In this episode, Reuben Saltzman and Tessa Murry welcome Bryan Standley from Inspect KC to discuss the unique challenges of home inspections in Kansas City. They explore Bryan’s journey into the field, the lack of state licensing and building codes, and the implications for home inspectors and buyers. The conversation delves into typical housing stock, moisture management, and the importance of understanding building science in a mixed humid climate. They also touch on heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality concerns, and the significance of radon testing in the area. They discuss various aspects of home inspections, including licensing requirements, the prevalence of mold and sewer inspections, the impact of climate change on home inspection practices, and the evolving demands from insurance companies. They also explore the importance of social media in growing a home inspection business, the tools used for inspections, and the quality of new constructions. The discussion highlights the need for home inspectors to adapt to changing market conditions and client expectations.
You can find Bryan at https://inspectkc.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/bryanstandley/
Takeaways
Bryan’s journey into home inspections began with a background in construction.
Kansas City has no state contractor licensing or building codes, leading to varied practices.
Home inspectors must focus on building performance rather than code compliance.
Understanding building science is crucial for effective home inspections.
Moisture management is a significant concern in Kansas City’s mixed humid climate.
Most homes in Kansas City have basements, with wood framing being common.
Indoor air quality issues, including mold and radon, are prevalent in the area.
Home inspectors often subcontract radon testing to specialists.
The lack of consistent building practices makes inspections challenging.
Homeowners should prioritize hiring knowledgeable home inspectors. Licensing for radon testing varies by state.
Mold inspections are not commonly requested by clients.
Sewer scopes are highly adopted in home inspections.
Homeowners are responsible for sewer lines to the tap.
Insurance companies are increasingly requiring home inspections.
Kansas City is a prime location for real estate investment.
Pricing for investor inspections is typically lower than standard inspections.
Social media presence can significantly boost business.
Infrared cameras are essential tools for inspections.
Quality control in new constructions is often lacking.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
03:03 Bryan’s Journey into Home Inspections
06:11 The Unique Challenges of Kansas City Inspections
09:00 Understanding Local Building Codes and Regulations
12:00 Typical Housing Stock and Construction Practices
15:02 Moisture Management and Building Science
18:00 Heating, Cooling, and Indoor Air Quality Concerns
30:11 Licensing and Regulations in Home Inspections
31:12 Mold and Sewer Inspections: Trends and Insights
33:01 Impact of Climate Change on Home Inspections
35:38 Navigating Insurance Requirements for Home Inspections
36:47 Investor Inspections: Understanding the Market
40:07 Pricing Strategies in Home Inspections
41:12 Leveraging Social Media for Business Growth
48:36 Tools and Techniques for Effective Inspections
52:03 Quality Control in New Constructions
54:14 Final Thoughts and Resources
TRANSCRIPTION
Reuben Saltzman (00:01)
Welcome back to the show. Happy New Year. This is actually our second podcast of the year, but it’s the first one we’re recording this year.
Tessa Murry (00:10)
Happy New Year!
Reuben Saltzman (00:12)
Woohoo! Yeah, I was just,
Tessa Murry (00:14)
We, I,
go ahead.
Reuben Saltzman (00:17)
No, I was just chatting about snow and how it has not felt like winter yet, but it’s it’s coming. Winter’s coming.
Tessa Murry (00:22)
It’s not.
It’s all, it’s all gone. We had one good rain and it washed it all away for us in Minnesota. Boo hoo. I’m sure we’ll have another shot at it later in end of January, February, March, April, and maybe May. We do. We do.
Reuben Saltzman (00:36)
Yeah, we got we got some time yet. We got some time.
Well, we were we’re in the middle of our series interviewing home inspectors from all over the country in different climate zones, just hearing about how they do inspections and what differs from climate to climate. And today we’ve got a first time guest on our show. got Brian Stanley with Inspect KC. Brian, welcome to the show. How are you doing today, sir?
Tessa Murry (01:02)
Yes.
Bryan Standley (01:05)
Hello, thank you for having me. It’s a great honor to finally be on the Structure Talk podcast.
Tessa Murry (01:09)
you.
Reuben Saltzman (01:11)
thanks, man.
Yeah, I, first I first learned about Brian when people would send me his I’m going to say it wrong. Tic Tacs. Is that what you call the short videos? The short videos? Yeah, that’s reels. Yeah, whatever it is. Brian. Brian just has blown it up. He’s got about 100 million followers or something online, and he he puts out so much content.
Bryan Standley (01:22)
Yeah, I guess so.
Tessa Murry (01:24)
Reels? Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (01:40)
And then we met at an IEB conference. so shout out to IEB. Yes, more inspectors that I know through Inspector Empire Builder, fantastic organization, get to meet so many wonderful people there. And that’s where Brian and I met for the first time, at least in person, right?
Bryan Standley (01:44)
That’s right.
Tessa Murry (01:46)
Speaking of Ivy.
Bryan Standley (02:01)
Yeah, that’s right. Are they today’s show sponsor, by the way? We might need to… Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (02:05)
Yeah, that’s that’s exactly
it. That is our show sponsor. You know how this goes. And so, man, love you, Brian.
Bryan Standley (02:10)
I do. I’ve listened to every episode. I don’t know what you call
your fans, but I’m one.
Reuben Saltzman (02:17)
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, this is this is my shout out to our show sponsors IEB if you don’t know anything about them check out the link in our show notes and If you need more info, well You’re always welcome to reach out to me. I will talk your ear off about them but Brian if you would just tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into home inspections? What’s your background and where are you at today?
Tessa Murry (02:35)
you
Bryan Standley (02:45)
Yes, you know, my journey into home inspection started before that’s where I knew I was headed. So out of high school, I started working construction jobs. And I say out of high school, I didn’t graduate. But, you know, I eventually got a GED. got a associate’s in automotive technology, but that’s kind of a whole different topic.
Reuben Saltzman (03:03)
Okay.
Bryan Standley (03:12)
So was working construction in North Central Arkansas and economically kind of a, you might call it an economically depressed type area, not a whole lot of money. Most of what we did was home repairs, small additions, some remodeling and things like that. And just because I’m very curious and very eager to learn, I started subscribing to different trade publications like the Journal of Light Construction.
Fine Home Building Magazine, all these. And I would just read every page of these things. And in the back, they would have books you could order about every various topic of the house. So I’d buy those books. And in the evenings, my wife would always make fun of me. So I’d get home from working a long, hard day in construction, and I just sit and read these articles. So I’ve read decades of articles all about home science and diagnostics and all this stuff. Didn’t even know that home inspections was a thing.
Tessa Murry (04:01)
Wow.
Bryan Standley (04:11)
so fast forward, I moved from north central Arkansas to the Kansas city area in 2014. And I worked for a big corporation. I was doing in-home installs of, know, telecommunications type equipment. And, through a mutual friend that I had through church, I was introduced to my former boss. and she said.
