Pre‑listing inspections can be a game changer for Atlanta home sellers. In this episode, top REALTOR® Judy Jernigan sits down with Roland LeClair, Adam Goldner and Patrick Jones of Pelorus Home Inspections & Environmental Research Group to demystify the pre‑listing inspection process. The discussion explains how an inspection done before going on the market gives sellers a strategic edge – it uncovers potential deal‑breakers early, informs pricing and repairs, and builds trust with buyers This leads to smoother negotiations, fewer surprises and a faster closing.
Why pre‑listing inspections matter: An inspection before listing can mean the difference between multiple offers and none. It helps identify issues that could derail a sale and allows sellers to fix them on their own timeline rather than under pressure during negotiations.
How inspections support pricing strategy: Knowing the condition of the home allows you and your agent to price confidently. In Judy’s market, pricing is “your first handshake with the market”; price too high and you linger, too low and you leave money on the table. Data‑driven pricing and proactive repairs help you hit the “sweet‑spot” range.
Common issues Atlanta sellers can address: Roland, Adam and Patrick share the top maintenance problems they see, from neglected HVAC systems to minor plumbing leaks. Fixing small issues up front prevents buyers from perceiving the home as neglected.
Radon testing & environmental concerns: Learn when radon testing is recommended, what EPA levels mean and how mitigation works.
Choosing the right inspector: The Pelorus team explains how to vet inspectors and why experience matters (Roland has performed over 10,000 inspections; Adam brings high‑end construction expertise; Patrick is both a REALTOR® and certified inspector).
Sellers who invest in pre‑listing inspections are better prepared for the market. They can strategically price their home, anticipate buyer concerns and avoid costly surprises during negotiations. This transparency reduces buyer anxiety and can lead to faster sales and higher offers. Judy’s own clients have achieved remarkable outcomes—for example, a case study she shares on her podcast shows sellers receiving seven offers in 36 hours and selling for 104.3 % of list price.
Inspect early, fix quickly: Schedule a pre‑listing inspection several weeks before you plan to list. Use the report to tackle small repairs—especially mechanical issues, water intrusion and safety hazards—to avoid last‑minute renegotiations.
Use the inspection to inform pricing: Work with your agent to integrate inspection findings into your pricing strategy. Judy notes that pricing sets the tone for your sale; having an accurate assessment of your home’s condition helps you choose a competitive yet realistic price.
Communicate transparently: Provide the inspection report to serious buyers. Being open about your home’s condition builds trust and reduces the likelihood of deal‑breaking surprises.
Hire experienced inspectors: Pelorus recommends choosing inspectors with deep experience and certifications, not just the lowest price. Look for professionals who understand local building codes and environmental factors, and who can clearly explain their findings.
Judy’s website offers data‑driven articles that complement this episode. For deeper insights on pricing, value and selling strategy, explore the following posts:
“How to Price Your Luxury Home Competitively in Brookhaven–Atlanta” – This guide explains why pricing is the first handshake with the market and shows that luxury homes in Brookhaven now average 60–90 days on market. It outlines step‑by‑step strategies for understanding neighborhood pricing, evaluating your home’s unique value and choosing a pricing band.
“What determines the value of a luxury home in Brookhaven today?” – Judy notes that luxury value is more about lifestyle than just the price tag. Value is influenced by micro‑neighborhoods, school options, architecture and move‑in readiness. The article lists seven drivers of price—including comps, condition, walkability and negotiation strategies—and provides current market data (e.g., Brookhaven median sale price ≈ $670 000 with average 57 days on market).
“Why Work With Judy Jernigan? Sage Advice & Gracious Service” – This profile highlights Judy’s 20‑year media and marketing background and her record of helping 100+ families achieve over $40 million in sales. Clients praise her preparedness and attention to detail, and the article notes that Judy has 75+ five‑star Google reviews.
