Bill's Blog

I wrote this last year when weather conditions were the exact opposite as they are now here in Virginia.  We are currently having our worst drought in years.  However, stick around, we will have torrential rains soon.  July 30, 2006This last week I was called by a lovely older lady to do a Home W...

If his work were being judged by neatness, Mrs. Norwood, my old english teacher, would have given him an A+. In fact, if you did not know what you are looking for you would think it was the work of a professional. In preparation for selling his house, the owner spent a weekend in the crawl space ...

Foreword, there may be people that think I should not mention the Virginia Tech tragedy in context of a home inspection blog or news letter.  I do so here with the utmost respect for the victums, their families and everyone involved with this incident.  At the time, our hearts were heavy and our ...

"Does this house qualify for one of your email letters? My agent friend asked me with a devilish grin. "Probably about three" I said, and I began to think of the lessons this house could teach. This was a 29 year old split level on a beautiful mountain lot which showed lots of wear and tear, both...

I was opening an old electrical panel and my electric drill didn't have the power to turn the screws, so I reached in my bag for my manual screw driver.   It wasn't there.   I had to improvise, basically using my electric drill as a manual screw driver.  No big deal right?Well I got to thinking a...

For all the agents who are custodians of empty listed houses, it's that time of year again.  Freezing temperatures in many parts of the country are right around the corner.  Cases like the one below are rare, but if you find an outside faucet that does not shut off properly, get a plumber in and ...

"Have you ever used a home inspector before? This is a standard warm up question and this time the response by my clients, a young couple buying a new house, was a suprise! They both answered at once. He said, "Yes" She said, "No." I was beginning to think this might be a long morning when he beg...

A friend of mine who happens to be a real estate agent related a horror story to me several months ago that I felt should be passed along to others.   The second story below happened to me on an inspection.  Both teach rules to live by in Real Estate which are probably not handled in class. My fr...

I ran across the term "Handymanliness" on an excellent DIY website called HammerZone.com. I like the term, but for different reasons than all my female friends think who are tapping their foot and saying "You're kidding, right?" The concept is that when properly illustrated and guided, homeowners...

Normally when installing an attic fan, you install the fan first, then hook up the electric wire to it, then hook up the wire at a junction box to the power source. However, I recently encountered a case where the homeowner hooked the electric wire to power first and then forgot about installing ...