So Nick, name’s Nick, shout out Nick. She said, Nick, you need to meet Brian and you need to hire him. And Brian, need to go work for Nick. so early 2016 kind of sparked that relationship, went to work with Nick and I worked with him, I think it was about four years. And one day he basically said,
Reuben Saltzman (04:52)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (04:52)
Hmm.
Bryan Standley (05:09)
Here’s your non-compete, you can have it back. If you want to go start your own thing, go for it. And so we have a great relationship to this day. And yeah, so in the end of 2019, InspecKC was born and been at it going on five years now.
Reuben Saltzman (05:26)
Fantastic.
Tessa Murry (05:26)
That’s amazing.
Well, Brian, thanks for sharing your story. You know, I think I met you probably at the same IAB conference that Ruben met you at, and I don’t remember what year that was. was that? Gosh.
Bryan Standley (05:41)
Probably 2020. you know, like the f-
Tessa Murry (05:42)
Okay, so right after you guys
started your company. And I have to say, I mean, you are one of the brightest people I’ve met. I mean, you have reached out a few times with some really great questions about different situations in houses, wanting just kind of a building science perspective. And I have such admiration for people who…
You know, life is not always a journey through life is not always a straight line and you take, you know, a kind of road less traveled and you’ve been through some things and you have your self learned person and you’ve worked really hard and you clearly are extremely intelligent and learn quickly and soak up the knowledge from every resource that you can. And I just have so much respect for you and how you inspect and the company that you have and how far you’ve come.
And it’s very admirable. So congratulations to you. I just, yeah, very inspiring person. I remember just at the conference, we had started doing our podcast a few years before that, and we showed up at the Ivy conference and you and who was the person that was with you that night from your company?
Reuben Saltzman (06:42)
Yeah, amen. Yes.
Bryan Standley (06:44)
Well, thank you. I’m gonna be tearing up. This will be an emotional podcast if we, if you keep going. I mean, you’re welcome to, but it may not be good listening.
Reuben Saltzman (06:49)
you
you
Bryan Standley (07:05)
Paul.
Paul Kringle. Shout out Paul. He’s also still an avid listener. That’s right.
Tessa Murry (07:08)
Shout out to Paul. Is
he? We love you, Paul. I just remember you guys were like, yeah, we listen to your podcasts. And I was like, wait, you listen to our podcast. People listen to our podcasts. Yeah, you guys. Anyways, we’re excited to have you on stage to represent our kind of our mixed humid climate zone today. And hopefully learn a little bit more about kind of
Reuben Saltzman (07:22)
We’ve got, we’ve got tens of listeners tests.
Tessa Murry (07:37)
how you guys inspect, what you look for, the problems that you have, know, typical housing stock and maybe dive into some building science stuff today too. So thanks for coming on the show.
Bryan Standley (07:45)
Yeah,
absolutely.
Tessa Murry (07:49)
You’ve listened to this series before when we did last year and I’m just curious to kind of hear your perspective and your thoughts on your climate zone because obviously you hear a lot of you know cold climate stuff that we talk about but we want to hear about what you deal with with your housing stock. So where’s today? What do you think? What do you want to dive into?
Bryan Standley (08:11)
Well,
you know, I think that of course we are a mixed humid climate. I think it’s categorized and in Kansas City, also have, you know, it’s an old city. So we have the older houses typically run like mid 19 teens. And then, you know, we’ve done some older, but there’s not a whole lot of those left.
Tessa Murry (08:20)
Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (08:34)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (08:35)
Okay.
Bryan Standley (08:39)
And then of course there’s still a new development happening and pretty much through every decade, the city was growing. But I, you know, I think when it comes to discussion topics today, one very unique thing in my area is that Kansas and Missouri, which are city borders, both it’s in both states, neither state has state contractor licensing.
Reuben Saltzman (09:00)
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Standley (09:09)
building enforcement, building codes, there’s nothing. In either state, yes.
Reuben Saltzman (09:14)
Really?
Tessa Murry (09:16)
Mind blown.
Reuben Saltzman (09:17)
my goodness,
I had no idea.
Bryan Standley (09:18)
Yeah.
Yeah. So it’s actually when people, you know, sometimes we get investors from other areas and I have to explain, this is the wild, wild Midwest. It’s lawlessness out here when it comes to construction. So the
Tessa Murry (09:20)
So, the Wild Wild West.
Reuben Saltzman (09:29)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (09:29)
Thank you.
Wow. What’s
the population, really quick, what’s the population of Kansas City? Roughly. Okay, yeah. There’s a lot of construction going on that there’s no codes for, there’s no oversight, there’s no regulations.
Bryan Standley (09:40)
I think it’s around a million, something like that, yeah.
So what they do
is the state leaves it up to the local municipalities. So that could be either a county or a city, and they come up with what they would like to enforce. And so you can, in one city, might have like Kansas City proper, unless some changes happened that they didn’t let me know about. They’re using the 2012 building codes.
Tessa Murry (09:57)
Okay.
That’s so confusing.
Reuben Saltzman (10:17)
my goodness. Okay.
Bryan Standley (10:18)
And then you can
drive across the street and maybe that city’s on 2008 or they’re on 2018. So it’s really all over the map.
Tessa Murry (10:19)
Hmm.
on…
Wow. Wow. How do you figure out how you’re gonna handle what you inspect and how you write a report if everybody has a different bar that they’re building to?
Bryan Standley (10:40)
Yeah, I mean, I think it kind of makes it more difficult. then, you know, one, the biggest thing is really understanding the building science so that you can look at functionally and practically how is this building performing? Because there’s no, I can’t just say like, here’s the rules. You didn’t follow them. It’s, is this working or is it not working?
Tessa Murry (10:57)
Yeah.
Right.
I love that. Yeah, that, mean, at the root, I think that’s what what a good home inspector does. They can look at the house. They understand the code and what’s going on, but they also can say, OK, here’s fundamentally what’s going to be potentially a big issue for you. And here’s why. And you have to understand the building science to do that. Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (11:26)
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (11:26)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (11:27)
and, you know, home inspectors are not code compliance officials and we don’t need to report on anything related to government regulation. know, some home inspectors in different parts of the country, they are just so adamant, like you never use the word code and it’s bad and I’m not a code inspector. And, you know, I kind of shag, it’s like, okay, fine. You can be that hard line about it, but at
at the end of the day, I mean, if we’re going to back up some of our recommendations, it is nice to know what the building code is. And I think, Brian, you might have one of the most extreme examples I’ve heard of the importance of really not quoting code and not putting any of that in your reports if it varies so wildly city to city. mean, at least here in Minnesota, we have
Tessa Murry (12:00)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (12:16)
a building code for Minnesota and everybody needs to follow it. Now you get some variations in interpretation, but it’s the same book. We got we got the same set of rules we’re supposed to all be following. Yours is I would I would hate that. But I mean, I guess you just you it’s exactly what you said. You really need to focus on performance and understanding the why behind all of these codes. Now. Interesting.