If you enjoy this conversation, Judy’s podcast series covers many other topics that help Atlanta sellers succeed. Here are a few episodes with links to their episode pages (RSS) and brief descriptions:
| Episode | Description & Link |
|---|---|
| Ep 18 – “Overwhelmed by Stuff? A Stress‑Free Estate Sale Plan for Home Listing” | Judy and Steve Holcombe of Castle Estate Sales discuss how professional estate sales help homeowners declutter, generate cash and get market‑ready. |
| Ep 17 – “What Every Seller Should Know About Photos and Videos” | Casey McClintic of Urban Marketing Edge explains why high‑quality photography and videography are essential to attract top buyers. |
| Ep 15 – “Don’t Sell Empty: How Staging Creates Value” | Staging expert Krisztina Bell shares practical tips for defining spaces, increasing perceived value and getting homes sold faster. |
| Ep 12 – “104 % Fast: Sellers Share Exactly What Worked” | Judy interviews clients Jessica and David Rossi about how smart, strategic choices led to seven offers in 36 hours and a sale at 104.3 % of list price. |
| Ep 11 – “Boost Buyer Confidence with a Home Warranty” | Keri Smith explains the difference between home warranties and homeowners insurance and how offering a warranty can be a powerful negotiating tool. |
| Ep 10 – “Avoid a Surprise Tax Bill When You Sell” | Tax strategist Alysha Harvey shares proactive tax tips for sellers, helping you plan for capital‑gains implications. |
Stay connected with Judy for more real‑estate insights:
Website: Sage & Grace Realty Group
YouTube: How to Sell Your Atlanta Home with Sage & Grace – full episodes and highlights.
“Judy is a caring, hardworking and knowledgeable agent. She knows what she is doing and is willing to work hard to get your property sold. She’s not just there to tell you what to do—she also helps you get things done to make the property ready to sell. Under Judy’s guidance I was able to sell my condo within 24 hours of listing. She is the best agent and will work hard to get your property sold.” – Jiraporn K.
Prepared for the How to Sell Your Atlanta Home with Sage & Grace podcast exclusive webpage. For more episodes and resources, visit Judy Jernigan’s podcast page.
[Speaker 3]
We're here with the gentleman from Polaris Home Inspections. I have Roland LeClair, the founding partner and with 15 years of experience and 10,000 inspections under his belt. He's a wealth of knowledge in buildings, systems, and environmental science.
I'm here with Adam Goldner, another founding partner of Polaris Inspection and Environmental Research Group. He has extensive experience in carpentry and high-end residential construction. We also have Patrick Jones.
He is a certified home inspector and a licensed real estate agent. So he's also a boxer. We brought in the champs today.
So Patrick, from your perspective as both a realtor and a home inspector, how important is a pre-listing home inspection in achieving a top dollar sale? Selling a home isn't just about putting up a for sale sign. It's about strategy, marketing, and negotiation.
But how do you know if you're making the right moves? I'm Judy Jernigan, recognized among the top 5% by the Atlanta Realtors and your host of How to Sell Your Atlanta Home with Sage and Grace, smart homeowner strategies, successful real estate sales. With a background in broadcasting, negotiation, and education, I bring a unique perspective to home sales, helping homeowners sell faster for top dollar and with less hassle, while understanding not just the financial side, but also the logistical and emotional considerations of a move.
This show helps you plan ahead, navigate the market, and work more effectively with a realtor like me. You'll get expert insights from my guests, plus real actionable strategies to sell with confidence. Now here's the show, moving you forward with Sage advice and grace.
[Speaker 4]
Absolutely. I think a pre-listing inspection can be invaluable. You're going to get to understand what you have on your hands in terms of your current home, and also what a prospective buyer might be finding and might be asking you to correct in the future.
So it's great to have that knowledge as you go into that, that can help you price things, that can help you decide what you need to disclose, or maybe what you want to fix on your own beforehand.
[Speaker 3]
Perfect. So Adam, tell me a little bit more about how a pre-listing home inspection is different from once you're under contract and a home buyer has an inspection.
[Speaker 1]
Well, we're talking about a traditional residential home inspection for a buyer. It's more of a, they want to know everything. So of course there's an emphasis on determining everything from the large, the major, the costly, the serious, to the much more minor, more granular doorstop issues, loose hardware, stuck windows.
That stuff is far less relevant in our view to a pre-listing inspection because the person you're doing the inspection for often is of course familiar with the home. They know these little things. They don't need to be informed of them necessarily.
So we are focused more on what's likely to hit a person in the transaction process. What might be identified during an inspection as a surprise for them, costly, invasive repair, something that could slow or potentially derail the process going forward. So that's much more of an emphasis.
