To watch a video version of this podcast, click here: https://youtu.be/iIWheUyrBvk
In this episode of the Structure Talk podcast, hosts Reuben Saltzman and Tessa Murry discuss their summer adventures and dive into the complexities of condo inspections. They share personal anecdotes about water heater issues and the importance of understanding the inspection process for condos, including the challenges of accessing common areas and the nuances of pricing. The conversation emphasizes the need for thorough inspections while acknowledging the limitations of what inspectors can cover, especially in multi-unit buildings.
Here’s the link to check out Inspector Empire Builder:
https://events.iebcoaching.com/events
You can find more information on Tessa’s website:
https://www.yourhousecoach.com/
Takeaways
Summer brings challenges for podcasting schedules.
Condo inspections can vary widely in complexity.
Understanding the common areas is crucial for condo inspections.
Water heater warranties can be misleading.
Inspectors often have to navigate tricky access situations.
Communication with real estate agents is essential for buyers.
Condo inspection pricing reflects the scope of work involved.
Inspectors should always look for red flags in common areas.
Personal experiences can inform professional practices.
The importance of thorough inspections cannot be overstated.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome Back and Summer Adventures
04:27 Shout Out to Sponsors and Upcoming Events
10:05 Water Heater Woes: A Personal Journey
14:34 DIY Water Heater Replacement: Tips and Insights
15:31 The Importance of Confidence in Home Inspections
16:05 Understanding Condo Inspections
17:34 Interior Inspection Focus for Condos
19:06 Challenges in Inspecting Common Areas
21:45 Navigating Electrical Systems in Condos
22:38 Inspecting Attics and Their Importance
24:39 Time Management in Condo Inspections
25:56 Understanding Association Responsibilities
28:05 Regulatory Changes in Condo Inspections
29:47 Inspecting Patios and Decks
30:06 Condo Inspection Pricing
TRANSCRIPTION
The following is an AI-generated transcription from an audio recording. Although the transcription is mostly accurate, it will contain some errors due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
Reuben Saltzman: Welcome to my house. Welcome to the Structure Talk podcast, a production of Structure Tech Home Inspections. My name is Reuben Saltzman. I’m your host alongside building science geek, Tessa Murry. We help home inspectors up their game through education, and we help homeowners to be better stewards of their houses. We’ve been keeping it real on this podcast since 2019, and we are also the number one home inspection podcast in the world, according to my mom.
Reuben Saltzman (00:01.506)
Welcome back to the Structure Talk podcast. I’m your host, Ruben Saltzman, Tessa Murray’s here. We have taken a few weeks off. It’s summer. We got stuff going on. We’re busy. We’re traveling. We can’t do this every week, can we?
Tessa Murry (00:15.568)
It’s tough, but it’s good to be back. Good to see your face, Ruben, your lovely face.
Reuben Saltzman (00:16.823)
stuff.
Good to see you, Tess. Back at ya. How is sunny Florida? You’re in Florida, I trust, yes?
Tessa Murry (00:26.062)
I am back in Florida again, yes, and it’s hot and humid, you know. What can I say? And it rains every day, you know. Under storms rolling in the afternoon, downpours, and then it heats up like a sauna afterwards. There’s no relief.
Reuben Saltzman (00:30.562)
Hahaha
yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (00:41.358)
Oh my goodness. We had unseasonably cold weather yesterday. I think we had a high of 60. It was so weird. It was like, it was almost 100 the day before and then it dropped down to 60. And yeah.
Tessa Murry (00:48.925)
it.
Tessa Murry (00:53.34)
That’s Minnesota for you. Yeah, I was so I was just in Minnesota a few days ago, actually last week and it was it was hot. And we actually it was the beginning of blueberry picking season. So I got to do that with my nephews, which was fun. Picked eight pounds. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Reuben Saltzman (01:00.483)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (01:05.26)
how delightful. my gosh. That is some serious blueberry baking. Usually it’s one for me, one for basket. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (01:15.742)
It’s like my nephew Sammy, he’s four and half of them go in the basket, half of go in his mouth. Actually, no, it’s probably more like 80-20. Yeah. And then there’s Micah, who’s only a year and a half and he’s just running, running, running. So you’re chasing him and you’re picking blueberries and you’re chasing him and you’re picking blueberries. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. What’s on the docket for today, Ruben?
