Tomacor's Perspective

Radon and Radon Mitigation

tomacor — Sat, 19 May 2012 16:37:37 +0000

Is it difficult to sell homes when the radon mitigation system has already been installed? And if it is already installed, what to look for?
Air pressure inside your home is usually lower than pressure in the soil around your home’s foundation. Because of this difference in pressure, your home acts like a vacuum, drawing radon in through foundation cracks and other openings.
In selecting to install a radon mitigation system for your own home, you should consider several things such as, how high your radon level is, cost, home size and foundation type. However, selecting to install one eventually will slightly increase your electric bill depending on the system you select.
Most people are concerned about the general attitude toward a house that may have a system of radon. And that could be a problem they don’t want to have when they sell the house years down the road.
The sellers sometimes mark N/A on the radon mitigation portion of the seller disclosure. Not disclosing the awareness of radon and/or that it had been mitigated is odd. It is a good idea to retest the home at least every 2 years to be sure radon levels remain low. The buyer should ask the seller for the recent test to make sure there is not an existing issue.
In addition, changes to your home, such as remodeling or an addition, after the system has been installed may void any warranties. The homeowner should retest again.

How do you maintain the upkeep of an old church?

tomacor — Sat, 19 May 2012 16:32:02 +0000

Church buildings play an instrumental role in the social and aesthetic fabric of neighborhoods. In a building that is more than 50 years old, there’s continual maintenance and many people don’t realize what’s involved in the upkeep of an older building. During our site visit on May 7th 2012, we started with a brief meeting with the church treasury and then began the site inspection accompanied by a maintenance professional. We visually inspected the exterior of the church and then turned to inspect the interior and the entire facility.
Over the course of the inspection, we found condensation on the concrete slab in the basement and standing water; moisture appeared to be wicking up through the concrete. Mice and their footprints were seen everywhere around the crawlspace. Not surprisingly, we found a termite tunnel in the concrete wall. On the electrical side, we found over-fusing in the panel with the steam boiler valve discharging steam into the air of the basement with a loud hissing in the background the entire time we were working on the panel. Is that enough of a nightmare?
One need only remember the age-old advice from Benjamin Franklin “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. The proper maintenance of the church on a routine basis to protect and ensure the long life of the building would prevent the problems from reaching a magnitude where special contractors and large expenditures would be required to correct it.

Another Satisfied Customer

tomacor — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:37:10 +0000

“I wanted to thank you for your constructive explanation on various details and let you know how much I enjoyed with you today. The time we spent discussing the aspects related to exterior, structure, roof, plumbing, electrical, heat/ac, batch were extremely informative and interesting.

I was very impressed with your description of the check list and guide you gave with all the pointers on the defective stuff. After the inspection, I assessed what I had learned about the new construction can do to an old construction. With all the feedback in the inspection, I think I can make a best case to effectively list all the A’s, B’s & C’s to meet my quality standards.” -Krishna

Why do people accept bad repairs to their homes?

tomacor — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:16:34 +0000

Why do people accept a poorly performed repair service for their home? It is your world away from the world, your private solace, and your most personal space, so why would you accept a subpar repair? Anyone who has owned a home for any length of time has had to deal with home repairs and the older the home, the more likelihood there is for things to go wrong. If you have someone replace your roof and a month later you have a leak, what went wrong? What can you do? Most often homeowners tend to hire the least expensive quotes from a contractor. Not to say that you should never hire the contractor with the cheapest bid, you don’t always get what you pay for, but the adage isn’t always false either. Do your due diligence and research any contractor before you bring them on board. If a job is incomplete, firing them is an obvious step, though not an easy one to make; and it still leaves you with the trouble of finding a new contractor to complete the job! One of the biggest complaints I hear from homeowners who have been taken by their contractors is that they paid too much money up front and the job was not completed satisfactorily and upon following up, the calls were never returned. Are they qualified to repair your home? While it’s easy to tell when a repair is done incorrectly, it’s difficult to judge the quality of the contractor. The best thing you can do for yourself and your home is to perform the strongest due diligence possible, research, and look for testimonies of past clients. Know who you are hiring to work for you, verify their license. Are they bonded? Licensed? Know what you can expect from them on every level, otherwise, you had better start researching civil suits.

