Realtor Sona Gallatin shares her own home purchase nightmare story. Money Pit!

John is joined by real estate agent Sona Gallatin of the Gallatin group from the Santa Clarita valley area in California.

Sona talks johns ear off in this action packed episode 12 that is packed with realtor and home inspector insight covering several topics like being better prepared for the home inspection process during this unprecedented time in the real estate market, bridging the gap between all parties for better communication which is key. Sona and John share some home inspection nightmare stories as well.

As you may know buying a home in this current real estate market comes with many challenges and obstacles for buyers and relators. This process is being rushed by sellers and is being fueled by overwhelming multiple offers on the property. This rush is causing the simplest issues to turn into bigger issues.

This can be prevented by taking a proactive approach such as the buyers realtor making sure the utilities are on by visiting the property days before the inspection to get a visual confirmation that electricity, water and gas is actually on. Do not rely on the sellers verbal confirmation, you may regret it.

Too often the homes to be inspected are not ready for the inspection date because the utility's are turned off or attics and crawlspaces are not accessible. This is mostly due to lack of communication between all and the rush of the home sales in this current real estate market.

John Laforme
CREIA Certified Inspector
Home Inspection Authority LLC
Los Angeles California
800-950-8184
Website
https://www.homeinspectionauthority.com/
Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXzxEH5J8y5EW1lZ3LtDB0A

Sona Gallatin
The Gallatin Group
818-261-8306
Los Angeles, Ventura and Kern Counties
https://www.gallatingroup.net/

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast welcome to Home Inspection authority podcast with me, John laforme. Are you a homebuyer, a realtor, or maybe a home inspector? If you are then this podcast is definitely for you. So let's get right into some straight talk about home inspections. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. I have another special guest today. Sona Gallatin. Hi, John, am I pronouncing that right? Yes, you are. Alright. How have you been? Excellent. How have you been? I've been busy. As you can see, I started a podcast in September. And it's it's been going It's been fun to make all these episodes. And this is going to be episode 12. I believe. I've watched a few very informative. Oh, yeah. Okay, informative. Yeah, that's good. I wanted you to come on, because I've known you for several years. And you're a lot like me, you just say what's on your mind? Yes. And I like that about people. So to a fault. Yeah, it's okay. Exactly. You've always been straight with me. And I think I've always been straight with you. Yes. And I appreciate that. So how did you become a real estate agent?

Sona Gallatin: 1:30

I transitioned into real estate about 18 years ago, after I bought and sold my first home. And I didn't know anything about real estate. And I had a family friend come and do a five minute inspection. Five minutes. It wasn't even that long. Wow, he zipped in and out of that house so fast. He said, It's good. And I was so in love with this house. And I just wanted to hear anything, as long as I had the green light. It's the worst mistake of my life to this day, because it was a catastrophic disaster financially. Oh, it's a money pit Money Pit is that is putting it mildly. So give me an example of what what went wrong. So this was after the earthquake in 93. So I guess the sellers had purchased, gotten a lot of FEMA money, right. But they didn't really use it on the house. And he did all the electrical work himself. So there were a lot of extension cords going to outlets, there was pretty much like $13,000 worth of electrical work that had to be corrected. What's this one? Extension cords for permanent wiring? Yes, that is a no, no, everybody. Yeah, no, no. Like the lights in the kitchen had an extension cord inside the attic that went somewhere. Plugged into something. There were so many mistakes. Yes, it was a sad situation. So when I sold the house, I disclosed everything. And I said to myself, I will never let this happen to anyone I know. And I got my real estate license. And really I start off with that. I hear a lot of people say, I don't want to do an inspection.

John Laforme: 3:09

And you're like, hell no, hell no. Yeah, no, I watch. Yeah. So that should be on your business card. I'm a good realtor for you. Because I've been there, yes, I have made the mistake of being misrepresented. Or, or just did not take the time to hire a proper person to inspect the property for me. And, you know, it's my own fault. You know, whatever it just it was, it's just just live and learn. It's just a limit learned. I don't remember who my realtor was. At that time. I couldn't even tell you what his name was. And I wasn't given direction that this is what you need to do. So starting with a first time homebuyer or a seasoned one. I say even though you've heard this before, maybe the first time you've heard this, I need to help you and guide you what you need to know going forward. Right? When you think you want to make an offer, you need to contact your inspector and let him know I made an offer. So heads up, I might be calling you for your first available inspection time. And that's important. It's important not to wait until the last minute to do an inspection. Yeah. Now you're referring to talking to the client about that other realtor to my client? Client. Okay. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Unfortunately, the reality of the phone calls I get today are Are you available? Not Are you qualified? Not to carry insurance? Nothing of the sorts. It's just Oh, can you come tomorrow? Or maybe even today? Like I had? No, it's five o'clock. I'm not coming to your house right now. But anyway, that's that's the reality of the phone ringing. Now I do have several realtors that I have known for several years such as yourself, who, who just, you know, refer to me when you're ready for an inspection. But most of the time it's generic traffic just coming in and some people ask the right questions. Maybe 5% of them the right or just last year, usually when they call you. Hi. Has anybody available tomorrow? Really? That's the first question. Or the next day? Or can somebody come Wednesday if it's Monday or something like that? So it's never really a Oh, so what kind of services do you offer? You know, we just bought a house and I do get those calls. But the very, very minimal when I get a call when I gotta ask you, like, how long will it take? What is it? What is yesterday in an inspection? Not enough? That's my point, right? Majority of the phone calls are very rushed. Everything's a panic. Oh, the lot of realtors that call me that I don't even know. They just find me on Google. And they just call and oh, hey, I'm so and so realtor its own. So brokerage, bah, bah, bah, we have a house. We just opened escrow. And I know it's a short notice. But can you come tomorrow to expect a 6000 square foot house? No, I can't. So. So it's kind of like that. But they're not asking me anything else. So a lot of times a good majority of my phone calls are Realtors scheduling for their client. And I'm fine with that. I have no problem with who calls me. I mean, who Why would anybody care how they get the job. It's just a matter of they need to relay my message that I'm telling them to the client, which never really gets done really like what do you mean? So if they say to me, Hey, John, so you can so what kind of services do you offer? Well, you know, I do general home inspections. Mainly, I do sewer camera inspections. That's typically the second question people have, after they booked me for the general inspection is can you do the sewer also? So that's why I have that service. But then I'll remind them, hey, look, you know, please ask the seller, if there's a clean out located somewhere, I'll give them a little bit of instruction to make everything go smooth. Because don't forget, they call them a panic rush. Yeah, so I'm trying to make sure everything's efficient, to satisfy their needs. So they have a good experience with me, right? I don't want it I don't want you to call me and rush me to the job. And then I show up, and I can't do I can't get into the crawlspace I can't get into the attic, because everything was rushed. So I try to relay that in the phone call and say look, as long. Oh, another question would be do I need to be there? Does the client need to be there? Well, the client should come at the end. So I can at least explain things to them if a realtor should be there, right. We'll get to that in a minute. That's called absentee relatives. We'll get to that subject. Yeah. So back to what I was saying is they will not relay those instructions to the client. So the client doesn't know what I said to the realtor, the realtor, the client doesn't know what the realtor said to me. And then we all show up the next day and it's a catastrophe. The gas is turned off. can't check any they can't check the furnace. The water heater event that happens today happens a lot. And it's getting these outs. This is the most important step in purchasing a home. Yep. And by the way, I love that shirt. I want a shirt. Hey, I like I always say buying a home don't panic. Don't panic, all the authority calm. But yeah, I could totally see that. I get you. I totally want one. Absolutely. I love it. I total, I understand what you're saying, because I've seen that with other realtors. But I don't understand how it's like how would you not know that you need to make sure the listing the seller? Has all the utilities turned on for inspection and remind them constantly? Make sure this is this show me where the clean out is because oftentimes it's under concrete and concrete has to be broken to it or gravel or whatever. Yeah, it's it's, it's, you know, we'll get to the sewer there real quick on the sewer camera inspections. There. It's never a guarantee that we're going to be able to get into the long Yeah, just there's just no value. There's no guarantee they're just not. So I try to like I said, I try to be ahead of everybody and say, hey, look, make sure you ask this question. So we don't get our expectations too high. And I show up and I can't find an access and the roof may be made out of clay tile, and I can't get up there and run a camera through the event. So So you got run into roots here too in the valley. Right? A lot of tree roots. Oh, everywhere where you can't Yeah, not just the valley. You name everywhere you name it, we find it. Wow. So So anyway, John, I've had you do a pre listing inspection for my sellers too, right? Yep. And I think that's just as important as buying a home and doing the inspection. Sometimes the sellers don't even know what condition their houses in. Right. So a pre listing inspection can be helpful for everybody. But that would entail you being proactive. Yes. Well, that's the that's the lack that's the word that nobody wants to use interest and that's the that's what I try to push. With a lot of people most people don't want to spend the money that I want there. They don't want their client to spend a dime but They're always in a rush. So nothing really adds up. So everything's a rush, rush, rush. And there's and to have everything rushed you really got to stay on top of stuff you should you should actually go to the house if it's a vacant house number one if it's vacant, yes, the buyer's agent should definitely do a physical, physical visit visual inspection. What No, what? Not Not, not that just like show up the day before and just check everything okay, can I go on the can I go in the kitchen and turn on the range? Yeah, if you could turn on the range, while the gas to the buildings on, that's a real simple way to find out, or just run the hot water for a couple minutes. And if it gets hot, great, you know, the gas is on because the waters getting hot, right? There's a couple tips for you just to make sure that the following day, when everyone shows up to do their inspections, it goes smoothly, right. And that's what's missing. And that's the part that no one seems to give a shit about. And it drives me nuts possible is the biggest purchase most people make of their lives. It's because everyone's in a rush. And realtors are not informing their customers well enough as to what needs to be done. That's sad for my industry to hear that it's sad for my industry to hear that because yeah, I think when you're trying to protect your clients investment, and they're buying this house, which is hundreds of 1000s of dollars, how could you not give your 100% Attention to all these details? Right. Yeah. And another point I would bring up too, is I don't understand why an active realtor does not already have a couple of home inspectors that they deal with? Yes, I do. I mean, how would you? I mean, if I was a realtor, I'd want to know that I could count on some people who are liable, and who I know what to expect from now, I'm not going to get these surprises in the reports like oh, one, one house that calls out this, the next house had the same thing, but they didn't call it out. It's inconsistent. So you know, you want to have a home inspector that you deal with who's consistent with his report writing? That's which is the key, which is the what what we're being paid for? Yes. Is is the report writing. So John, you want to hear what I tell my clients, when I tell them I have hired you, what I chose selected you for them? Because I know the best, right? I say to them, he's a seller's worst nightmare, because he'll find what's wrong with this.

