Mark's Blog

8. Renew damaged baseboards.Beat-up baseboards detract greatly from the appearance of your home, and they're easy to spiff up.   First, clean them to remove scrapes and smudges left by clawing pets and toddlers on wheels. Fill in dents with spackle, sand the baseboards smooth and repaint them. If...

6. Reseal the toilet.Not all flooring installers will remove and reinstall the toilet, something that must be done to replace the floor. Pulling the toilet yourself can save you money. With plumbers' fees running about $85 an hour (with a minimum hour and a half charge for a house call), you coul...

3. Clear and caulk gutters.On a dry day, climb up on a ladder and clear all the debris out of the gutters so water can flow freely. While you're up there, re-caulk the gutter end caps. Seamless gutters are finished at the ends with a cap that's crimped and caulked. Aging caulk allows leaks to dra...

When you put a home up for sale these days, you're facing stiff competition. In most parts of the country, buyers are faced with huge numbers of homes for sale. Before asking strangers to trade hundreds of thousands of their hard-earned dollars for your little palace, make all the little repairs ...

As some of you who know me are aware I do a lot of extra training for my own knowledge and to help me better understand buildings. So with that in mind as I was inspecting a nice house a couple weeks ago with what appeared to be synthetic stucco my mind began again as it sometimes does. Mark it s...

Category Inspection Description Tenant Contact Make every effort to communicate with tenants. Note who was spoken to and any service level comments made. Also note any actions taken or planned as a result of the discussions Cleanliness When inspecting properties, note all deficiencies relating t...

We are now offering a new service to the Upstate if anyone is interested. This we be part one of a multi part post. Our new service is a commercial warranty inspection for commercial property owners that lease out office space or retail space in any building they own. This service is to check to ...

 Hello all. Just a quick FYI about the upstate South Carolina area. And looking for your thoughts?????  Just thought you should know I attended the greenville SC local NACHI meeting tonight and was informed that (XXXXXX-XXXXXXXX) Realty group was going to begin charging inspectors from $300.00 ~ ...

As some of you know we in the south eastern part of the country have been in a drought situation. Some other areas are as well and most areas of the country experience this as well at different times. So you should know that the real concern about water quality when a drought has been broken or r...

Reasons to Test Your Water The chart below will help you spot problems. The last five problems listed are not an immediate health concern, but they can make your water taste bad, may indicate problems, and could affect your well long term.Conditions or Nearby Activities:Test for:Recurring gastro-...