Tessa Murry (12:23)
Okay.
Busying.
Yeah. Wow.
Bryan Standley (12:45)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (12:45)
Okay.
Bryan Standley (12:46)
And it kind of goes beyond that because, you know, even within each city adopting whichever code they have decided to adopt, um, well then they can still change things. They’re saying, well, we’ll take the 2018 code except for this part. We’re not going to take these new changes that came in. And, um, so the, and then the enforcement is not even great, you know, honestly.
Tessa Murry (12:58)
Thanks.
Bryan Standley (13:15)
I actually, I won’t name the city, but I did call a local city and just say, Hey, you know, I’m coming across a lot of flipped houses and I go online to like, try to see if any permits were pulled. And a lot of times they haven’t been, and I’m finding a lot of issues. is there anything like, should I be doing anything? Is there someone I should call or, know,
Not that I want to like go tattle on the home remodelers or something like that, but just kind of trying to find out like if there’s something that I should be aware of or should be knowing. the, I talked to like the head building enforcer for that city and he said basically that the local judges would not do anything as far as code enforcement.
Tessa Murry (13:45)
This is.
Bryan Standley (14:12)
So he said, I’ve stood in a driveway and I can see a dumpster full of building materials. I can see through the window open studs and I couldn’t get like a warrant or any kind of permission from a judge to allow me to go in there to even make them get building permits.
Tessa Murry (14:12)
you
Wow, it is the wild wild west. It’s that much more important it sounds like if you’re thinking about buying a home to get a really good home inspection, right? Are there, do home inspectors have to be licensed? I’m guessing not, where you are. Okay, so there’s no licensing, there’s no requirements for home inspectors either. So you really have to get a good home inspector who knows what they’re talking about if you want to make sure you’re not potentially diving into something that could be a…
Reuben Saltzman (14:33)
Interesting.
Bryan Standley (14:48)
No, no,
Tessa Murry (15:02)
big money pit or a disaster.
Bryan Standley (15:06)
Yeah, it is, that’s kind of like your only hope really.
Tessa Murry (15:11)
What?
Reuben Saltzman (15:11)
Although
you guys, you guys had licensing for a few years, didn’t you?
Bryan Standley (15:15)
Yeah. So I think in Kansas, they had maybe like a year or two where they had, you know, established some law to create licensing. And then I think that that whole thing just kind of unwound itself and they canceled that law. Which to me, that’s kind of funny because you don’t need a license to build the place. But if you want to look at it and write down what you see, you know, that’s…
Reuben Saltzman (15:20)
huh.
That’s what I heard, yeah.
Tessa Murry (15:33)
from
Reuben Saltzman (15:42)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (15:44)
No sense.
Oh my goodness. Okay. Well tell us a bit about some of your housing stock then. So you said some of the older homes are like 19 teens to today. And what type of, what’s your typical construction look like? Do your houses have basements? Are there crawl spaces? Is it wood framing? Describe your typical house.
Bryan Standley (16:03)
Yeah, so it is almost everything has a basement. We do have, there was a short time period, like mainly kind of like mid forties where there was some little like two bedroom bungalow type houses that were built on crawl spaces. then, but all around that, like before and after pretty much everything has been basement. And then kind of in recent years we’ve seen some more slabs pop up.
Tessa Murry (16:10)
Okay.
Bryan Standley (16:32)
just with trying to make some more economical builds.
Tessa Murry (16:35)
Okay. And do you guys have do you guys have attic spaces are the attics used to house HVAC and your plumbing and your water heating all of that too or are they just insulated?
Bryan Standley (16:37)
And then
It’s just insulated. I’m like coming from Arkansas. We did have a lot of, you know, HVAC kind of stuck wherever you can get it. But here, because we do have basements, it makes so much more sense. And so pretty much everything is in the basement.
Tessa Murry (16:52)
Okay.
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (17:13)
Yeah, feel like I missed it. Was there a second half of that question that I?
Tessa Murry (17:16)
Well, you
know, so I’m guessing a lot of it’s wood framing then probably, right? And do you have, is there a typical kind of roofing type and siding type that you see?
Bryan Standley (17:20)
yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so it is, of course it’s wood framing. They do poured concrete foundations. We don’t see a whole lot of masonry block, although there’s kind of some 1960s houses where that’s a little more common. But mainly poured concrete foundations, wood frame houses, and then mostly either like masonite or the newer smart siding type material.
Tessa Murry (17:33)
Okay.
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (17:54)
And a lot of that is literally on the studs. So it’s your Walshi thing. It’s your, it’s fun, yeah.
Tessa Murry (18:00)
What?
So
there isn’t, there isn’t like apply what or OSP while sheathing. is the siding is your is attached right to the studs.
Bryan Standley (18:12)
So yeah, like my house is built in 85 and that’s it’s the studs and then half inch foam and then masonite. And so I just got my siding replaced but yeah, and I’ve definitely seen new construction with just LP smart side straight, you know, maybe Tyvek and then LP. I mean, some people are using sheathing, but that’s how it is. And as far as energy codes, you know, we don’t believe in them around here.
Reuben Saltzman (18:24)
Wow.
Tessa Murry (18:24)
Meow.
Bryan Standley (18:42)
There is no air tightness.
Tessa Murry (18:44)
Do you use insulation? Do you put insulation in between the siding and the sheetrock or is it just an empty space? Okay. Okay. Okay. Wow. Awesome.
Bryan Standley (18:48)
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, we’ll put some fiberglass in there, you know, just for good measure.
Reuben Saltzman (18:58)
Well, as we all know, it makes for a more
durable building. There is that. I mean, it costs more to operate, but it is more durable.
Bryan Standley (19:03)
Yes.
Tessa Murry (19:03)
Come on.
Bryan Standley (19:06)
It easily dries itself.
Tessa Murry (19:06)
No.
Reuben Saltzman (19:07)
Yes,
yes, there’s a lot of truth in that.
Tessa Murry (19:11)
my
goodness. You know, I have, I, yeah. No, I was gonna say I have heard of that being done, but I can’t believe that’s still being done.
Bryan Standley (19:12)
So on the, you can, I’m sorry.
Yeah, it’s an interesting choice. I so as you can imagine with not putting any attention into air ceiling, and then you just have the wall sheathing is your siding basically and paint the panels. I’ll go through new constructions, just any house, you know, built like the last 15 years. And on really cold days, you’ll see like icicles weeping out of the bottom of the siding.
