Episode 03- Home Inspection

Bisendra: [00:00:00] 

Welcome back to the Keys to the Castle podcast. I'm your host and realtor, Bisendra Malaram. Joined by my fantastic co host, Mr. Jason Kleiger. Our resident counsel. And today, we have a very special guest, Ms. Bridget Malik, from Inspection Boys here in New York. And she's here to give us the nitty gritty rundown of all things home inspection.

Welcome Bridget, thanks for joining us. Thank you guys, super excited. Yeah, so Mr. Kleiger, what's going on buddy? Today we're talking to the home inspector. 

Jason Kleiger: One of my favorite people, to be honest with you. Really? I love repair riders, and that can be something we talk a little bit after Bridget gets into what she does.

I love that. We should definitely talk about that. Definitely, because we become best friends, and they're always fun. I 

Brigitte Malik: would love to find out about the repair riders ahead of time. Mm hmm. Instead of, like, after we do the final walkthrough, and then all of a sudden I get an email from the lawyer.

It's like, hey, there's repair riders. Are any of these fixed? No, I don't know. [00:01:00] 

Bisendra: Nobody told 

Jason Kleiger: me. And, and, you know, it emphasizes the fact that sometimes people should bring their inspector back to see if everything has been fixed. Nobody does that. No one does that. No one. For some reason, they think, Oh, Essendra, he knows everything about, you know, sewage backups.

But I 

Bisendra: defer immediately. Immediately, I defer. I'm like, wait a second. You just had your home inspection done. Did you get the report yet? Yes, I got the report. Call your home inspector back, they will clarify any and everything that they've written down for you, and they will give you the best course of action moving forward.

Oh, they didn't tell me that. I'm telling you that. Well, 

Brigitte Malik: we always do tell them, they just don't listen. 

Bisendra: I don't know, Bridget, speak louder or something, I don't 

Brigitte Malik: know. They don't freaking listen! I mean, I had a customer last week call us and said, Hey, this report is too detailed. 

Bisendra: I'm sorry. Wait, what? Too detailed!

Wait, how many 

Brigitte Malik: pages is That was about 50 pages, and they said it was too detailed. How big was the property? I don't know, 2, 000 square feet? And, [00:02:00] literally, they said, too detailed. And I'm like, we're not changing the report on this. Like, this is what it is. Like, you paid us to do a service, we did that service.

And at the end of the day, the more detailed we are The more we're covering our butts and everybody else's butts. Right, because 

Bisendra: you're making them aware, that's what you're gonna pay for. Just 

Jason Kleiger: have them not read it, like, you know, you could just, you know, tell the person. It was 

Brigitte Malik: just so many things, totally unrealistic expectations and 

Bisendra: 50 pages is not that bad, I don't think.

Jason Kleiger: But it's, it's, it's funny because, like, they say, oh, it's too detailed, but some of the little items are the easiest items that you can put into a contract for the seller to fix. So, for example, you know, light switches or reverse polarity, you know, these are the simplest things to, to have repaired and done and, you know, most sellers agree to it.

I guess that might be too detailed for these buyers. 

Brigitte Malik: You know, buyers just, I think, on our end, it would make it so much easier if they just had a better understanding of what the process is [00:03:00] before we get there. Because I think there's also this just very big misconception of what a home inspection is.

And another big issue is too is that we get the blame for everything. Yes. 

Bisendra: I like blaming them. Everything. 

Brigitte Malik: Everything. Like, agents are blaming us after they closed and all of a sudden they call with a complaint and the electrician says, Oh no, your home inspector should have told you this. And meanwhile, it's like aluminum wiring hid inside the middle of the wall cabinet that we shouldn't have found because we have x 

Bisendra: ray vision.

Exactly. Okay. So let's get into the scope of what a home inspection is. Yeah. So in previous podcasts, we've gone over the home purchase process. and we are currently now at the inspection stage.

So let's get into what the home inspection process is. So normally in New York, because that's where all of us are right now, before the signing of a contract, I encourage the buyer or purchaser to order a home inspection. Mm-Hmm. . So Perge, tell us what does that entail? And then Mr. Kleger will take over and from his point of view and his [00:04:00] perspective, what he looks for when he sits down, if he has to review the, the inspection report with his client.

Brigitte Malik: So I think it's really important to know, so to speak, who you're going into bed with. Right. Because there's a lot of companies that are home inspection companies, and not all of them are great. There's actually, in fact, we have a home inspection school, so we teach inspectors how to do home inspections, and we see what's going out there in the industry.

Okay, 

Bisendra: so what should a, so very baseline, very granular, so what should a buyer or someone looking for a home inspector, because there are instances, and I'll get into that in a later podcast. of other instances where a home inspector would be useful, but strictly for purchasing, what should, in the very early stages of when they're looking for a home inspector, what should the purchaser be looking for in their home inspector?

Like qualifications, licensing, insurance, those kinds of things. 

Brigitte Malik: What, what Yeah, so New York, if you are a home inspector, you have to be licensed. There's guys out there that call [00:05:00] themselves home inspectors and they're not licensed. Okay. So you can ask them, make sure they can, you know, for the license number, whatever check out online reviews, what people are saying about them.

Because the company that only has like five reviews versus company has like thousands of reviews, totally different animal. That means that company has thousands of reviews. They have a lot of experience behind them, whereas the guy with five inspection reviews. It's probably a part time inspector, you know and then also one of the things I think a lot of people forget about is what type of insurance are they carrying?

Because well, the state only mandates us to have general liability and it's like the least amount of coverage that you, it's like very low coverage. Yeah. So a lot of these bigger companies, they're going to have a million plus. But they're not only going to carry general liability, they're going to have Arizona omissions, which I like to say is OS insurance, like you mess up on something and you're actually deemed that you're at fault.

That's what's paying out. It's not coming out of my bank account. And then workers [00:06:00] comp. Okay. Because we've had situations in the past where somebody went through the sheetrock or something like that and the workers comp then kicks in and 

Bisendra: covers us. Right, because you want to take care of your employees also.

Brigitte Malik: Exactly. Got it. Most companies don't carry errors and omissions in workers comp because the smaller companies simply cannot afford it. Right, and 

Bisendra: most smaller home inspection companies if we want to, right, are one man shows? Yeah, one man shows, yep. The inspection 

Brigitte Malik: boys, we're not. We're not. We are in Long Island itself.

We have about 15 inspectors right now. Okay. So, we are pretty big and we do a lot of inspections a year. Okay, that's good to know. So, yeah, I mean we're, it didn't happen like that when inspection was first started. My business partner was doing his area and I was doing my area and we were the inspectors in the field doing everything.

What? So, we came from, you know, but I've always carried, you gotta remember I actually, I had another business, so my other business held all these insurances too and I was just able to add this as an additional agreement. 

Bisendra: Oh, okay. Yeah. That's good to know. Okay, so let's [00:07:00] get down to what should, Outside of licensing, insurance, experience, right?

Yeah, experience is huge. Because you want to look for the most experienced home inspector. So what are key takeaways that A big question I get Can I go with my home inspector to the home inspection? I always say yes. We love when they're there, but I tell them, shut up.

don't ask anything. Yep. If you have questions, ask them before. Mm-Hmm. or ask them after. Yes. Right. If you feel that they miss something, ask them after, because they have certain things they need to get done. Everyone's got their own system. Mm-Hmm. . Right. So I usually tell them, ask them beforehand. Look, I have a concern about this.

If you have a few extra minutes later on, or Yep. While you're doing it. Yeah. Take an extra look just and then let me know at the end But I always tell them the home inspector is not gonna have a problem because you're paying them to be there Just don't be on their back 

Brigitte Malik: so Honestly, I couldn't have [00:08:00] word that word of that any better because home inspectors By nature if you talk to any of us We always do our inspections the same way every single time the only time we switch it up Is like we get to a property and like, Oh, can you start on the inside first?

Cause the tenant needs to leave. Okay, we'll switch it up like that. But it's very small things where it's not going to throw us out of whack. The reason why is, We are literally looking at thousands of items in that period of time. So, we had a job just the other day, inspector called me, said buyer was just talking to him and following him the whole time.

He didn't make a big deal about it, which is fine, like, if you want to do that, then do that, right? But like, he said, I almost forgot. To do the most simplest things which was just open up the electrical panel, right? And he was like not because I I knew I had to do it But because they were talking to me so much and they actually pulled him out of the basement to go look at something on the outside Instead of [00:09:00] just waiting until he got to, and so he actually almost left that out.

Yeah, that would have been 

Bisendra: bad. Because the buyer just was trying to distract him. Right, that would have been real bad. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, that's huge. So thank God he realized it because he called me in like a panic. Like he just needed to Well, he sounds like a good inspector. Right, he just needed to talk about it like, you know, this is just what happened.

It's fine, but You know, how do you How do you handle it 

Bisendra: in the future, right. Being proactive, I 

Brigitte Malik: like that. So it's just, you know, I always encourage buyers to be there. We want you there. But ask us, like, my whole thing is when I meet with a buyer, I always ask them, look, is there any concerns that you have or things that you notice that you're really concerned about so I know ahead of time.

They'll tell me, okay, you know what, I saw this crack over here, or whatever the case may be. Okay. I'll call extra attention to it. And then I'll make sure at the end of the inspection, I will go through a whole thing where I'm showing them where the main water heater or the main water meter is to shut it off, the gas meter, you know, a lot of people don't even realize there's an [00:10:00] emergency switch for your boiler and they don't even know.

Yeah. So we kind of go around showing them all these different things. And then those items that they mentioned ahead of time, we go over those things too. After it's done, after we've done everything, because for us, it's easier for us now to take everything we just went over and explain it all. Right. 

Bisendra: And then you also provide a report at the end.

Yeah. So let's, let's get into that now that we covered buyers are allowed to show up to their inspection. 

Jason Kleiger: Well, I actually have a question. Sure. How often is it that brokers will show up at the inspection? Like 

Brigitte Malik: brokers that own the 

Bisendra: office or the actual agent? 

Jason Kleiger: Either agent. That shows up for the inspection and how often does that happen and do they get in the way and try to explain things away?

So and they're not not not present company, of course Agents 

Bisendra: are great. 