Sona Gallatin: 12:21

He's very thorough. And I tell us just being thorough, I don't want you to take that the wrong way. It's being thorough it is you never know till you see behind the walls, what's going on? And who best then a home inspector? Yeah. So yeah, I mean, this job entails, you know, looking at every, every area we can reach, you know, it's a visible inspection. So we can see what our naked eye is what we look at. And it's also a lot of, you know, experience involved where I can troubleshoot something a little bit. And, you know, that's kind of fun for me, if there's something to, you know, investigate. It's like, okay, what's going on here? What's going on there, it doesn't add up. So then I kind of look a little further. And I can kind of make sense of what's going on and say, Oh, it's not a big deal, or it's, or it is a bigger deal, or it's going to be expensive, or it's it needs to be addressed. At least I've just seen, in my experience. Oftentimes, a seller will try to hide something. Not everybody. I don't want to generalize, right. But there are people who don't want to admit that there's something seriously wrong with their house. And they've done so many patch up jobs on, let's say, plumbing, that they haven't dealt with the core issue because it's so expensive. But over the years, they've actually spent more than what it would have cost them had they handled the problem in the very beginning. So right, yeah. So when you discover these things, and breaking it to them, it's going to add up to some kind of money anyway, it's going to be a deduction and the price or a credit for repair something like that. Right. Oh, that's a good point. You just brought up let me ask you about that. So yeah, on an average of let's say you did 20 homes in last year. Let's say you sold 20. US you found 20 homes for your buyers. How much was the average credit you got for each house? for repairs? Yeah, I'd say if I had to put an average on it. It's going to be around 5000. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Yeah. So 5000 Because, well, because I tell my clients, when we're reviewing the inspection report together, that we go over all the health and safety points. Yeah, those are the things that we ask for not the counters have a tiny chip and it's cosmetic, right? Those aren't really the big issues. So I would say really, it's been around 5000 Sometimes a little less, sometimes a little bit more. Yeah. Okay. That's that's that's kind of the figure I had to leave for and 6000 I was thinking because you know, then people question that well, why is your inspection service so much money? Well, I'm not the most expensive I know that and I'm not the cheapest and I don't want to be the cheapest right? And I'm not here to price match with some knucklehead down the street likes working for

John Laforme: 15:00

Free. I've seen those. So yeah, you have I've seen those one time when I and I think I've actually didn't I do an inspection for you that you already had inspected? Was it you or someone else somebody called me said, You know what my client insisted on hiring this cheap coffee?

Sona Gallatin: 15:15

I'm sure that we've had that a few times. Why, like, shocked, like, what is this report? Yeah, it's it's nasty. Yeah, but I can't educate the buyer's agent. When I'm on the listing side, I have to protect myself. Sure. So when I see what they've done is like, honestly, I think maybe they didn't even look at the house. And they were there maybe half an hour to an hour. They wrote things that I personally know. There are carbon monoxide detectors. Yeah, they will write that they it's like, it's like any industry, any type of business you're gonna have. You're good workers, you're gonna have it not so yeah, absolutely. It's not I'm not generalizing, it's just, yeah, just people, you know, some of us are different. Some of us have different motives, some have different goals, and so forth. So I just think the more you do a consistent, thorough inspection, your work speaks for itself. And that's how you grow your business. You know, report style are significant, significantly different than the average report, I can't take credit for that. That's my software, your software company is great, because you actually have a repair request. Builder. Yes. And you highlight everything and color. So although problematic areas are in red, and it's really easy to read your reports. And when I go through it with a client, I don't have to figure out if this is what the inspector is not going to cover. And you know what I mean, so far, sometimes it's really black and white with a bunch of checkmarks. And I don't know how to

John Laforme: 16:47

see those two, I get asked sometimes to look at someone's report, which I typically won't do. But if they email it to me before I have a chance to tell them no, yeah, I'll just skim through it. I'm like, this looks like it was made in the stone age. It's like, they just found an online form to fill out and they just filled it out. So the software I use is called spec Torah. It's the reason why I switched from my old software is because I would contact the other company and ask them, hey, is there any way to adjust this or make this part a little better, so I can modify it a little bit. So it, you know, fits what I'm trying to do? And they always pretty much told me know that they gave me a lot of no answers, really. And then another another inspection company. I know the owner, Scott, and he, and he, he turned me on to spec Torah. And I saw I started researching it and was like, Oh, wow, this looks a lot nicer. It is easy to read. The format itself is what sells it. It just looks nice. It looks nice. And it's easy to just easy to navigate. It's like navigation in your car, you want to be easy, right? Because like buyers, when they're buying a home, they're overwhelmed with documents overwhelmed with so many contracts that they have to read and go over. When they're getting one report after another the seller's report, the termite report, whatever, when it comes to the home inspection, sometimes they do skim right through it and just get to the summary. And other times it's like, okay, now you have a choice, you can download this and really look at it. And when I'm writing like a repair request, I cross reference the report because I submit that with it. Sometimes, John, I've seen agents,

Sona Gallatin: 18:29

they will just send me the inspection report from their inspector. And they will list every item in there that was inspected everything on two, three pages of repair requests, or they'll just send me a repair request that says see attached inspection report. Yes, yeah. Someone took the short road on that one in today's market that could really kill something. It could kill a deal. Yep. Yeah. But like I said earlier, as we're talking, the biggest problem right now is the rush. The rush is gonna get people in trouble. And I'll give you a great story on one right now. Okay.

