Hello and welcome. This is Nolan Formalarie with Discover NC Homes and Nolan’s News. Today I have Tyler French with me of Catalyst Home Inspection (https://www.catalysthomeinspections.net).
Nolan
Tyler, thank you for coming and being part of us today. I have a very interesting topic: homeowners don’t quite understand, on the selling end, meaning I have the listing, you or someone else does the home inspection and it’s a really relevant topic and a good question about the age of the home: obviously a home built in 1960 or 1990, or even 2010, is not up to the same building codes as a home built in 2020 or 2021. So how do you work with that when you write a home inspection, knowing that something is going to fail, but also knowing that at the time the home was built, it was built to code?
Tyler
Sure. I think you hit the nail on the head. Standards have changed so much from 1960 to 2020. There have been improvements everywhere, in every facet of a home build.
My job as an inspector is to point out either hazards or areas of repair and improvement. If I looked at a home that was built 2015, when GFCI standards were clearly established and I don’t see a GFCI in the kitchen or a bathroom or some water source where there’s a need for elevated protection, I’m going to call it out as a safety hazard and say that that builder or that owner made a mistake.
Now if it’s an older home where these standards weren’t established at that time, a lot of times I like to phrase it as maybe requesting an upgrade or it would be a smart upgrade for the home and for the value of the home, if they would install GFCIs or any safety concern, smoke detectors in bedrooms.
Nolan
Now, when, when you write this or you – I’m not going to use the word “failing”, but I think you probably just said it the way you worded as the way it’s going to be put into the report. But as a homeowner, as the seller, do you think they should be required to do this? I know you’re required to do your job. But, explain to me on that a little bit. Do you think sometimes it should be required?
Tyler
I think that is a good value boost and I think it shows when you improve things like that, even if it’s an older home that you’re on top of things that you’re proactive, that you’re doing preventative work on the house and as the buyer, I would imagine that carries weight.
But I don’t think it should be mandatory. I think that that’s up to the sellers prerogative. It’s not fair to hold someone to a standard of 30 years ago or 30 years forward. I think it’s kind of all how you look at it, but, you know, um, I think I always like to err on the side of safety.
Nolan
And I do believe too, when you do write these items up, I do believe you actually put the year when the code was put in place, which is nice. So you are calling it out, but you’re also saying, you know, it wasn’t a code at the time that this home was built, which is a good way of doing it. Thank you, I appreciate it, Tyler. Thank you for your time and we’ll see you soon.
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About Nolan Formalarie
Nolan Formalarie has been in the North Carolina Real Estate Industry for over 8 years and enjoys every minute of it. He is involved in every aspect of the industry including selling and purchasing residential property, home watch services, property management, association management and construction.