Jason Kleiger: I love I love agents, but 

Brigitte Malik: You know what? We have [00:11:00] agents that come and then we have some agents that don't never show up They're just they or they'll send somebody on their team They send a lot of the new agents that are on their team to go handle these things And if there's an issue that they just tell us call me if you really need me.

All right So those agents we kind of know their system and what they want and we'll accommodate it But I actually do enjoy it better when the agent is there because then if there is an issue We can go over it with them. I mean, we've had issues where they try to blame us for a leak. And it's like, listen, we literally are here to try to find leaks and this pipe is leaking.

We did not make this pipe leak. There's no physical way for us to do that. And they try to blame us and all this, and it turns into like a nightmare. So I think also there's agents that are like that, like those agents actually make. Yeah, my life a little bit difficult. They blame us and you're right there and you see what's happening And I think sometimes the [00:12:00] agent can actually make the situation worse than what it should be if you just Handle and you use the correct emotions during 

Bisendra: that time, right?

And so I personally When physically possible attend all inspections including appraisals, right? And the reason I do this is in the event that my buyer Or even in the case of, if it's my seller, I'm representing that, that party, I feel that it's my responsibility to be there. That's just my, the way I run my practice.

Okay. So now, if I'm there with a buyer, during a home inspection, it's basically to alleviate the pressure from the home inspector. Because, like everything else, I'm playing intermediary, I'm quarterbacking the whole process. So now what's gonna happen is, if they have a question or something pop up, I'll say, excuse me, Just like that, excuse me, like, when they're passing, like, if they're going upstairs, downstairs, one, you know, like, they're running the water upstairs and they're going downstairs, whatever the case is, I'm like, hey, excuse me, like, they had a question, if you have a minute, you know, just, [00:13:00] let's go over it.

And then, then there's that, right? And the other time is, in case something like that arises, I never take the position of, oh my god, you did that. Yeah, right because number one. I'm not a home inspector Number two. I'm not a plumber. Mm hmm number three I'm just not no, you're just right. I'm just not So people don't understand that home inspectors are there to find the problem So I like to play the intermediary so and then bring him Having everyone understand it on the same level and of understanding is very important.

Mm hmm Because it makes the end process when it gets to the attorney much easier because everyone understands what's happening The home inspector understands that hey this buyer at this property had this question this come up was not aware of it. They may Call back about it or whatever the case is or the attorney might [00:14:00] have hey What's this thing that they took a picture of that?

My buyer says it was not there the last time. I Don't know it's 

Jason Kleiger: there now And the agents talk to each other and say hey, there's this issue and everyone agreed to fix it so that it's not like, here's the deal sheet and you have no idea what's going on. Right, right. 

Bisendra: And I get ahead of a lot of things before it gets to the table.

Because I don't like surprises at all. Because I don't think a closing needs to take super long. No. Right? So, going back to the home inspecting. So I like to be there with the buyer or the seller. going through the process, making sure that they're concerned and they're comfortable. That way I can report back to their attorney like, Hey, everything went good.

Your client is ready to go. They're going to get the report if anything pops that or shows up in a photo. I'll let you know. Yeah. Right. So let's go over some of the things that the home inspector looks for and then we'll get into some things that Some weird things that you 

Brigitte Malik: yeah, so One of the other things I kind of want to [00:15:00] mention Every inspector is different.

All right, you have like I'm like a more energetic personal Inspector, okay, right. So like when I get to a property, I'm also gonna judge based upon what what the feeling is I'm getting like we go to some inspections and people want us to act like we're invisible Yeah. They just don't want us to make any noise.

They don't want to, they just want to know we're there and just come to them whenever they need. It's really weird what people get put into. And then other times they want us there having conversations with them. Like, so it's like, it's kind of stressful for us too, but on our end, like the inspectors, I always tell them, you know, I can't control, like we have great inspectors.

Every single inspector has a different personality. So you're going to have some inspectors who can talk. You're going to have some inspectors who just want to focus, do their job, they're going to explain to you everything, but they may not be so chit chatty. Right. And that doesn't make them a bad inspector.

No. They're just, they still give you a [00:16:00] really good in depth report, and they still do a really great job. So, I mean, that's one of the things, too, that some people, you know, we have some people that say, I don't want this inspector because he never talks. Okay, like, we'll give you an inspector who talks, but just so you know, he's still very experienced.

Like, he knows what he's doing and looking at. He just It doesn't talk as much as everybody else. That's his personality. I'm not paying for his personality. And a lot of inspectors are actually big introverts. Yeah. 

Bisendra: That's why they do this job. Because they have grave attention to detail. They're just 

Brigitte Malik: introverts.

So the main thing is when we're inspecting, they're putting together this whole report and then we're looking at everything. I mean the electric, the HVAC. Everything. And then we're, we're documenting everything in a report and there's no set limit to like how many pages a report needs to be. There's no set limit to how many pictures.

What sucks about the license law is that it just tells you what we need to report on, but it doesn't tell you how it needs to be documented. 

Bisendra: Okay. So what, what does the license, what does the license law say you need to 

Brigitte Malik: document? [00:17:00] The license law tells us, it's like our standards of practice, like real estate agents, you guys have your standards, right?

Or, you know They're 

Bisendra: displaying that in our office. Kind of. 

Brigitte Malik: And so as us, there's certain parts of electrical we always have to do. Certain parts of HVAC, certain parts of plumbing, exterior. Like, there's a whole list of everything we have to do. But there's also, it's very vague. So I could get into a house, what would, an average house, maybe what, 50 outlets?

Maybe? Is that the average? Maybe. I'm just throwing out a number. You would know 

Bisendra: better than I do. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, yeah. Maybe 50 outlets, right? I don't know. 

Bisendra: Right. So what do you guys go around check 

Brigitte Malik: every outlet? Technically, the license law says a representative number. What's the representative number? Exactly. 

Bisendra: Mm hmm.

Four. They stick the tester in one 

Brigitte Malik: outlet. They could literally get away with checking one outlet and be fully covered by the New York State law. Okay, but you guys don't do that. No, first of all, my rule of thumb is And this is just because I'm super crazy and anal, like I just want things, like, detailed.

I tell everybody when they're training, if I [00:18:00] ever see that you chose to walk into a room and only do one outlet, and I see five that are available, we have a problem. Okay. Because, take the extra 20 seconds to check those other outlets. Right. Like, my rule of thumb is, every outlet that's available to us to test, I want to test.

Okay, so so they can house technically we should be testing every single outlet. Okay, that's good You know, but if like it's occupied space like this room here I would not start moving if there's any outlets over there. We wouldn't start moving any of that. No, no, just visible Visible or things that aren't plugged in people get really upset about their coffee machines They do.

They get really upset. 

Bisendra: Because it, yeah. Because it's on a timer. 

Jason Kleiger: Yeah. Right. And not only that, but you have to reset like the clock on it and everything. They get really upset. Because that takes all of seven seconds. Oh man. That 

Bisendra: takes all of seven seconds. And I'm, and I'm still like that. I 

Jason Kleiger: was like, what? I was up for half an hour last night trying to figure out how to set the clock on my microwave, only to do it next week when the clocks go back.

But I'm sorry. No, [00:19:00] no, no. So if, if, if a homeowner has like their iPod and everything plugged into, We're not unplugging it. 

Brigitte Malik: You're not unplugging it. We're not unplugging it because even cable box, like people get, we're inside somebody else's space and they don't like us touching things to a 

Bisendra: certain degree.

They don't. They don't want you in their space. 

Brigitte Malik: They're already uncomfortable. The whole thing is already uncomfortable. I don't think it should be, but I don't think so either. But like, we have to respect other people's spaces too. And that's the thing that sometimes buyers forget about is, okay, great. You have an accepted offer.

I'm so happy for you. Right. We're going to try to make our process as smooth as possible, but. If we can't do something, this is, you don't own the house yet, so we still have to do whatever the seller's 

Bisendra: telling us. Right, right, right. And you have, you have to be courteous, too, right? That's, that's, a lot of people forget that.

Yeah. And I hate to say that that's actually what's going on in the world today. You know, I'm not judging anybody, but, you know. No, 

Jason Kleiger: no, no. It's, you know, not honest truth. Dehumanity is wrong. You're. You know, technically it's not your house. It's not your personal [00:20:00] property. So, you know, you really can't move it at all.

So we had an 

Brigitte Malik: HVAC system in an attic behind sheetrock, just like this. We couldn't access it. So this buyer is there yelling at us, telling us, We'll make a hole and get into there. This is my house. 

Bisendra: No, and that's why I like to be there because I enjoy those moments, and I'm like, but wait, you didn't pay for it yet.

Like, if there's an access panel and we can get access to it, the home inspector will utilize it, but we're not making modifications. Oh, but it's not, we're not making modifications. Right. This is a fact finding mission, and we can't find the facts behind the wall. Right. I'm that 

Jason Kleiger: guy. It's like hoarders, you 

Bisendra: know?

Right, right. 

Brigitte Malik: I'm that guy. Yeah, well I'd hate, I actually would refuse hoarder jobs. Oh. Unless it's been completely cleared out. Yeah. There's just pointless, you're paying for what? For me 

Bisendra: to look, 

Brigitte Malik: yeah. I'm literally walking in and I'm disclaiming everything because I can't see anything. And also for liability purposes, I would be stupid to [00:21:00] even take on that 

Bisendra: job.

I think I wouldn't, so in that case I would not even call Bridget to come inspect that property. There's a, there's another protocol that I particularly have, but we're not bringing a home inspector to inspect trash. Right. 

Brigitte Malik: Right. Right. You 

Bisendra: can't even see anything. It's, the home inspection in my opinion is just To check the utilities, check the appliances, and give you a baseline of what you're getting yourself into for the next few years.

Right? So it's basically the user manual for the property that you're about to 

Brigitte Malik: buy. Yeah, that's perfect. Yes, I totally agree. And it's like it's like I like to refer to it as like a honey do list. Yes. Right? Under no circumstance are you buying a perfect house. No, you're not buying a perfect house.

You're buying a house. Even if it was new 

Bisendra: construction built yesterday. There's 

Jason Kleiger: always something. There's always something. New construction is even worse. It 

Bisendra: is. You're 

Brigitte Malik: buying something that has been lived in and has been worn out. We had people telling us, well, why didn't you report about the paint smearing over here?