John Laforme: 19:07

A few months ago, I was called to inspect the house. Turns out the seller didn't want any inspections there. He didn't want anybody coming in to inspect anything he was like, like saying no, no inspections by it as it is bah, bah, bah. And the client still wanted to go through with the process. Is that right? Yep. Yep. And then at the after they moved this. So they told me you know what, let's postpone this inspection until after we get the keys. Then we'll have you come in and go through kidding. The house had settled six inches on one side. The house went like this. Some years ago,

Sona Gallatin: 19:47

he couldn't have not known that. Exactly.

John Laforme: 19:49

So I don't know how they dealt with it after the fact but that's what I found out when I got there. And I had to refer him to a geotechnical engineer. Yeah, because the amount of deflection it was a really A strange case, there's a lot of foundation cracks, I found a lot of indications walking up to the house that the the sidewalk was separating from the street, the driver was separating from the sidewalk and so forth. So, because the house had sank like this, it pulled the other materials fire,

Sona Gallatin: 20:17

except that some would make a buyer. I know that buyers right now are really desperate. And in some areas, there's like a little bit of a bidding war. So once they get an offer accepted, yeah, they don't want to say anything to mess that up.

John Laforme: 20:29

I think I think it's probably it's, I would say, the key factor in that would be the location of the house. Maybe they have to be in a certain area. And maybe that's all there was. I think it's a lack of I think it's, it's kind of desperation as to end lack of inventory. For and I think I think that drives it. That's my opinion,

Sona Gallatin: 20:52

it contractually that's illegal to tell from a seller to insist that there's no inspections, because he may not want it, but a buyer has that right? The buyer is offering you, right, you know, 1000s of dollars for your hundreds of 1000s for your property, they have the right to do their own in any investigation inspection, and look at everything that's

John Laforme: 21:15

but you know, these things don't bother some people either, so they must have a lot of money to throw away. Absolutely. But at the same time, some of the, just by being around my customers, I get the feeling that they just don't care. They just don't care. Well, they

Sona Gallatin: 21:31

don't care. Some don't. Some might blame somebody. They will. Yeah, yes. Yeah.

John Laforme: 21:35

So that's why we have to be thorough, yeah, let them know what we found and recommend further evaluation. That's as far as we can take it. You know, I can't I can't tell them anymore. I can't make I can lead the horse to water. I can't make them drink it. I know, I hear you. You know, you can't, there's just no way to do it. You know, some of my customers are very responsive to me. Like they really listen to Camila. Hey, thanks so much for telling me to do that. Turns out, you know, we have to do this. And this a no problem. That's that's what my job is, you know. So I get I get a lot of appreciative customers too, but a lot of them are just in a rush. And no one really thinks twice about it afterwards. I don't get phone calls from anybody at all, like Irish, no national questions about the reports. Nothing really, really. Yep. So it's just it's interesting, interesting. Now if there's a problem later on down the road, because they failed, because they fail to listen to my instructions. And they'll call me say, Well, hey, we haven't? Well, if you look on page 28, it tells you right there to hit Get that looked at did you have it looked at No. Well, what we want me to do, I can't make you do stuff. That's all I can only give you the documentation and say, Look, you found a problem here, you should further evaluate it. So I can tell you. So let me switch gears a little bit here. And I took the liberty of just doing a little research this morning. And according to the California Department of Real Estate, the 2019 stats of how many brokers there are in Los Angeles shows me about 131,000. Realtors, almost 300,000 That's a lot. I don't need to meet 300,000 realtors. And there's not a single home inspector out there who needs to know that many realtors. So that, to me is just a crazy stat that I just wanted to bring up because myself if I was only doing one house a day, and let's say I worked on Saturdays and Sundays at 30 houses a month. What's that come to like three, three something a year.

Sona Gallatin: 23:33

And it's not even 10% of all right. It's really low.

John Laforme: 23:38

Compared to how many? How many other sources are ours? So so the, the the amount of work in Los Angeles for home inspectors is through the roof. I'm sure I made this so much work for everybody out there to just just get out there and get it. You know, let's get out there and get it. So then I checked on 2020 home sales, and it says about 440,000 homes were sold in 2020. Yes. And that was up about 1700 More than 2019.

Sona Gallatin: 24:10

Yeah, as a lot of house and that was during pandemic. Yeah.

John Laforme: 24:15

Oh man. I didn't sleep during the pandemic. I was I was working every day all day. It was nuts for the whole year. I've started not the whole year from March 1 literally from March 1 took off like a rocket it was yeah,

Sona Gallatin: 24:28

it was a crazy busy year for me too. Yeah, just for about a month they kind of slow down because of uncertainty. But once we were given instructions on what to do to show him and he needs advisory orders that had to be filled out. I mean, those I filled out just like crazy. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Now they're not required anymore.

John Laforme: 24:48

In the beginning. In the beginning, I had a little resistance on that because I don't like signing stuff. I don't have my lawyer look at Yes. So I walk in. I walk into the house. The real relative goes Oh, you got to sign this. I'm like, No, I don't Yeah, people are just trying to be demanding about it. So I was like, No, I didn't sign it. So I'm gonna send this over to my lawyer and he can tell me to sign it. Right. And I don't know what the hell that is. Yeah, just just happened. You know, it's like me walking up to you have his sign this, you know, what's a for you have the right to look at it beforehand. That's right and read it. And they should have sent those out prior. Yeah. But then after that, we all started getting the eat the Docu signs which are emailed to us way before the job day. So the inspection date. So if you would

Sona Gallatin: 25:31

explain to the person I'm sending the P, which was the advisory form for the client to sign explaining, in summary, what they're signing and tell them why they had to sign it during the pandemic, and they would sign it on DocuSign before we even went to the property. But I know the realtors that would have it at their open houses or sit there and have people sign before they go in. I think I don't know what you're signing away there. How do you know if there are changes that are not

John Laforme: 26:00

exactly yeah. So yeah, I just wanted to go to that a little bit. And oh, by the way, which you with Keller? Williams, correct.

Sona Gallatin: 26:09

I'm with exp now. exp Oh, I didn't know that. I switched over about a year ago because it's based Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You expect to be honest, to be honest and completely open. MCs, a Keller Williams has an amazing educational base, I miss teaching classes there, I miss the interaction of the office environment, because everything with exp is more cloud based. It's like I really have no clue who's in my group. That's more on me. I'm not I'm too busy to be online all the time looking at the office stuff. So Right. Either way, if you have access to the proper forms and documentation and classes and keeping up to date with everything you're good at, I run into a lot of agents who just don't they don't they don't even know what the contract says. They don't even know how to fill it out.