Reuben Saltzman (01:29.26)
Yeah, yeah, that’s what it’s all about. Fun.
Reuben Saltzman (01:38.584)
Well, let’s see, we got a couple of topics, but before we do, let’s have a shout out for our sponsors, IEB, Inspector Empire Builder. The latest thing going on is they’re bringing back their training event for hiring. It’s called RSTMM. That is recruit, select, train, manage, and motivate. One of the best trainings I have ever gone through when it comes to
hiring, analyzing people, figuring out exactly who it is that you’re hiring. That definitely changed our entire hiring process. couple things that they’re covering is why traditional hiring is failing inspection companies. they’re actually, well, what they’re doing is changing things, the way people hire. And…
Tessa Murry (02:30.728)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (02:33.836)
teaching ROI on hiring, talking about financial and time freedom that results from hiring properly. And there is some training coming up. The first one, the first part of this is just the recruit select. And that one is coming up on September 11th and 12th. And this is happening in New Orleans at the same time that inspection fuel is happening. Tessa.
I saw your eyes light up about inspection fuel. Do you have anything you’d like to share about that?
Tessa Murry (03:07.454)
Well, I will be teaching there this year. So are you going to be down there Reuben for inspection fuel or for?
Reuben Saltzman (03:13.302)
I will not, I have a board meeting that I need to be at for another inspection thing. So I cannot make it. I know it’s unfortunate because it did look like a good lineup. And when I saw your name on there, was like, Tessa, she didn’t even tell me. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (03:20.286)
Too many things happening at once. Yeah, too many good things at once. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (03:32.402)
Yeah, well, it should be a good time. And the last time I was in New Orleans for a thing, I think it was Ashy in what was that? Was that 2020?
Reuben Saltzman (03:41.934)
That was 2020 right before COVID happened. We’re all hearing about this Chinese virus that was coming around.
Tessa Murry (03:44.254)
Yeah, inspection fuel.
Tessa Murry (03:49.34)
And you know what? Ironically, we all got really sick, didn’t we? Structure tech, that’s so sick.
Reuben Saltzman (03:52.462)
We did Oh Yeah, that was about the stickest I had ever been everybody says it wasn’t COVID but I’m not buying it
Tessa Murry (04:01.126)
I don’t know what it was, but we were really sick. Yeah. So let’s cross our fingers and hope that doesn’t happen again this year.
Reuben Saltzman (04:08.142)
Yes, I’m sure it won’t. But again, that is inspection fuel that you will be teaching at. And it looks like a great conference. you’re any home inspectors, you want more about it, just go to your Google machine, type in home inspection fuel, you will find it. Looks like a power packed lineup for that conference.
Tessa Murry (04:15.836)
Yes. Yeah, should be fun.
Tessa Murry (04:25.298)
Yep.
Tessa Murry (04:29.104)
Yeah, should be good.
Reuben Saltzman (04:30.99)
All right, so topics at hand. Today’s topic comes from a listener request and it was to talk about what we do when we’re inspecting condos, because it can be all over the board. mean, do you just inspect paint to paint? That is traditionally what a condo is. That’s how much you own. And once you get outside the paint, it’s no longer yours.
or do you inspect the whole building or do you do something in between? So I thought it might be fun to talk about what our process is for inspecting a condo. But before we get into that, more water heater woes. This will be like episode 237 where we’ve talked about water heaters. I don’t know why.
Tessa Murry (05:08.702)
no.
Tessa Murry (05:19.295)
You
Reuben Saltzman (05:20.386)
I’m so fascinated by them, why I have so much to talk about with water heaters, but it’s just never ending. So.
Tessa Murry (05:25.99)
You know what? It’s gotta be the hard water in Maple Grove that’s making your life harder, Ruben.
Reuben Saltzman (05:30.286)
I Tessa I’m sure you’re right. So Alright, so let me just set the stage, you know We’ll just kind of recap some of our recent discussions my water heater last failed Four and a half years ago. I got a power vent water heater and I ended up replacing it I went to Home Depot got a new one and I bought
Tessa Murry (05:33.938)
what happened this time?