And I'm like, because that's not part of a home inspection. It's not. That's [00:22:00] not anything that we would even bat an eye about. Because it's not part, that's cosmetic. We don't report on cosmetic things. We're there, you know, so people forget that, and quite honestly, the worst, and it's still, it's not happening as much, was during the pandemic.

That was the worst because we had people just going crazy offers, buying these houses, waiving inspections, waiving appraisal, doing all these crazy things, and they buy the house and they realize, they had buyer's remorse because they realized, oh my god, what did I just buy? This is horrible. 

Bisendra: So, 

Brigitte Malik: we did a lot 

Bisendra: of inspections after the fact.

So, for those who can hear, I'm knocking on wood because all the transactions that I've done during the pandemic. And I'm only gonna pat myself on the back this one time because I haven't done it yet Has not never waived an inspection and did not pay overpriced. Yeah Every single one did an inspection.

That's 

Jason Kleiger: Well, mine was in the newspaper for being the highest over ask in Suffolk County. [00:23:00] Where? No way. 

Bisendra: Centerport. Was it really? Was that the recent one? 

Jason Kleiger: That was in, during the pandemic when they first opened up the floodgates to, Yeah, congratulations. 

Bisendra: Yeah. That's cool. That was cool. Yeah, so Yeah, but then Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say something on tangent there, but So, I always encourage buyers to do an inspection, regardless of what they say. Right? Because I want, like you were talking about, I want you to check, be comfortable with the electrical. I want you to be comfortable with the plumbing, the HVAC.

Your appliances because those things have a lifespan, right? So is that something, a service that you guys offer to, or other inspectors should offer 

Brigitte Malik: or do offer? So we check the appliances. It's not included in the actual standards, but we do it as a company, as a courtesy, like we always, like if there's a, as long as the dishwasher has been used before, if it's, if it's brand new.

And the reason why I say [00:24:00] that Setting off 

Bisendra: to the side 

Brigitte Malik: uninstalled? Yeah, uninstalled. Well, the reason why I say that is we did a dishwasher, it looked like it was all good, but the plumber never actually connected all the fixtures, like, tightly. So as soon as we turned it on, all the water started coming out.

They, again, that was another situation they blamed us for. And we're like, yeah, but we didn't install it. Like, you could see, like, now that it's leaking, they didn't even tighten everything. 

Bisendra: And that, so, okay, so So Jason, let's talk about that for a second before we get to the report part, right? And if there is any issues with the findings of the home inspection company in that case where the seller did not disclose that that particular appliance was not connect because they have to have known.

The seller has to have known, it's a known defect to the seller. Forget about it. They had it installed. 

Jason Kleiger: Regardless. Okay. Regardless. Because what attorney is going to put in or neglect to put in the contract that the appliances have to be in working order? [00:25:00] So even if the seller knew, didn't know, Thank you.

So even if the seller knew, didn't know, or was out, you know, hasn't been home in six months and moved already, appliances have to be in working order. Now, that's not in working order. Boom. Thank you. 

Bisendra: Thank you.

Okay, that completely destroyed my question. But okay. Do you have a better question, Cassandra? I don't because that was Okay. So. Electrical plumbing. Oh. What else do you guys 

Brigitte Malik: One other thing too that I just meant. I think this is probably the most critical thing. In my opinion. The home inspection is not a guarantee of what's going to happen to your house in the 

Bisendra: future.

It is not. No. It is just the current state that it's in. 

Brigitte Malik: Exactly. So if your roof is not leaking the day of the inspection, Does not mean. Does not mean it's 

Bisendra: never going to leak. Okay, so we're talking about roofs now, right? So, I've seen [00:26:00] a few home inspection reports over the years. And they usually tell you how many layers of roof shingle they see, the material that it's made from And a projected life expectancy of the current covering.

I hate that. Wait, wait, 

Jason Kleiger: wait. You don't like when it says the projected lifespan? No, hate it. So like, even if you see, let's for example, like a boiler that was built 30 years ago. And you wouldn't say, you know, I'm just, in general, I'm just saying you in general, but I've seen in millions that it says, oh, you know, it's reaching the end of its projected lifespan.

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, as soon as I see a 20 year old boiler, or even 15 year old, it's already, we have a comment, out of warranty, expected lifespan. It could last another 15 years, but I gotta protect myself knowing that, more than likely, the manufacturer's warranty is done. That's what everybody always counts on. I hate roof expectancy.

Jason Kleiger: Oh, so it's limited to roofs, 

Bisendra: okay. I'll [00:27:00] tell you right now. Tell me, because I want, I really want to know. And, and I 

Brigitte Malik: also hate, I also hate the number of layers, so shingles too. Because, I don't even want to say it's just investors, but contractors in general. When they do that, they actually, so at the edge of the roof layer, it may look like one, but what they've done is a second layer before they've cut it back.

So we can't even see it. So what happens when the roof starts leaking and then they start taking off some of the shingles? Now they realize, holy crap, this is actually three layers. Who do they come back to and try to tell us, hey, you only told me one shit layer. Yeah. Like, no, like We told you what we could see, right, and now, when we go, yeah, and then when we go to the property and we see, wait a second, contract took up all these shingles, and they found these things after, okay, yeah, that makes sense, we're not liable for that, we can't see what's not seen to us, does that make sense?

Right, it 

Bisendra: absolutely does, because You're not peeling, but you can take a, you know, you're not going to go with the, we can't do it. What's [00:28:00] that tool? I forget. Oh 

Brigitte Malik: yeah. It's like that big. Yeah. It looks like a 

Bisendra: crowbar. 

Brigitte Malik: We're not 

Bisendra: doing that. That roofing tool, whatever. Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: We're not, we're not doing that. And then the, the life expectancy, the only one that we do that for is our Florida locations.

And it's not even on the home inspection. It's on an insurance form. That we fill out and we're giving them the insurance wants to know if it has five years left, right? That's all I care. That's all they care about so they can get homeowners insurance, right? But that's a mandated form in Florida that home inspectors do in order for people to get insurance That's the only one otherwise None of us would ever include this.

I don't like it I don't do it in our reports because what you can have a 30 year old roof Look like a five year old roof. Absolutely. Because it's just a condition. There's no trees overhanging, they take good care of it, good homeowners. I've seen 

Bisendra: people power wash it. Yeah, you can't do that. Not power wash it.

Soft wash. Soft wash is [00:29:00] fine. Yeah, yeah. Oh my god. Sorry. But I've 

Brigitte Malik: seen five year old roofs that look like 30 year olds. Why? 

Bisendra: Elements. Yeah, the elements. 

Jason Kleiger: What if they're covered in 

Brigitte Malik: snow? Yeah. Oh yeah, it's disclaimed. We can't do it. We, we will inspect everything. We'll inspect the attic. We'll inspect everywhere that we could see.

But if the roof is covered in snow, it's getting disclaimed. Okay. That's fair, because you can't see it. We can't see it. Agents get mad at us. And we're like, look, if you want us to come back when the snow's gone, we can come back. But do you guys remember a few years ago where we had so much snow and it was like on the floor for like two weeks.

It was like below freezing. It wasn't melting. Oh, I 

Jason Kleiger: was out there snow blowing. I remember. Yeah, I remember. 

Bisendra: A few years ago. I'm trying to, I know the event that you're talking about. I just don't, I'm trying to calculate how many years ago. It was a while. It was a while. It was a while. Because 

Brigitte Malik: I missed the snow.

Yeah, I, yeah, because we got nothing last year. It 

Jason Kleiger: was like four storms in 

Bisendra: January. Yeah. Yeah, it was like back to just back to back, yeah. 

Jason Kleiger: Every weekend, [00:30:00] just 

Bisendra: another blizzard, another blizzard. And that 

Brigitte Malik: one we were disclaiming roofs. Because the roof, the snow never had an opportunity to even melt. No. No. It 

Bisendra: was just, I don't understand why an angel would get mad about that.

Because you're inspecting the inside, right? I would love 

Brigitte Malik: to know the answer to 

Bisendra: that, too. Because you freak out buyers. No, no, but, no, okay, maybe I'm coming from a place of common sense, but if you have, let's just say, three, four inches of snow on a roof, and it didn't cave, and the inspector's inside the attic space, or the crawl space where the attic is, and there's no active leaks or bowing that can be photographed and visually inspected, They're disclaiming it for regardless.

I mean, you can't see it. We can't see it. We can still inspect the attic. But if there's no active 

Jason Kleiger: leak, then that's a business decision for the buyer 

Bisendra: to make. But if it's 

Brigitte Malik: 20 degrees outside, will there be an active leak? 

Bisendra: I dunno, Bridget, will there be an extra or [00:31:00] when it starts melting, it'll start When it's melting.

Well, there's gonna be some layer of some level of thought at the high sun, but what happens 

Brigitte Malik: if there's a leak? It's 20 degrees. It ain't gonna, oh, it's not gonna, only time is if you have a really good insulated house where the heat from your house is actually starting to heat. But a lot of houses, they don't have it.

They don't have it. Mm. So keep you go inside the attic and it's just as cold as it is outside sometimes. So 

Bisendra: I shouldn't have done the blow in. 

Brigitte Malik: That's great. The more insulation, the better because it will help. But that's the thing when it's that cool. Sometimes it's not, no leak is going to show in that moment until you start getting that temperature difference.

Now, if it's like at that 34 degrees, 35, that's, you're going to start 

Bisendra: to see that. Yeah. Okay. So you guys, okay. So we got roof weather permitting. Yeah. Then we have electrical plumbing. 

Brigitte Malik: What else? KiTchen, bathrooms, basements, all the HVAC. Hold 

Jason Kleiger: on here. Hold on here. We're not talking about the foundation yet.

Well, 

Bisendra: yeah, 

Jason Kleiger: foundation. Foundation. You saw what I know you're going up through there. But [00:32:00] I wanna, I wanna get to the foundation. Alright, 

Bisendra: so let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's get there. To the foundation. 

Jason Kleiger: I, I was like, I was like waiting. I was waiting. I was so patient. I saw your, I saw that little 

Bisendra: bloomer in your eye.

I was so patient. Because that's really, is that really all you really care about at the end of the day as an a, I mean, as an attorney getting a home 

Jason Kleiger: inspection report? Well, to, I mean, we could talk about that at length about getting a home inspection report. You know, at the end of the day, we treat it like it's a business decision, right?