John Laforme: 27:01

Right? Isn't there a part of the Real Estate Sellers with a call the sellers by the buyers at the buyers form that says that the buyer has needs these to be allowed access to the property

Sona Gallatin: 27:18

inspection contingency period is usually 17 days, that standard, but you could make it less you could make it more where they're allowed access to the property during that time to satisfy all of their inspection needs. Whether it's the neighborhood, you know, you're at that point, you already have the seller's disclosure. So you're cross referencing what the seller has already told you about the property. If your inspector tells you that roof looks like it might need a roofer to check it out. You've got time to schedule all this and get it done. And honestly, you have to be allowed access to the property. That's why I went earlier, you said that that one seller refused to have inspections done. To me that would have been a red flag. And I would have told my buyers run like hell, because this doesn't feel right to me. I could not if you want to take a chance and get into property that the sellers denying access. They're hiding something. If you want to do

John Laforme: 28:17

Yeah, apparently that's a red flag on a 30 foot pole. Yes. That's a big one. Yes. So like I said, I just think it's desperation to baby, they're just moved from out of state and they gotta have a plan don't want to rent anything? I don't know, I just think we all make our decisions. Yeah, I think we all make our decisions based on, you know, rushing, and

Sona Gallatin: 28:38

that 17 Day contingency period doesn't mean that you should wait until day 16. To call your home inspector. Usually what I like to do is once I've submitted an offer, I like to give my inspector a heads up. Sure. Hey, John, I just submitted a I looks like it looks really good. We might get it solid, you know, once we're in escrow. The minute we're in escrow, the person that I reach out to after I told my buyer we have an accepted offer is my inspector, and I get that scheduled in right away. So that we have time to review the reports in that 17 Day or 10 day, whatever we've decided

John Laforme: 29:14

now, in that same disclosure, does it say that all utilities must be on? Yes. And I know the one that just gets they don't read right out the window.

Sona Gallatin: 29:25

People don't read everything. They just don't write and agents start and that's

John Laforme: 29:29

why that's why I brought up earlier, it's really important for the buyer's agent to literally do a physical look at the house like show up, walk around the house, see what's going on. Go like I said go inside it especially if it's a vacant home, if the home is occupied, you shouldn't have to worry about these things. But if the home is vacant, and it's been remodeled, or it's a flip, you got to go look and make sure that utilities are on because most of you don't do it. Most of Hang on most, most don't do it. But how

Sona Gallatin: 30:02

could they not do it? There's an actual form that they have to fill out an avid agent visual inspection disclosure, where they have to do that. So I don't understand why.

John Laforme: 30:12

Well, this is what happens. Yes, let's get in. Let's get into the subject of the absentee realtors. Let's let's get into that. And I'll explain some of this away. Yeah, so basically, to vacant home, I show up. buyer's agent or listing agent, maybe they're right, typically the buyer's agent shows up. It's not every day that buyer's agent does show it. That's very rare. They should, but they should, at least to get things started. Make sure everything's okay. And then they can take off I look, I'm gonna be there for two, two and a half hours. I don't need you to sit around. If you got stuff to do, by all means, go do it. But come back at the end and listen to everything. So I have

Sona Gallatin: 30:49

to remember in the beginning, I used to shadow you like wherever you were going. I was at your heels in the beginning because I wanted to learn Yeah, what you were doing so I can explain it to my

John Laforme: 30:58

buyers. Right, right. Well, that's good. You were paying attention. Did you learn anything?

Sona Gallatin: 31:02

I learned so much from watching you doing? Oh, yes. Awesome. That's good. I don't follow you around that way anymore. But I'm present that the home inspections. Right.

John Laforme: 31:09

Right. So so what happens is, like I said, if the listing agent doesn't show up in the buyer's agent does somebody has to let me in. So buyer's agents, typically the one that lets me in, which is great. And then I go in and I may say hi, for a second by typically start on the outside. And the first thing I run across is the gas meter. A gas meter has this big silver booed on it, which means you can't see the valve to shut off valve, which means the gas company has come by turned off your gas and put a boot on it because no one's been paying the bill or it's been turned off. No kidding. So that's very common. So that's the first common, that's very common on a on a vacant house, a vacant house. Yeah. Because the sellers may be really tight with their money, and they don't want to leave the utilities on. So they just turn everything off. And they just wait for something to happen with the house. And then they forget, they turned everything off. But the listing agent thinks everything's on. So this is where the fun part comes in. So now I just walked around the outside of the building. And now I have to tell the buyer's agent and the buyer, by the way, the utility gas is off. I cannot check your furnace. And he was he do he gets right on the phone with the listing agent who's not there? Oh, yeah, it's on. Everything's on. And I'm like, What Am I invisible? I just told you and I just pointed it out. By the way, comers in my world seeing is believing, right? So I bring the realtor right over it. See that that's a boot. That means the gas is off. Now go inside and turn on the stove. Can't trade. So he tries. And I've had realtors, this one comes to mind several years ago, she refused to accept that that gas was off at that house when we showed up to inspect it. No kidding. It was a boot on it. I walked her to it. I said ma'am, that is a boot. That means the gas company put that there and there's no gas. I said, If you don't believe me, go turn on the range. Go run the hot water. And if you can get hot water out of that faucet, I'll do this inspection for free. Sure enough, she checked everything refused to believe me because the other person on the phone told her kept telling her it's on. It's on. Don't believe your inspector, and she didn't believe me. So here's the fun part of that. So months later, she calls me again for another house. And I said don't call me anymore. She's like, why? I said, because you don't trust me. I showed you something right in front of you. And you refuse to believe me? I don't even know why you're calling me. Okay, I said, I don't want your business. Well, good for you, John, you have to do that. Because they're just gonna make your life miserable.

Sona Gallatin: 33:47

There was a time and I haven't needed to do this in a long time. But back in like 2007 There were a lot of vacant homes, there were a lot of short sale homes, and there was a lot of properties with utilities shut off. So as the listing agent, I would have the utility company turn on everything under my name just for the time during inspection. And I would pay for it. It's not that much money now. And it was worth it for me to have it up all everything operating as it should, while I have the property inspected for my buyer or my seller.

John Laforme: 34:21

Sure, sure. And one thing I'll point out too, if if I do show up at your house, if you hired me to come to your house and I show up and the utilities are off like I'm when I say utilities is typically the gas that's off typically electricity is on. Yeah, it's very rare that the electricity is not on. So it doesn't mean I can't inspect your house. It means I can't test a couple systems. So I can still inspect the system that I can't test. So in other words, I'm still going to look at your furnace and make sure it's connected properly. Make sure everything looks like it's done correctly. But I just can't turn it on to tell you if it's performing right. So I'm still inspecting the unit. I just Like your water heater, even though it's not on and I can't turn it on, I'm still going to inspect the visual. I'm gonna do my visual inspection on it, make sure there's no obvious signs of leaking, right? Or there's corrosion on it, or it's missing several components, like expansion tanks or TPR valves, and so forth. So I'm still doing my job. I just can't test that one piece of equipment. So kind of a half inspection. No, no, no, the inspections done. I can't test that system. So when

Sona Gallatin: 35:30

an important part of that, right is to make sure that it's not just connected, but in the

John Laforme: 35:35

hopper. And then they think, Well, John, you can just come back. I'm like, Well, no, I can't just come back. Because I have a full schedule already. Right? Why if you would have just came a couple of days before and made sure this was done. Everybody be smiling right now. You know what I mean? So that's my point. And that's the, that's the shortfall that I see too often. And a really washed out with change. So I was not fair to customers situation like

Sona Gallatin: 36:00

that. And say you have to go back. You're going to charge of course, because Exactly. Okay. So if I were the agent that made that mistake, that would be lost from my pocket, I would never expect, I always tell my customers that I should know better to charge

John Laforme: 36:15

to charge the sellers for that. I always tell them that. I charge I charge the buyers. And I tell them their recoup that and their final sale. Because that's nonsense. Like, like the paperwork says you just mentioned. Yes, the sellers disclosure is called the sellers disclosure.

Sona Gallatin: 36:32

Here's a seller's property questionnaire. Okay. And then there's the transfer disclosure statement. Those have a lot of questions where the seller has to fill out exactly what they know, to the best of their knowledge, what they know is working, what they've replaced, what they've changed, right, what has happened to the property down to like, if there's any pets, even the not welcome ones. Right, because we see that

John Laforme: 36:56

we do see that. Yeah, I don't like dealing with big dogs. I'd rather just take them off the property.

Sona Gallatin: 37:01

What I wanted to talk about with you is the buyers who have like family friends that do the home inspection. Oh, that's always a fun topic. Yes. And then our buyers, we think, Oh, I can replace this no problem. And they have absolutely no construction experience whatsoever. you I know have construction experience. I've built houses in the past, right? Yeah. So you can identify problematic situations and can guesstimate a cost of something. Right?