Tessa Murry (05:41.82)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (05:56.11)
an extended warranty this time. Home Depot has these extended warranties. It’s like, I don’t know, 70 bucks or something like that. And they give you a five-year extension on the manufacturer’s warranty. It’s just five years right on top. So the PowerVent water heater comes with a six-year warranty. You buy another five years for 70 bucks and everything is covered for another five years. I thought y’all are fools. This is the greatest deal on earth.
Tessa Murry (05:59.166)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (06:21.63)
You’re like you don’t know where I live that’s the best $70 you’ve ever spent.
Reuben Saltzman (06:25.75)
Yeah. well, that’s what I thought to be continued. Hold on. Hold on. We’ll get there. That’s what I thought at the time. fast forward to in the middle of this, we did a podcast we had Tim Hammack on, we were talking about anode rods, and I ended up checking the anode rod on my water heater. About six months ago or so I just wanted to inspect it, see how much was left.
It was completely gone, 100 % depleted. was just a metal rod where all of the magnesium should have been. And I have no idea how long ago it failed. Maybe it failed after a year, maybe two years, who knows. But.
Tessa Murry (07:11.966)
Because you checked it after the water heater was only installed. It’s only been there for what, three years and you checked it and it was gone?
Reuben Saltzman (07:17.76)
No, I checked it after four years. It was right after we did that podcast with Tim and I ended up buying an impact driver so I could, an impact wrench, excuse me. I bought a Milwaukee impact wrench to get my anode rod out and it was gone. So I installed the powered anode rod and I thought at least this should help, but who knows? I think I’m already kind of on borrowed time given the fact that my anode rod was totally depleted.
Tessa Murry (07:19.752)
Four years, okay. All right. Wow.
Tessa Murry (07:27.922)
replace it. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (07:47.342)
and for who knows how long. I thought maybe this will help. I don’t know if it helped or not, but my water heater started leaking a couple of weeks ago. There’s water all over the floor. So set up the fans and I thought, all right, well, I’m taking this thing back to Home Depot. I got my extended warranty. I got my receipt. I got everything. So.
Tessa Murry (07:47.794)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (07:56.222)
no.
Tessa Murry (08:08.478)
Well, you were good to go, you thought.
Reuben Saltzman (08:11.67)
Yeah, I thought, and I just thought I I should just call Home Depot and make sure this is the process that I bring it in. I called. They said, yeah, we’ll have a manager call you back. And I thought, well, I know what happened. So I uninstalled it. I got it all set to go. Manager finally calls me back and he’s like, yeah, if it’s, if you bought an extended warranty, you got to go through the warranty company. I’m like, great. So I called the warranty company and all you can do is file a claim. It’s.
It’s you it’s all electronic. You file a claim and then they will send an installer to your house and they’ll take care of all of it. And I’m like, OK. All right. Well, I don’t know when that’s going to happen. So I reinstalled my water heater. I put it all back together. And and so now it’s working again, but it’s leaking and I, you know, I got the fans going to kind of direct water to the floor drain. And then finally talk to the warranty company two days later and they’re like, yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:03.806)
Amen.
Reuben Saltzman (09:09.73)
The way it works is, well, what did they say? I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it sucked. They said basically the warranty only extends the manufacturer’s labor warranty. Yes, it’s not what they told me at Home Depot. You don’t get a five-year extension on the tank. You get a five-year extension on the labor. Yeah. And so…
Tessa Murry (09:26.686)
Tessa Murry (09:34.174)
labor?
Reuben Saltzman (09:37.686)
I would still be responsible for the tank or whatever. And, but then they’ll send someone out whenever it’s convenient. And I’m like, this is worthless. Cause it takes me like a half hour to uninstall my water heater and put a new one in. It’s not that big of a deal. I don’t care for somebody to come out and do this. So I said, thanks. No, thanks. We’re good. I ended up talking to Reem. I filed a claim and the Reem approved it. They’re like, yep, it’s leaking. You can take it back to your place of purchase.
Tessa Murry (09:38.007)
my gosh. shoot.
Tessa Murry (09:47.088)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:53.886)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:59.453)
aww
Reuben Saltzman (10:07.334)
and you get two options. Either you can bring it back and get what you paid and then use that money to buy a new water heater, or you can get a new water heater and not pay anything, but you’re not gonna get any warranty on the new water heater. And at first I was a little flustered, but once I thought it through, I kind of realized,
Tessa Murry (10:19.344)
Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (10:35.732)
Yeah, I guess it’s fair because if you buy a water heater and it fails every five years, you could get new water heaters in perpetuity. You know, you could buy one water heater, you could just keep replacing every five years for 30 years and not pay a dime, which is not fair to them. So thought, okay, I guess it’s not what I had in my head, but logically, it does make sense. So I ended up going back to Home Depot, I got back what I had.
