Ray Wilson - NYS Licensed Inspector

Many agents do not realize that inspectors should have certifications for some work involved in home inspection.

These days, you need a certification for just about everything. Lead-based paint inspection is just one of the many. Mold and air quality inspections require a certain protocall, as do radon and asbestos inspections. These certifications vary by state, and you should be aware of these things as a real estate agent.

Make sure the inspection company that you know has these certifications.

Don't be ridiculous, call Meticulous Home Inspection!

I used to wonder what it would take to succeed in business. I was never sure if the things I did REALLY brought in the money. The SEO, brochures and business cards, the networking meetings, dinners and luncheons. I really busted tail to attend AND CATER these events. I found out what works, and what doesn't on Long Island.

It took about four years to become established. The learning years were lean. But it was not hard to figure out a good formula.

Treat people like you want to be treated, and go the extra mile (and sometimes more), and you WILL be rewarded. - Ray

I performed a lead-based paint inspection for a woman whose 2 year old child had elevated blood lead levels, according to her doctor who had the childs' blood tested. The woman said she knew about the hazards of lead-based paint and never leaves her child unattended. She knows not to let the child play at the old window sills, or anything that is old or may have compromised painted surfaces. She even threw out a bunch of toys she suspected might be from China with posible lead-paint surfaces.

I asked the woman to describe her daily routine: where she goes, where the baby plays, etc. I just could not figure this one out. The painted surfaces were not chipping or flaking, and no renovations had taken place.

I took lead paint samples from window sills, walls and ceilings, doors, and trim anyway, but they all came back negative for lead-based paint. I could not figure out how the child could've gotten lead paint in her bloodstream. The mother never lets her baby near these surfaces like the old window sills.

After going back to the woman, who was obviously distraught because she could not figure out where the elevtated blood lead levels were coming from, I decided to stick around and wait for her husband to come home as it was late afternoon already.

Her routine was simple as the mother was a stay at home mom. But at the end of the day, she waits on the front stoop for her husband, and the baby loves to see her father get out of the car and walk up the walkway.

Then I saw it. The brick stoop itself had ben painted and the paint was flakin off. The child has her fingers in her mouth, then crawls around on the stoop with the flaking paint, then puts her fingers back in her mouth. Voila!

I then sampled some of the paint from the stoop, and the results came back as containing lead-based paint. This was obviously the cause.

The stoop paint was removed by a company that does lead abatement, and in this case the landlord had to pay for it.

Luckily, the baby will be fine. You just never know where hazards can be. Sometimes right under your _ s s (nose)!

I generally try to stay away from doing follow up inspections, especially on the morning of the closing. One good reason is that if things have not been rectified, it is somewhat late to do something about it.

I went to Hampton Bays, New York this morning to do a follow up inspection for a couple who wanted mold, roofing, boiler, and electrical items noted in the report repaired. In the report, I stated originally that 'licensed contractors evaluate the issues, and perform the needed repairs'. Of course, here on Long Island, nobody wants to pay for any kind of real contractor to do work, they want to do it themselve to save money. Who cares if it is done right? Right??

Well of course that was the case today. The mold issues were not completely remediated, as mold was still left behind, and I showed the client the photos on the back of my camera to prove it. The seller probably did the work himself, and I am sure was not a mold technician. The damaged shingle on the roof was not repaired, nor was the improper type gas line that feeds the gas boiler replaced, nor the electrical work I noted. I could not even remove the service panel cover as some idiot srewed the molding back on the wall around the panel so it could not be removed.

In this case, I had previously told the client I CANNOT and WILL NOT pass off anothers electrical work, or plumbing work, roofing work, or gas boiler work. I recommended they insist (and their lawyer should too) on receipts from a licensed contractor, this way if an electrical fire occurs for example, there is a means of recourse.

But it turned into a shouting match between the listing agent and the buyers. I stayed well away from being in the middle of it. I don't think the closing happened later that day, especially the way they were arguing, but there's no way for me to know. It is none of my buisiness anyway.

There were no receipts, because no one was hired to fix anything.

Why can't the right contractors get hired? Why can't realtors get their homeowners to fix things right? Why do homeowners insist on doing things they cannot do properly? Why are people so damn cheap?

And as for the buyers:

Why can't people be realistic about buying an older home and realize some things are the way they are due to age and previous use? Why do they walk into a house from the 1950's and expect everything to be up to modern building codes and standards? Why do they back out of deals for a measly $800 repair?

If you were selling your house after repairing wiring in the service panel, and you read in the newspaper a month later that someone's child died in an electrical fire in the house YOU JUST SOLD a month ago, how would you feel?

I performed an inspection in Nesconset, NY yesterday, and the house had a damaged gas meter on the side of the house. It looed as if a car crashed into the meter, but the seller did not bother to call the gas company. Apparently, when the driveway was installed along the side of the house, no one though to install bollards in front of the gas meter.

Bollards are those large steel pipes (usually painted yellow and filled with concrete) you see at the strip malls protecting the gas meters so cars, if someone looses control of one, cannot crash into these meters. My mother crashed into a Blokckbuster video 2 years ago, so these things do happen.

Any gas meter in a driveway, or heating equipment in garages, should have these steel bollards in front of them to avoid serious and expensive damage, and sometimes gas explosions.