Okay, sometimes people try to get away with little things that really don't matter much in the whole scheme of things, but tell me why anyone would try to pull this one off? Did he actually think a home inspector could possibly miss such a thing?
As you can see from the picture there is moisture intrusion in the crawlspace and the main girder is broken and decayed. Yet the sellers did everything in their power to conceal this fact form everyone. The girder is broken at the rear of the house directly under the bed in the master bedroom. The master bedroom was the only room in the house to have furniture in it. That's not the only thing that makes it appear obvious that the intent was to conceal the damage.
Every time I attempted to go outside to inspect the crawlspace the seller would attempt to engage me in conversation. Throughout the course of the entire inspection he acted as if I wasn't even there while he talked with the Realtor and the buyer. The minute I announced I was going to the crawlspace he had questions about home inspections and information about the property.
When I finally made it outside I found numerous items in my path and the access hatch screwed shut as well as padlocked. I removed the screws and cut through the pad lock with my bolt cutters. I always carry extra padlocks and a set of bolt cutters when performing inspections because in many cases the key to the crawlspace is lost or missing.
When I finally got into the crawlspace I found several items in the way, the greatest concentration was stuff was near the broken girder. I was also amused by the fact that there were no spider or cobwebs as one would customarily find in a area of the crawlspace that hasn't been disturbed in a years as the seller told us.
Can you tell me how this picture was taken?
I wouldn't take it too seriously if you can't. I was pretty amazed myself when I found out how it was done.
Years ago, my ex-son-in-law purchased a home in Jim Thorpe Pa. The houses in the village are pretty close together and very tall. This one requires a 40-foot extension ladder in order to reach the top of the eaves and as you can see it has a very steep pitch.
When the house was purchased the inspector told them there was no way for him to inspect this roof. The house is on the high side of the street, so you're not going to get above it. The houses to the left and the right are also the same height, so you can't any portion of the roof from a window. Even if you had a 40 ft ladder with you, the space between the houses forces you to position the ladder almost flush with the building.
The solution? A web cam connected to a laptop via multiple USB cables. The web cam was attached to a pole and sent up through the chimney's cleanout in the basement. As the pole goes up the chimney, another pole is duct taped to that pole extending it up the chimney till it reached the roof. The image was observed on the laptop down below and using video capturing software the pictures were taken.
Unfortunately this was done by my ex-son-in-law almost a year after he purchased the home so he was stuck with making the repairs. Since this was my daughter's house at the time my husband and son agreed to do the work. A few shingles had to be replaced, a few that were missing were added, chimney flashing was redone and chimney bricks had to be mortared and pointed.
I now carry a similar contraption my truck, all though mine does not use duct tape to secure the poles to each other when performing home inspections.
Spring in the Pocono's usually starts off with cool crisp mornings, followed by warmer sunny day and ending with cool to cold nighttime temperatures. No reason to have expected that today, the first day of spring would be any different.
The view from my living room window is too inviting to remain inside any longer. I must go sit outside where I can take it all in before beginning the days work. If this were your view, wouldn't you do the same?
The temperature is a cool 21°F. Ahh ... spring in the Pocono's.
As I sat on the rear porch sipping my hot cup of morning Java these two come waddling up from the river. Yes, further confirmation that spring has finally arrived and right on time.
The geese are back.
I know 20,000 really isn't that big a deal, but when I first joined AR on Dec. 28th, 2008 that number seemed pretty unreachable to me. I'm not much of a writer and blogging is definitely not what I'm used to doing. Computers are something I take apart, put together, connect to each other ... well you get the picture.
You can imagine the look on my face this when I logged on AR and saw my points. I have to say that it feels pretty good. Not sure I'm getting any better at this, but then again, I never thought I'd get this far. Blogging isn't exactly something I thought I'd find myself doing. Just like I never thought that AR could be so addicting, but it is, and I am. It's been an awesome learning experience and I'm really enjoying being here. I hope that with time my posts will become more interesting to read.
Thank You All for helping me get this far.
I'm sure everyone here can remember hearing that silly little quote at one time or another. Well, nothing can be so true. My business line rang about 9:00PM this evening. Now I suppose that 8:00PM on a Sunday evening might be a little late to be calling to schedule an inspection, but what the heck I'm up, might as well answer it.
Sure enough it's a couple from New York City who just got home 30 minutes earlier. Their offer for their new house was accepted today and they drove up to sign all the paperwork. Their Realtor gave them a list of recommended inspectors and they were told they had 15 days to get their inspection done. They were told that the sooner the better, so they wanted to take care of it right away.
After dialing 5 other inspection firms they called me. Now I don't know if this list is in any sort of order. Am I number 6 on the list because the Realtor doesn't think much of me? Am I number 6 because it's in alphabetical order? Who knows, who cares? It doesn't really much matter since I'm the one who answered the phone, took the call and closed the deal. So thank you to the other 5 inspectors who were snoozing and did not answer their phone. If you don't remember anything else this week, remember this: When You Snooze, You Loose.
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