Tessa Murry (10:55.838)
Thank you.
Reuben Saltzman (11:03.342)
paid. No, was supposed to get back what I paid. I paid like 800 bucks. The price is on new water years. Guess what it is for a power vent water heater. Same thing 50 gallon power vent six year warranty. What do think they’re charging?
Tessa Murry (11:06.142)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (11:14.91)
This is like what four years later, five years later, four and a half years, I’m going say 1300.
Reuben Saltzman (11:16.354)
four and a half years later.
You’re really good test 1400. Yeah, they’re 1400 now So I go to return it the cashier rings it up and he’s like, yeah, you get a refund of like 1250 I’m like, no, no, no, you’re not supposed to give me 1250. The receipt says this You’re only supposed to give me what I paid and he looks at me. He’s like don’t argue Okay Yeah, he’s like this is what we’re doing I’m like, okay, I said my piece so
Tessa Murry (11:23.23)
Ouch.
Tessa Murry (11:38.146)
What?
Zip it, Ruben, zip it.
Tessa Murry (11:47.935)
Wow, you can at least sleep at night knowing you were trying to be fair and honest. Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (11:50.326)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. I tried. I told them.
Tessa Murry (11:54.462)
You know, karma for the other the way that the system let you down Ruben on the extended warranty not being extended warranty having to take it apart, put it back together, take it apart. Have to get a new water heater every few years. There you go. There you go.
Reuben Saltzman (12:06.306)
I felt like, yeah, yeah, exactly. And, and I was going to make a thing about the warranty because I asked him to I’m like, so if I buy a warranty, what does that get me? He’s like, it’s five more years on the tank and labor. I was like, No, it’s not. And I was going to make a stink about that. But I just thought, know, and he’s given me a lot more than I paid a lot more than I should be getting. Let it go. Don’t talk about the warranty. But I did not buy another extended warranty. Because, yeah.
Tessa Murry (12:18.396)
You’re like, no, it’s not.
Tessa Murry (12:27.102)
It is what it is.
Tessa Murry (12:33.104)
I was going to say that is such a man that is so frustrating and such a bummer and but I’m glad that you got I’m glad you got your claim received and approved through Reem because I mean your water heater failed kind of just in the nick of time didn’t it for their five or six year warranty. Okay, year and a half.
Reuben Saltzman (12:43.586)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (12:49.966)
I had another year and a half exactly. Yep. But, I removed the powered anode rod on my old one and I installed it on the new one and I’m hoping now this is going to give me way more than six years of life, but that remains to be seen. I will report back when this one fails, hopefully in 15 years or maybe I’ll have moved out of the house before it fails. Stay tuned. Yeah. We’re playing the long game on this one.
Tessa Murry (12:58.401)
huh.
wow.
Tessa Murry (13:13.63)
Stay tuned. Stay tuned. my goodness. what that’s I’m exhausted just listening to that Ruben. no, not not boring. It’s just I mean, that is real life. These are the things that just drain me like dealing with all these.
Reuben Saltzman (13:24.318)
I know, know, I know. Boring little details, but had to share it.
Tessa Murry (13:34.94)
all these things that happen and like claims and insurance and having to stay on the phone or be put on hold for 30 minutes to find out it doesn’t, you know, apply to your situation. It’s like, come on.
Reuben Saltzman (13:44.173)
Yes.
Yes, pun intended. That was good Tess, right?
Tessa Murry (13:50.73)
Yes. Yeah, it does. It does.
Reuben Saltzman (13:51.438)
drains you. Yes. All right. Yeah, well, that’s, I don’t have a huge problem with that stuff. Like, I’m pretty good at that. I’m pretty diligent about getting on the phone and, you know, filing my warranty and all that. But it’s just, I’m with you though. It is aggravating.
Tessa Murry (14:05.736)
Good for you.