For the buyer to make you know, you're. You're paying a certain price, and part of that price is because there are faults with the house, you know, within the house. Right, right. So, you know, if you're buying a house and, you know, you know X, Y, and Z, or, or, you know, that that, you know, this has to be held up by, you know, certain, you know, I don't know what those are called.

Columns. Yeah, or like that it's sagging because of termites or something like that. You can't, I mean, there can be, there can be times where clients are like, yeah, well, that's why I'm only paying [00:33:00] 450 for it and not 700 because of the condition. Exactly. So, and then you have other times where they still want to pay 750 or 700, but they want all that stuff fixed.

So that's just, you know, for now a brief time, because I want it. still talk about termites. That's huge. Cause I once critters, I once looked at a house and I really wanted this house and it was like, you know, center hall colonial, my absolute favorite. And I see this beam and first I'm walking into the den, you know, and then it goes down.

I'm like, huh, that's interesting. I'm like, Oh, maybe cause it's on a big hill. So then we go down to the basement and I was with my contractor cause we weren't that serious at the time. He takes his pencil and goes right through a beam. Yeah. Right through a solid wood beam. So what do we, what should we know about termites?

Brigitte Malik: They're everywhere in Long Island. They're absolutely everywhere. In fact, if we don't find, so there's a form that we fill out, especially if you're a VA loan, FHA loan, NACA, any of those it's called the NNPA 33 or NPM. I think it's NPA. Oh, [00:34:00] whatever. I always mess it up. But it's a, it's, it's a national form and we provide that to the lenders.

If the lenders ask for it, right? Sometimes the 

Bisendra: attorneys will ask for it. So do you need a special type of licensing and or training? Not 

Brigitte Malik: in New York. For termites, we always provide training to all the inspectors. My thing with termites is you gotta remember New York has subterranean termites, which is going to make zero sense to you guys, but their colonies are actually usually located outside of the house.

Right. So, if they're inside your house, they're using it as a food source, and there's thousands, sometimes millions of termites coming in. Right. They, and it's not all the time, like most of the time they're behind your walls. You won't see them for those 

Bisendra: listening. We're recording this the night of Halloween.

Mm hmm, and I'm very afraid right now Cuz she literally said millions 

Brigitte Malik: millions like they just they kind of go everywhere they have food their termites are extremely intelligent and I'm even more [00:35:00] scared But like there's just I always tell everybody if we go to a house, we don't see termite damage. I'm not telling you that they're not there.

It just might've not been found yet. So is 

Bisendra: that like an add on service? Like if I have a buyer that wants, for whatever reason, their grandmother said, Oh, make sure you get a termite inspection. Is that something you guys add on? Company 

Brigitte Malik: by company. We include it in our inspections. We always include it.

Justice us as a company. 

Bisendra: So what should a buyer look 

Brigitte Malik: for that or ask for it? They should always because honestly long island new york city. They're everywhere. We're on sand. Yeah So that's that they're just 

Bisendra: I can't remember the last time I went to a property and they didn't have the little pots outside Yeah, the bait 

Brigitte Malik: traps.

Yeah, and as soon as we see that we know the house has been treated at some point, right? So which is fine. It's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. I have bait traps around my house And I do it as a preventative measure Whether or not that's going to keep them out, [00:36:00] no, but it'll help me if I see them eating the bait, then I know I got to start doing a more aggressive treatment.

Okay, makes sense. You know, so there's no house that's protected by tree. You can do things that'll help prevent them, but there's no such thing as A swarm, like during springtime, swarms, they land where they land and then they move very quick. So, if, there's not, like, on this wall there's no termite damage or no mud tunnels.

I could go on in a few days and I could see all of a sudden a mud tunnel on here. They move very quickly. 

Bisendra: I don't like that term. 

Brigitte Malik: We can't guarantee what happens later on because they, they eat very quickly and they make tunnels 

Bisendra: quickly, so. Okay, so, let's say in the event that you. Or one of your inspectors have inspected a property that you found mud tunnels.

You gave your report. In the report, do you give a plan of action or what's 

Brigitte Malik: involved? Yes. So, we do a few things. So, it's in the report, in the home inspection [00:37:00] report. And we put that, you know, there were signs of termites. Termites. And we recommend treatment. Okay. Right. We always do. As soon as I find the damage, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Because I actually would rather find the damage than it come back later on because it's going to come back later on like whenever they find it later on, they're going to try to blame us, right? And yeah, and a lot of the times it just wasn't there because they move quick. And then on the termite form, the NMPA 33, we also put on there and then we recommend treatment as well.

Because then it's up to the pest control company. They don't have to do the treatment. It's up to the home buyer what they do. Depending on your loan, they may want to only close with some type of treatment. VA, VA. 

Bisendra: They love that. And grants, 

Jason Kleiger: grants too. It's a condition to close to get that termite certification for the 

Bisendra: VA 

Brigitte Malik: loans.

And they have to have an invoice that the seller paid, which the seller 

Bisendra: never pays. The seller 

Jason Kleiger: never pays for that. But, which is interesting, because in, you know, single [00:38:00] family, you know, multi family housing contracts, there's a provision about termites, and it says that if termites are found, you know, generally it says, you know, but if termites are found, that the seller can just give 1, 000 to the buyer, that the seller can treat and must give a a one year Guarantee or at least a one year service plan for free.

Or the seller can walk away and cancel the contract. But either way Which the service 

Brigitte Malik: plans don't mean anything. 

Jason Kleiger: It doesn't. I didn't hear that, so Whatever the way my client decides, you know. But it's up to the buyer. I'm sorry, it's up to the seller what to do. It's a business decision. And if the seller wants to give 1, 000, if the seller wants to get a, you know, a service plan or walk away from the deal, but you know, it's, it's important it's important enough that it's addressed and gives people the option of what to do if your house has termites.

So it is. It is crucial. 

Brigitte Malik: It's everywhere. My house had termites. I found it. You don't want to know how I found it. It wasn't during my home inspection, which, by the way, [00:39:00] my company did. You were doing construction? Yeah, we did renovation. We opened up. We took, we gutted the whole first floor, found it behind you.

I went all the way to the second floor. They came in through the attic vent. Which is very odd because they must have came through a swarm because subterranean come from the ground up. So they came 

Jason Kleiger: down. So, now, maybe you haven't, but this is probably my worst nightmare. bees have been found? Yes. Ah. In crawl 

Brigitte Malik: spaces.

Ooh. Leavitt style houses actually, we've found them a lot in between it. In, the 

Bisendra: slats? Yeah. Like the, the beams. 

Jason Kleiger: What happens then? Do you just like, alright I'm disclaiming this we're going away. 

Brigitte Malik: If, if they're in a crawl space and we don't go into it Run 

Bisendra: away. I'm running away. Yeah. 

Jason Kleiger: There's actual companies that'll do it.

I'll call a guy that has like a grenade and put it in there. We did 

Brigitte Malik: a, a condo in New York, or in New York. In Queens. Mhm. And, There was always a buzzing sound, and we would see bees [00:40:00] just coming in, not, not like a whole swarm, just like one, two. 

Bisendra: Oh, that's when you know you have a problem though, you start 

Brigitte Malik: seeing them consistently.

So we're like, where are they? Turns out, agent called me later on, because we told him like, hey, we think there's something happening, I have no idea where or how. And what's funny, they try to like, Oh, you guys are the homeless, but you should know, like, I don't do bees. 

Bisendra: Do you see me 

Jason Kleiger: with my protective suit on?

I would pass on that house. Even if it's my absolute dream home, I would pass. 

Brigitte Malik: So you guys know, like, in these New York City buildings, the radiators would be, like, on the exterior wall. The bees were in between the radiator and the brick. 

Bisendra: So, there's actually a company I'm just on a little tangent. So there's actually a company that manufactures through wall.

Beehives. Wow. And I've seen it in action. Should be illegal. Yeah. I don't know. I've seen it in action. So the, the interior facing portion of the beehive is clear plexiglass. No, thank you. Nope. And they have built in tunnels and entryways for the bees to go. What do they use that as? Artwork or something? No.

No. [00:41:00] They just want to see, you know how people have no internet forms in their house. No. This is just, just No, I agree with you. No is the way to go with this particular thing. But I really thought it was so cool . 

Jason Kleiger: I was like, oh my God, you can actually see I'm never coming over to your house. You gonna have this thing?

Yeah. No, no, no. I'll never get it. Okay. 

Bisendra: I'm just saying. Especially not, I mean, I guess 

Brigitte Malik: it would be kind of cool to see, but yeah, it was just 

Bisendra: cool to see on 

Jason Kleiger: the TV maybe. But no, it was cool to see. Definitely. I'd 

Bisendra: rather not see that like. I'm not afraid of bees, but tens of thousands of bees entering your home while you're asleep or in your vicinity.

Brigitte Malik: What's worse, bees or yellow jackets? 

Bisendra: Wasps. 

Jason Kleiger: They're wasps. Hornets. Yellow jackets are mean. I got stung on my face by seven all at once. Yellow 

Bisendra: jackets are, they're aggressive. Yeah, yeah. Those killer hornets, is that what they're called? Asian, Asian hornet? Nope. So what, so I'm a big science buff, so I did, I checked the science on it.

No, the science is real. They [00:42:00] have near photographic memory. No. Yes. So if you 

Jason Kleiger: wrong 

Bisendra: them. They're coming 

Brigitte Malik: for you. Oh boy. Well, they say that about yellow jackets. Not as bad though. Yellow jackets, if you mess with them, like you swat it, they'll follow you. And they leave a pheromone on you. Oh. So they're tracking their own smell.

They're tracking down. So literally, I had killed one. And then I went and jumped into my pool real quick because 

Bisendra: I was so scared. Yeah, I was 

Jason Kleiger: just trying to I'm not leaving my apartment anymore. 

Brigitte Malik: But you know what you could do, which really helped us, because there's like, getting rid of them is horrible.

Kill them? No, brown paper bags. To do what? Just put it all around your backyard. And what do they do? They think they're very territorial, so they think it's a nest. But how do they die? They don't die, they just stay out. They're very territorial, so they don't get near other tibes. They need to die. I mean, yeah, I'm sure they do some good, I don't know.