Whereas those are of course an emphasis of any home inspection, but they need to know everything in a traditional buyer focused inspection. Whereas for pre-listing we're arming you to know what to expect. There is also some emphasis on what might be something to repair in advance of listing the home.
But very often that's not even the recommendation. Sometimes it's being aware of what it needs so that you're not surprised if it hits you down the road. Personally, I don't want to speak for the others, but my attitude regarding repairs related to a pre-listing inspection, they vary a bit.
It kind of depends on the scenario. It's not always the case that I would recommend you take that list of findings and repair them all. That's often unnecessary.
I mean, most people who buy a home, certainly a home that's existed for years or some number of years, expect to find things in inspection report. There's going to be something in every inspection report. So it's not so much about eliminating things as it is about being aware of what's to be encountered.
Now there are exceptions. There are things that could be particularly alarming to a buyer that maybe the recommendation then would be to spend some time and money and effort to just kind of remove that concern.
[Speaker 3]
Yes, I agree. And it's going to depend on the home and the situation and what the items are. I will say some of the absolute smoothest home sales I have had, I've had pre-listing inspections where we set out on the kitchen counter, here's a copy of that inspection.
Here were the top five things that the home inspector found that we thought might be most concerning to a home buyer and we've addressed them. And here's the paid work receipt for that. Check, done, not a problem.
I've even had, and I'm not necessarily suggesting this is the best path, but some home buyers will say, you know what, they already had a home inspection. They've shared it. They addressed the major issues.
We're good.
[Speaker 1]
Yeah.
[Speaker 3]
I just can make everything.
[Speaker 1]
It certainly happens. And again, we're happy to accommodate. I mean, we do have situations where we do a pre-listing inspection and then lo and behold, we're fortunate enough to be hired to do the inspection for a buyer.
You know, we've already inspected this home, but so we'll conduct that inspection. But even then the report might be bigger, might be more broad because of the difference in the perspective of our client.
[Speaker 3]
So Roland, do you mind walking around this home for us and talking with us about what home, what the most common items are that you see that home sellers might want to keep in mind when they're getting their home ready to sell?
[Speaker 2]
Sure. Absolutely. One of the larger issues that we find are related with water.
So gutters, how they drain, are the downspouts clogged and the grade, is the grade sloping gradually away from the home in order to carry the water away from the structure. The longer that water, you know, if the grade is negative and it slopes and drains towards the home, there's potential for water entry. As a result, you know, water sits there long enough.
It's going to find a path of least resistance or create the path for least resistance.
[Speaker 3]
Even you've done tens of thousands of home inspections, so far more than me, but I do know that, yes, so many times it's something simple, like cleaning out your gutters or making sure the downspout is fully directed away from the foundation of the home. We see wet basements and wet crawl spaces with critters being attracted to that moisture, mold being attracted to that moisture, and it can be a simple fix just by cleaning your gutters and getting your downspouts to direct water away from the home. So I'm really glad you started with that.
[Speaker 2]
Well, and it's good to catch that early because if it goes on and becomes deferred maintenance, then it can become a much larger issue, more expensive for repairs.
[Speaker 1]
And there's a lot of things we know. I would add that people often are surprised by the fact that some of the most important things to be done around a home are not necessarily costly or difficult. So there's a lot of things that can be identified, again, in the context of a pre-listing inspection, where for minimal effort and you can eliminate something that from the perspective of an inspector is important, even serious, but potentially inexpensive to address.
And Roland hits on that with water and drainage. That's a good example where inadequate drainage or improper drainage or improper slope of grade, these are often relatively easily inexpensively addressed, but we have a lot of concern about it because of the potential it can have for the home. So cleaning gutters, another good example, cheap, relatively easy, and significant impact on function.
[Speaker 2]
Well, that being said too, I also notice the house behind us has a negative slope on a couple of the gutters. So they're not draining properly, this side and this little section right here.
[Speaker 3]
Let's walk around maybe to the side and back of the home and see what else is on your mind, what else you're going to be looking for, and what areas of a home are and are not inspected.
[Speaker 2]
So I also feel the roof is an important part. And one of the things that most homeowners aren't aware of is that the manufacturer of most shingles recommend periodic service and maintenance. And the reason behind that is because there are components used to install and to water seal the roof that are not, they don't have the same warranty configuration as the shingles do.
[Speaker 3]
The shingles can last longer than like the flashing.