Cheers! To our loyal clients!

tomacor — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:50:01 +0000

It is always good to see your old clients again. When you have a loyal client who sticks with you through thick and thin, that’s a gift! Think about your favorite restaurant; the one to which you always return, where the hosts know you by name and the servers know just how you like your tea or coffee and your “usual”. A client with whom you share a personal relationship is a boon.
Trust is the best way to go when choosing a home inspector; an inspector you know and trust yourself or the referral of someone in whose opinions you trust. In the case of the former, our clients know we are thorough and that we put our clients’ interests above our own. For the latter, we continue to grow through the appreciated referrals of our clients who share their stories of our consultation and teamwork with their friends. For all of our clients, both old and new, we would like to extend our great thanks!

Nice condo, deceivingly deadly! Carbon Monoxide risk…

tomacor — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:48:46 +0000

Most Homeowners are afraid of carbon monoxide. Who isn’t? Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can at best make you ill or worse is potentially deadly when found in large concentrations inside your home.
Last week I did an inspection for a young lady and her mother. They were looking for a small space to live and this 2 bedroom condominium seemed to suit her.
Over the course of our inspection, I found a large closet door. Inside, all the home’s gas appliances, water heater, washer, dryer and furnace, are all hooked up in the same space with no wall partitions between them. When these gas appliances do not receive enough fresh air, unburned fuel may be released in the form of carbon monoxide; a potentially serious problem in this case with them all in the same closed area, and it is surprising that the previous inspector did not call this out. Additionally, the homeowner had removed the carbon monoxide alarm. Never ignore an alarm! It is there to provide added protection, but is no substitute for upkeep of the source of the carbon monoxide emissions.
The mother seemed a bit concerned regarding the issue with carbon monoxide buildup in the home. It would either cost a lot of money to fix correctly or the easier route would be to walk away from the deal. If they’d built it right in the first place, they would have had a buyer!

Buyer takes a bath

tomacor — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:34:09 +0000

Most people believe that a newly constructed home is always perfect and safe; is it true? The answer is “No”. In order to save on construction costs, for example, some developers do not adhere strictly to the blueprints when building a home; they cut corners or use poor quality materials. Recently, I inspected a new construction home for a buyer. The home is only 4 years old but the exterior masonry is covered with water stains at all elevations. I thought to myself, “This poorly constructed home has been taking in water.” And what will happen next? Yes, mold….you heard it right. Over the course of the inspection, I noted that the developer used poor quality flashing materials and the lintels had been caulked with silicone which can trap water inside the brick. Judging by the mortar, it appears the house has seen multiple repairs to stop the intake of water. When buying your new home, it’s crucial to have your home inspector give a thorough inspection before purchasing so you know exactly what you’re getting now, what you may have to deal with down the line and what you may have to rectify when the time comes to sell the property.

Rusted Rods

tomacor — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:34:53 +0000

Look at the welded rode at the bottom. Note they are not rusted and their in no water leakage. Why replace it if it’s not broken. Remember this beauty needs 50 cubic feet of combustion air 1,000 btu of size. Is the basement 50,000 square feet?

Up and Close Real Estate

tomacor — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:26:28 +0000

After having spent the last few days reading articles from around the country that comment on the real estate industry, there is still no answer about where the market is going. Everybody’s talking about the real estate buying process. Articles such as “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Home Inspection?”, “When Home Inspections Go Bad” and “Is Your Realtor the Enemy?” have appeared in the Huffington Post, CNN (Money) and Home Inspection USA. Questions like “What’s your interest rate?” and “Could you afford the North Shore?” and “Are thirty year mortgages are thing of the past?” are everywhere. Although I find these topics interesting, my bread and butter is derived from defective homes. Homes that make people sick, homes where people sleep next to water heaters pumping out carbon monoxide, and homes where people sleep the basement even when it has flooded.

Both expensive and inexpensive buildings exhibit problems. I’ll work with anybody who wants to “get at the truth”. That’s what we do at Tomacor. We try our best to identify the most significant life safety issues that will impact both the home’s livability and it’s value. We don’t find everything. After all, it is a visual inspection and it’s never perfect.

After twenty eight years in the business of inspecting home purchases, I have some stories to share, of the terrific as well as the horrific. Some of the ones below reveal the cost of not being prepared, not being savvy, when you enter into the real estate market as a buyer. And most people are not, because they don’t buy new homes every year.

