Investor to inspector stories

[Justin Larpenteur]

So I started my investing career as just a guy trying to get more money to pay off bills. I was tired of living check to check like everyone else. I'm not going to go into that story because it's the same for most people. ANYWAY I decided to get into the industry as a professional and learn my way into things and get paid for it. I chose inspection because it's just what made sense to me and my goals. My greatest shortcoming is estimating rehab costs so by the end of the year I hope to be much more of an expert than I am now. This is the first of my "Tales from an inspection" series. I inspect about 40-50 homes a month so I see a lot. Hopefully I can give you guys some insights as well. Today I had a 30 year old home that was surprisingly updated. Granted, every home will have issues but this one had hardly enough to make a financial difference on the investor who was buying it. One of the issues however, was the lack of GFCI protection in the home. In Texas AT LEAST you need to have GFCI outlets on all kitchen counter surfaces, outside, garage, bathrooms etc. this home had the outside ones since the pool was relatively new and the outlets were put in when the pool was put in. For any of you selling homes. Make sure these are put in. There isn't a limit to how many but they are a great way to further protect your appliances and most importantly, your loved ones who just HAVE to curl their hair while taking a shower and listening to Metalica all at once. Also get the "Code Check" book from Home Depot lol. Even before I was an inspector I lived by this book. It can really make an inspection on your home go smoothly. As far as estimating the cost of replacing the normal outlets, I can only assume they cost between 5 to $10 a piece but that just takes a run to the hardware store. The harder part is determining how much to pay the electrician to do it. Sure you could but then in yourself but that takes work and you have other things to do like find better deals. What are your thoughts? I wanted to keep the first one simple. As I see more I'll post more interesting topics like foundation repairs :p. How do you guys handle Home inspectors?