Bisendra: Alright, honeybees, honeybees. You're gonna get us in trouble 

Jason Kleiger: with, like, the animal rights people. Like a beekeeper, some apier, what do they call them, apiarist? I don't know. But honeybees, that's one thing, okay? Sorry, bee people. No, [00:43:00] honeybees, I support. Not, not much, but I support none of the other stuff. Okay.

Bisendra: Okay. So let's get back to the topic. 

Jason Kleiger: It is Halloween. I have 

Bisendra: something that was scary. So, okay. You were talking to Jason about foundations, right? So what type of, if any structural. do you do when we report back? 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, so we're always on the hunt for structural issues. Okay. So, and sometimes they're not so obvious, especially if like it's a slab house, we can't see the foundation.

Like, an engineer could come in, they're not going to see the foundation. So we're looking at like signs, like cracks around doors. Are the windows opening and closing? Are the doors opening and closing? We can't see what's happening underneath the floor, so like, again, that was another situation, I have so many situations, but we had another situation, they got in the house, took out all the flooring, and there was huge issues of, of the foundation underneath the flooring.[00:44:00] 

There was no other signs of anything else except underneath the flooring. How could we have seen that? 

Jason Kleiger: You can't. You can't. Your ultrasonic, radar. 

Bisendra: Oh, yeah. There's no way. We're not looking for bodies. We can't. We can't 

Brigitte Malik: see those things. The FBI is not letting us. Yeah. We'll forget that. So, and, you know, so I love when the foundation issues are like right in front of us where we can see.

Otherwise, we're looking for signs of issues. And even then, it's not a guarantee that there's nothing that's wrong or could change. And a huge thing that people forget, gutters. Are a huge thing to help protect your foundation. 

Bisendra: Oh, gut. Huge. 

Jason Kleiger: It's because the water would sit there. Where does the water? No, has to.

If 

Bisendra: you don't 

Brigitte Malik: have a gutter extension, you're asking for foundation problems and mold. 

Jason Kleiger: What? What about a later a French drain? I 

Brigitte Malik: like French Day. 

Bisendra: Yeah. Yeah. So I am, as long as the pump is working, so I, yes. So I living in the harbor. Mm-Hmm. . I will tell you firsthand that. It was a good idea for those listening that heard about Hurricane Sandy.[00:45:00] 

If it was not for that drain and a working sump pump that I tested habitually. You still do it? I still do it. I'm not playing. I'm not playing. Because all of my neighbors, every last one of them, had at least 6 inches of water in their property. Did you get any? 

Brigitte Malik: None. That's great. All because of that.

Bisendra: Everything was good. The end. Everyone was like, how is it that you're not bailing water out of your property right now? I'm like, because my sump pump worked. But where'd you get power from? I have a generator in my garage. Yeah. No, no, no, really. Because at that, maybe six months prior, He 

Jason Kleiger: stole gas from the gas station.

No, I 

Bisendra: got, I got a generac installed. Oh, wow. Right, so I got a generac installed. Those are nice. And they're pricey. Yeah. That's an investment. It is. And people are like, oh, why'd you do it? Because. Look what happened. I know my product your product. Yes. I saw real estate I I see what houses need and I will not let my family go without their chicken [00:46:00] nuggies If the power goes out showers, yeah, well, there's 

Brigitte Malik: still issues with oh, there's always gonna be an issue for storm Sandy like inspections people didn't even realize there's a crawl space and it still has water from yes Yeah, 

Bisendra: and they were trying to figure out where that moldy smell is coming from We ripped out all our carpet and we still 

Jason Kleiger: Well, we sprayed with clo.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We 

Bisendra: had a guy in here with an air scrubber. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. That's not gonna happen. . Okay, so you report that back. So is there anything that you would recommend people, buyers requesting a home inspection look for or ask for? That's 

Brigitte Malik: not normal. You can, okay. So the nowadays we're doing mold is not include it in home 

Bisendra: inspections.

But is it an add on? It is. it on? Yeah. Can I ask 

Brigitte Malik: for it? Absolutely. And we are doing a lot of that because I've just been trying to educate even the real estate community about that because they try to Agents, as soon as you hear mole, they freak out. So they tell their buyers No, no, no, no. You [00:47:00] don't need this inspection.

You don't need that. You just need to do this. Well, wait a second. Who's now taking liability for that? Oh, 

Bisendra: is that me? Wait a second. So, it's like Not a prison company. 

Brigitte Malik: No, not yet. to tell them, like, stay in your lane. Like, if we find mold Yes. Cause, like, drywall 

Bisendra: For all the new agents listening to this and all actively practicing, experienced agents, stay in your lane.

Yeah. Your license does not Transfer over to home inspection. 

Brigitte Malik: And, like, mold is one of those things where you can have a small dot right here and agents will say, Oh, that's easy. Just clean it off with some bleach. 

Bisendra: Wait a second, bleach doesn't do 

Brigitte Malik: anything though. Take off that drywall and tell me what it looks like behind the wall.

I don't know, 

Bisendra: because I've It's a whole nother issue. No, it's a whole nother colony. 

Brigitte Malik: It's literally a colony. So like, so I always tell buyers, like look if we find mold, or something that looks like mold, then we would recommend a mold inspection. And not all our inspectors have them, because this is an expensive test, like we have, not a test, license, it's [00:48:00] a whole separate license.

So if the inspector on site has a license, they can do the mold inspection right there and then. Otherwise, we can come back next day or whatever and do the mold inspection. But don't, don't be the one to discourage them to do these extra services. Oh, I encourage everything. Because at the day, it's, they're paying for this.

Yeah, 

Bisendra: yeah. I tell everybody, get everything, get everything. I was like, if you have to pay extra, pay, pay for it. Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: Because it adds a whole nother 

Bisendra: issue. So my thing is, I usually tell them, ask them what's in, Included in the price that they've quoted you, right? And then, if there's anything that you need or want outside of that, ask them what each additional add on costs, and then add those on.

And they're like, why? If it's an add on? I'm like, because it's an add on for a reason. 

Jason Kleiger: And, think about the investment you're about 

Bisendra: to make. Right, you're gonna spend three quarters of a million dollars, and you're worried about that very nominal fee that the home inspector's gonna Exactly, 

Jason Kleiger: exactly. This is not the time or place to cheap out.

No. 

Bisendra: No. So this, this [00:49:00] is a single best place to actually spend money in my Exactly. Another 

Brigitte Malik: professional opinion. Another one that's huge is sewer scopes. 

Bisendra: Oh, I 

Jason Kleiger: love those things. Was 

Bisendra: it sewer? 

Brigitte Malik: Oh, I love that. So like, it's like a colonoscopy for your house. Yes, 

Bisendra: it absolutely is. I like that. It is. It really is.

Yeah, it really is. It it, I know, but, 

Brigitte Malik: and Long Island. How many, do you guys, any of you guys live in Suffolk? No. No? I have a, I had a cesspool. Okay, so you had a cesspool. Did you actually know where your cesspool 

Jason Kleiger: was located? I did not. Okay. And then we had problems. And then you 

Brigitte Malik: had problems. Bingo. Yep. So the sewer scope is from the house to wherever your septic or cesspool is.

And it's telling us if there's tree roots, what the line looks like, things like that. Then, most times, because Suffolk County is dumb, Long Island is dumb. 

Bisendra: Long Island is dumb. The North Shore. The North 

Brigitte Malik: Shore. I have to agree. Upstate New York, they have totally different septic wells. Yes, they do. Very strict.

Long Island, we 

Jason Kleiger: don't. We just have a pit with just, ugh, in it. 

Brigitte Malik: So, most people have never even emptied out their [00:50:00] cesspools. Never. Never. Don't even know where it is. They don't even understand what a cesspool is. They think they're on public sewer. So now the sewer scope tells us where the system is located, and we can, because we have like a tracker.

Right. And we tell them, hey, your system's over here. Once we hit the tank, we can't, once we hit the tank, we can't actually inspect the tank because it's pitch dark inside even doesn't matter how big of a flashlight you put in there. So we tell them, and if they want a further like cesspool inspection, that's a totally different service, which I'm working on.

Don't have it yet, but that's a totally different inspection. And now usually a cesspool septic company will come out. with shovels. Yeah. And now we've told them where the tank is at and they'll start digging it up trying to find the entrance and then they'll pump it out or do an inspection of it. And from there, I 

Jason Kleiger: had a backhoe on my lawn.

They couldn't find it. So I really wish I took off. They really couldn't find it. [00:51:00] Yeah. They had a guy with like a, like a probe and he's like, and for hours and he couldn't find it. And then they had this, this other thing that went over like, you know, like kind of like a, you know, metal detector almost couldn't, couldn't find it.

So they had to get it back. It was in the, I mean, I knew where it was but it was buried so far down that you, you wouldn't, you would never find it. So, so they had to, you know, build this tube that went up to about maybe like a foot or 

Brigitte Malik: two. Yeah. They had to do the collars. Yeah. So when we bought our building in Smithtown.

We bought the building in Smithtown and, you know, I didn't have the sewer scopes yet at the time, but we were like, we went in there a little bit like cocky. Of course. Like, Oh, we know what we're doing. We don't need, you know, I still had my one of my guys do the inspection, but we didn't do the cesspool inspection or the sewer scope.

Cause I didn't even have the equipment yet. Now I have like a bunch of it. So we buy the building and I tell my business partner, Hey, [00:52:00] we need to do, I want to get the tank emptied. Probably the building's 1920. It's probably never been emptied. Never. And there was no cover on the outside. They couldn't find it.

All right. So we go get the company out there, a company that we work closely with. They're probing the backyard. I know the whole process. Oh, that's why I should just do it already They're probing the whole backyard can't find anything. So now I'm getting nervous. I'm like, well, listen like this back extension This was done in the 50s.

Oh, no, no. No, they weren't that dumb back then. Alright, so now we're checking the Chinese which never opened a Chinese restaurant cesspool or septic tank because it stunk like they've had food everything that was in there. It was nasty they just chugging everything down the drain cesspool 

Bisendra: must have 

Brigitte Malik: loved you.

Yeah So we're checking all this and so finally I said look at the sewer scope get the sauna. Let's get the tracker Let's just so we broke open this cast iron pipe. That's never been [00:53:00] open ever And we go five feet in . No. And we hit the tank and I'm like, oh no. And he's like, no, no, don't freak out. I'm like, no.