If I could hire that out, I would. If I could hire out that life stuff, I would. I do. Yes. Well, luckily, I’ve had people in my life that like to do that as well. My dad is one of those people. He’s always got the receipts. He’s got the phone numbers. He’s got the fine print down. He’ll take the time for the phone calls. So, you know, he’s good at that. But, yeah, never been a strength of mine. I’m like, fine, I’ll just pay for a new water heater. Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (14:13.686)
You need a personal assistant.
Yes.
Reuben Saltzman (14:31.768)
That’s good.
Reuben Saltzman (14:37.474)
Yeah, yeah, love it. And, and, and I’ll say one other thing. I recorded the whole process. I made like a 35 minute video showing me completely uninstalling the old one, bringing it back and then installing the new one. And I trimmed it down a little bit, did a bunch of editing so you don’t see the boring stuff. It’s just all the action.
Tessa Murry (14:37.991)
And I’m not installing it.
Reuben Saltzman (15:01.166)
And I think it took me a lot more time to move my camera and set up the different angles and lighting that it did to actually do the work. But made a nice long video showing how all of this is done. So if anybody’s curious, hmm, do I think I could replace a water heater? It just takes you through the steps. It’s not a 100 % how-to, but it gives you a really good idea of what’s involved in replacing it. And I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as a lot of people think it is. It’s certainly not worth.
Tessa Murry (15:04.606)
You
Reuben Saltzman (15:30.744)
thousands and thousands of dollars like some plumbers charge.
Tessa Murry (15:35.506)
Well, know, I, Ruben, you have that can do attitude. I, again, I appreciate that. And I respect that you are dealing with disconnecting gas lines and exhaust vents and plumbing and electrical stuff, I’m assuming. So you’re dealing with all of it. You do. There’s yeah, if you’re not, if you’re not confident, then don’t do it is what I say.
Reuben Saltzman (15:49.229)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (15:58.432)
I had the city inspector out two days ago. It was a it was a 15 second inspection and then he was gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, looks good news on his way.
Tessa Murry (16:01.17)
Did pass?
Tessa Murry (16:04.824)
With flying colors.
He knows you by this time. He’s like, another water heater? OK. my goodness.
Reuben Saltzman (16:12.542)
it’s Ruben again. Yeah. All right. So the real topic today, condo inspections. What do we do for condo inspections? Because as I kind of prefaced, it can be all over the board on what home inspector actually inspector actually does. And condos can be so different. mean, you can have a four unit building like an old
Tessa Murry (16:30.621)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (16:40.344)
quad unit and they converted this apartment building into condominiums. And then you can also have a high rise building, which is very different from that. And, you know, on, on, on the little units, maybe we will do a little bit more looking around in the common areas, not officially, but on the big units, like what are we supposed to look at on the common areas? I mean, it is just so massive.
Tessa Murry (16:45.341)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (16:50.29)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (17:09.462)
I’d say it goes way beyond the scope of what we do. So I thought we’d just kind of discuss a little bit of that. Sound good? All right. All right. So for pricing, obviously we charge less for condos because officially we don’t inspect any of the common areas. For a condo, we really are just inspecting the interior and a little bit of the stuff that might be outside of the condo unit. You know, basically,
Tessa Murry (17:15.324)
Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, let’s do it.
Reuben Saltzman (17:38.306)
you walk in the door and we’re gonna inspect everything within there that we possibly can. All the basic stuff that you might think of, windows, doors, any electrical stuff and the plumbing. Sometimes you’re gonna have a water heater in there. Frequently, you’ll have heating equipment. mean, lot of condos are gonna have their own furnace and their own air conditioner. If they do have their own air conditioner, like a split system, then we will be going outside, we’ll be inspecting the compressor.
Tessa Murry (17:50.526)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (17:58.75)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (18:08.45)
But a lot of the time, you’ll have basically building heat, where all you have is an air handler, or you’re going to have radiators in the unit. And you’ll have some type of hot water heat to supply heat to the entire building. When that’s the situation, our inspection of the heating system is pretty limited. Basically, we’re going to operate the thermostat. We’re going to make sure that heat
Tessa Murry (18:31.89)
Mm-mm.
Reuben Saltzman (18:36.362)
is generated at the places where heat is supposed to be generated and that’s about where the inspection ends. Do you have anything to add to that test?
Tessa Murry (18:43.603)
Mm-hm.