John Laforme: 37:29

Wait, I just remembered something what? Remember that house I did for you way out in like Canyon Country with a guy built the addition onto the existing house and it wasn't permitted? What was the address for that member costs like this? I told him to get a structural engineer. Oh,$45,000 Oh, I Oh, my gosh, John, that was gonna talk about I just remember this.

Sona Gallatin: 37:51

I remember that because you showed me where the additions swagged down like two and a half inch in the center. And he refused to believe that anything was wrong with it.

John Laforme: 38:03

That house was so unsafe, it was ridiculous. So let me explain that to everybody. This was a ninth, I believe was a 1920s original structure. Yeah, it was really tiny. It was usually a little might have been like 1000 square feet. Yes. And the owner built a four car massive garage onto it and this and he had a living area above it. So when you first look at it, when you pull up, everything looks fine. But then I went into the garage and I look up at the I look up at the ceiling of the garage, which is the floor system for the living area above it. And I saw two by sixes nailed together, span a minute as higher stay more together spanning the entire floor. So what what the framer didn't do is he didn't find the middle of the the width of the building and put in a seriously big support beam. And then run the floor joists from the front to the middle and from the back to the middle. He did not have a beam in there. And they literally took two by sixes. I'm talking 20 to 30 feet of two by sixes and nail them together three, three of them nailed together and I'm like what the fuck is that? I've never seen anything that bad. I don't

Sona Gallatin: 39:20

say this 13 years. I've seen anything that bad either. And he reluctantly had the engineer come out and check and the engineer agreed and would not permit it until he had it corrected

John Laforme: 39:32

and I think the number was what 45,000 Yes. And he kept

Sona Gallatin: 39:34

saying oh no, I can have some guy just you know you don't want some guy writing anything off for you. You

John Laforme: 39:41

know is a tough one for me to explain because I knew he built it himself. He's got a lot of pride but then he but then he did admit he didn't have the qualification himself to do it but he had someone come help him do it. And that guy's the one that told him to so be okay. Yes. So that floor just so you know, to continue on with this little nightmare of A framing job it was bad. So I go upstairs, with my laser level just out of morbid curiosity through a laser level on the floor, the middle of the upstairs living area had a two inch drop. I remember that. I remember seeing that two inch drop on the floor, there was no support under it. I'm surprised that building didn't just implode.

Sona Gallatin: 40:23

I remember haven that cave in that way.

John Laforme: 40:26

I'm surprised it didn't. And I believe I found some other structural defects with that, too. With the framing, I believe some of the walls were out of level.

Sona Gallatin: 40:36

It was pretty bad. Yeah, I think what scared the seller finally, is to say that should someone get caught in this building and die? It's going to be on you. Yep. Because you can't just say you have the permit and not produce the permit. And you have to be able to trace the permit with La Building and Safety and see the records of who the contractor was when the permit was applied when they applied for the permit. If it was completed and done. It'll say it'll say on their website completed and you can print a copy of that printed, completed updated permit. And you ought to if anyone tells you, I've had this done, and oh, yeah, yeah, it's permitted.

John Laforme: 41:18

I can't believe I just remember that. Because as you were saying something I'm like, wait a minute, I remember. It was you I did that job for you. The one you referred me to the

Sona Gallatin: 41:26

buyer. Yeah. I remember another buyer in the Hollywood Hills area to remember where the seller had this started construction on a retaining wall. And they said, Oh, it's taking a long time because the city whatever excuse they had, let's just leave your buyer 25,000 in escrow and they can finish the job after Oh, I do remember that. And I said, no, no. And you know what, every agent wants to close a deal because you get paid, right? Sure. I was not willing to let this deal close unless they had that completed. And it was like pulling teeth because the listing agent wanted to close because come on. So now, let's just wrap this up, you know, let's just wrap this up. We'll leave plenty of money. 25. Let's just wrap this up. I'll tell you put a bow on it. I double check to even talk to the geotechnical people myself. And it took months we close that nine months later. And the price to finish that retaining wall was over$100,000

John Laforme: 42:29

I believe. It's like, I just had a geotechnical guy on as a guest aid Simon top and he said, It's like 400 bucks a square foot.

Sona Gallatin: 42:37

Yeah. This was several years ago. So I imagine now it's even more. But can you imagine if I had told my buyer? Yeah, yeah, let's just close. That's a huge mistake, a huge mistake financially. And that buyer would have probably said, Never again, will I trust this realtor who was right to close a deal just to make the commission and not looking out for my money. Yeah, what's

John Laforme: 43:00

what's the use of closing that deal too early, getting your money, and then just giving it back? Once later? Yeah, that's right. Just bad businessman. I know, desperation. But there's good business out there. Sure. Is, there is there is this

Sona Gallatin: 43:13

and there's people who do their jobs. Well, like you do your job really well. Very thorough, so confidently, like as a realtor, when I hire an inspector like yourself, to inspect your property, I could say that, okay, this is going, all the problem areas are going to be highlighted in this report. We're going to go over together, it's like full disclosure, everyone knows what they're going into. If the buyer decides that they're not going to ask the seller for any credit for any repairs, they can choose not to right, going eyes wide open, that they're going to have to expect some of those repairs. Right, right when they move in some of the urgent ones anyway.

John Laforme: 43:51

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot to swallow there. You know, it seems like it's a lot to unpack when it comes to this. But you know, I just, I just, I just wish things would change a little bit. I wish things would just get a little more in favor of the buyers. You know, I look you're selling a home I get I've sold homes, and I understand that the buyer wants to get it I just don't understand why most people don't it's just don't get understand that.

Sona Gallatin: 44:18

I don't either. I can't explain that away. And I've bought and sold homes myself. And when it came time for me to sell my last house. My sellers disclosure were pages after it went into over overflow documents because even if let's say on those wooden blinds that you have, and the threading is off, it may not not look broken, but to me, I had to say the threading is off. So sometimes if you don't fix the threading, it's going to be a little lopsided down to the detail of that even though it might not mean our be significant to someone else. But I feel like as a seller, it's your responsibility to let the buyer know everyday Tell us about the house.

John Laforme: 45:01

Some buyers want to know every day. Yes, they do. I've met buyers like that. And I'm like,

Sona Gallatin: 45:07

Ooh, okay, sometimes too. Also too much like I remember a buyer. Oh my gosh, I had remember having this buyer, this buyer, I let go of her like a hot cake. Oh my gosh. I had the agent Call me once. The agent after I took her to an open house, the agent called and said, Honey, nothing is worth this kind of commission. And I knew at that point, I had to let her go. So she would basically just look at a house, she would talk to the neighborhood. She would want to know how old the children were, she would want to know and she'd calculate how old the kids were going to be when she moved in and she didn't want to be near noisy teenagers and I would tell her, you know you that person could be there now and then sell their house next week and you could have a noisy teenager and she would walk through the house and she would I'm not kidding you she would say things like who the fuck puts a washer dryer in the hallway. And and John she was an elderly woman like in her close to 70

John Laforme: 46:12

in her ways,

Sona Gallatin: 46:13

she was from they were buying a home all cash this was several years ago. I'll never forget it. They were buying a home for like 1.3 million all cash back then that was pretty good money for the valley. Right? She had the mouth of a truck driver and what embarrassed me at every showing, this woman is insane. She we showed last thing I'll say about her because she was so off the charts crazy. I showed her a house where the neighbor had a bird aviary in the back. She didn't buy that house. But she called Animal Control or whatever and report them about the bird Avery, she she wasn't even going to be a neighbor. And she reported we get a lot of lunatics in this business. And we get a lot of really great. I've

John Laforme: 47:00

met quite a few Yes, yeah. I have to walk away to Yes, yeah. I've I've had many relatives calling me and promised me 3030 Home Inspections a month if I give them a deal on one. And I'm like, ma'am, I don't need your business. So I don't understand that to John. That's that's some that's some old school logic right there.