Like I am gonna freak out. I know where it is now, . He goes, no, no, no. I'm like, it's underneath this extension that we have zero access to. Mm-Hmm. . Like there is no getting to it. Yes. Mm-Hmm. . There's nothing like, there's nothing. Wow. So he gets asano and he's like, oh yeah. Oh yeah. I'm like, yeah, I know . 

Bisendra: Like I'm laughing now.

But if it was me, I'd 

Brigitte Malik: be. So literally, we had to go, we did the whole new system, we rerouted it, abandoned the tank, the right, like it was just Okay, yeah, that's the whole process whole process, so I was just like, this is not happening. So, I think, I'd want to say it cost us like 16, 000, 17, 000. I was 

Bisendra: going to say that, well that's on the cheap end, because she's got trade friends.

Yeah, 

Brigitte Malik: because then we did a septic tank, and then Long Island doesn't have leach fields, so the liquid starts to go, so then we had a cesspool connected to it from there. Oh, okay. [00:54:00] 

Bisendra: So that's why I cost 

Jason Kleiger: you Did you get the grants for the septic tank? 'cause I know that they, you know, I know. I didn't know grants.

I know that they have these grants. . . Because I know that Suffolk, I think it's more out east for I think Bridges just wanted to get it. Yeah. No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be like, oh, I'm gonna wait. 

Bisendra: iab Im has a grant for 

Brigitte Malik: a grant. You know, I think, I think Babylon has a grant, but we're in Smithtown. I don't even, I didn't 

Jason Kleiger: hear anything either way.

I, you know, I don't know how the, the Leach field, obviously there's the septic tank. But, you know, the cesspool, and it's interesting because the reason that Long Island and especially Suffolk County have cesspools is that back when the, you know, like Levittown and everything started booming, they were going to build sewers.

And so they said, all right, well, these houses we need to build, but we don't have sewers yet. So we're just going to put these tubs here and it'll just be temporary. Never happened. And here we are, 80 something years later, and Happened in Nassau 

Brigitte Malik: County, but also Suffolk still. Like, I live in Lindenhurst, and we have public sewers, but I'm a rare commodity.

Jason Kleiger: Yeah, up in the North Shore of Nassau County, you know, you get a lot of [00:55:00] cesspools. Yeah, yeah. I lived in a Like Glenhead, those areas, yeah. I grew up in Seacliffe, and lived in a house that was about 140 years old. Our success pool is the size of two bathtubs. Wow. 

Bisendra: That's not big enough 

Jason Kleiger: for a whole house.

Three weeks we had it pumped, every 

Brigitte Malik: three weeks. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That's what people don't realize. Like, and, the other thing that people think like, Oh, but it's a success pool. Like you've read you even know what it looks like 

Bisendra: people don't even know what it 

Brigitte Malik: it's a can with holes So if it's not filled, I mean if you're not getting it pumped Where's all that crap 

Bisendra: going and then 

Jason Kleiger: you're taking a walk on your front lawn and then squish 

Bisendra: squish They think it's just muddy water 

Brigitte Malik: And their logic was what Long Island Sandy so it acts as a natural filtration We still have a nitrate problem in Long Island.

Bisendra: Oh, absolutely. So, anyways, I could go off on this. We will forever have 

Jason Kleiger: a nitrate problem. So, so bees and cesspools. Okay. 

Bisendra: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We'll get back to that. Right. So, we did the foundation thing. So, what else is in the report that you, you or [00:56:00] another home inspector would provide to the buyer? 

Brigitte Malik: I mean, just read the report.

A lot of times, them not reading would solve so many problems because a lot of times buyers will pay for our service. And never read it and never even read it or never even open the report. Hmm. 

Bisendra: So that's 'cause they expect the attorney to read it? Well, to be honest, sometimes, but, but we don't send it to the attorney.

No, no. They do. They forward it. Yeah. They, they, we, we live at an age where Yeah, everybody wants to give someone else to do the work for 

Jason Kleiger: them. Well, what happens is when I get an inspection report, I go to the client, I'm like, I don't know this house. Okay. You look through the report, find what's important to you.

And tell me what you want repaired, or you want me to negotiate with the other side. If you don't quite know what's important to you just yet, ask your inspector. Yeah. And talk to your inspector about, you know, how important is this? Or, you know, I'm nervous because I see this. You know, [00:57:00] because it could be something as simple as you know Reverse polarity of one out, which is not difficult.

Yeah, or it could be something like as major as I just had one last, last week or this week. Sewage backup into the house because roots were growing through the sewer pipe. So it was actually backing up straight up into the house and and then the boiler and burner were leaking. So, you know, these were huge red flags.

Yeah, they are. So, I said, you know, my client had sent me that, and I said, You know what? Come back and tell me, like, what you feel is important to you. Because you're spending this on this house. You're spending, you know, I think it was 630, 000, whatever it was. 630, 000 on this house. Now, obviously, you're taking it with its faults.

If it was perfect, it would be, you know, priceless. Yeah. Okay? But I can negotiate and help or try to negotiate and help get these things repaired for you as a repair writer before closing. So, my client said, okay, let me, you know, let me look at it. Finds what items he wants. Perfect. So now, I go to [00:58:00] the other attorney and I say, these are the items, take a look at this.

And here's their inspection report, so that you can see what we're referring to, which is crucial. Right, you have to have the evidence. Yeah, because if the other attorney gets a repair writer and it says, oh, you know, they have to repair the, yeah, either that or they're going to have like, they're like, why is there some issue with it?

Because they don't know either. So, you know, I do that as well. I'll send it over and say, look at item 37, look at item 22. And it just makes everything flow better. Now, at that time, it's kind of like a business decision between both of our clients. Do they want to you know, do a credit? Say, okay, you know, purchase price is 630, but because the boiler is leaking, you know, I'll give you 3, 000.

And if my client says that's fine, that's fine. And then it becomes the liability of the boiler. Then that's it. Because if you give that 3, 000 credit, you've satisfied your obligations under the contract. And in other times, it says, okay, you know, the hot water heater is leaking. Okay, so they have to replace it by a licensed company, a licensed insured [00:59:00] company.

Provide a receipt. And provide a paid receipt. Air conditioners. I get a lot of condensers. You know, where they say the condenser is reaching its age and everything like that. And So I'm not going to say replace the condenser and I tell my clients that I'm like, they're not going to, they're not, they're not going to go for that.

I was like, they might, if there's a backup offer, they're going to go with that. Yeah, they're going to go with whatever's 

Bisendra: easier. Exactly. Path of least 

Jason Kleiger: resistance. So I'll say, look, I can ask them to have it serviced by a licensed and insured company and give you a, you know, one year guarantee. Yeah.

Okay. So those are the things that I, and then, you know, they'll ask for a new roof. I always get that. You know, they ask for like a straight up new roof. And then I'm like, no, no, no. I'm like. You know, technically, don't you love those legally, I'm supposed to ask the other side for a new right, right, right.

But at the same time, I told my client, I'm like, you know, if I go to the other side with this demand of, of a new roof, that's not leaking, but you want a new roof, then they're going to say, Oh yeah, hold on one [01:00:00] second, call up that backup offer. And you're going to lose your house and you're going to lose the house 

Bisendra: and understand that you push too hard.

You're pushing the wrong 

Jason Kleiger: way. Yeah. 

Brigitte Malik: It's all about, like, education. I'm a really firm believer in it because sometimes I feel like these buyers come in with unrealistic expectations and just think, like, well, HGTV does not help. Listen. 

Bisendra: Does not help. I was 

Jason Kleiger: an expert for two weeks and I bought my house. I will never advocate for 

Bisendra: HGTV.

We do not watch that in my house. Period. If I see it on, there's going to be a problem. 

Jason Kleiger: Tariko Musa? Because 

Bisendra: there is so much misinformation. I don't know which part of the country these people are getting these facts from, but that stuff does not fly in New York. Yeah, 

Brigitte Malik: well New York is a totally different market compared to everybody else.

Bisendra: If I'm representing a seller and you come in and you say, oh well, I want a 

Jason Kleiger: new roof. Yeah. Let me call up that agent with the other offer. Yeah, yeah, no. 

Brigitte Malik: I mean, even us as home inspectors, we don't tell them you need a new [01:01:00] roof. We're just like, hey, you know what? These are the issues that are happening with the roof.

Be prepared it may be five years. It may be ten years. We don't know maybe next 

Jason Kleiger: month Well, let me gripe about you. Yeah So 

Bisendra: I 

Jason Kleiger: Get a lot of You know, kick back on contracts and, and investigate and, you know, inspectors and everything. Because I'll have clients come to me and say, Oh, well this is you know, it's going to be dead in five years.

Or that, you know, I have to have an electrician look at it. Or I have to have a plumber look at it, or I have to have the, and I'm like, no, and I'm like, that's not, like, you don't have to, like, if you want to, you can have them check it out. And I'm like, but this is the inspector telling you that if you want to dig in further If you want a more invasive look at it.

Exactly, exactly. So I'm not really griping about it. I'm just saying why do we write it like that? Exactly, right? Yeah, I'm gonna get a bad wagon too because you were wait, hold on. Hold on here You write it in there and then I have to answer that question for the clients. [01:02:00] 

Brigitte Malik: They don't call us by the way After we leave we do our company.

We do a whole follow up. 

Bisendra: Everybody in new york We call them getting a home inspection call virgin 

Brigitte Malik: Like the office it's like we have like we call them what like maybe two three days after the inspection And we say, Hey, is there any questions you want the inspector to call you? We don't hear a peep, and if they do, we get the inspector on the phone, answer the questions.

So, legally, we have to do it where there's an electrician, electric issue in the panel, you know, whatever it is, ungrounded outlets, whatever, or ungrounded panel, whatever the case may be, on the bus bar, right? We have to put, inspector recommends Further evaluation or repair replaced by qualified professional or in that case if it's like Trish electric, right?

We'll put the appropriate party If I'm buying a 1952 house and my house this house has the whole house is ungrounded outlets Is that [01:03:00] really something what's the electrician gonna say? You're buying a 1952 house, this is 

Bisendra: common, so 

Brigitte Malik: we tell them, like, okay, let's get technical. How, how do you fix that? The real way is you do have to replace the wires in the whole house, right?