[Speaker 2]
Then the flashing, then the sealant that's on top of exposed nails, on your plumbing boots, any other roof penetrations, and even the shingles that lie beneath the windows. Often the flashing lies beneath that and they'll lay a small course of shingles there using face nails, roofing nails. But a lot of times those nails won't see any sealant on them.
And once water starts to get and follow that nail shaft down into the material, the roof sheathing, and into the attic space, now it's created a path for future water to follow the same direction.
[Speaker 3]
So getting your roof maintenance done on your roof on a routine basis is something homeowners can think about to prevent problems when it comes to inspection time.
[Speaker 2]
And usually in comparison to the roof, it's relatively inexpensive. I mean, any roof where a contractor's got to throw up a 16-foot ladder to get up there, there's typically a premium attached to those repairs. But the manufacturer recommends service and maintenance on the shingles every eight to 10 years just to help prolong that longevity.
[Speaker 3]
That's definitely something that's not on a lot of homeowners' radar to have their roof just maintenance done. Usually it's something we're reactive to. Homeowners think there's some sort of problem.
[Speaker 2]
Well, the biggest thing too, I think, is most homeowners don't get to read the packaging on their shingles. The contractors show up, they've got a dump truck or a dumpster they put in, and they scrape the old roofing off, and everything with the new roofing that they're not using goes into that trash bin. And so the homeowners never really get to utilize that.
And for some strange reason, the roofing contractors don't upsell future service and maintenance.
[Speaker 3]
All right, let's walk into the back. We've worked our way into the crawl space or basement area of the home. Lots of things in here to talk about.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah, definitely not an absence of material to cover. But clearly, this time of year is really important, especially in Atlanta, to maintain your cooling system, your HVAC system. There's a handful of things that we can often point out to somebody preparing their home for sale.
And one of those main components would be servicing their system. Most homeowners don't understand the mechanics behind their system. And so keeping a clear airway path for your HVAC system becomes really important.
And that really starts at the outside, where you have a compressor that circulates the coolant. But even that system out there has fins and a fan on the inside that pulls the air in. So it becomes important to ensure that you've got a good bit of clearance between vegetation and any solid surfaces and your condensing unit.
And that the refrigerant line on the outside is in good condition. The refrigerant line insulation covers the copper refrigerant line, insulates it to prevent dropping of condensation and also warming of the coolant as it transitions from outside to inside. And then of course, when that refrigerant line reaches inside, it connects directly to the evaporator coil, where it essentially frosts the evaporator coil.
Then the blower circulates the air across that evaporator coil and distributes it throughout the house. So maintaining a clean evaporator coil becomes important for the maintenance of the system as well. And then filter changes.
It's not uncommon.
[Speaker 3]
Change your filter.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah. And every filter is different. Most filters are identified by their MERV rating.
And the MERV rating, you can go high, you can go low. And there's a sweet spot right in the middle, in my opinion. You get too high a MERV rating, you're going to restrict airflow.
You get too low of a MERV rating and you're going to allow extraneous air to bypass the filter. Plus you're going to be changing it every 15 to 30 days.
[Speaker 3]
So a takeaway for homeowners is change your air filter and have an HVAC technician come out on a regular basis and service your heating and cooling. Homeowners, I will second this thought. Homebuyers are going to ask the homeowner when the last time they had their HVAC service.
In fact, it's even on our disclosure forms. It asks that question up front. And of course, the age is something that people like to know as well, but that's something their home inspector can tell them.
[Speaker 2]
Well, and it's also when we do a preemptive conversation with most clients to ask about their concerns. And a lot of those concerns are brought to our attention as a result of past experiences that a buyer might have. And of course, as a pre-listing inspection, we like to try to eliminate as many surprises for the seller as we can.
[Speaker 3]
So we're in a, this would have been like more of a crawl space or was exposed dirt here. It has been encapsulated. What are some of the biggest problems you see in crawl spaces?
[Speaker 2]
Well, moisture is a top one. And it doesn't necessarily have to be water entry. It could also be the lack of proper circulation through the crawl space.
Now your crawl space is encapsulated here. So that passive ventilation has been eliminated to create what I believe, I think I hear a heat recovery ventilator or an energy recovery ventilator back here. But basically what that's doing since you've closed off the passive ventilation is it's taking in the cool, damp air and discharging warm, dry air and turning this space of the home into what's referred to as semi-conditioned space.
