Jon Boyd Ann Arbor Real Estate Buyer's Agent

I heard an interesting story yesterday from a home inspector that works in the Washtenaw County area.

It was about one of those enlightening moments in his career and it happened ten or twelve years ago.

He was at an inspection and he was talking to the home buyer about radon and how it was a suspected carcinogen an how it was prevalent in the area. He also recommended that the buyer have a radon test done on the home.

Later that day after the buyer had left the nice real estate agent came up to him and said something along the lines of: "If you ever mention radon to a home buyer again I'll have to stop using you."

That was such a clear instruction, and so anti-buyer, that it made a huge impact on him. At that point he knew he either had to get under the thumb of the real estate industry or build his own referral base totally outside of the REALTOR organization. He chose the latter and he is still in business today.

And, our office is one of the only real estate companies in the market that actively uses this guy.

If you are looking to buy a home and you want a real estate company that will always be on your side, in your corner, and looking out for you, call us.

734-662-6240

Jon Boyd Broker/Manager
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.
1908 W. Stadium Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103

We serve the Ann Arbor - Brighton - Plymouth - Novi - Canton - Ypsilanti areas in Southeastern Michigan.

And we can guarantee that you will never be stuck with designated agency, dual agency, or non-agency.

In the business of helping home buyers I am often working on Sunday afternoon. When I don't have appointments though, I like to take a Sunday afternoon nap in front of the woodburning fireplace.

Yesterday my life took me in a different direction. You see we live in a ~40 year old home that has a drain line that gets really slow about every five years. It is a drain line for the dishwasher and the laundry, so I'm thinking it is probably laundry lint and maybe ground food that collects in some low spot.

Unfortunately the "low spot" is under our basement floor. So the solution is to auger it out every couple years. And yesterday it was time.

Previously I was able to clear the run with a 25 foot drill mounted auger. But this time I sent that thing all the way out and the drain was still sloooow.

So off to Lowe's to get a 50 foot model (pictured).

Eventually we got the thing to drain fairly well. But, the reason this is interesting to home buyers is:

Most real estate agents that claim to be "buyer agents" don't want to actually tell buyers anything about the houses themselves. Like, disadvantages and advantages of living on a city sewer system vs a well and septic system in the country. Like disadvantages and advantages of a hot water heat system vs a gas forced air.

There were a bunch of discussions on thisl forum about this very topic.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/977305/GENUINE-BUYER-AGENT-SHOULD-KNOW-HOUSES

Judging from that thread it would seem that the majority of the regular real estate agents are afraid to say anything bad about a house!

If you have excellent credit and will be buying a $100,000-$900,000 home in the next 90 days and would like a company and agent who will work exclusively for you, call us at 734 662 6240 or contact us via the link on this page.

Jon Boyd
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.

Exclusive Buyer Brokerages like ours do not list homes and never represent Sellers.  Their agents represent Buyers ONLY on the Buyer's side of the transaction. 

I was visiting a friends home this weekend and he showed me what the dish service people did for his mounting. He lives in a area where roof mounting isn't practical, and wall mounting won't work because of the type of construction of his home. So the alternative was a ground mount. The dish contractor brought the steel frame and the cinder blocks to keep is secure.

Interesting!

I drove by a branch of our bank today and saw this:

Well, I'm not a furnace expert but I am a home buying expert and I see a problem with that. Do you?

As it turns out the original installer got his/her air input and air exhaust lines switched. Which pushes warm moist combustion air right against the brick wall. And it freezes. This probably isn't dangerous now, but it will damage that brick if it is left uncorrected long enough.

So, did you see know what was happening? Hundreds of people have driven by this same thing and not know what was going on.

I actually mentioned it to the bank teller last year but I can see they haven't fixed it. So today I went in and told the manager and she gave me the maintenance person's name.

I bet they will fix it this time.

If you are interested to get more information on these "concentric vents" and how they should be installed I pulled up some information:

http://www.dnmech.com/lit/good_dcvk_IO-619A.pdf

Remember if you want an unconflicted, true buyer agent to help you with your home buying, call us.

Jon Boyd, Broker/Manager
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.
Click here for information on Ann Arbor real estate homes for sale
member office of http://naeba.org
734-662-6240
1908 W. Stadium Blvd. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Ann Arbor's Most experienced Exclusive Buyer's Brokerage!

A popular subject in our office this week and one of our family members got locked into a bathroom when the door locking mechanism broke and jammed.

A few years ago one of our other agents got locked into a bathroom when the single woman buyer was with him in the house. The bathroom didn't have a window so the event proved to be frustrating and very funny.

So, here is a quick set of tips:

1. Relax. Unless the home is on fire it is not life threatening. You will get out. Life will go on.

2. There are two parts that hold the door in the door frame. The knob/latch, and the hinges. To get the door open you need to release or remove one or the other.

3. Most door knob assemblies have two screws on the inside flange. There is also usually some small spring spring arrangement that you push on to take the knob off, but you usually don't need to do that.

4. If you want to take the knob assembly apart, you can use a screwdriver or something like a kitchen knife to remove those two screws. Once that is done the door knobs on both the inside and the outside usually will come off. At that point you can see the inside of the latching mechanism and possibly move it with your screwdriver or kitchen knife to release the latch and open the door.

5. You can also sometimes use a flat tool or a thin stiff item like a credit card to slide inbetween the door and the frame to push the latch in.

6. If those ideas don't work or aren't practical, you might try to remove the hinge pins. Most bathroom doors have three hinges and three hinge pins. You will normally need a screwdriver or knife to pry the pin up from the hinge, then you will usually need a pair of pliers to pull the pins out. This is a bit difficult on a jammed door, but once it is done the door will normally come apart and you can get where you need to be.

If you need tools and there is someone outside to pass them to you a window is very convienent. But don't forget you may be able to get something to someone through a clothes shoot. Even if you need to pass them string under the door to put down the clothes shoot to tie to the tool so they can pull it up.

Good luck and I hope you never need this advice!

Jon Boyd, Broker/Manager
The Home Buyer's Agent of Ann Arbor, Inc.
Click here for information on Ann Arbor real estate homes for sale
member office of http://naeba.org
734-662-6240
1908 W. Stadium Blvd. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Ann Arbor's Most experienced Exclusive Buyer's Brokerage!