Is that reasonable for most people? 

Bisendra: No. 

Jason Kleiger: No. Can you just do a jumper? No. 

Brigitte Malik: Because you're not changing the wires on 

Bisendra: the inside. My favorite, my favorite. Can we just add in a box? 

Brigitte Malik: You could, you could actually. Some people do like a makeshift way to make it look rounded. But the real way. So when I bought my house.

My house is 1952. I always use that because it's my house. And I bought it knowing my whole house needed to be upgraded. I had 100 amp. I need my whole house was ungrounded, but I literally gutted my entire house. Yeah, so you knew so I went in Knowing that i'm doing this i'm doing this i'm getting a new [01:04:00] roof Don't care about any of this because i'm gonna knock this all out I knew the attic the the second floor staining and on the second floor had like a pea yellowish staining My husband's like, Oh, what is it?

I'm like, it's probably a leak or raccoons or something. I'm like, well, why does it matter? We're dormoring this house. Like the whole roof is coming off. We're doing a whole new attic. I don't care. And he's like, I wish I could like look at it like you. Cause I'm just looking at it a different way. Right.

Bisendra: And a lot of buyers look at it that way too. They don't, they have the foresight of what they're going to do later on. One year, two years, three, six months. Right. But they can't get themselves out of their own way. Yeah. Right? Because the way you saw it is the way you're going to get it. In theory, right? In theory.

Jason Kleiger: Subject to reasonable wear and tear. Yeah, yeah, 

Bisendra: yeah. And, you know, and reasonable is the word. 

Brigitte Malik: Well, if it's aluminum wiring, then you have a [01:05:00] problem. Yeah, if it's aluminum wiring. Or fuses. Yeah, fuses. Like, there's certain issues that are just, it's a safety. Issue or a very expensive issue to fix like a foundation.

Mm-Hmm. . That would be an extremely 

Bisendra: expensive fix. Yeah. Right? And then we go back to the very beginning where it's a business decision, right? Mm-Hmm. , right? So if the buyer can get out of their own way, . And look at it from a business perspective knowing what they have planned into the future They can make it themselves a very good 

Brigitte Malik: decision Look, I was looking at two hundred thousand dollar houses, which don't exist now and I was just a lot Did you see the way I was looking at her?

It doesn't exist now, but when I was buying my in the process two hundred thousand dollar house in west bablon Okay, right, which is nice Eight nine 2000 Six years ago. Okay, but it was 200, 000 for a reason. Oh, yeah, I walk in Just found out you just know that you walked in and there was sunlight [01:06:00] Oh, like the roof had collapsed.

There was a tree on the roof. That's 

Jason Kleiger: an added amenity. Yeah, 

Brigitte Malik: there was like mold in the whole basement. That's the thing. So I was like, this is perfect. I told my husband, like, this is great. And he's like, Oh my God, like, why do you want to do all this? Look at all this mold. Look at all this. You can see through.

I'm like, no, this is perfect. Like we take off the whole roof. We do a whole second floor. We put two 300, 000 in. We've just made up like we're good. Yeah. And I did. We got aggressive. We're trying to get that house. But then a investor cash buyer came in and grabbed that baby. And now that house is like worth like 950, 000

so, in retrospect, I was not scared of work. 

Bisendra: Right, you can't be. I mean, but But 

Brigitte Malik: that price explained it. 

Bisendra: It does. 

Jason Kleiger: Well, what's that movie? Was it a Tom Hanks movie called Money Pit? Is that what it was called? I think it might have been Tom Hanks. If I'm wrong, forgive me. I don't know. We'll look it up later. Yeah, he, you know, did the same thing, but it just didn't work out for him.

And a lot of people who and [01:07:00] unfortunately, a lot of people who go in with that mindset, they don't have that knowledge that you do and they think they're investors and hard money, hard money loans, 

Bisendra: you know. The reality TV show guys. Oh 

Jason Kleiger: my, yeah, so, so you get these, you know. I mean, I did a two 

Brigitte Malik: or three K loan.

Yeah. So my reno was in my mortgage and 

Bisendra: we're getting into that in the next few weeks. But people think when you tell them 203k 203b, they're like, 

Jason Kleiger: what? No one explains 

Bisendra: it. Every short sale I've sold in the last 20 years, outside of cash investors, 75 percent of them are all 203k 203b. It's a great product.

It is. And the average consumer doesn't know that it 

Brigitte Malik: exists. If you ever need a consultant, we do consulting. Okay. 

Bisendra: I got you. I got you. But it's like phenomenal, too. I personally have used it this many times. That's great. No, because it's a tool. 

Jason Kleiger: You could use 

Bisendra: it more than once? 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah. I could actually refinance my house and 

Bisendra: still do a [01:08:00] 3K.

With a 2 or 3K? Yes. So 

Jason Kleiger: like if I just start breaking things in my house, like I could just No, no. There's 

Brigitte Malik: like, there's a baby one and there's like a full blown 

Bisendra: one. It's like less than I got to check the numbers. That's like 20. Oh, it's 25. And then the K is for over. But then you got to get a license 

Jason Kleiger: contractor, estimate, a plan, approved.

And 

Bisendra: then FHA sends their own inspector out to break it down to make sure that all those 

Brigitte Malik: things need to be done. But you can do anything. Like I took off, we did a dormer and we converted our garage and then we did a whole extension behind our garage and we did like I mean, it's, it's, it was in reason.

Yeah. Like I did massive, it was nine months of renovations and you know, were you living in it for a part of the time? Oh no, thank God. My parents, my grandparents, I'm not my grandparents. My in laws let us live in the basement. So here we are. That's the way to do it. At the time I had, we had a dog. My daughter was like.

Like two one, something like that. And we were living in their [01:09:00] basement. And then every night I, my husband would take the train to Linda. He works in Queens and I would go do inspections and then go to the house cause I made sure it was the first thing after we closed. I got internet at the house and so I could work, right?

Didn't want to be, I want to be able to do reports, all that. And and we would be there every day for nine months until one o'clock in the morning cause he would come. He tried to do as much work as he could himself. And he did, I mean, he did a great job and I have a whole beautiful kitchen because my husband and my father in law too.

Yeah. Leveraging that family. So, my house is literally brand new. Like, every, we gutted everything. That's good. Yeah. Wow. But it wouldn't have been possible without. So, it's a great, you have, it depends on the buyer, what they're walking in, the mentality that they're having. Right. Or they, if you have a buyer that tells you, hey, this house is the top of my budget.

And I can't do, I have no money left to do any type of work, and this house comes back with a huge [01:10:00] foundation issue. Yeah, they're walking away. They're walking away, because that house is not for 

Bisendra: them. It's not. And that's the thing with buyers, they don't have the stomach for it. Yeah. You know, they want everything pristine, ready to roll.

They just want to come in with their Unrealistic expectations. They want to come in with their swatches, which is fine, right? If that's what you want and your budget allows for it. Right? They don't want to, you know, they come in with their swatches and they're like No, seriously. Yeah. They come in with swatches.

Yeah, no, I believe it. I actually had a buyer walk into an open house of mine with a little paint sample can. And 

Jason Kleiger: she opened it. Oh, no. No, she didn't. 

Bisendra: Thankfully, the agent that was assisting me that day was like, Bissandra! I was like, do not call my name unless something is catastrophic. It was warranted.

This consumer. Consumer. I don't know who saw this one because it, it, it gets me going. Literally was about to paint her paint color on the wall to see 

Jason Kleiger: what it would look like. Well, was it her house? Like, was it the house for her?[01:11:00] 

Bisendra: So 

Jason Kleiger: if you could, but did the paint job work? Does that, did she, did she finally go with that paint? So the 

Bisendra: icing on the cake of this story is that buyer was represented by an agent who was present at the open house with her and stood there and watched her. Why open the pain can And she didn't stop her?

No. So I turned to the agent, not the consumer, and I said, I said, excuse me. I said, is this your buyer? And they said, yeah. I was like, do you not see anything wrong here? Oh, she just wants to see what her paint's gonna look like. It's so inappropriate. Yeah. Oh, but, oh, she just wants to see before she makes an offer.

I said, no, no, no, no, no. No. That's not how this process works. Please do not. No, no, no, no. Were they a new agent? No. No. Like experience? How 

Brigitte Malik: many transactions did they 

Bisendra: do a year? Oh, I don't know, I'm not even checking because they were asked to leave. 

Jason Kleiger: Imagine like, you're just putting it out there as like a feeler, your house.

And you come back after the open house and you just see like random paint splashes on your I'd be 

Bisendra: pissed. 

Brigitte Malik: [01:12:00] Oh man. I'd be like, I'd be to my agent I'd 

Bisendra: be like, Bissandra My agent would unfortunately get I'd be like, Bissandra It would've never happened. It would've never happened because I always have Because if it's multi floored, I always have another agent on the floor.

And I have one person manning the door. And, you know, we make sure that everyone gets an equal opportunity to see the areas that they want to see. Do not come in trying to And she's lucky she didn't get tackled, because if that paint would have got close to the wall, I would have 

Jason Kleiger: tackled it. But if she got tackled, then the paint would have fell on the floor.

Bisendra: Okay, Mr. Davis. 

Jason Kleiger: You're right, you're right. It was hardwood floors? 

Bisendra: No, it was hardwood. But I was not letting it happen. Because I have to protect my seller. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, I would have been pissed as a seller if that happened. Oh, yeah. So unfortunately, my agent would be hearing. She saw the whole 

Bisendra: thing. 

Jason Kleiger: The seller? Ring cameras?

Bisendra: No, so one of the services that I offer for open houses that I live stream. That's a 

Brigitte Malik: very [01:13:00] unique 

Bisendra: Yeah, cause I don't want, I don't want them present during the show. 

Jason Kleiger: I've never heard of that. 

Bisendra: That's a 

Brigitte Malik: very unique selling point. I like that. 

Bisendra: Because you want to feel secure. Yeah. And I want to make you feel secure.

And I want, right? So, she saw the whole thing, she's like, Oh my god, that lady almost ruined my house. I said, yes she did. But, she's like, the way you reacted so quickly, I was like, yeah. She's like, I didn't think you were going to have four other agents. I'm like, yeah. I'm 

Brigitte Malik: here to protect you. I mean, look, I've done inspections where we go in and the agent's like, please, can you take off your shoes?