Reuben Saltzman (19:22)
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (19:52)
down like the foundation face. Because that warm interior air just makes its way through the outlets and everything, condenses on the back of the siding, runs down, and then freezes as it drips out the bottom edge of the siding.
Tessa Murry (19:58)
Thanks.
Wow.
Thank goodness there’s a lot of air leakage happening so it can dry out. So it’d be, yeah. I was just gonna say, yeah, exactly what I was thinking.
Reuben Saltzman (20:14)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So what what types of moisture? What type of moisture problems do you find?
Bryan Standley (20:15)
I guess so.
yeah, mean, it’s, well, you know, we have, I guess, a lot of wood rot on these exteriors. cause if you can imagine you’re put it, you’re installing like a window, a flanged window straight onto siding panels. So they’ll just tape, tape it to the siding, cover that with a trim board. And that’s your window detail.
Reuben Saltzman (20:46)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (20:51)
Gosh.
Reuben Saltzman (20:54)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (20:54)
Wow. Wait, so when water gets behind the siding, do you have a weather-resistant barrier? You said you wrap the studs with maybe a tie-back or something, but the window flashing gets installed on top of the siding. So if water gets behind the window and between the window and the siding, does it get into the wall? Is that a problem?
Bryan Standley (21:18)
Yes. So I will say that, you know, what I’m describing is not, you’re not going to find that every single time because it’s, you know, from one builder to the next, you will find differences. And there are some that obviously do a lot better. And even though, you know, they’re still kind of working with,
Tessa Murry (21:19)
Yeah, short answer yes.
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (21:41)
maybe more economical methods, they still put some forethought and do a little bit better job and actually, you know, use like some step, like some Z flashing over the windows and some things like that, or maybe they are using sheathing on the walls and that kind of thing. So it’s not universal, but I’ve certainly found that.
Tessa Murry (22:00)
Yeah.
Very interesting. And give me an idea too, like what’s kind of the temperature extremes that you guys experience where you’re at.
Bryan Standley (22:11)
So we will get some days down in like zero and below. then that usually is not too long of a window. You might have a week where it’s extremely bitterly cold like that. And then in the summer, you might get kind of the same, like maybe a few days to a week where you’re like at a hundred or a little over a hundred, something like that. one thing that my wife and I really enjoy about the area
Tessa Murry (22:24)
Okay. Yeah.
Bryan Standley (22:40)
this area is that we feel like we really get four seasons, like a full spring, a full winter, a full summer and fall. Whereas like where we’re from in Arkansas, there would be times where it’s like, well over a hundred for well over a week. And the humidity is like 80, 90 % all the time. It’s, it’s not comfortable, you know?
Reuben Saltzman (22:44)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (22:45)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (23:08)
And so
here it’s like a little more moderate. Although we do have, you know, nice warm summers. We have some nice cold winters and get some snow and those kinds of things.
Tessa Murry (23:12)
the extremes too.
Yeah. Yeah.
So do your houses have vapor barriers then? I mean, I know you don’t believe in energy code, but do do builders use a vapor barrier? And if so, where do they put it? I mean, you’ve got both extreme heat and cool and you’ve got humidity. So.
Bryan Standley (23:34)
Yeah, not really. My house does have it, which is actually because it has the foam outside, it’s like not.
Tessa Murry (23:35)
curious.
Bryan Standley (23:46)
Not good, but like in new builds, usually you just kind of see, you know, what they call the diaper method in the basement where if there’s a framed wall, they’ll put fiberglass insulation and then staple plastic over that. But that’s just on the exposed parts of the basement. And again, that’s not done in every jurisdiction. So.
Tessa Murry (24:05)
Yeah.
Yeah,
okay. Yeah, so I was just thinking about, you know, heat and air and moisture movement. You’ve got it coming from all directions just depending on the season. So yeah, I mean, you hope that the building assembly can dry out because you’re gonna have moisture getting in the walls and it sounds like probably in the attic too, depending on the season. So you’ve got it.
Bryan Standley (24:20)
That’s right.
Tessa Murry (24:33)
There’s a lot going on there it sounds like. You got your work cut out for you when you’re inspecting. My goodness. Are people finishing their basements where you are then? It sounds like they are.
Bryan Standley (24:37)
Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
Yeah, that’s pretty common. Yeah, usually people will finish, you know, least some of the basement.
Tessa Murry (24:52)
Okay, and it does.
Reuben Saltzman (24:52)
It sounded a lot like Minnesota. Doesn’t sound that
different from what we have here.
Tessa Murry (24:58)
It does, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (25:00)
Yeah, so is it safe to assume you guys mostly have asphalt shingles for the roof coverings? Okay, all right.
Bryan Standley (25:05)
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Tessa Murry (25:07)
Okay. The only thing, the only difference is you don’t use Walshy, then. Sometimes, yeah. Just the inconsistencies between from house to house. You just don’t know what you’re gonna come across. That’s the hard part. At least here, you know, I think a lot of the inspectors that work in the Twin Cities metro area, especially like you kind of get familiar with like what a 1960s build is gonna look like and what a 1920s build is gonna look like and
Bryan Standley (25:11)
Sometimes we do.
Tessa Murry (25:36)
a 2020 built house. Like you know what the materials are in the walls and the type of installations and materials that were used. But where you are, sounds like you don’t really know when you show up how it was constructed or what’s in the walls or what you might come across. Is that true?
Bryan Standley (25:56)
I mean, it’s kind of like what you’re describing. It’s maybe just not quite as consistent with some of the detailing and things like that. I mean, the material usage and that kind of thing is pretty, is fairly consistent.
Tessa Murry (26:02)
Okay. Yeah.
Okay, what about heating cooling systems? Do you guys have mostly forced air? do you have natural gas? Furnaces? What do you guys see typically?
Bryan Standley (26:22)
Yeah, it is mostly natural gas, forced air. We’re a little colder, a little too cold for heat pumps. So those haven’t really taken off too much. mean, you’ll see them and there was a period where the…
Reuben Saltzman (26:34)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (26:37)
Sorry.
Bryan Standley (26:43)
The electrical utility had like a rebate thing and so a lot of new builds were getting heat pumps, but then they ended that. So we’re just kind of back to everything’s just like central AC, natural gas heat.
Reuben Saltzman (26:58)
Okay, what about do you have any type of ventilation system that’s installed? I’m assuming you don’t given the fact that your houses aren’t sealed up. And I’m thinking about like heat recovery ventilators or energy recovery ventilators or anything like that. Do you guys bother with that? Or you just say the house leaks enough and we’re good.
Tessa Murry (26:58)
time.
Okay.
