Home Inspection Tips and Tricks with Juan Garcia

[Music] hi this is Juan Garcia I'm certified professional inspector here with internachi we're going to do some some tips I'm going to show you some things that we actually do in real life from business also you can help you guys out there in the real world we're going to do an inspection it's not going to be for training for class so if you see that I don't look at something that judge me too hard that dia here is to point out some things that happens and give you guys some tips please follow me on so we get started with inspection all right so we're going to do a roof inspection but number one safety safety is always first if you don't feel safe you do not need to claim on that roof if it's known if it's icy do not walk on the roof if you're going to do a visual inspection put on the report that is visual inspection that you do not work the roof for safety reasons and this roof here in particular we thought we noted here that there's some loose tiles right throughout the roof so I'm not going to walk the entire roof I'm going to recommend for licensed roofer to come and do a further evaluation whether the roof needs to be repaired or doesn't need to be replaced now depends on the edge of the roof the roof might still have remaining useful life and it might not get my only needed repair so when you talk to your client let them know hey listen don't panic don't think this is a dead deal because you might have a faulty roof might be able to have a repair the room and continue have remaining useful life so because you we have a deficiency in the roof doesn't mean that you know you don't have to cancel the contract so we do going to show you a tool that is going to be very useful also when you have limited access tool for the roof here we have a spectroscope you can find this in the inspector outlet website so we're going to show you here when you don't have access to the roof is to height we're going to show you how we can take a quick look at the roof using here we have a bowl broke camera on this nice pool I had the camera the phone there with the app where is the blue tool activated so we can see here in the camera we can see a red on the phone now this spectroscope it goes up to 25 feet high so it's really cool and here we don't need to extend it all the way to the end now when you use the tool like this take a note on the report that I know that it was a visual inspection with the camera so you were not able to physically have it out or shingle or whatever you know surface we have in that roof so using the camera here we can I can see the roof I can see the gutters I can see that's a good amount of debris on the gutter so we're going to put a little tip to clean those loaders up we can see the chimney exhaust there and they look like the extender on the right side often one of the safety things that we find that the compulsion chimney exhaust folder for the gas here so for the water heater doesn't expand long enough on the roof so those are say two things that we have to take a note in the report we're here with the spectroscope it makes our life a lot easier sometimes what we need it we're going to go ahead and get started inside and continue to share some tips that is going to be absolutely very useful for you on out there in the real world [Music] so we're going to go ahead and we're going to get started with the inspection inside the house but first I want to share some tips I was in the military with the military police and one thing that we learned when we go to clear building is that you have to pick a direction you go left or you go right and you stick to that I apply the same principle here in the home inspections I'll teach it to my students or to the guys that work with me like that when you're going to direction you hit the kitchen the bathroom the bedroom but you don't miss a location if you go from one place to another you run the risk of missing something if you also if you have a customer that has a lot of questions I tell them hey I want to do a good job for you so if you don't mind please hold those questions or write it down at the end of my inspection we'll do a wall - I know you know I can answer any question that you guys have of course my technique might not work for everybody but this is what we do and if it works for you I hope it could be very useful so let's get started here all right so we're going to go ahead and get started on the kitchen inspection this is not going to be a full detailed inspection in the kitchen more like some of the tips some things that you might miss doing an inspection especially if you're anywhere inspector so some of the things that I like to do here I have a flashlight it is daylight I can see all the surface but however when you point with the flashlight the ceiling you can really see if there's any any stains any cracks you can have a lot more detail when you have a flashlight even even through the daylight another thing that I can see some of the inspectors made especially when they're new is that they turn the water on it works to turn it back off they don't let it run long enough you have to let the water run and long enough let's say you have a breakage on the pipe on the drainage somewhere outside the house or in another area if that water doesn't run long enough is you know going to see the back up so you gotta let it run five ten minutes as many older houses I'd like to put all the water to run a ten pound shower sink bathroom kitchen to make sure that the water pressure is proper in all the rooms because sometimes you're going to see that you have water pressure in the kitchen you think a shower on pressure is done you want to make sure the entire house has enough water pressure here one thing that we should do always is that as soon as you turn the water on you want to look underneath because if there's a leak you want to find about it right away you don't want to be let the water run and start causing additional damage that might not be necessary while checking here we're going to check the garbage disposal we're going to check the shut-off valve the type of plumbing that it comes and here I can see that there's copper coming out to the shuttle ball but something specially put with poly butylene you have to check behind the cabinet somehow or underneath to see what is the