And so we feel you've got a healthy environment down here. This is your foundation. So it's going to assist in keeping the rest of the house healthy as well.
[Speaker 3]
I had a home buyer client the other day, a first time home buyer asked me a very fair question. They said they, people throw around the term HVAC, H-V-A-C. What does that mean?
And I like, that's fair. We throw around, there's so much jargon. So heating, venting, air conditioning, but that's still a broad term because there are different types of heating equipment.
So we have heat pumps, we have furnaces, people come here from up North and they talk about boilers.
[Speaker 2]
Well, there's different components throughout the country. You start to get out to the West Coast areas of Montana, Idaho. A lot of those homes don't even use central air just because the conditions are so moderate.
I mean, they might hit 95 degrees during the day, especially Montana, Idaho, 95, 98, 105 degrees during the day. But at night it cools down to a temperature where you need a sweatshirt to stand by the campfire.
[Speaker 3]
So here we have pretty good access to be able to see the ventilation, the duct work, able to see this cross-face, if you will. What are some things that homeowners should keep in mind to do to make sure that a home inspector has access to the different parts of the home they need to access? And what do you want access to?
So tell me what you will look at, what you won't look at. For instance, what I'm getting at is I know you're not going to be inside any walls or doing any damage to a property just in the name of inspecting.
[Speaker 2]
Well, we don't disassemble anything. So if we need tools to disassemble something, it's not likely going to get disassembled by us. But there's enough to our evaluation that we can identify issues in order to bring that to the attention of a buyer or a seller so that they can have an HVAC contractor, heat and air contractor come in and take a look and provide the maintenance for those items.
I think another item too is ensuring you do have proper ventilation, not just in the basement or crawl space, but also in the attic because that ventilation, it all works together from the substructure to the attic space. So, and it also affects the efficiency of your forced air during the heating or the cooling months. So.
[Speaker 3]
So home owners when they know that their home is going to be inspected, either for a pre-listing inspection or a buyer is having an inspector come by. This area, for instance, could be used for storage. I've seen a lot of basement rooms like this one full of storage boxes.
So a quick tip would be to make sure you've cleared out a path to the water heater, right? Correct. So that you can get access to it.
And the attic, same story.
[Speaker 2]
Same story. Attic area to the mechanical components as well as the electric panel. Often we'll see all the stored items, people preparing to move, downsizing the amount of personal items they have in a home just before they list it.
And it all gets stacked usually right in front of the electric panel. And often if there, if there's just a few things, we'll move those out of the way. But if, if we find that there's going to be a lot of heavy boxes, potential for, for dropping or breaking anything, we don't want to damage anyone's materials.
So we'll identify in our report that we're not able to gain access to that location. The reason we, we suggest that you provide access to the location because most buyers will want us to come back and a trip fee can be a lot for them. But if the house wasn't ready, then it might become the burden of the seller in order to pay for the service.
[Speaker 1]
The value in protesting during pre-listing strikes me, as I described before, as good to know. Whether I would advise a home seller to install a mitigation system in advance of listing the home is debatable. There are some sellers who simply want to deliver the best home.
They love their home. They want to deliver the best product they can to the market. They want the buyer to be thrilled and emotional and happy.
[Speaker 3]
They have that right of ownership.
[Speaker 1]
Then there's the seller who wants to spend as little time and effort as possible and make top dollar on the home. And I guess I don't judge either, but that perspective may vary. So often in the conversations we have in a pre-listing, there is some nuance to that conversation.
Like what are your goals here? You simply want to know, or are you hoping to eliminate some things? Sometimes a seller is well aware of some issues.
We've seen this going on for years, or we've had this repaired several times, or we've seen water coming in or whatever it may be. And in that situation, they just want to know how bad it is. Like how will this be reflected in a report?
What's the likely response by a buyer? And that too is unpredictable. One of the things about what we do is you can't put yourself in the heads of buyers and sellers in many cases, where there are plenty of homes we inspect that whether it's a pre-listing or for a buyer, where the home would be considered very distressed.
Meaning we take a lot of pictures, we note a lot of issues. And a buyer for that home can vary from anything from an investor who intends to do everything to it and make a lot of money to someone who's buying it, not knowing of its condition and is going to suddenly step into a situation that's overwhelming. So there's an adjustment that has to occur based on the context and particularly the client.