Bryan Standley (27:18)
Yeah, I think so I don’t know the exact count but I I’ve personally done somewhere in the ballpark of like 4,000 inspections and I think I’ve seen two HRVs or ERVs Yeah And one of them was in a 1960s built passive house, which was like a rare gem. It was I had a blast inspecting that house
Reuben Saltzman (27:28)
huh.
Tessa Murry (27:32)
It- we call that a unicorn, yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (27:34)
Okay, not very common.
Tessa Murry (27:47)
Wow, the 1960s house was one of the two.
Reuben Saltzman (27:51)
Handsome
House, yeah.
Tessa Murry (27:53)
So is indoor air quality a big concern where you are? Do hear people talking about it? Is it a concern for them?
Bryan Standley (28:02)
Yeah, mean, we do get, you know, we just have so much moisture and energy moving in and out of the buildings that we do get mold issues. You know, not as bad as I think like a more hot and humid climate probably would. But yeah, I mean, that is something that we definitely deal with.
Tessa Murry (28:25)
Okay, so people are really kind of focused on mold, it sounds like. Like, they’re worried when they’re buying the house, are they asking you as a home inspector, like, did you find any mold?
Bryan Standley (28:35)
Yeah, yeah, we do get that question. We do have also like high radon in our area. And so that’s another one, but that’s, that’s pretty, we have pretty wide adoption as far as like radon testing. Most people get radon testing during the home inspection. So I, I subbed that out. We have a great local partner. That’s all they do. They don’t even mitigate. All they do is test and,
Reuben Saltzman (28:50)
Do you do that yourself or do you sub that out?
Tessa Murry (28:50)
Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (28:56)
Okay.
I remember I’ve
been to their booth. I’ve done a couple of conferences in your area where I’ve spoke and I remember meeting that vendor and that was before we had people in my area doing it. And I was like, this is the most novel thing. And I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. I’m like, they’re doing this as a third party for less money than I’m paying my people internally to do this. I wish you guys were in my area. That’s why I kind of…
Bryan Standley (29:27)
Yeah.
Reuben Saltzman (29:28)
I don’t know a whole lot of home inspectors in an area who test it themselves. Most people just sub that out.
Bryan Standley (29:35)
Yeah,
it’s kind of just a better deal to let them do it. then they set up the appointments and showing time. So they deal straight with the listing agent. These I-box just drop it off, pick it up. so with like my Spectora automation, someone books it. They get the email, they drop it off, they pick it up. I get an email back and…
Tessa Murry (29:39)
Wow.
Bryan Standley (30:03)
Usually by the time I do the inspection, we already have the results with no other work on my part.
Reuben Saltzman (30:07)
That’s great.
Yeah. Do people need to be licensed to do radon testing in an area? I’m assuming not.
Bryan Standley (30:16)
In Kansas they do, not Missouri.
Reuben Saltzman (30:19)
Okay, all right, interesting. Yeah, all right.
Tessa Murry (30:21)
That’s tricky. Do you
guys do the mold, it kind of mold testing mold inspections to to at your company or do you hire that out separate?
Bryan Standley (30:32)
So we do that in-house. We kind of had a partnership in the past and I just found it was better if we just handled that.
Reuben Saltzman (30:44)
Okay.
Tessa Murry (30:44)
What would you say what percentage of your clients want to do the mold inspection or mold testing? Like half maybe like half would you say want to do that less than that?
Bryan Standley (30:44)
So we just.
as a percentage? No, no, it might be
more like five to 10%. So it’s not super, yeah, it’s not super common. It’s usually, you know, someone that specifically, you know, like personally has a reason that they are interested.
Tessa Murry (30:59)
okay. Okay.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Interesting.
Reuben Saltzman (31:14)
Yeah,
that’s about the same as we are. Yeah. Someone’s got to have a good reason for it. It’s not just, get in a home inspection, therefore you need a mold test. Yeah, you got to have a good reason.
Bryan Standley (31:21)
Yeah, pretty much.
Tessa Murry (31:24)
Yeah, right.
Bryan Standley (31:26)
Right. So another one that
is very common for us is like sewer scopes. That is, you know, I think last year it was 87 % of our home inspection clients also got a sewer scope.
Reuben Saltzman (31:39)
Holy cow.
Tessa Murry (31:40)
Wow.
Bryan Standley (31:41)
So very high adoption on that. we do have, because we do have like very expansive set clay soils. So we’re kind of, you know, I mean, this is very much like kind of the plains more or less. So you just have a lot of soil that’s maybe better for growing things than it is for, you know, being stable.
Reuben Saltzman (32:04)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Tessa Murry (32:06)
So do you see lots of issues with sewer lines and is that the homeowners responsibility if there are issues, cracks, breaks, disconnections?
Bryan Standley (32:14)
Yes, so I think it was in 2020 that they changed. Before, again, it was kind of like area by area. But I know at least the majority of our service area.
as of 2020, it was the homeowner is responsible from the house to the tap, including the tap. And before, know, different areas would have some caveats like, well, if it’s under the street, the city will do it. Or if it’s, you know, they’ll take care of the tap, but you’re responsible for the line or that kind of thing. And so they, you know, now if your house is affected, it’s your problem, basically.
Tessa Murry (33:00)
Wow. And I guess I’m curious too. Have you seen any recent changes with just with the impact of climate change and storms and you guys in tornado alley with insurance rates and what? Yeah, insurance.
Reuben Saltzman (33:17)
Insurance, yeah.
Bryan Standley (33:21)
Yeah, that has actually been kind of more and more a topic of discussion because rates are there going up and some of the kind of demands of the insurance company. I think it was last year for the first time I got, I got a call out of the blue and someone said, my insurance company is making me get a home inspection or they’re dropping me. Can you do that? Do you know what they’re wanting? And I was like,
Reuben Saltzman (33:45)
Mmm.
Bryan Standley (33:50)
I know just what they want. I’ll be right out. because I sell. It’s just confidence, you know?
Reuben Saltzman (33:53)
How did you know? What did they want?
Tessa Murry (34:03)
Okay, is this like a-
is this a four point inspection? What are they- what is the insurance company looking for?
Reuben Saltzman (34:05)
Okay. Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering.
Bryan Standley (34:08)
Well, that kind
of thing hasn’t really made it here. And so I just went and, you know, I make a lot of educated guesses.
Tessa Murry (34:14)
You’re creating it. You’re creating what the insurance company wants. Okay. You’re,
you’re an entrepreneur, Brian. You’re a smart, sharp guy. You, you’re figuring this out as you go. So the insurance companies are starting to require inspections and you’re the person that’s figuring out what they’re getting.
Bryan Standley (34:31)
Moi c’est mi. that’s right.
Reuben Saltzman (34:32)
They’re
what you’re giving basically. And you’re telling them, here’s what you need. And yeah, I mean, in my experience.
Tessa Murry (34:34)
Yes. Yeah.
Bryan Standley (34:35)
Yeah!
