Home Inspections: What things they don’t inspect in your Albuquerque home

(Transcript Snippet): “Tracy:
So we’ve talked about home inspections before, but today we’re going to talk about what home inspectors, the general home inspection, the one who does the full house from roof to outside of the home, what things they don’t inspect. And, you know, it’s good because the list recently came out New Mexico, um, instituted a home inspector

Tego:
Licensing program.

Tracy:
It’s a requirement. So home inspectors went and got licensed, which many of them were, or they were members of large national companies that made sure that they knew what they were doing. Um, but now there’s licensing in place. So along with that came a really good list of things that they don’t look at. Right. But they’re not responsible for basically

Tego:
The list is, is, uh, it’s a 14 page document and it literally lists what they do and what they don’t do. But we just wanted to summarize some of the things that they don’t do, because we’ve seen that where, you know, somebody would say, well, why didn’t they look at the irrigation lines? Yeah. The sprinklers. Right,

Tracy:
Right. It’s just something that they don’t look at. It’s not a part of the general home. Right. So they don’t, so let’s go through some of I’m sure. I know a big one to go without looking at the list is that they don’t necessarily do a code inspection. Right. They don’t check things to make sure they’re up to code today. Right, right, right. Because the building codes change, you know, regularly,

Tego:
I think about the, just like a hot water heater, for example, let’s change so many times. And so, you know, if you have a hot water heater that was installed 10 years ago, 20 years ago, it’s going to be very different than if you’re getting installed today. So they’re not, you know, they’re not saying that that hot water heater isn’t up to the current code because when it was done, it was probably done to code or should it,

Tracy:
And they can’t expect the home inspector to know every code change. So they’re looking for general, um, hazards. They’re looking for, you know, things that could be a problem, but they’re not doing code work. So to speak. The other thing I know that they don’t do because I’ve been at a lot of home inspections is they don’t usually light appliances or turn things on, um, in general, if it’s not on. So if, um, the furnace is a non and its time, the furnace should be on, they won’t light. If the, if the, uh, pilot light isn’t lit, they’re not gonna light the pilot light. Right. Correct. And fireplaces, same thing. They typically don’t inspect fireplaces. And if it’s a gas fireplace and the pilot light, isn’t lit, they’re not going to light it. You know, if it’s a switch on the wall, they’ll probably turn it on, but they’re not going to do a Fireplace.

Tego:
And let me just address that. Cause you said fireplace, well, I want to get my fireplace and spec. Well, there’s people that do that right there. There’s fireplace specialists that will look at a fireplace and think about, you know, sewer lines. Right. So scoping a sewer line with a camera to see if it’s good, right? The, the standard general home inspection doesn’t do that, but you can hire somebody to do that septic tanks, another example, right. It’s a specialist that’s going to do that. Right.

Tracy:
You know, you think about the fireplaces and it’s not just, if it’s a gas one or a wood-burning one, but there’s the whole chimney all the way up. And so, you know, somebody inspecting the chimney in addition to just the fireplace unit. Right. And they typically don’t do that. So the, the other things that they don’t do Tiko,

Tego:
I mean, in general, it’s they in? And this is kind of covered the whole thing. They don’t take things apart. They don’t poke into walls. They don’t dismantle stuff. They don’t, they don’t do anything that could hurt the property either. Right. So it’s, you know, any of those things, they’re not gonna, you know, take, pull the dishwasher and unscrew it and take it all apart to see, you know, what’s going on in the back. Right. And then, and then they’re not gonna run or turn something on that isn’t operating in its normal sense. So, and this is an extreme example, but I’ll give it to you anyway. So there’s a garbage disposal. Right. And they flipped a switch on the wall and the garbage disposal doesn’t come on. Right. Well, they look under the sink and it’s not plugged in. Okay. They’d probably plug that in. Right. And turn it on. Right. To see if it works. But that’s an example right there that that’s a norm. Again, that’s a very extreme example, but the normal operating way to do it, as you flipped a switch on the wall or the counter and turn on the disposal, and if it doesn’t work, then they not write down. Disposal did not didn’t work. Right. They don’t change light bulbs. They don’t do anything like that as well. Another example. So totally.

Tracy:
Um, so another thing that I’ve seen quite a bit, we don’t have a lot of crawl spaces here, but we have addicts in a lot of our homes and a few homes have crawl spaces, but if the space isn’t large, they’re not going to go in, they’ll maybe put their head in and shine a flashlight or something, but they’re not going to put on their coveralls and go into a crawlspace. That’s not adequately sized or they’re not going to go into a roof attic if it’s not adequately sized. So, you know, it’s, it’s a tough one, but we have seen a lot of like, especially the pest inspectors, I’ve seen them put on their coveralls and come out covered in cobwebs and say, boy, there’s a lot of, uh, black widows down there.

Tego:
Yeah.

Tracy:
But that’s only when there’s enough room for them to do that.

Tego:
Yeah. And I think in general, Tracy, in this conversation is that, you know, the home inspection to general home inspection is intended to give a full scope of the visual, visual, you know, great way to put, they

Tracy:
Do turn on things. So if there’s a dishwasher, they’ll run it. Right. Right, right. They’ll check a furnace, they’ll check an air conditioning unit if the outside temperature allows because they can’t turn it on. If it’s too cold outside for a regular refrigerated air conditioner, they, they just can’t. It could damage the unit and freeze, freeze it up. Um, so lots of, lots of things that we’re wanting to make sure that our clients, when it’s a full home, they know this is what they do. This is what they don’t do. So there’s a new 14 page document that kind of covers what they do and what they don’t do. But most home inspectors have their own disclosures too. The other thing to remember Tico about home inspections is it’s a snippet snapshot of time. That’s a good way to put it, right. This is the house, the moment that that home inspector went through it.

Tracy:
And right when they leave something could break. I mean the very next day something stops working, right? So they say they don’t more into anything. They don’t provide a bunch of, um, warranties, coverage, anything they’re just saying at this time, this is what I found the house to be in the condition of. They don’t go into a bathroom and remove a tile and make sure there’s no mold behind the bath tub surround or, you know, it’s, it’s what they can see visually. And so not all things are found, you know, if somebody has a concern about mold, there’s a mold tester person. You can get out there. Right?

Tego:
Yeah. Well, we have this long list of, you know, of all the different types of inspections that you can get that we go through when we’re, uh, you know, somebody who’s looking at a home to, you know, generally though you’re going to get a full home inspection. Right. And I would never recommend that somebody not get a full home inspection, even if they’re there, they’ve already agreed to accept the home as, as is meaning they’re, you know, they’re going to, they’re going to just accept it no matter what they find, you still want to know what you’re dealing with. Right? You still want to know what the condition of the property is. Um, and then the other inspection we generally see, uh, happening is a, is a wood destroying. Insect is the proper term, but basically the termite inspection we’re destroying insect and, uh, uh, possibly, uh, dry rod inspection with that. That’s just checking a wood for wood, wood damage. So anyway, there’s a long list and, you know, we, we, we, we could spend an hour going through it, but it’s, there’s, there’s a lot to look at.