Realty World – Friend & Associates

Getting Inspections
When you are buying a home, it is vital to get your home inspected. Inspections can uncover flaws in the home or hidden hazards that can cost you thousands of dollars later on, and be a safety hazard for your family.
In the beginning of a real estate purchase transaction, you, as the Buyer, are given a contingency period.  This time period is negotiable with the Seller and varies from 7 to 17 days in length.  During this time it is your job to inspect the home.
Most home buyers do not have the expertise to see any hidden defects.  It is crucial to have a competent licensed professional conduct the various inspections on a home.
Most buyers are smart to get, at least:
a termite inspection to check for termites and water or fungus damage;
and a property inspection to inspect all  the major systems of the home such as plumbing, electrical, foundation, chimney, roof.
It is also a good idea to have a roof inspection conducted, and, if the house has a fireplace, get a chimney inspection as well.
There are also inspections available for lead-based paint, mold, foundation, swimming pools and more.
A good realtor will go over these inspections with you and help you understand the purpose of each one.
Inspections are always smart even if the house is new or has been remodeled, and especially if you are buying the house in its existing “as-is” condition.
Inspections will cost you some money up front, but can save you thousands of dollars in future repairs.
And remember; always choose a high quality inspector.  Not all inspectors are the same. It is smarter to spend an extra $150 or $200 to have a good thorough inspection.  A cheap inspection report can often miss hidden defects that a good inspector will discover.
For more information about buying a home, give us a call at 408 684 4469.
Related articles

Home inspection tips before deciding to buy a house (holidayhometimes.com)

4 Reasons Why You Should Get A Property Inspection Before You List Your Home (blogher.com)

So today it was announced that the “Super Committee”- a team made up of equal members of the House and from the Senate and equal in Democrats and Republicans- isn’t going to resolve anything about our nation’s debt by the Thanksgiving deadline.
Hey!…There’s a surprise! Our legislators have dropped the ball again.
I think Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich probably summed it up best:
” I think this super committee is about as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime. I used to run the House of Representatives. I have some general notion of these things. The idea that 523 senators and congressmen are going to sit around for four months while 12 brilliant people, mostly picked for political reasons, are going to sit in some room and brilliantly come up with a trillion dollars, or force us to choose between gutting our military and accepting a tax increase, is irrational. They’re going to walk in just before Thanksgiving and say, ‘All right, we can shoot you in the head or cut off your right leg, which do you prefer?’ What they ought to do is scrap the committee right now, recognize it’s a dumb idea, go back to regular legislative business, assign every subcommittee the task of finding savings. Do it out in the open through regular legislative order and get rid of this secret phony business”
I can’t claim to know a lot about Gingrich’s political platform, in fact I know nothing about his platform, but I can agree with this statement.
While the world is watching…we…the greatest country on this earth, show the rest of the world how impotent our government has become.
And…to a large degree we, the American people have reaped the seeds of our own apathy.  We’ve actually allowed these clowns to be elected!
I know many of these issues are complicated and I’m looking at it from a very limited viewpoint.
But I’m tired of just talking about it.  From now on I’m going to actually look at the senate and congressional records and see who votes what on the issues.  I want to KNOW who is doing and saying the things that affect my life, my livelihood and my security.  I think that I have sat around and complained too much and looked too little.
I’ll bet that if every member of our government knew people actually LOOKED at their production, they might do a better job.  And those of you that have looked, and made the noise, and pointed things out in order to get the rest of us to take notice…I salute you.
Related articles

Why the Super Committee is Super Illegitimate (alternet.org)

Gingrich: Super Committee Failure ‘Good for America’ (newser.com)

Super committee about to fail: Is it Obama’s fault? (csmonitor.com)

Breaking: Super Committee declares defeat (hotair.com)