Yeah, I was going to say, know, I think it seemed like 50-50. Half the time, condo buildings were almost more of like a commercial situation like you’re talking about where there’s not an individual kind of heating system or cooling system for the unit. It’s tied into a system that serves as the whole building. And so you just have your thermostat in the unit. And so we do what we can. But the other half of the time, yeah, you would have your own
you know, maybe mini split system or furnace or AC for the unit that we try and inspect. But sometimes we can’t even inspect that fully because I remember or recall a few times, you know, going to a condo inspection where it would be a split system AC, they’d have a furnace and AC and the compressor would be up on the roof of the commercial building. And so I mean,
if you can try and find a maintenance person or someone to let you up there, okay, well, good luck then trying to find the actual unit that serves the condo that you’re inspecting. it gets a little bit tricky and challenging. don’t know. We don’t have anything in the structure tech policies that has us trying to go above and beyond with trying to get access to the roof or to any other space at the building, do we?
Reuben Saltzman (20:05.294)
know, it’s, it’s kind of common sense, do whatever you can, if there’s a way you can get to the roof, get to the roof, if there’s a it’s, it’s exactly what you said, if there’s a maintenance person, try to get in contact with them. But really, if you’re gonna 100 % get this done, every single time, then the person buying the unit and the real estate agents and all that they need to know how the system is set up. And nobody ever knows any of that information.
Tessa Murry (20:14.416)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (20:30.11)
So true. Even with like electrical panels too, it’s like usually, you know, inside the unit, it’s a sub panel, but the main disconnect will be located somewhere else in a communal space. Sometimes it’s in the parking garage at the bottom of the building. Sometimes it’s in a separate utility room that’s locked. And you know, like you said, condos you can get to that easily and some condos you have no clue.
Reuben Saltzman (20:35.115)
So.
no.
Tessa Murry (20:59.619)
where it is or how to find it. So we do, we do our best, but yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (20:59.884)
Yeah. Yeah, I’d say. I’d say most of the time we’re able to find the main panel, you know, it’s there’s going to be some type of electrical room or there’s going to be a row of main panels in the parking garage and you got all the meter banks in the main panels and it’s it’s nice to at least find it and point it out to the buyer, let them know, hey, this is yours. This is where it’s located.
Tessa Murry (21:16.902)
I see.
Reuben Saltzman (21:26.56)
If for some reason, someday you don’t have any power, you can always come down here and see if someone was messing with in flip your switch. But I can’t say that I’ve ever found a lot of stuff on those panels. mean, almost every time it’s a single breaker. It’s, it’s service equipment and everything else is located inside the unit, but we do try to find it if we can. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (21:26.812)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (21:34.461)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (21:39.336)
Mm-mm.
Tessa Murry (21:43.07)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (21:48.126)
Yeah. one I was thinking of too is there’s some condo buildings that have large attics. And depending on when it was built, you may or may not have the ability to walk through the entire attic and above the units and there’s no firewalls, there’s no separation. You can just get up there through an attic access located in a hallway or something.
Reuben Saltzman (21:56.365)
Yes.
Tessa Murry (22:14.736)
And then you can inspect and I’m thinking of actually the condo building I lived in and for a while in the Twin Cities, it had that. And the attic access was right outside of my unit door. And I had to go up there for a few different things over the years. And you could see everybody’s water heater vent, everybody’s furnace vent, bath fan vents, everything going up through this huge attic. So, I mean, again, that’s above and beyond for, think, a typical.
Reuben Saltzman (22:37.667)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (22:42.306)
inspection of a condo and a lot of condo buildings don’t have that but if it does it can give you a lot more valuable information too about insulation levels or moisture issues or you know signs of pests ducting issues.
Reuben Saltzman (22:54.882)
Yeah, Agreed. And if it’s there, yeah, I mean, if it’s inside the unit, unquestionably, we’re gonna get up there. I mean, well, unless it’s locked, I guess, but we’re gonna make an effort to get up there. If it’s right outside the unit, like you’re describing, we would probably get up there. I can’t think of why we wouldn’t, but are we gonna inspect the entire building’s worth? Probably not. We’re probably gonna inspect the area.
Tessa Murry (23:05.608)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (23:17.918)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (23:23.742)
roughly above the condo and that we’re being paid to inspect and we might look around and see if there’s any other obvious defects that we need to note and as a courtesy we’ll let our client know about it but we’re not officially inspecting any of the rest of that stuff that’s all this
Tessa Murry (23:27.976)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (23:32.51)
Mm-hmm.