Sona Gallatin: 47:16

I just don't understand that. Because you're providing a service that they need. Yep. So how willing are they to give up their money or their clients money? Someone who's asking you for?

John Laforme: 47:27

It's ridiculous. They think they have to sell me on something like what Ma'am, you don't need to sell me on it, especially on three homes a month. What is that? If you need if you need a home inspection, I'll be more than happy to help you out if I'm available for that day. But you don't need to promise me the world to get me to show up. I'm not looking for that. Right. But you know, that's a old tactic that some of these developer these flippers use. Oh, well, we I need you to do I need someone to do a 30 i We got like 15 houses. I said, Ma'am, stop. I already do 25 to 30 houses a month I can't do anymore. I am the wrong guy. So should call somebody else. And then I just That's it. I just end the call. I don't need to get into that rabbit hole that they're, you know, creating right there. It's like, No, I don't need to go there. So

Sona Gallatin: 48:12

now that you mentioned that, what do you think about the flipper houses?

John Laforme: 48:15

Oh, I love flipper. Those are my most most entertaining reports yet. Yes. They all look pretty on the outside. Right? They sure do. All that cosmetic you walk in. Wow. You know, I'll give you a good example of a flip flip house that just went really bad. It was built in 1908. And it you walk in the front door. And then everything was just white. That's always a red flag for me when everything's white on an old building. Yes, because white hides everything. If you had a paint walls like a dark brown or a black, you'll see every flaw in that wall. So white paint hides everything. Interesting. So this house I go in, and I start walking uphill. And then I start walking downhill. Then I go into the bedroom. I'm going downhill again. And the buyers have already been inside. Their realtor has already been inside. No one's mentioned it to me. Really, no one's brought it up like oh, hey, by the way, why the floors dip and so I go into the house and sure enough, brick Foundation is a brick foundation. You can't anchor your house to a brick Foundation. And they tried to hide it. They skim coated the brick with a mortar all the way around. But the layer was so thin. You could see the brick indentations all the bricks. No kidding. I was laughing my ass off when I saw that. Like one of these guys. They tried to just hide it wanted to put a little more, you know, thickness on your skim coat. Oh my gosh. So I had to tell him that you have a brick foundation and that was smart. They had they had a foundation to come to he showed up shortly after I did. Yeah. And I was already in this bye By the way, I didn't go under there yet. I looked at one section from the outside looking in, and I could tell it was brick. By the way, it's brick. He goes no way. I said, yeah. So go take a look. And so it was all brick.

Sona Gallatin: 50:11

you've even seen some foundation hosts under the basement being held together with like wooden shims, like pieces.

John Laforme: 50:21

Yeah, well not being held together. They're just shim shim. So the shims are not glued or nailed. They're just there. Because probably happen there was the soil had settled, and or the floor lifted for maybe expansive soils or something. And what happens is, there'll be a gap between the wood column and the concrete pier it's supposed to sit on Yeah, so what they do is they just happened some shims. So in case it but the problem is when it drops back down, now it's gonna cause a more of a, a slope inside the house deflection, more floor deflection so so back to the flipping things. That's one of the things I find. I've been under other houses where I'm running the bathtub. And I want before I go into the house, I always I always run a lot of water before I go under the house that tells me if I have leaks, right, currently, so I run a lot of bathtub, water sinks, showers, I let them run for like five or 10 minutes on each bathroom. So I go into the house and I'm like, oh my god, it's soaked into here. What the hell is going on? So I get on my phone and I call the realtor inside. I knew the realtor. Hey, do me a favor. You turn on the bathtub. Sure. That's up there was totally disconnected. There's no plumbing for the bathtub under that. There was no plumbing, it was no drain pipe. It was just missing. And that's why I didn't spot it right away. Wow. I said, Hey, I need to see where this water's coming from. Luckily, it wasn't under it. I was next to it. And it just came pouring. So that's insane. Yeah. So that's, that's what you can find. And and another another thing you really got to look for is these old houses like 1920s homes that are flipped, I find a brand new 200 amp panel outside and actually looks nice. Like a pull the covers, the grounding is good. It's got AFCI breakers, all this stuff. And then I go inside the house and I own the attic. It's all knob and tube. So they it's like lipstick on a pig. Yes. Wow, it looks so nice from the outside. But you know, that's why you need a home inspection because you need to have the rest of that stuff looked at. And when you go in the attics and crawlspaces. That's where you find the horror stories. That's what that's when the house is talking to you right there.

Sona Gallatin: 52:32

I feel like they skimp also on anything related to the attic or the roof when they're doing a flip.

John Laforme: 52:39

Yeah, they don't insulate the attic. No, they'll be as

Sona Gallatin: 52:43

little as they possibly can to make the most in the shortest amount of time.

John Laforme: 52:47

Yep. And I think I think flippers would be way more successful. If they skimped in different areas, they skimp in the wrong areas all the time. I think that's probably why most of those deals don't go through. So we're a little advice to use flippers out there. Don't skimp on the electrical. Don't skimp on the plumbing. And don't skimp on the let's say electrical plumbing in the HVAC, if you're going to upgrade an HVAC system replace the duct. Alright, you know, a lot of times they leave the old asbestos wrap up there. Yes, I've seen that. And that's a violation of Title 24 California energy efficiency code. Yeah. So that's all I report that all the time and and honestly, HVAC is my favorite thing to inspect because I love the shortcuts people try to take on that.

Sona Gallatin: 53:37

Is that the one area where people take the most shortcuts?

John Laforme: 53:41

I believe so. I do a lot of see, you'll see a upgraded furnace. But they don't seal the plenum underneath. So I'll pull an air it's full of dust and dirt and pet hair and insulation. And they get this brand new furnace on top. Or here's a good one. You have a 30 year old furnace with a nest thermostat. I've seen that people will see that nest and they think oh, I got a really nice nest thermostat. Yeah, but it's connected to an old dinosaur. Yeah, that's barely gonna work right?

Sona Gallatin: 54:11

When I when I walk into house and one of the first things that I like to look at is the air filter the intake area. That is like if it has no filter, or if it's like so disgustingly dirty. You could see the dust coming through it. To me, it's like it could be the shiny, prettiest house on the outside. But I know if they neglected that. There's gonna be other stuff wrong. Absolutely. Because that's the air you breathe. How could you like lead? Leave it to?

John Laforme: 54:36

You gotta change your filters, like every two months? Yes, that's if your return filter is located on the wall by the floor and you have pets. Yeah, you change that more often than that because that pet hair gets sucked right into that as soon as you turn on that system.

Sona Gallatin: 54:50

It's such an easy fix. And I can't believe people just don't do it.

John Laforme: 54:53

I know it's just it's just a nowadays they have these really cool services where you can order online. That's right, even with Amazon and stuff like that, and they'll automatically send you a new filter. So when you get it, you know, it's time to change it. Yeah, bam, just pop it in and takes two seconds, unless you have an attic, an attic filter system, sometimes they put them in the attic right at the furnace, which I don't like, right? Take it out of there, put it in the ceiling, something like that, and just do a little modification there.

