Home inspection nightmares

[peppy]

I have seen some of these posted here before, but never this many.

Search | home inspection nightmares : This Old House

[GH85Carrera]

It is amazing what some people will do to "fix" a problem.

[wdfifteen]

In some cases the complains were as goofy as the repair. I liked the guy who complained that the "T" fitting was upside down.

[Normy]

On the side, I part-own a small company in Fort Lauderdale. We have two apartment complexes with 33 units, four houses, and two condos. We started out buying-fixing-flipping, but $5.5 million later....we are mostly rentals. We've done 6 percent most years, the exception last year.

Whenever we buy a property, we have a professional inspection done. But I've walked with a DOZEN inspectors, and learned the ropes; These days my own appraisal of a property typically mirrors the inspection. I know wood rot when I see it, I know termite damage, and you cannot hide a bad roof from me.

[All this from a kid who thought airplanes were everything?]

I almost went into architecture. My uncle was an architect, and I've always been interested in homes and buildings.

I have the best of both worlds: I'm a pilot for the BEST airline in the world, and on my days off I put a snake and a folding ladder in the back of my Porsche 928 and use it to make someone's toilet work. My dad made sure that I wasn't some protected kid- I was a landscaper in college, working 13 hour days cutting grass at Detroit Edison plants, and prior to that he had me cutting down 100 foot tall oak trees on his property in Michigan.

So it is fun to look at the images I see here, because I see the same thing all the time!

I want you to know ONE THING:

There is not a single property I own that has had work done WITHOUT A PERMIT.

WE do everything CORRECT. The [disgusting] city inspectors KNOW this. In South Florida, it used to be easy to pay off an inspector, but not that isn't the case. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, they got real tough, and the state started to seriously police these people, so you can't lose a few $20's anymore.

N!

[Joe Bob]

Do you pull a permit to swap out a water heater?