Tessa Murry (23:39.876)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you know, it seems like condo since we’re only inspecting like the inside of the unit like you were talking about from paint to paint it should go much faster, but when you throw in all these little caveats for some of these these condos like what you’re talking about a four-plex turn into a condo or a smaller unit and you end up having to like you get access to the roof or you go down to the parking garage and you find the electrical equipment or there’s another utility room that has
all the water heaters that service all the units and then you start trying to figure out which one it is and all that. Sometimes it can end up taking just as much time as a regular home inspection.
Reuben Saltzman (24:15.448)
Yeah.
Yeah, there’s, mean, there’s a lot of those kind of buildings where it was apartment buildings. And it’s what I described at the beginning, like there’s four different units, you got on in the basement, and it’s kind of common area, they’ll have some laundry facilities, and they’re gonna have four different boilers and four different water heaters. And you’re looking at all that. And, and again, it’s nothing we can price ahead of time, because nobody ever knows any of this information. So
Tessa Murry (24:26.268)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (24:32.637)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yep.
Tessa Murry (24:41.478)
now.
No, no, it’s just a condo and it’s built in this year and that’s all you know going into it. And then when you get there on site, you’ve got to sleuth it out and try and figure out what you can inspect and what you can get access to and what you can’t and do your best.
Reuben Saltzman (24:56.3)
Yeah, yeah. And basically, on some of those condos, I mean, if it’s a really new condo, and there’s really nothing outside the unit to look at, those inspections can go a lot faster. And then when you have the ones that I described, where maybe you’ve got an attic, and you’ve got a boiler in the basement and a water heater and a separate panel down there, those…
Tessa Murry (25:11.923)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (25:21.61)
They end up taking a lot more time than we typically budget and we don’t make good money on those if at all. So it kind of ends up averaging out.
Tessa Murry (25:26.878)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (25:32.156)
Yeah, yeah. And I don’t know if there’s kind of a typical stance StructureTech has when you’re talking to the buyer, but I would always kind of try and tell them, we’re inspecting your unit, but in terms of exterior maintenance and whether or not you need a new roof and when and who pays for that and who’s going to cover the chipping, peeling paint on the windows, you need to check with your real estate agent and you need to look at the, what do you call it?
Reuben Saltzman (26:00.952)
The association docs.
Tessa Murry (26:02.214)
Association docs, yes, and bylaws and try and figure out, you know, what kind of financial situation the association is in. Can they afford these things? Have they been, you know, staying on top of the maintenance stuff? And I think that’s always an important piece of information that we as home inspectors can’t tell the buyer. But in my opinion, could make or break a sale. If I was buying a unit and it needed all new
cladding or new windows and new roof and there was no money in the budget for that? Well, red flag.
Reuben Saltzman (26:34.402)
Yeah. I totally agree Tess. And that’s something I think, I think we almost always try to do is just take a look at the outside. mean, even if it’s a high rise building and you’re seeing these big stains coming down, you see a bunch of windows with broken seals, or if there’s a roof you can get at, you see that it’s toast. You see the parking lot, the parking lot, the
Tessa Murry (26:47.997)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (26:54.77)
Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (27:02.048)
It’s all busted up like who’s going to pay for a new parking lot. It’s nice to point these things out and we don’t put those in our reports because we’re not officially inspecting this. I mean, we’d have to charge so much money if we’re doing a commercial inspection and on commercial inspections. It’s like we get specialists out to do specialized inspections on all these different components. I mean, it would it would be approaching the cost of a huge commercial inspection if we were to officially inspect all those common areas.
Tessa Murry (27:05.768)
Yep.
Tessa Murry (27:20.188)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (27:31.906)
but it doesn’t take a ton of time for a trained eye to at least take a look at a lot of this stuff. And you can point out a lot of big red flags for people.