[Speaker 3]
And yeah, talk with your real estate professional about who the likely buyer is for a particular property too can help a home seller decide, a home owner decide what they want to do proactively as far as repairs or not.
[Speaker 2]
Of course. Can I add a side note to that?
[Speaker 3]
Of course.
[Speaker 2]
So we call EPA protocol for radon testing. So we recommend it for every home.
[Speaker 3]
So let me back up, hold that thought. Don't forget. So radon is an odorless natural gas that comes up out of the bedrock of the earth, comes up out of the ground.
You cannot see it, you cannot smell it. You cannot know if it's in a home based on what the neighbor's home looks like, or if the neighbor's home has a radon problem or not. This gas can build up in a home and it is the second leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking.
And it is, the good news is if it is something that you know about, it is easy to fix. There are mitigation systems that can be installed in a day or two and they can fix the problem. And it is something that measured in PicoCuries per liter.
That's something I know the tipping point is for. So we were talking about whether that is something a home seller, a home owner should test for ahead of time and potentially mitigate.
[Speaker 1]
To Roland's point, it's recommended for all homes. So the only exception there, not an exception, but the situation again, as I was saying is in the case of a pre-listing inspection, it's still the homeowner to decide whether they want to move forward with that test. But they can expect, and this is important, that the buyer, potential buyer is likely in the current market to want that test performed.
So to know in advance of that may be helpful to you, even in a pre-listing scenario, because you can, I would say you should expect someone to want that test performed in most inspections that we perform.
[Speaker 3]
Oh, and I wanted to add that should the gas levels be high in a home beyond what is considered safe levels, that is not a reflection of the quality or the craftsmanship or the care a person has put in their home at all whatsoever. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
[Speaker 2]
It's naturally occurring. It's nothing that can be helped. And certainly nothing as a process of, like you said, the craftsmanship.
But I'd find another reason a seller might not test for radon is it might be something they don't want to know about. So they don't have to disclose it on the disclosure statement. We run into that quite a bit.
And then they just address that as it comes. But like Adam said, we follow EPA protocols. We recommend every home.
And we believe that some homes are more susceptible to elevated radon levels than others, for instance, a home with a basement and for a multitude of reasons.
[Speaker 3]
Because it comes up out of the earth. So you're going to test at any finished spaces where people may be sleeping or spending a large amount of time.
[Speaker 2]
Well, absolutely. And if you're buying a home or selling a home with an unfinished basement, it's actually recommended by the EPA to test before you finish the basement and then after, because now you're more enclosing the space and potentially trapping the air. Additionally, it becomes a bit more difficult to remediate once the basement's finished.
[Speaker 3]
I've heard of new construction being built with the piping in place.
[Speaker 1]
Absolutely. We see it all the time.
[Speaker 3]
Going out through the middle of the home, but no fan or system to actually mitigate if it's needed. But as to your point, it's easier to just go ahead and stick a pipe in for a potential vent should it be needed.
[Speaker 1]
And that's to the point of the fact that the builders anticipate that they're likely to test. The buyers, it's just become such a common element of home inspections and property inspections that builders anticipate the test and they understand it is very possibly going to be elevated. And that system is much more easily installed.
They've already bored a hole in the slab. They've already installed the first pipe. It's simple to complete the process.
[Speaker 2]
Well, the EPA has a radon map also that encompasses the entire country. However, there's a bit of bureaucracy associated with radon testing. And so several states or local municipalities don't record areas or don't require their home inspectors or radon testers to record those areas so that the state and at a federal level that can identify those elevated locations on a map.
So it's really left up to the municipality. And of course, there are a lot of states still in the U.S. that don't have regulations for radon testing for mitigation.
[Speaker 1]
And this is why, again, as a company, and I think it's consistent with a lot of home inspection firms, that we recommend the test. We get that question a lot, especially from folks who haven't bought a home in many years and they never have heard of this. They didn't encounter it in their last transaction.
Suddenly it comes up and you'll hear people saying, do we really need to test? It's on a crawl space or it doesn't have a basement or whatever scenario they throw at us. And we have evolved over the last several years.
We've evolved to a place where pretty consistently our official recommendation is perform the test.
[Speaker 3]
So how long should a homeowner plan for a pre-listing inspection to take?