Yes. If we all believe that
this is what you need and they accept it, it’s exactly what you need. No. But no, I I documented like the types of the siding and the type of roof covering and, you know, especially things that I know, insurance companies are interested to know, you know, you know, like if, like for instance, that particular house, it had like hardy siding, so cement composition siding.
Tessa Murry (34:43)
There you go. Yeah, you’re the industry expert.
Reuben Saltzman (34:46)
in our experience.
Bryan Standley (35:09)
Well, that’s something your insurance company would rather you have. I’m certainly going to make sure they know that those kinds of things. then just, you know, your, your basic, do you have your smoke detectors where they need to be? Is, are there any blaring issues with like some kind of outdated electrical system or those kinds of things? So, and again, I listened to every episode. I’ve, I’ve heard all the podcasts about the Florida issues and all the different insurance inspections that have happened.
Tessa Murry (35:15)
Hmm.
Okay.
Yeah. wow.
Reuben Saltzman (35:38)
The four points we’re doing now. Yeah. And you know, before the show, we were talking about
Bryan Standley (35:39)
Ass-
Reuben Saltzman (35:42)
what you’re doing for investor inspections. I thought that was kind of interesting. You want to talk about that?
Tessa Murry (35:46)
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Standley (35:49)
Yeah, so actually I do. have a small list of notes here of things I want to make sure I talk about. And that’s one of them. And that is that Kansas City, if you ever see like articles from sources like BiggerPockets or other like real estate investment focused resources, they’ll usually list Kansas City as like one of the top 10 places to invest in real estate. Cause it’s, it’s, we have a very diverse like economy, diverse job market.
Tessa Murry (36:13)
Mm.
Bryan Standley (36:18)
And it’s just kind of a slow and steady type economy versus like maybe some of the coastal cities where you have like large jumps and falls and things like that. So we do work with a lot of investors. And one of the things that we decided to offer was what we call it our five point inspection, just not related to the insurance thing, but it’s basically for anyone that knows about the.
real estate investment side of things. It’s kind of what they call cap X or capital expenditure, which would be, that’s more of a tax. That’s more speaking to how you deduct repairs on a building on your taxes. But it’s basically like the big major systems and components of the house or property. And so we will go in and just focus on like the mechanical systems, the structure, any kind of life safety issues.
anything where water is out of control, whether that’s, you know, with the siding or plumbing leak or something along those lines, or we have like an active issue and then the roof. And so for investors that maybe don’t want to spend, or they don’t need all the details of a full inspection, we’ll just kind of do that more broad level inspection.
Tessa Murry (37:23)
Okay.
What percent of your business is doing that type of inspection would you say?
Bryan Standley (37:50)
So about 20 % of my business comes from like multifamily and commercial and out of those like multifamily customers, it’s probably 80 % of them are doing like our five point. It’s by far the most popular for investors because if you can imagine you’re buying, you know, let’s say 40 units, you don’t even know about
Tessa Murry (37:55)
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan Standley (38:20)
you know, 50 dripping faucets or something like that. You know what I mean? It’s like, okay, just should I buy this place or do we need to renegotiate? Because usually these types of investors, have someone on staff that’s going to deal with like the little service call type stuff. And that would just muddy the water for, for whether to go through with this deal.
Reuben Saltzman (38:21)
Yeah, yeah.
Tessa Murry (38:22)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
They just want to know like is is are there major plumbing issues with it? Do they have poly butylene piping that’s leaking everywhere or is it just your standard kind of maintenance stuff that’s gonna need replacing every now and then? Okay. Yeah.
Bryan Standley (38:46)
Yes.
Yeah, exactly.
Reuben Saltzman (38:53)
Yeah, and what was your fee
for something like that in comparison to a standard home inspection?
Bryan Standley (38:59)
So my fee breakdown, it’s calculated by how many units are we inspecting? And there’s like a fee per unit. And then how many buildings are those units in? And there’s a fee per building. And so if we took that down to like a single family house where it was one building, one unit, compared to like a regular home inspection,
Reuben Saltzman (39:18)
Okay, got it.
Tessa Murry (39:19)
Hmm.
Bryan Standley (39:28)
It’s probably, it’s like roughly 66 % of that. But of course, as you scale up to 20, whether it’s 20 units, 80 units, whatever it is, obviously that can grow. Yeah. But that allows it to be, you know, an appropriate price. like yesterday we were inspecting 22 units. Well, those are all duplexes. So that’s 11 buildings compared to if that was like two.
Reuben Saltzman (39:39)
It changes. Yeah.
Bryan Standley (39:57)
10 unit building so it be.
Tessa Murry (39:59)
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Standley (40:01)
Yeah, there’s just a lot less structure to go through.
Reuben Saltzman (40:03)
Yep.
Yep. OK.
Tessa Murry (40:07)
Is it kind of the Wild God West where you are for home inspectors too in terms of what they charge for their services? Where do you guys fall in that spectrum? mean, are you… Do you find that kind of everybody’s on the same page? Are there some people willing to do it for super, super cheap? And where do you guys fall in comparison with that?
Bryan Standley (40:24)
There are a couple that are very cheap, like Craigslist level cheap. And then most everybody’s in a pretty tight window. And then there’s a couple that maybe are lower volume that are…
Tessa Murry (40:34)
Mm hmm.
Okay.
higher price. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Well, I’m curious to hear, Ruben, if you don’t have any more specific questions, I want to know what you wrote down in your notebook, Brian. What other topics did you write down in there that we haven’t covered yet that you want to talk about today?
Bryan Standley (40:48)
We’ll say significantly higher, but higher.
Reuben Saltzman (41:00)
I wanted to ask the same thing.
Bryan Standley (41:12)
You know, I honestly, as I was glancing over, was like, okay, I’ve already mentioned that, the age of our houses, the building code things.
Tessa Murry (41:21)
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (41:27)
We’ve actually, I actually have a set on.
Reuben Saltzman (41:31)
good. All right. Well, I wanted you to talk for a minute about your TikTok channel. How did that get started and how much business do you get from it?
Tessa Murry (41:39)
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (41:41)
Okay, well to start off, I need to say this caveat because I was very good and active in like 2020 and 2021 and then not so much after that.
Reuben Saltzman (41:51)
huh.
Tessa Murry (41:52)
What?
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Reuben Saltzman (41:57)
How come?
Bryan Standley (41:58)
Well, you know, so,
Reuben Saltzman (41:58)
You just got too busy or what?
Bryan Standley (42:01)
you know, honestly, and it’s kind of a downer here, but
My father-in-law passed away. so he’s, mean, very much like my best friend. When I did construction, I worked with him. For like nine years, we worked together. There’s times I lived with him, we rode to work together and then drove home together. And so that was like a big blow, you know, obviously to our family and to me. And so I still love the idea and I keep thinking like, man, I gotta get back to doing that.