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, sure. No problem. And I've had, while I'm there, the buyer's father or father in law, whoever it is, start cursing up a storm. I'm not taking it off my freaking shoes. And they're like, well, then we can't let you in. And they're like, why? I'm, my daughter's buying this. Why can't I come in?

And you haven't bought it yet. It's not your rules, [01:14:00] it's the seller's rules. And if they have kids, maybe they have somebody who's sick. Like, I don't like shoes in my house. As soon as you walk into my house, I'm like, take off your shoes. I say it nicely, but But if you take off your 

Jason Kleiger: shoes Depending on who you are.

If you take off your shoes, and then you have to go to the basement, or the attic Or, you know, so what happens there? I 

Brigitte Malik: take my shoes, and if the basement's unfinished and it's dirty, I'll take my shoes. Or at the backyard. Now I have to just adjust myself because I have to respect the space. Just like I want people to respect my space.

And 

Bisendra: also 

Jason Kleiger: it's a religious thing for some people that they take their shoes off. It is, it is a 

Bisendra: respect thing. But usually that's a question that I ask to someone. What's 

Brigitte Malik: funny is he actually said that. He goes, is it a religious thing? What are the, I forget, he's actually mentioned which is actually totally against fair housing.

Which is a 

Jason Kleiger: whole nother conversation. Was he an agent? No, 

Bisendra: but technically he was supposed to like It's a respect thing. And it's a question that I ask, like, do you prefer Do you have a preference to shoes in your house during showings? If [01:15:00] they say yes And I, you know, it, it's their home, they can say whatever they want to, and I asked them, would, is it okay if I have them wear booties?

Yeah, I'd be fine with booties. A lot of times they say yes, because they just don't want the outside 

Jason Kleiger: coming. Well, that was, that was my house at COVID you know, at the open house, you know, 

Brigitte Malik: how to wear a booties. Yeah, everybody, we were wearing booties, masks, like, it's a very 

Bisendra: small thing. Gloves, gloves were dumb.

Oh, I didn't understand that. Yeah, definitely. 

Brigitte Malik: Gloves were like, no, please wear gloves too. 

Bisendra: Yeah, so booties normally is okay, you know, so, and then you just throw them away. So, after the inspection is done and the report gets sent, you guys are available. 

Brigitte Malik: Yeah, we don't disappear. Okay, that's great. If your company disappears, there's a problem.

Jason Kleiger: Yeah, that, that's, 

Brigitte Malik: that's fantastic. We may not, like if you call our office. Like, I get, you can ask the office, I get super crazy in the office. That phone's 

Bisendra: ringing! Hey office, does the phone go crazy? Yes. 

Brigitte Malik: [01:16:00] And, you know, but we have a whole system. I just, I like the thing, like My thing is I'm big on customer service.

I think because back in the day I came from customer service So like when I call somewhere I want to be answered Right, and if we miss it, we do have like a voicemail. We have like an auto text that goes out We're sorry. We miss your call and the office comes back calls back very quickly. We get it like an alert So we'll call back and yeah, you know, what is your question?

How can we help you? Whatever your concern is. Oh, I have a question in the kitchen. Can can you answer it for me? You know, I may not be able to answer it, but I can get the inspector to give you a call. He's at an inspection right now and we'll give him a call. We'll, we'll reach out to him. He'll call you later on tonight when he's done with inspections and go over it.

And that's 

Jason Kleiger: it. That's, that's big. 

Bisendra: It is. We don't disappear. Follow up is 

Brigitte Malik: key. Yeah. To the whole thing. Yeah. I think people just want that open communication sometimes and I, we try to stress it to them. That's why we, we contact them so many times after the inspection [01:17:00] and then we have auto emails that go out to like, if there's any questions, please let us know.

Do you need a final walkthrough? We have a whole separate email on that. No, that's, that's big too. Oh yeah. Because I don't know. I highly recommend that. The more we tell them, the less liabilities on us. And everybody else because now they can't come back and say, well, you didn't tell me. Well, wait a sec.

We sent you all these things to tell you we could do this. At the end of the day, you are your own person. So what's funny 

Bisendra: is pro tip of the day. I always tell my buyers when you do a final walkthrough, if at a minimum, right, because sometimes there's an additional fee required for the home inspector. So I tell them, bring the photos or the report with you from your inspection.

They're like, why? Because those are the most Recent photos that you have of when everything was there. And 

Brigitte Malik: if you have a repair rider, please tell us ahead of time. Right. Because the final watcher was not a home 

Bisendra: inspection. It's not. It's [01:18:00] just we're looking for things that are abnormal, that 

Brigitte Malik: wasn't there at the time.

And we're checking heating, make sure the heat still kicks on. Yep. 

Jason Kleiger: And like, you know, talking about the repair rider, you just said you would do this, let's see if they did it. Let's check it. You know, and they said they would repair this, okay. They take it for granted. It's still leaking. 

Bisendra: Yeah, they take it for granted.

But at the closing table, they're not going to take the consumer's word for it. They're going to take the professional's word for it. So if you take the inspector, you, whatever the nominal fee would be, I don't know. I don't get involved in that. It's 

Brigitte Malik: not much. It's like less than 200 bucks. 

Bisendra: Okay. Oh, 

Jason Kleiger: it's totally worth it.

It's 

Bisendra: totally worth it. It's worth it then. Wow. Yeah, yeah. So you 

Brigitte Malik: have your professional going to pay for the inspector's time to get out. Yeah, right. 

Bisendra: Wow. Yeah. So it's definitely worth it. And then you, you verify that all this stuff's done on the rider, and you go to closing 

Jason Kleiger: and, and, and think about it, you know, when you do your final walkthrough, you're gonna closing in a couple hours.

Yeah. Or the next morning. The next morning, yeah. Relatively quick. Yeah. So you're like, you don't care. You're very excited or, or anxious or nervous. You know, you, you gotta get all these checks, these bank checks, all the lawyers are gonna be there. You're gonna sign all the, the loan docs and, Mm-Hmm. , [01:19:00] you know, sometimes.

I don't think I slept 

Brigitte Malik: the night before closing. 

Bisendra: Yeah, 

Jason Kleiger: so like, I 

Bisendra: sleep really good after closing. Oh, yeah. I'm sure you do. The 

Brigitte Malik: night before, I was like so nervous. 

Jason Kleiger: But it's so easy, like, just as like a regular Joe Schmo to just like overlook things. Especially if you had a repair writer saying this person was going to fix in the first place.

Yeah, you have the butterflies. You have the jitters. So having another person there, especially a professional, Yeah. You know, it's just, That's solely there for your benefit. Oh, yeah. Solely there for your benefit. And like I said, you know, it's an investment that, you know, you're going to be, Chances are, if you, well, you know, if you're buying all cash, great, good for you, but you're going to be paying for this thing for 30 years unless you accelerate your payments.

And, you know, so it's a huge investment. And, and why should you not spend a little bit more just to have that reassurance and, and to make sure that you're not forgetting something and to have a professional there to see that things were done, and see that things were done properly. 

Brigitte Malik: And, you know what, my thing is, You know, we've, as an inspection company, we do the [01:20:00] home inspection, do the final walk through.

We've had clients call us at the closing table. Like, yeah, because they're just nervous and they feel like we're the only people on their side. Because now you have to close the door. You know, well, I'll tell you why. And it's actually, sometimes when it comes down to the agent, because they say they don't trust their agent.

So there's also You know, present company excluded. Yeah. 

Bisendra: Yeah. I mean, no, no, I'm not even actually, if you're sitting across the table from me, you better not trust me because I'm coming for you. 

Brigitte Malik: It's just, I think it's also just the relationship with some people in the industry changes with their buyer at some point.

And, and if your buyer feels like that, something has gone really wrong. Cause we shouldn't really be the one that they're talking to. At a closing table. At a closing table. 

Bisendra: No offense, but. No, no, no, no. It really isn't. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of feel some type of way about that. We'll address that in a later 

Brigitte Malik: podcast.

It doesn't happen often. I think we've had it happen five times. Yeah. Out of the thousands of 

Bisendra: and I don't foresee it happening, but, and it's totally off topic, but that goes into agency [01:21:00] where, you know, buyers don't normally know. They need to question who their agent truly represents and we'll get into that because that's well that just changed Yeah, 

Brigitte Malik: it just changed.

It's a whole 

Bisendra: nother conversation It's like a whole nother thing and it's not gonna be a lot of 

Jason Kleiger: happy people and pcda changed too Which is a whole yeah that 

Bisendra: well that changed a few weeks ago, 

Jason Kleiger: right? That's changing in March, I think. 

Bisendra: March, March, March. Oh, we got lots of stuff going on. Yeah, yeah, we'll bring Bridget back.

So thanks for joining us, Bridget. This was a lot of fun. This was great. For anyone listening we have all the show notes in the description. Bridget was kind enough to offer a home inspection cheat sheet as a PDF. So be sure to go in there and check it out. And maybe some other goodies that she decided to offer you guys will be in there, too.

And we'll see you on the next one. Thanks, Bridget. Do you have you want to let us know any of your social handles where people, if they have any questions, they want to reach out to you. Or a phone number 

Brigitte Malik: feel free. Yeah, absolutely. So our office number is 516 [01:22:00] 591 3262. My personal cell phone number.

Oh, yeah. Whoa. You know what, I just feel like sometimes it's better just to get it over with. It's 347 525 3501. You can call me, text me. If I, you know, we're, we're, we're the inspection boys. We cover everywhere from Westchester all the way out to Montauk. So we're just sometimes Florida, right? We have Florida locations too.

Yeah. And if 

Bisendra: someone was outside of the New York and Florida, can you 

Brigitte Malik: recommend? Yeah. So we're in New Jersey. We're in Kansas city, Charleston, and we have some big news coming in a few months too. So I 

Bisendra: look forward to that. Thanks Bridget. Mr. Mr. Clagger. 

Jason Kleiger: Yes. Always a pleasure, my friend. Thank you, Bisendra and 

Bisendra: Bridget.

Brigitte Malik: Thank you, 

Bisendra: guys. It was fun. It was fun. We'll see you on the next one.