[Speaker 1]
It's a very good question. As you can imagine, often people ask, what time should I be there to discuss? Or if it's a home seller, when should we come back to talk with you?
And it's always difficult to anticipate. I would say for most homes, ballparking, we would say between two and three hours probably. But as I would say, anytime I answer that question, I'm going to say the home dictates the time it takes.
The approach that we're going to take is we try to schedule more than ample time for an inspection without putting them right up against each other so that we have time to sort of adapt and deal with what we're dealing with. Because of course, wide variation in sort of the condition of the homes we inspect and often difficult to anticipate that even if we see a listing or look it up online. But I mean, you're usually talking around that two to three hour mark.
But again, square footage, it means a lot. Age means a lot. Configuration means a lot.
So a home like this, it's got divided, finished basement, crawl space, which is not unusual. These elements sort of do have an effect on the overall time it's going to take.
[Speaker 3]
Two different attics.
[Speaker 1]
Yeah. So it's difficult. And we face the question a lot and we understand it because people, what to expect.
[Speaker 3]
So you're going to provide a detailed, thorough written report for the homeowner to look through. But I always recommend, do you think that the homeowner should, if at all possible, meet with you in person as you're wrapping up the inspection and hear firsthand from you what you have found?
[Speaker 1]
We vastly prefer that. And the basis for this is very simple. A home inspection report is by design very cold.
It is a presentation of observations, conditions we've identified as needing attention in some way, information that's important for you to have. However, it's important to understand that so much of what we put into an inspection report exists on a spectrum. We talk about damage, for example.
Well, how damaged is it? In a report, it's damaged. Here it is.
But in a face-to-face conversation, certainly with a home seller or home buyer, there's more to it than that. How prevalent is it? How much damage?
How many locations? Or what's the impact on the home? So we welcome the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation because that's where we can impart some opinion regarding severity, regarding, okay, this is something do we indeed recommend repair.
But if you're balancing that against other repairs, where does it fall on the list? That's not something you're going to find in the inspection report because it's not for us to say. The report is an encapsulation of everything, the universe of conditions we've encountered, varying severity.
Whereas in the face-to-face conversation, we can say it's true, absolutely would recommend that repair, but it's not your biggest fish to fry.
[Speaker 3]
So do you offer recommendations on addressing any issues that are found?
[Speaker 1]
Yes and no. We are careful not to necessarily try to spoon feed repairs because we are typically going to, even if we know how to make the repair, we're going to tend to defer to a professional to prepare it properly. So you'll see things like that, consult a qualified professional for appropriate repair, consult an electrician.
And the point being, we may have an opinion and we might even impart during a face-to-face, this is what they're probably going to do. But we stop short of saying this is exactly what they're going to do. Now there are exceptions.
I mean, we're talking about so many thousands of possible findings that some things we can say, this is what they're going to do. But I mean, if it's something more involved, we're going to deliberately defer to the person doing that work. It's much like the question we often get about how much something is going to cost.
We may have a pretty good understanding of what it's likely to cost, but it's difficult for us to provide that information because we have to be very deliberate about expressing that this is an opinion. We do home inspections now. While we may have done that work much in the past, it's been years and we don't price this anymore.
So we always recommend asking an appropriate pro so you get real numbers. Multiple pros, ideally.
[Speaker 3]
So how can homeowners ensure they are working with a qualified and experienced home inspector?
[Speaker 1]
That's also a very good question. It's not simple. I mean, if you're buying a home, you're moving from out of state, it's one thing.
If you live in the home, you're doing a pre-listing inspection. You have to use relationships. We often defer to the agents because they will often have lists of people because they're frequently dealing with that problem.