source of the plumbing pipe coming in so look a little tip additional things to cover you know besides checking the windows the outlets every door every drawer the countertops hopefully that things that will help you get out so we're going to do the living room but one thing you have not seen in this video with my phone and actually I use my phone a lot usually we take over a hundred pictures for inspection so you haven't seen it now doesn't mean that I won't use it when I'm out there average 100 150 depends on the size of the house if the average amount of pictures that we do well construction last thing you want to do is to go right down the report whether you rather than the vehicle at the moment of the healthy rather baby run if you know that you forgot something and you need to call the realtor the seller to come back to the house to take a picture so it's really important you take plenty of pictures don't be shy on pictures if you phone doesn't have enough memory I'm sorry to tell you for this business you need to get one with a lot of memory because you're going to have thousands of pictures in your phone but here we're going to go ahead and inspect the chimney what we're inspecting the chimney recommendation always do to the clients make sure that shin is clear or clean at least once a year you always want to cover yourself on the shinden here we're going to note that it appears that has been recently used we're going to take the flashlight we're going to look at it as its hatch you're going to look in there everywhere instead of shave me now if we don't have disability all the way to the top want to make sure that we put a note on it and we also going to put a note that it was not 100% visible the access of the region activity but also means that because it's been work appears to be working I'm going to put a little note say that appeared to be in working condition at time of inspection every time we write something the report we put a little note that occurs at time of intersection because we want to explain to our clients that whatever was working today's inspection we can not guarantee that it's going to work in the future so we're going to take that note when we write the chimney notes and the report while inspecting the sliding door I see that there is a safety bar here at the bottom a lot of people like to use it this is perfectly fine however this does not replace at the actual at work so I want to make sure that we can test a lug here this lug as a vegetable mechanism I can see that it works we're going to check the rollers we're going to check the door in entirety so I want to make sure that the window the seals are working all the way across we're going to check on the second level windows there for some reason we cannot access it always take a note we're going to go check the window again here we're not going to be very detailed because we want to keep it short here on this window here I can see that some of the seals are missing I'm going to put a little note on that I want to make sure that we can open the window pan make sure that it works properly quite often most of the time I like to do a Moisture test on the Border's here make sure there's no water intuition to the window seals or if you have an infrared camera you can use the infrared whatever you think might suit best you need alright so now we're going to get inspect outside its here power so now we're going to take some of the electrical system here Safety's always first I just removed the cover down here using the cover we take a picture of the label here there's no brand no label on it put a comment on that an electrical panel I learned from electricians always to touch it with you you know with the back of your hand if this thing is life and it sucks you and you can't contract you're not going to get juggle it's not that away from the panel we have already pre-done simulation some of these are already set here so we can make this nicer and easier even in the outside I use the flashlight to make sure that I go from top to bottom from bottom to top whichever that I call every wire here I want to make sure there is no double tabs if we have copper wiring cloth wiring we just really have to go to the electrical everywhere and check the bushes the Knockouts make sure there's no safety hazards anything life out there the breakers what brand of the breaker is check all the training videos from internachi where we talked about the four point report that is really going to go into the electrical system especially for insurance purposes but here we're going to check the panel or the one going through we have the breaker diffused here for the AC system so we're going to check everything out detail about the you all right so we have covered some of the part of the inspections in the outside please follow me inside let's get in there okay so when inspecting the bathroom food additives here which is that that ventilator always works when I flush the toilet a few times check that shuttle valve and a toilet also make sure that is installed correctly that is not loose that is not leaking anything with the benefit that the vanity is installed properly one piece that I'm going to meet that I forgot a few times when I first start was to check the doors Oh welcome to the bottom inspect everything but I will not check that door closed properly right now so make sure from the beginning you go from the beginning entrance on the bottom of the doors check all the walls from the bottom to the top to the ceiling outlets switches water pressure water drainage electricity that everything gets checked out don't miss anything if you see a rock a dirt road once in a while you're gonna have somebody to put an arrow up to height or cover up damage on the floor so when I see an error rope I always remove the area I want to make sure that I can expect what so many depends what part of the country you are this might be known as the furnace room mechanical room or just the closet with the water heater in the heater system so we're going to go ahead and go inside here and show some of the some of the things that it's going to be helpful and for me it's pretty more one of the most important areas for inspecting the house one of the reasons that I think this is probably one of the most important areas in the house is because there's there's some