites, and other possible problems rapidly increases when there is no gap between the exterior cladding (brick, masonry, siding, etc.) and the grade on the outside of the home. How can you check to see if there is a crack in the cladding below the soil level? How can the termite inspector check for termite activity? 
So, this area could also be the source of the moisture intrusion.

The point is, the only way to identify the cause of the leak may be to force water into every possible access point and see what happens. No other way can prove where the problem has started. And many times, this way can require some demolition. So many unknowns. And so many unanswered questions.

This is one more reason to hire a licensed, experienced home inspector.  

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