Sona Gallatin: 55:23

Isn't it so amazing. Like, I hope that people who are listening to this podcast pay attention because you could learn so much that when you're out there looking at houses to buy your next property, you've got a bit of an idea on what to look for. Instead of just looking at all the cosmetics,

John Laforme: 55:39

yeah, we always get caught up in the visuals. And that's what people are hoping for that you're gonna ignore the big dollar things and stuff like that. And another thing to point out, too, with any home, whether it's a flipped house, or just an older house that hasn't been upgraded, is you have to get that sewer line checked. Yes, I do not ignore that. I tell people this every day and like, Oh, you're just trying to get business? No, no, well, yeah, yeah, I ran I have a business. I'm in business to make money. Yes. But it's a great service, because you're gonna know what the condition of that pipe is underground. There's no other way of knowing. And here's a little False. False. How can I put that? A little, little myth that people think some realtors I know think this way. And just by running faucets in this in the flushing the toilets, if nothing backs up, everything's okay. Really, that's okay. That is not even close to be an accurate, right? That's not know that it would take for example, if you if your house is 30 feet long in one direction, let's say the toilets in the back of the house, and you flush that toilet and that pipe that that water has to run out 30 feet to escape the outside of the house structure. That's right. And then there's another 60 feet of sewer line. That's right. So let's say there was a blockage, right by the sidewalk, it would take you hundreds of flushes. For that to actually turn into a backup to actually reach the house. Right? You follow me? Yeah. So that's the that's why that's really not a good gauge of whether or not your plumbing your underground plumbing needs to be looked at. There's only one way to do it. And that is what a sewer camera inspections. So if you don't hire me to do it, hire someone else to do it. Because if you spend a couple 100 bucks to do that to $300 Yeah, you could find it easily $5,000 With repair,

Sona Gallatin: 57:36

especially, or more, that goes from the house to the street. That's what I mean. That's the most critical part. And wasn't a you that taught me years ago, when we're looking at houses and we see the trees in the front, everyone has like big trees in the back, that their canopy on top of where the branches are, matches the roof of where it's spreading underneath. No, I didn't tell you that. Because I've kind of looked at that as kind of a rule of thumb, but not necessarily for all trees because it depends on the tree type. So when I see trees that are so close to the property, and already lifting up and under on older homes, I can tell that there's going to be a problem there has to be if they if they haven't done any plumbing upgrades, then something's gonna show up. Right, right. Most of the time camera would be just

John Laforme: 58:25

Yeah, big tree in your front yard. If your sewer line runs from your house out to your street, well, there's a good chance you may have some roots there you can have some offsets that treat the roots push on the pipe that kind of throws it out of whack so it's not straight and more should be like this, but sometimes they want up like that. So yeah, I mean, that's a pretty common thing. But my point is, if you're getting the house inspected, don't skimp on the sewer line, I'm telling you, it's well worth it. I find all kinds of stuff. Good a good point I just finished a YouTube video I'm about to release it probably later tonight about drain pipe under the house that I typically find and what kind of pipe I find during my sewer inspections. And and I talk about Orangeburg pipe, are you familiar with that? No. Okay, Orangeburg pipe is a pipe that was used from like World War Two up to about the 1970s Really, there was a shortage of metals for the for the war. So the United States really had to come up with an idea because they had to spend all that resource and use all the Steel's and metals to make machinery, equipment, ammunition, all that stuff. So it caused a strain on the United States as far as building materials. So they couldn't keep making cast iron pipe for a while, they had to find a cheaper alternative so they could use those resources for the war. So are these the clay pipes that you know, this is Orangeburg. Orangeburg is a black pipe it's made out of a tar pitch, a wood pulp that's in a bitumen. It's bonded together, they call it that and it's named Orangeburg, because that's it came from Orangeburg, New York So that's why they, the company that made it was from Orangeburg, New York. So that's why they call it Orangeburg was called the no corrode pipe. So my point is bringing this up is on a flipped house, I found a large section of this and they said the sewer line was replaced, there was like 20 feet of Orangeburg, and it was in really bad shape.

Sona Gallatin: 1:00:22

So once the last time that was used, so you can they stopped

John Laforme: 1:00:25

using it 19 around the 1970s. Okay, company went out of business 1974. They were in business from the late 1800s. Yeah, all the way up, but they didn't make Orangeburg pipe all that time. They only made that when the wars that when the war starts, right, all that stuff. So

Sona Gallatin: 1:00:42

that's interesting. So they've replaced the pipes, they end but not that.

John Laforme: 1:00:47

Well, I'm saying is, is just like I said, it's just part of your knowing if if you buy a used car, usually you have a checkout, right? It's the same thing of buying a house.

Sona Gallatin: 1:00:57

You might say yes, but most people don't. Right. So

John Laforme: 1:01:00

I'm just saying if you've taken the time and the money to inspect the house, understand the sewer line as a huge component of the house. Yeah. But it's not part of the home inspection, because it's an underground pipe that can't be seen unless you put a camera down there. So it's not part of my home inspection. It's a separate service I offer. Yeah. So but I think they go hand in hand. And typically the second question I get from anybody is can you do the sewer, too? And that's what I do just about every day. Yeah. So I do a home inspection and the sewer most most of the time.

Sona Gallatin: 1:01:30

That's a convenient service to have here. I know that in other counties, there are not the same. And you have to coordinate a plumber to come and do the sewer line for you. Oh, you're like What do you know what cities are there? Yes, Kern County, really. Every inspector I called because I do cover Kern County, Ventura County to every inspector I called. They don't do both. And they referred me to plumbers. And I've been calling plumbers and it's like, my gosh, trying to coordinate them to do it on the same day. It takes a bit of an effort. Yes. Like, really? You don't want to work?

John Laforme: 1:02:07

Well, you know, plumbers, successful plumbing companies, they have no shortage of work. Yeah, they are just slammed. Yeah. I mean, think about it. When you leave here today, when you're driving home, just count how many plumbing vans you see on the freeway, interesting. I'm thinking I'm gonna, they're everywhere. Everywhere.

Sona Gallatin: 1:02:25

Everyone's always saying posting on next door or all those neighborhood apps. Right, buddy? No, good plumber.

John Laforme: 1:02:34

So another thing I want to ask you about is as a realtor you know, what is it that you expect? From your home inspector? Like, do you expect your home inspector to expect inspect everything in the house? Yes. Okay, why is that?

Sona Gallatin: 1:02:55

So that my buyer knows what they're getting into? I don't want an inspector to tell me, everything is okay. Because not everything can be okay, not even in a brand new built home. And I think that often I do hear that too, from some buyers reps when I'm the listing side, that they don't pay attention to what the inspector is going to say as long as they find an inspector to clear the report for them. You know what I mean? Not really find anything.

John Laforme: 1:03:23

I think I might have asked you the question wrong, I think I think you're kind of going a different direction. So what I mean is, different houses have different components. Not every house has a trash compactor. That's right, right. Not every house has a built in vacuum system. Of course, not every house has solar panels. Not every house has a chimney. Not every house has a pool, right? Not every house is going to have fire sprinkler systems. So there's several things that home inspectors do not look at. That's why I was asking that question. So there is a limitation to what we are going to do and what we're not going to do. Which is another issue that is part of my effort to bridge the gap between realtors and home inspectors, so that everyone's on the same page and the same information gets relayed to the buyers at so that there's no miscommunication because what I run into daily is just constant miscommunication. unrealistic expectations, in other words, Oh, I see because Oh, you're the home inspector. And then I'll walk up Oh, Jon's gonna check everything. Um, no, I'm not going to check everything. Oh, so

Sona Gallatin: 1:04:37

I see what you mean. Okay, when I when I'm calling my inspector to inspect the property I share with them the listing information, right, because the listing information often will disclose exactly what the property has. If it has solar, if it has built in fire sprinklers. And their inspector if they're good one will tell me Oh, I saw the listing and it has this and this just letting you know Those are the areas I don't cover in my inspection. So I know I need to get separate inspectors for those things that I want checked if I need them checked for my buyer,