As a way to educate consumers and bring life back to the real estate market, Tomacor has decided to take these stories to you. Stories like the one client who bought a farm in the Rockford area and hired an inspector who turned out to be the real estate agent’s son. Ten days after closing, after having lost several nights of congested sleep, she discovered that her attic was full of mold. Apparently, the inspector hadn’t looked up into the attic. She removed the entire roof structure and rebuilt it.

Another client moved into a house in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago, after hiring another inspector recommended by his agent. The buyer wasn’t present at his inspection, but a large colony of termites was. After the buyers bought and had to strip the building, it became apparent these termites had been active for more than twenty five years. Even the roof rafters were sagging and cracking with the termite damage.

Then there’s the client who moved into a new condominium in Chicago. It didn’t have an electric meter. The common areas were eventually turned over and a Condo Board was created. Still no meter. The developer was able to pass on the ownership of the common area (and its outstanding electrical invoice) to the new owners. The Board and the unit owners had to pay the general contractor’s electric bill. Most buyers were ignorant of the fact that these folks paid for months of electrical usage which should have been paid by the developer.

Finally, a condo owner contacted me two years after his purchase of a new north side condominium complex. No masonry flashings were in place and water had migrated through exterior walls and onto his floor. The Brazilian cherry wood flooring was ruined. Black mold was present along many of the exterior walls in his unit. Sam, not his real name, went to the doctor and found out he had a fungal infection in his lungs. He began to cough up blood. If this wasn’t bad enough, his wife was five months pregnant. They moved in with family and the condo went back to the bank.
Each of these problems was resolved in a different way. Sometimes through legal action, sometimes through paying out big dollars in repair costs.

Do you have a real estate story that would benefit others if shared? Do you know someone else who would like to benefit others by sharing their story? Some of you may even have stories about the crazy things that happened to you when you were selling. We’ll take them. We don’t have any prizes or giveaways. Tomacor’s focus in this process is recruiting people with informative stories that can educate all of us and help restore the integrity to the real estate buying process.

We’re in a recession that has seriously impacted the value of real estate; poor construction detailing resulting in serious deficiencies has devalued our real estate investments as much or more than the mortgage crisis. It seems to me a relevant question for us to ask is: “How did we get here?” and “How do we get out ?” Tomacor is committed to helping develop a new real estate paradigm. We’re hoping to lift the standards of the home inspection industry, by making thorough inspections and accurate, transparent disclosures of building condition the norm.

“In real estate what you don’t know will cost you plenty!”
This has been Tomacor’s motto for the last 28 years. You as consumers can help this become the industry-wide standard by insisting on a tough, thorough, independent home inspection industry and a well-educated home-buying public interested in homes – not just as good investments, but as places to safely raise their families. Thanks in advance for your collaboration!
Tom Corbett
The Home Reckoner©

Consumer education limits poor choices.

tomacor — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:09:44 +0000

Tomacor has helped create the Illinois Predatory Lending Law while assisting the U.S. Attorney in pursuing predatory criminals.

A west side real estate company bought FHA repossessed property, then lent down payment money to unsuspecting consumers who bought these properties at above market prices thinking they were “rehabbed”, when they were only cosmetically altered. As the properties fell down, literally, around their ears, the unsuspecting buyers were forced into foreclosure. This scam was run hundreds of times costing millions of dollars. Real estate agents received their commission on the sale and profit from the “rehab” – the rehab that never took place.

Home inspection has become common practice in Illinois with most real estate agents recommending it. Specific areas in the city with few inspections include the west and south sides where some consumers struggle to afford the extra $300-$500 for a quality inspection. Some are openly discouraged by sellers and their representatives from getting a home inspection. Conflicted home inspectors referred by crooked agents can never identify problems. Their money comes from the real estate agent referral process.

Having said all that, Tomacor encourages people who buy residential real estate today to just be careful. The prices are cheap, and the mortgages cheaper – but what’s the condition?

Buyers should memorize the phrase “caveat emptor”. Nowhere in the marketplace can you lose your shirt as fast as in real estate. Nowhere does the consumer, often times your Average Joe or Jill, need more protection than in the real estate market. If you’re buying real estate, you must protect yourself by hiring independent inspectors, attorneys, mortgage brokers and real estate agents. Professional real estate attorneys and independent home inspectors can provide you with budgets for repairs and help you negotiate the real estate purchasing pitfalls even if they come at you at 100 mph.