Are You Getting What You Paid For? | Tips for Property Inspection | Tim Hubbard

This week we're talking about physical inspections. I just got back from visiting seven different cities in the US In a really, really quick trip and I did several inspections. So I want to give you my tips for meeting with inspectors and just going through the whole process. Let's jump right in. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. We'll discuss investing in real estate, but with a specific focus on short term rentals. Quick actionable items to acquire, manage and scale your portfol. I'm your host, Tim Hubbard. Welcome back to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. I'm really excited you're here again. Thanks for joining us. I just got back from a.

Kind of hectic trip in the US I would say I was in seven different cities in a little less than three weeks. So I was running around quite a bit. I think I was in 12 different airports. So it was a bit hectic. But a big part of that trip was looking for new properties. And I found some that I'm in contract for and also inspected some that I decided to pass on. And during that process I met with some inspectors. So I want to tell you about that. I gotta say, it was really nice to be back in the US So many good friends and spread out all over the place. US is really, really spread out, isn't it? It's very big. It was good to see family. I am back here in Brazil now and on my way back I found this was interesting. Then I'll just get right into it. It was the first time in an airport that I didn't have to show a boarding pass. They just scanned my face and it was super fast. It was super fast. I mean, less than a, like seemed like a millisecond. And it recognized me and said Timothy Hubbard.

So I feel like we're in the future a little bit. So anyhow. All right, enough with my tangent and backstory.

I viewed quite a few properties and I wanted to get into.

How I go about doing inspection. First of all, hopefully you're doing inspections now. It's a very competitive market out there. There are times where people are putting as IS offers in and that is an which basically says you're going to take the property as is. So unless your offer wasn't like that, if you had a normal offer that wasn't as is, then you're going to be doing inspections. And actually either way, I would still be doing inspections because you want to know what you're getting into, right? If you did make an as is offer, you've got to be prepared to Pony up a lot of money if something was wrong. And inspections are the way that we find out what's wrong with the property. So there's a lot of different types. The normal home inspection is what most everyone does, but there are other inspections, too, and I'll mention those briefly. So in your normal home inspection, do you meet the inspector there? I like to. I just happened to find this apartment building. It's actually eight units in Oklahoma City, where I already have properties. And I was in Dallas, which was nearby. So I drove there. It was like three hours away. And it just happened like I was only in Dallas for a day. So it really worked out well. Now I don't think you have to be there to see inspections as long as. As long as you have someone that you really, really trust there. So had I not been able to go there, I do have someone that I really trust there, and that would be okay for me to do it remotely in that city. Now, if I didn't know anyone, I would want to dig a little deeper and preferably be there in person. So since I was able to. To be there in person, it reminded me of some of the things that I used to do. Walking the units. First of all, I like to see all the units. Now, if it's a single family home, there's only going to be one unit, right? But multifamily one. This one had eight apartments. I went into every single unit. The bigger you get with apartment buildings, the more units there are, the better the chances are that someone doesn't want to show you the worst units. Really, if they're showing you five out of eight, well, the other three can be Ben. So you want to check out everything, not just the units that are available now. Sometimes when you go in these units, there's tenants in there, and that can be a little awkward, right? You're like, in their personal space, they have food in the kitchen, they have their beds and stuff, like in their bedrooms, and they've got all their stuff there. And you want to see all the space right Now, I wasn't lifting covers or doing anything like that. And actually, I got there after the inspector had already left. So I met with my property manager. We walked the units together, and she pointed out the things and that she saw when she was with the property inspector. So we did walk through all the units. It was very quick, it was very brief, but it can be a little awkward. But you want to know a really good trick? If you have a tenant in there, they are a fantastic source of Information, an untapped resource that I don't see a lot of people talking to when they're considering a property. So for example, there was one unit that had a tenant that lived there for 10 years. 10 years. Now that is a lot of history. And so simply asked her some questions. How have you liked living here? You know, and you want to be polite and not intrude their space. If they don't want to talk, you can kind of get that vibe and you can leave. But this tenant was very friendly and open. So I talked with her as long as I could and found out about the property. If there were any major issues or anything that had happened in there that you'd want to know about. She had good things to say about the property. There were a few things that we already knew about, like some basement leaks, for example. And so I asked her about those. Has it been flooding in the basement recently? You know, the roof was replaced. Have you noticed any roof leaks going in? So this property was in great shape. I think it's really cool. I hope it goes through. These things take a little longer, especially with the commercial, commercial properties. But we'll see how it goes. And I'm excited to add it to the portfolio. It isn't an area that requires a short term rental permit, so that's something I'm going to have to apply for. But if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that I like to purchase properties that make sense with long term rentals as well. And this one does. It's cash flowing with long term tenants. So worst comes worse. I can do month long stays or I can rent it as a long term rental. So I don't see any issue getting the permit. But you know, just a quick note on that. So another reason to do your inspections, right? You want to know what you're paying for. There was another property that I was looking for in the same area. I never saw this one personally in person, but the description said gutted to the studs, full renovation. And then when my property manager walked through the property for me, she said this property was not gutted to the studs. You could tell it had old plaster walls as historic property as well. So one of the reasons for doing your inspections is making sure you're getting what you're paying for. And if you don't do the inspections well, then you also don't have that negotiating power right now if your offer was as is, which some of the offers, a lot of the offers these days are because it's just so competitive. But if it's not, and I would not recommend doing an as is offer unless you've got a lot of experience in real estate or you have a huge budget, you're prepared to take on expenses that you might not know are there. So I wouldn't recommend doing as is. I didn't do it on this object. And one of the things that doing these inspections gives me is negotiating power. Now, we did a termite inspection, we did a sewer inspection where we actually have the video cameras go down the drain lines. And we did find one of the two drains was blocked. So that's something we're going to talk to the current sellers about and negotiate on. We found a little bit of termite damage. That was another inspection we did. So we did a general home inspection where we went through all the units. We did a termite inspection, we did a, a drain sewer line inspection. And I'm going to have another roof inspection done as well because the home inspectors were not able to get up there. You may find that that's common with home inspectors. If you're at all concerned about the roof or if it's a large building where it might be a really large expense, you might want to consider getting a roof inspection as well. So all of these things help you to negotiate on the property. Now you might be thinking, well, this market's crazy. There is no room for negotiation. But just remember, if you uncover some issue with the property and you disclose that to the seller, which you definitely will if the deal doesn't go through with you, well, they have to disclose that to the next buyer in their disclosures. If it's a big issue, just remember that it's much better to bring it to the surface and negotiate. And hopefully after doing all those inspections, you can verify that you're getting what you paid for. I hope you guys are doing really well out there and hopefully you're finding some properties out there in this market. They are out there. This one was listed publicly, so there are properties out there. Keep at it. I hope you're enjoying the podcast and until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day. Ciao. If you're looking for a ton of free resources, well, you can check out the links in the show notes or head to our website, restmethods.com where you'll find free guides, house rules, and my ebook on finding the best short term rental properties. Thanks for tuning in.