John Laforme: 1:05:08

right, exactly. So that's something that I think a lot of realtors are not aware of. Because it's in the house, we're gonna look at it. If every house was exactly the same, then maybe the Korea standards of practice would be different. And that's what we follow. That's what I follow. I'm a Korea certified inspector. So I follow their standards of practice. And there's things that I do not cover. I do not look at chimneys at all chimneys or fireplaces. Because at the end of what I if I was to look at it and give it a visual, I can't look up inside the flu, right. That's where the problems are. That's why you need to have a chimney specialist who's licensed who can do a level two, level two inspection. That's why I don't touch him. And I disclaim that, from the beginning with my customers in the inspection agreement says I do not cover any part of the chimney or components you need to have a chimney specialists come in. Same with solar panels. And a lot of people are surprised when I tell them, Oh, you can't check my solar panel like No, I'm not qualified for that on a training, I'm going to let you know that you do have them. And when I'm looking in your attic, I'm looking for water stains. And if I see a bunch of water stains in these random spots on the same side of your house where your solar panels aren't going to tell you well, you know what, you definitely need to get those look decks. I think they're leaking. Yeah, the roofs leaking from the mounts, you know. So that's as far as I take it. And I have to disclose that I'm not going to check your water pond on the property. I'm not required to check your barn, your outdoor barbecue. Sure if I see electrical to it, I'll check those make sure they're safe. But I'm not going to be turning on your gas, your barbecue your fire pit. There's a lot of things that that's not part of the process. That's right. Trust me. My process takes forever already. That's without all those extra things. Yeah. So but it's kind of a real buzzkill when I show up, and I'd spend three hours on a house. And the first thing I get asked by the buyer is Oh, did you check the lawn sprinklers? Right? Oh my god that is so unfocused right there. Who cares about your lawn? Sprinkler? Yes, that's right. You hurt me for the home inspection, not your lawn. That's right. And I'm just like, wow, I guess you didn't read the inspection agreement, did you? Because that's something else in there. They never know.

Sona Gallatin: 1:07:25

And you're actually one of the only ones I know that has the inspection agreement that you require the buyer to sign before they make a commitment. No way. Yeah. There's a lot of inspectors out there. Because oftentimes, I'm in areas where you're not local. So I have to choose another inspector. And it's hard finding one. First of all, not many are certified.

John Laforme: 1:07:50

Yeah. That's something we should probably cover. Yes. You know, I don't mind talking about that.

Sona Gallatin: 1:07:55

Yeah. Because my buyers will say, What's the difference? Right? Well,

John Laforme: 1:07:59

you know, the difference is training and experience. Honestly, you could be a home inspector tomorrow, if you just took an online course you're telling me that? Yeah. That's that really? That's? That's true.

Sona Gallatin: 1:08:12

It is that I guess it shouldn't be that easy to get a real estate license either.

John Laforme: 1:08:15

I'll tell you how to do it real quick. Oh, get a website? Yes. Make sure it says Home Inspector in there somewhere. Get it marketed, get some SEO working on it to get people traffic to it. Put out a couple ads. Go see some realtors give them a business card that says you're certified. Maybe you can go this far. Tell them you're licensed to be a home inspector in California? And they'll probably believe that too. There is no there is no licensing California for home inspectors. Oh, wow. But it's real easy to do. So if you're just looking for the lowest bidder, that's the guy you're going to find. Yeah. So I don't believe in working for free. And I don't expect anyone that I hired to work for free either. So it's kind of it's just how I look at it. You know, it's I think I provide a good service. I have the latest, the, to me the best software on the market, which comes with a lot of perks like email, reminders, text reminders, keeps everybody on point, hey, we got inspection tomorrow. Everybody's in the same loop. It's just really helps me perform better overall. So when I'm at the house, doing the inspection, all I'm doing is the inspection. The paperwork has been done days before. Everybody gets their automatic text messages. Everybody gets their automatic emails, reminders. So that that helps me. You know, like I said, what to what should relatives expect with a home inspector, which is the we're talking about right now. And that's something that is often overlooked. And yeah, now one inspector may do some of the things that I don't do, and that's fine. But if that relatives only used to that guy, and then I show up, and her expectations may not be met. That's why I put everything in writing ahead of time. So everyone was on the same page. You know, when you get your first, your first email from he's going to tell you Hey, thank you for calling us and so forth. And this is Just to be clear, this is what we don't cover. So if if these are on the property should have a specialist come out at the same time we're there. So you can coordinate but I'm trying to make everything go smoothly. Sure. That's my point. Yeah. But it does, but it doesn't always happen.

Sona Gallatin: 1:10:15

So nothing is the same every single time. So,

John Laforme: 1:10:19

right. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Anything else you can think of right now?

Sona Gallatin: 1:10:23

Not off the top of my head. We covered a lot of stuff today, John,

John Laforme: 1:10:26

we did we just yapped? Yeah, we happen for an hour and 11 minutes. No kidding.

Sona Gallatin: 1:10:31

I was thinking is it been half an hour? Oh, no,

John Laforme: 1:10:34

that's Yeah, really. It's interesting. And you can keep you know, conversing back and forth. It can run into overtime really common, especially

Sona Gallatin: 1:10:41

as a pretty cool topic. And an interesting and very important one. Yeah, I would hate to have any of my buyers or sellers overlook that part of the transaction.

John Laforme: 1:10:51

Yeah, it's, it's an important thing. And I just wanted to get a perspective from an actual realtor today. And that's why I invited you on.

Sona Gallatin: 1:10:58

I've totally honored that you chose me. You gave a lot. So many hundreds.

John Laforme: 1:11:02

There's a lot. Yeah, there's a lot. But not everybody is a straight shooter like you. Thank you. So I just and I know you're just gonna give it to me straight because this is called Straight Talk. Yes, that's right. That's right. And so do you want to promote anything like your how people can find you and so forth?

Sona Gallatin: 1:11:22

I have a website, Gallatin group dotnet. Okay, y'all, it's

John Laforme: 1:11:26

a group done that and that consistent? How many people?

Sona Gallatin: 1:11:28

I have four people on my team right now.

John Laforme: 1:11:31

Okay. You want to mention the names at all?

Sona Gallatin: 1:11:34

Nyeri talk nozze Chris Gallatin. The other two are a little too green.

John Laforme: 1:11:43

I'm very familiar with Nyeri.

Sona Gallatin: 1:11:45

Oh, yes. Because she calls you all the time to guess what?

John Laforme: 1:11:48

You know how you told me in the beginning. He used to follow me around. Yes. That's what I read does.

Sona Gallatin: 1:11:52

Cuz I told her that. And you know what? She's so good at what she does she?

John Laforme: 1:11:57

She's very nice. I like dealing with her. Yeah, she's she's awesome. She's pretty awesome. And Chris as well. I haven't seen Chris in a while. How's he doing?

Sona Gallatin: 1:12:03

He's doing pretty well. He does a lot of the technology stuff and the social media things for us. Yeah. And the one we have in Palmdale is kind of laying low for a time being I think she's expecting her first child. So

John Laforme: 1:12:15

okay. Yeah. All right. Cool. Well, it's just me I had a few inspectors in the past, I had a few guys I was trying to train and, and I remember that, they just, they just didn't like the workflow or fun, too hard to work for which I probably am. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a pretty hard guy to

Sona Gallatin: 1:12:31

work for I am too. I have really high expectations of the people that I'm working with. And I don't like shortcuts. I don't like shortcuts in my business, and I don't want my teammates to have shortcuts. So I'm

John Laforme: 1:12:43

just a one man band. I own and operate home inspection authority, inspection authority. I take all the good calls and the bad calls. I pay all the bills, right? Businesses. That's right. I have a YouTube channel. I don't know how I find time to make videos. I have now have a podcast.

Sona Gallatin: 1:13:01

So I find these podcasts are very helpful. I like it when posted on social media. Yeah. Yes, I love it.

John Laforme: 1:13:08

So what size shirt do you need? I got shirts for you.

Sona Gallatin: 1:13:11

I don't know what size. What size is that?

John Laforme: 1:13:14

This is a large probably a large. Okay. Yeah. So anyway, Sony Gallatin. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate you taking the time out of your Saturday to come hang with me in this in this hot room. It's pretty. It's getting warm in here. So anyway, so signing off here, John from home inspection authority inspection authority YouTube channel. And if I have any related videos to the topics we spoke about today, I will put them in the description below the podcast itself. But thanks for listening. I Sona. Thank you, John. All right.