Posts with tag 'Charleston Home Maintenance'

How Lowcountry homeowners may qualify for rebates, financing, and even free replacements through their electric provider.

Not long ago I had two different sellers in Tall Pines Plantation preparing to put their homes on the market. Like many homeowners, they ordered pre-listing inspections so they could find problems before a buyer did.

In both homes, the inspector pointed to one of the same concerns.

The water heater.

Both units were older. Neither homeowner was excited about spending well over a thousand dollars replacing something that was still working but was nearing the end of its expecte...

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One of the things I have learned over the years is that most inspection reports do not fall apart because of one giant problem. Certainly, every once in a while an inspector discovers a major structural concern, significant water intrusion, or an expensive system that has reached the end of its life. More often, however, inspection reports become intimidating because they contain pages and pages of smaller items that have accumulated over time. None of them seem particularly important by themselves, but when a buyer receives a report filled with photographs, arrows, comments, and recommendations, it can create the impression that the house has not been maintained.

That is one of the reasons I spend so much time talking with sellers before a home ever goes on the market. I am not looking for perfection. I have never listed a perfect house, and I do not expect to. What I am looking for are the little thing...

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When I recommend a pre-listing inspection to a seller, the first questions are usually not about the cost of the inspection itself. Most sellers want to know what happens if the inspection finds something serious and whether they will be required to disclose what is found. Those are fair questions, and the answer is usually the same. If a significant issue exists, there is a very good chance a buyer's inspector is eventually going to discover it anyway. The difference is whether we learn about it before the home goes on the market or after a buyer is already under contract and emotionally invested in the transaction.

Over the years, I have become a strong believer in pre-listing inspections because I have watched too many transactions become unnecessarily stressful after an inspection report arrives. Contrary to what some people assume, I am not looking for perfection. I have never seen a perfect house and I...

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A professional home measurement is about more than square footage. It helps buyers, sellers, appraisers, and lenders work from the same information and reduces surprises later in the transaction.

When I tell sellers that I would like to have their home professionally measured before we put it on the market, I occasionally get a puzzled look. After all, the county already has a square footage number. The tax records have a square footage number. Previous MLS listings have a square footage number. Why spend money measuring it again?

The simple answer is that those numbers are not always the same, and they are not always correct.

Over the years, I have hired professional measuring companies to measure homes before listing them. Some homes measured larger than previous records. Some measured smaller. What surprised me most was that...

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Terry came home the other day with a story that immediately made me think about homeowners and the parts of their homes they rarely see.

Someone had recently scheduled routine maintenance for their air conditioner. The HVAC technician completed the service, gathered his paperwork, and was getting ready to leave when he mentioned something unusual.

"Before I go, you may want to have a pest company take a look at your attic. I thought I heard rats running around up there."

Now, if someone tells me there might be rats in my attic, I'm probably heading for a ladder and a flashlight pretty quickly. That's exactly what this homeowner did.

What he found wasn't rats.

It was bats.

A lot of bats.