they've received a report
action needs to be taken it calls for an electrician
well they probably got one
or two
or five people whose numbers they pass around for that
oh right
definitely that's part which we really yeah
and we we
avoid making recommendations for specific contractors
uh unless we have a very very solid opinion that's fair
now how does how would you recommend a
a person find a home inspector
that they feel that they can trust
similar answer okay
the vast majority of our
of our work does come from the referral by agents
and that's because agents who've worked with us
you know obviously
agents
form an opinion about the people that they work with
and you know
there's wide variety amongst home inspectors
that's a good thing you know
there's a wide range of sort of approaches
and methodologies and manners of communication uh
so I would say that you know it
but most of the time
people find us through their agent
in the midst of the transaction
which we love but of course there's like with anything
there's plenty of folks who find us other ways
through our certific
certifying entities which maintain lists
you know these are certified pros in the area
we might get calls related to that um
so two things oh
it's interesting that
you mention methods of communication
that is something that I will take a home buyer client
or even a home seller client their
their personality
and who they're going to enjoy working with better um
I will take that into consideration
when I'm suggesting here
someone you might wanna call for
for whatever service um
you mentioned certification
so is there a certifying board or company that well
we as a firm are all ashy certified
which is the American Society of Home Inspectors
there's also another organization
which serves a very similar prop
process or purpose rather called internachi
not sure what their acronym stands for
but basically those are the two big names nationally uh
so we are ashy certified inspectors
and that's a fairly intensive process of certification
you know there's other tests people can take
like a lot of industries
you can go and get some designation
some credential that calls you a home inspector
many of those are not as intensive and as powerful
for lack of a better word
is something like this ACI designation
because you've got the backing of an
of an entity that represents thousands of people
who do it do maintain high standards
we operate and do claim intend
at all inspections to operate under their protocols so
uh
it's something that we are in service to at all times
and doing our inspections
and that's sort of a guarantee for our clients
that were at least gonna maintain
a high level and consistent approach to what we do
this has been great thank you
but um
anything else we need to that we haven't talked about
that a home owner should um
really be um thinking about
if they're gonna sell their home in
the next few months or even six to 12 to two years how
well I would say an emphasis of one point
because it goes to something we just said
and it's something that we
as a firm emphasize to an enormous degree
we believe an important function of a home inspector
is to be able to adequately educate our clients
there is a large range I said
of people who do what we do
and there are people ranging from
they'll disappear you don't know they were there
and the report shows up one day
and you can't reach them to discuss it
that's an extreme to the way we prefer to approach it
with which is we are always available to our clients
it's not simply day of
while we welcome that face to face
in fact encourage that face to face conversation
that is a debrief that's a here's what we found
they're gonna get this formal
multipage detailed document
but after the fact we are
we take pride in the fact
that our clients are able to call us
3 months down the road and we can open their report
and address a question for them
and also during the debris
answering questions and clarifying conditions
why do you care about what this report just said
why does that matter
simply dumping a list of findings in people's lap
if you're not knowledgeable about homes
and many people aren't and that's not a problem
then what does this mean do I care about that thing
so we do emphasize educating
clarifying and I would say in a nutshell communication
communication is everything with what we
do I had a earlier this week
I had a home buyer from a few months ago
had a question not a problem or concerned
it's a question for um one of your inspector teams
it was Charlie
and I texted him and immediately got back to me
and got back to her and answered her questions
and we think that's a huge differentiator among stone
inspectors and again
it's we we put a lot of emphasis on that
and I can say that not everybody who does what we do
it's the same way
I love that I my parents are my school teachers
so I see my role too as a real estate professional
as being one of an educator
of wanting to provide my clients um
all the information
so they can understand any given situation
throughout the the home
telling the home buying process
to make the best decisions for themselves
and your families and that
so of course we find ourselves both in that role yeah
it's true I mean
we view agents the same way
agents are an important partner for us
not just the referrals that we receive
but at the same time
agents who pay attention during the inspection
or knowledgeable in these things
can also help on the back end with
for example that process of discerning what
from this report is gonna be negotiated
we're often not there for that part
we might offer an opinion during a conversation
but generally when that amendment is being written
we're not really part of that conversation
so that's my job
that's where expertise on the part of agents
and sort of
ability to sort of understand what's been presented
and to be able to sort of identify what really matters
from
what's more of that kind of nitpicking caliber issue
exactly yeah
that's my job that's
I'm happy to help discuss that with my clients
and help them form a strategy on course
on those negotiations so where can we find you
well you can find us online
uh WWW dot pelorisga dot com
uh and you can certainly call our number
you can talk to our office
we've got our Operations Manager
Adam Cardelino
who will help you with any of this scheduling issue
uh helps with all the setup
gaining access for the inspectors
uh coordinating schedules and timing
you can book us online through our website
you don't have to pick up the phone to call us
you can make a request for inspection that way
we're out there we're not hard to find
this is great thank you
happy to do it