safety things that are going on here that always we need to make sure that it is installed properly quite often we see we hear action that happens unfortunately where people have passed away because of gas leak and this is one of the location that it you might start the combustion can hear the this hybrid system we really need to make sure that it's working properly if you're doing an inspection and you do not understand the mechanical system that says it has some high-tech equipment or something electronic that you're not used to it let the buyer know write it down recommend another professional to do it now they with solar systems and digital panel the Salado system that we might not be familiar with and we're not here to be the knurled guys so if there's something that you do not know take a note let somebody know - you know if you see something suspicious to bring somebody else and check it out but here we're going to go ahead and do an inspection here in the gas water heater you know the cold water the hot water the lines make sure they're connected run this drainage system is connected all the way down to the drain so we're going to use the flashlight here water heater looks pretty good there's no rust at the bottom it doesn't have a pan but because they have the drainage lines all the way to the drainage we're going to leave a that we're going to check the pilot system this is where the gas goes on on the water here we're going to make sure that it's working properly little light here and the entrance is lighting okay now always put on the Ru report how old is the water heater this one is for 2007 so this will here's official I'll talk to my clients always how old it is and what is the average useful life I believe for some states it is a requirement to write down the age and remaining useful life of their equipment AC system mechanical system the piping electrical you really want to go to everything when you're going to room first make sure there's no loose wires that you can get shot so safety is always first make sure that you're well protected before you start expecting the area all right so another tip that we have here when inspecting water heaters or HVAC systems I have my iPhone here it's a website called building standard that port here on the website you can check the age of the system it tells you what brand you put what brand it is and they'll tell you the Pens on the fuel number model number a big exactly how you can figure out the age if the system doesn't have a clear label with the manufactured date on it it's a tool that I always have on hand makes my life a lot easier here we're going to inspect the bedroom really quickly notes I have the ladder on the door so I'm going to take this board later I like to use a flashlight even if they like you cannot really see so many things in the ceiling I can see the different amount of poplar in some area we're looking at the city and I can see here just attached so when I go to the Attic I really want to check on top of this area I want to make sure that the sheeting above this area here that is I can see it has a prior repair it doesn't have a coin leak and we'll do a moisture test on that would also as possible so we're going to check the ceiling the walls top to bottom if there's too much furniture in the house always taking notes I don't know that some areas might not were not accessible due to amount of furniture and we also going to test the outlets the light in here check the floor the carpet this carpet looks pretty good but we're going to look all the way around we have the electrical tested so we can test every outlet on the house wanna check all the windows so I'm about to go ahead and get up an addict to get started but I want to show you the story first something that really happened one of the guys I was working with me while he was doing the termite inspection he opened their attic access panel and as soon as he opened the panel a rat jump into his head ran out he was already afraid of rats so now for every spectrum he wears a baseball cap nobody can make him take that thing off especially we're going to add it so after his experience one thing that I do that I always not on it now if I have my customer with me and I don't want the customer noticing that I'm knocking in the door like get out of way because I have fun many creators of this I'll move the panel action a little bit just enough to make them know that there's a critter there they can hear that I'm going in so they have time to move away because we don't want to go into confrontation all right so now when go into the Attic always want to make sure that I have my glove have enough wood going into my hands and I've seen the Attic besides the mechanical room furnace room it's a very important area because you can see sometimes you can see a roof that it looks good in a visible way when you go to the attic and you check that shitty that's where you're really sure that there's no water or moisture coming to the roof so we're not going to record up there today but we're going to do a very detailed inspection on the attics now for your inspection report take a note if there's if you don't have this utility of a hundred percent of the attic write it down let your client know you know I have some disability restrained for whatever reason due to insulation due to lack of access but if you cannot expect 100% of the attic especially the sheathing to make sure there's no moisture leak you want to disclose that on the report you want to make sure that somebody that comes after you because you didn't expect something that you did not let them know alright so thank you for watching us hope that we have been able to share some tips that will help you with your getting start on the business if you already been in the business some things that are refreshers or maybe some things that will help you to improve your business take it to the next level talking about taking it to the next level we're planning to continue to do some more trainings and share some ideas and businesses here at internachi so please stay tuned for future events [Music]

Channel: Ben Gromicko

Views: 115,423

Keywords: internachi, home inspection training class, home inspector, ben gromicko, juan garcia, home inspection school

Id: Ugp8mvR5LNk

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2017