Tessa Murry (27:32.318)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (27:41.67)
Yeah, and I you know, I don’t know too much about this. but you know, i’ve done a little bit of reading and just talking to people especially down in florida You know the landscape is changing with a lot of condo laws and regulations and they’re requiring, you know, inspections of buildings that are you know, a certain age or older and you know required repairs and maintenance and everything and so there’s
There’s a lot of, and this is because of the condo that, where was it? What city in Florida where it collapsed? There was an ongoing issue. Yeah, there was an ongoing issue with it and it just, it never got repaired. so part of that is just the flaw, the system of like, you know, the board that oversees repairs that need to be done. And if it doesn’t happen, then it just gets kicked, the can gets kicked down the road. And so there’s a lot of, you know, new regulations that are trying to prevent disastrous situations like that.
Reuben Saltzman (28:17.324)
the deck,
Tessa Murry (28:37.434)
And I think there’s a lot of older buildings that are in disrepair because the associations haven’t been maintaining them properly. And so now they’re at a point where someone has to fix them and they have to be inspected and they have to be approved. And so there’s a lot of older buildings that I think people are trying to sell and get rid of their unit because they, they see big expenses coming up, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so they’re either trying to rent it or sell it or get out of the market.
And I don’t know if we’re seeing that at all in Minnesota, I would not yet, okay
Reuben Saltzman (29:09.258)
No, no, I’m not. I have not been seen any type of required inspections on condos or common areas on decks or any of that. Yeah. But you know what? That does bring something else up that we didn’t touch on is what about inspecting the patio or the deck when you got a condo? What would you do for those?
Tessa Murry (29:17.318)
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Tessa Murry (29:24.27)
Yeah. Good point. Good point. Well, if it is, yeah, if the condo has a little patio or a deck, then I would include that in their unit. So I would definitely try and inspect that too. And usually just looking at the door and the railing and the exterior, maybe there’s an outlet out there and checking, make sure that that’s working and is GFCI protected and, you know, just all together, just general kind of, you’re looking at the exterior of the building for that portion of the unit.
Reuben Saltzman (29:51.532)
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Because it’s just it’s so intimate. It’s like this is only your exterior. Nobody else is messing with your patio. So I agree. I would always do the same thing. I think we all do.
Tessa Murry (29:57.616)
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Try to anyways. Be as thorough as we can with the actual condo unit inside and outside.
Reuben Saltzman (30:10.422)
Yep. That’s really all I can think of for condos tests. What am I missing?
Tessa Murry (30:16.402)
Yeah. Well, so this is 2025. What do you typically charge then for a condo inspection? Go to our website if you’re curious and you’re listening. Go to StructureTech’s website.
Reuben Saltzman (30:22.366)
No idea.
Reuben Saltzman (30:29.69)
Go to the website we have pricing, know, know if I if I was gonna guess I think we have a $95 discount on Whatever it would be if it were a single-family home Let’s see
Tessa Murry (30:35.475)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (30:40.272)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (30:45.616)
Yeah, so it’s still based on age and square footage, but there’s a little there’s a condo discount.
Reuben Saltzman (30:52.302)
Yeah, it says for condos you need to contact our office. Pricing starts at 360. And I’m just curious if I were to do.
Tessa Murry (31:01.53)
Okay.
That’s more affordable than I was thinking it would be, actually.
Reuben Saltzman (31:08.62)
Yeah, that’s about a hundred bucks less than our base price of a home inspection. Yeah. So I think that’s about what it is. We subtract about a hundred bucks for not having to inspect the common areas.
Tessa Murry (31:14.982)
Yeah. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (31:22.768)
Yeah. Okay. Well, that’s good. I’m sure there’s probably some topics or questions that we people have maybe that are listening that we didn’t cover. So if there’s something we didn’t talk about you want to hear us talk about, how can people reach us?
Reuben Saltzman (31:26.882)
All right.
Reuben Saltzman (31:38.094)
Please email us podcast at structuretech.com. Again, that’s podcast at structuretech.com. We read them all. We love hearing from you. All right, Paso, how can people find you?
Tessa Murry (31:49.446)
We do. Thanks for listening, everybody.
Thanks Ruben. I have website you can go to. It’s called yourhousecoach.com and all my contact information is on there. I’d love to hear from you too.
Reuben Saltzman (32:03.512)
Sweet, love it. All right, well, great to see you Tess and hope the rest of your summer is going well and I think we’ll be doing a podcast next week. Neither of us are gone and we will catch everyone next time. Take care.
Tessa Murry (32:08.52)
Good to see you too, Ruben.
Tessa Murry (32:13.704)
Sounds good. Sounds good.
See ya, bye.