Tessa Murry (42:09)
Mm.
Hmm.
Bryan Standley (42:37)
When you’re in your day-to-day flow of inspecting and looking at things, in order to make content, you’re always trying to think, okay, what’s the angle here? Like, this is kind of visually interesting, or this is kind of a unique issue. Like, what’s the angle? What am I gonna say as I point this out? Because you kind of want to hook the listener and get them to watch, and that kind of thing. And so it was just like, I was just like, can’t think about that.
Tessa Murry (42:54)
Hmm. Hmm.
Bryan Standley (43:05)
That’s sort of what broke the habit of being consistent on that front. especially while I was actively doing it, I still get a lot of views. The content’s still out there. And while it’s not quite as long of a shelf life as a blog would be, it does still kind of circulate a little bit. But I had a lot of…
Tessa Murry (43:06)
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (43:35)
engagement from local real estate agents, other people like, that wanted to be home inspectors reaching out. A lot of, it was very interesting. Just people calling up. I watched your TikToks and I’m buying a house. Can you come do my inspection? You know? So it was, it was very worthwhile. And I’d say to anyone like considering making content, like
Tessa Murry (43:45)
Hmm.
Wow.
Bryan Standley (44:05)
The primary thing is consistency and then try to be entertaining. What you’re selling on that platform is entertainment. You’re not selling inspections.
Reuben Saltzman (44:10)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (44:12)
Hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (44:15)
Yeah, and I don’t want to get hung up on the platform. mean, I said tick-tock because that’s that’s where you were doing it. But I mean, today it could be it could be what Facebook shorts or YouTube shorts, they call it and reels and all these other basically just short format videos with the vertical orientation on her on your device, which is intended for viewing on mobile devices. That’s that’s that’s kind of the mobile device.
Bryan Standley (44:22)
Yeah.
Yeah.
rhymes.
Tessa Murry (44:37)
Mm hmm.
Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (44:45)
I don’t know, rule is 30 to 60 seconds no more. Like 60 seconds is long, right?
Bryan Standley (44:50)
Yeah, and you have to write.
Yeah, that’s long. That’s long. And now they’ve introduced, like most platforms have like two or three minute videos, but it’s like, good luck getting somebody to sit there for three minutes while they’re scrolling reels, you know, it just doesn’t really happen.
Reuben Saltzman (45:03)
Yeah.
Tessa Murry (45:04)
Yeah.
If it
doesn’t hook you in the first couple seconds, people are, you know, swiping to the next thing.
Bryan Standley (45:12)
Yeah, they say you have like five or six seconds for someone to decide whether they’re going to keep watching.
Tessa Murry (45:16)
Wow.
Reuben Saltzman (45:17)
Yep. Yep. I’ve seen my kids swipe and my gosh.
Tessa Murry (45:18)
Wow. What kind of stuff? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, again, our attention spans are going downhill quickly. What would you say were some of the top viewed videos or shorts that you had? What kind of topics were you making these videos on that were a hit with viewers?
Bryan Standley (45:38)
It was just things I would come across. And a lot of times I would think, nobody’s interested in this. And then I would stop and I’d go, well, I think that because I’ve seen this a hundred times, but a lot of people have no idea what this is. And so there are, you know, like some of my biggest videos were related to like a new construction where the master bedroom was not insulated at all. And there was not, there’s no access from the rest of the attic.
Tessa Murry (45:49)
Yeah.
Hmm.
Bryan Standley (46:09)
to that bedroom ceiling.
Reuben Saltzman (46:11)
So how’d you figure
it out?
Bryan Standley (46:14)
Well, know what clued me in on that one was I walked in, it’s brand new construction, so it’s still owned by the builder. And the first thing I noticed, it was warm inside. And I thought, why is it so warm in here? I looked at the thermostat, it was set to 72, which usually they’re down to like 60. They just wanna keep it from freezing. They don’t wanna pay a bunch of utility bills. And I looked over and the fireplace was on the gas fireplace. And I thought, this is not right.
Reuben Saltzman (46:31)
Uh-huh.
Tessa Murry (46:34)
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Standley (46:42)
Usually the fireplace has never been lit and I’m trying to blow all the air out of the line trying to get it to light so I can test it. I said, this builder’s doing something here. And so then I work my way through the house, I get in the master bedroom and I was like, this room is cold. That’s why this place, that’s why they have the heat cranked. That’s why they have the fireplace on before I got here to try to warm this room up. So I just got out my thermal camera, looked at it and then of course this.
Tessa Murry (46:47)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Standley (47:10)
You can see that the ceiling joists are the warmest part of That’s right, outside in the hallway, it’s just the opposite. And I was like, all right, I found the issue.
Reuben Saltzman (47:13)
We know what that means. Yeah.
Tessa Murry (47:15)
Hehehehehe
Reuben Saltzman (47:20)
nice nice nice find
Tessa Murry (47:22)
Wow, wow, good
sleuthing on that. Yeah, sometimes you have to, you have to, I mean, as home inspectors, I think one thing that’s key to doing a good home inspection, you have to have a kind of a consistent process for how you tackle a house, you know, working from left to right or, you know, counterclockwise or however you do it. But you do have to be objective and take a step back sometimes and take in all the data.
and then think about how to get when something’s a little bit off and pay attention I think to your intuition some of the best inspectors I know they can’t explain sometimes when they run across on there why they go down this rabbit hole of exploration they’re just like I don’t know I just had to walk through that entire attic to get to the back corner to look at something I don’t know how to explain it I just did you know you have to trust your intuition sometimes and and it and it pays pays off usually
Reuben Saltzman (48:08)
Yes.
Bryan Standley (48:12)
Yeah, it is so bizarre sometimes where I’m just like, I just need to go over there. You know, I just need to get all, like you said, all the way back there. I need to go around that corner even deeper than, normally you feel like you can see and that’s good enough. And it’s like, there’s something about this. I need to go further. And it’s crazy how often like, how often it pays off.
Tessa Murry (48:19)
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
you’ll find something. Yeah, yeah that’s really interesting, very interesting. Do you, so do you typically use an infrared camera on most of your inspections? Do you have, what kind of tools do you typically use?
Bryan Standley (48:49)
Yeah, yeah, we definitely use infrared on every house and of course, like moisture meters and you know, kind of your, if you watch Ruben’s tool review videos, that’s pretty much what I go with.
Tessa Murry (48:57)
Okay.
He’s okay,
Great, great videos, great resources. Yeah, yeah, thanks very much. Do you do combustion testing, analyzing on any furnaces or water heaters, anything like that too, or fireplaces?
Reuben Saltzman (49:04)
Love it. Love it.
Bryan Standley (49:16)
No, have not gotten into that.
Tessa Murry (49:18)
Okay, that’s, I mean, well that’s a whole nother level too. We probably have more more painful stories than pleasant stories with using that tool. What did you say, Rush?
Reuben Saltzman (49:19)
Nah, don’t. Don’t. What a hassle.
Yeah, I would I would it’s just a constant source of problems and it’s been this way for 20 years and Yeah, if it’s the standard in your area for people to not do it great It’s the standard in our area to do it. So it’s kind of like we have to but half the time I just go It’d be nice if we just didn’t it would be so great if we didn’t have to do this
Tessa Murry (49:32)
time. Battle.
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (49:53)
It’s extremely rare I even see a test port at all. It’s almost never and it’s only on like the most well-maintained homes where they clearly have a service contract from one of the big mechanical contractors and that’s the only reason and that’s… No!
Tessa Murry (49:59)
Cheers.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Reuben Saltzman (50:11)
So nobody in your area is doing it. Not even
the HVAC guys and gals. Wow. Okay. Okay. Very fascinating. Wild West.
Bryan Standley (50:16)
does not seem that way.
Tessa Murry (50:23)
It really is the wild west. Yeah, I was just going to ask you, so do you see like this kind of just, you know, lots of issues with new construction, just the quality of just, you know, install for duct work in HVAC and do see typical problems with like intake and exhaust, you know, improper, you know, clearances and stuff like that? Would you say?
Bryan Standley (50:23)
That’s right.
Yeah, I mean very much so. it’s, again, because there’s no rules, you really have to show your work in your report. And so, yeah, there’s, you know, I’ll use, what are these things called? Would it be a manometer that measures airspeed? Do I have that term right?
Tessa Murry (50:54)
in
Reuben Saltzman (51:04)
yeah, I think so. No, not a monometer. I know what you’re talking about. It’s got a little fan.
Tessa Murry (51:04)
Hmm
Bryan Standley (51:07)
Whichever tool it’s cut.
Tessa Murry (51:07)
I’m not sure. Airspeed.
Bryan Standley (51:11)
Yeah,
yeah, the little fan and everything like that. new construction, all the times I’ll just put it on everything, make sure it’s at least somewhat balanced. They’re never balanced, but make sure at least have airflow. And so yeah, I’ve definitely found, hey, this duct has no air coming out of it. And it’s a finished ceiling below. Not sure how they’re gonna fix it, but here’s the issue, you know? And so just having that, having a photo in the report showing like zero airspeed.
Tessa Murry (51:20)
Okay. Yeah.
Wow.
Wow, that is above and beyond.
Bryan Standley (51:40)
right here, it’s kind of got to use all the help you can get.
Reuben Saltzman (51:45)
I
had to look it up, anemometer. That’s the word we’re both looking for. That was gonna drive me nuts if we didn’t get it. Okay, yeah.
Tessa Murry (51:47)
Anemometer. Okay. Thank you. Anemometer. Yeah.
Bryan Standley (51:48)
Anemometer. There we go.
Tessa Murry (51:54)
Okay, so HVAC is a problem where you are. think it is across the country. Do you see other issues with any of the electrical or plumbing things?
Bryan Standley (52:03)
You know, interestingly, the electrical seems like they have their act together. I mean, when you see new construction, is unbelievably rare to find any kind of issues.
Tessa Murry (52:09)
Okay.
Reuben Saltzman (52:17)
Hmm. Okay.
Tessa Murry (52:18)
Yeah. Well that’s good
Bryan Standley (52:19)
And I don’t.
Tessa Murry (52:19)
because
if you mess up electrical it’s life-redacted sometimes, so… Yeah.
Bryan Standley (52:23)
Yeah, yeah, they’re
definitely more professional than a lot of the other trades. But in fact, there was a new construction and I got up in the attic and there is a flue pipe coming down from like through the roof, but it’s not connected to anything. Well, that can’t be good. And so when I got down to the basement, then there’s the furnace and the water heater going into the flue.
Tessa Murry (52:28)
Okay.
Bryan Standley (52:49)
just somewhere inside the wall inside a chase they never connected it before they dry walled. Yeah, I like, I’m just gonna turn the gas off here.
Reuben Saltzman (52:54)
no! Good thing you found that.
Tessa Murry (52:56)
goodness.
Reuben Saltzman (53:00)
Yeah, holy cow!
Tessa Murry (53:00)
Bluetooth water heater, yeah.
Bryan Standley (53:03)
Yeah,
Tessa Murry (53:03)
My goodness.
Bryan Standley (53:05)
it finds its way out. The house is leaky enough, but it’ll be alright.
Tessa Murry (53:09)
Oh my gosh, and do you have the same problem with like just quality contractors in terms of like the carpentry stuff too? You see a lot of issues with decks and just sighting improper sighting install and things like that.
Bryan Standley (53:22)
Yeah, mean, especially when we’re talking about houses that are flipped, because most of the time, you know, the house gets flipped before it gets sold. it’s kind of a lot of, you know, more so of like a handyman type setup versus like a builder that considers themselves a professional and pursues quality and that kind of thing. And so, but, you know, to me, it’s like, those are, those are kind of easier to fix as far as like the decks and things like that.
Tessa Murry (53:47)
Wow.
Bryan Standley (53:53)
A lot of times it’s some missing hardware or it’s kind of maybe reconfiguring a load point or something like that.
Tessa Murry (54:01)
My goodness. Well, Brian, you’ve convinced me. If I’m ever considering buying a home in your neck of the woods, I’m hiring you to do not an investor inspection, but a full home inspection.
Reuben Saltzman (54:11)
Yeah.
Bryan Standley (54:14)
If you use the coupon code structure talk 2025.
Reuben Saltzman (54:14)
Well,
I love it. I love it. That’s good stuff. Well, Brian, where can people find you?
Bryan Standley (54:26)
So you can find me on of course, inspectkc.com. That’s my website. And then I’m on social media as Brian Stanley on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. So I’m always happy to talk with anybody, help anybody I can give advice, share anything I know, anything I have.
Reuben Saltzman (54:40)
Okay, all right.
Sweet, sweet. Well, we will be sure to put a link to at least your website and one of those social media platforms in the show notes here. And Brian, so great to finally have you on the podcast. Love it.
Tessa Murry (54:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yes, thank
you, Brian. Thank you for your contribution to this industry. making us all better.
Reuben Saltzman (55:07)
Yes, yes. And for the listeners, if you got any questions, thoughts, concerns, whatever, please feel free to reach out to us. We read all of our emails. You can email us. It’s podcast at structure tech dot com. And I’m Ruben for Tessa and Brian saying thanks for tuning in. We’ll catch you next week. Take care.
Bryan Standley (55:09)
Thank you, you guys as well.
Tessa Murry (55:11)
Thank you.