I don't think the A/C will work! What was your first clue Sherlock? I have client's from time to time tell me things about the home that in some cases "speechless". At Desert Sun Home Inspections In Carlsbad, New Mexico. This was a very early home inspection in Roswell new Mexico. On site at 7:00 A.M. The buyer needed to leave for the airport in Albuquerque. We really don't need comments from the Realtor who wants the home to sell very quickly. The Realtor followed me around for the whole inspection. I was taking notes and pictures to back up what I was going to put into the report. It would seem when ever I would find an issue, the Realtor would simply say "That's not really an issue. It's a quick fix". I said, "Then I'm sure it's a free fix right"? The Realtor responded "Not free, but... 06/18/2013

Desert Sun Home Inspections is ramping it up. Larger and better signs. Desert Sun Home Inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico is always looking for the next big thing that could propel the inspection business forward. I was in Artesia one day when I saw a truck that had some signs on it. They were really cool looking, so I asked the man driving the truck when he got out of it, "Where did you get those signs"? He said he has a graphics company in Roswell and was just coming back from delivering signs to a trucking company in Loco Hills New Mexico. So I got a card and called him to order a couple of signss for my truck. Not all that happy with the ones OI have on the truck to date. They did'nt say "Home Inspections" anywhere.  So I ordered these two signs for the truck that I really wanted t... 06/15/2013

Home listed as upgraded electrical. Not quite. They have work to do. When inspecting homes for Desert Sun Home inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I get calls from buyers who want a home inspection to make sure the upgrades are what they are touted in the listings. In many cases they are. But in some cases, the sellers were mis informed as to the total completion of an up grade to the home. In this case it was the electrical that was supposed to be upograded completly. I am here to tell the buyers the home still has a lot of issues related to the electrical upgrades. Let's start outside where all the upgrading began. The upgrades are in plain sight and easy to see. So these are right. Here we have the upgraded electrical service and main panel. Every thing looks great. Here we have the... 06/08/2013

Home inspectors in Roswell New Mexico. Desert Sun Home Inspections. In Roswell New Mexico, you do have a choice when it comes to getting the best home inspection possible.   You can Call Desert Sun Home inspections in Carlsbad New Mexico.   Call Clint at 1-575-706-5586   Insist on the best home inspection available today.       Did you know as a buyer, you do have the right to request an inspection from the company of your choice. You do not have to go with the Realtors "Choice of inspector".   You have the right to check out who will give you the best home inspection possible.   With Over Four Thousand home inspections completed.   Desert Sun Home Inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico has the experience to get the home inspection completed on time every time.   We provide a full range of... 06/03/2013

When Weatherizing a home. Do it the right way. Not half way. Artesia New Mexico inspection. At Desert Sun Home inspections and energy Audits in Carlsbad, New Mexico We always find homes that had been weatherized by the local power company. Many people use this service. Many people reap the rewards of this service. But with that said there are guidelines when it comes to weatherizing a home. I don't know if the guidelines are from the State of New Mexico or if they are from the Federal weatherization field manual. In any case there is something wrong. With having performed several thousand weatherization pre and post inspections I have come to find that if there is not immediate supervision, with a follow up post inspection. There are things that should have been completed that were not ... 05/26/2013

Home inspection electrical nightmare. What's next for the sellers? I get calls for home inspections forDesert Sun Home Inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico all the time. But I am lucky I guess to not find these issues in homes I had been inspecting in the past. I used to find a lot of these issues back many years ago. But most homes had been upgraded by now and are in a lot better shape when it comes to the electrical systems within the home. Home Stat's Built 1910 Square footage 1,650 Corner lot Incoming amperage to home 60 amps Type of electrical system Knob and tube with fuses, buss and bar Upgrades none, but a couple small additional added fuse boxes. Let's take a look at what I saw when I arrived at the home for the inspection. Here is the 60 amp weather head for the incoming supply... 04/22/2013

Fresh paint? Is it a giveaway? Flippers behaving badly this time. At Desert Sun Home Inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We get to see all kinds of homes. Good ones and not so good ones. Homes that may seem a buyers dream are not what they seeem in many cases. When I enter a home that has been flipped. I don't even know it till I get a good look at the homes interior. Then i can tell by inspecting the home. In a lot of cases the homes "flippers" tend to cut a few corners in order to save money. I think it's all abut them thinking the home looks good so there will not be a home inspection. WRONG. Do the job right the first time and there will not be any issues after the home inspection takes place. In this case the fresh paint was a dead giveaway. Then i entered the attic after noticing... 04/21/2013

Some home owners just don't get it. Dryer vents in the crawl space. When out and about performing home inspections for buyers. I find all kinds of "odd things". Some are really funny on what the owners were thinking when they were working on their homes. This time it was not funny at all and could end up being a deadly situation. Desert Sun Home Inspections wants to bring you the best home inspection when buying a home in South East New Mexico. With safety being paramount, we keep this in mind when inspecting. With that said I noticed when inspecting a home that there was not a dryer vent hood on the exterior of the home when I was inspecting the exterior of the home. This means only Three things. 1. Either the home has no Utility room with a dryer 2. Or the dryer vent had been ran to t... 04/05/2013

FPE panels and the dreaded fix. Time to upgrade the home. I have posted before about the dreaded Federal Pacific electrical panels being in homes I inspect for Desert Sun Home inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I don't find this many of them here in Carlsbad, but I do find quite a few of them in Artesia, New Mexico. I really don't like finding these panels. They have been a sore spot for not only the inspector of the homes but for the buyers and the sellers. Here we have a Federal Pacific electrical panel in a home that is up for sale. Wording of the electrical panel and it's components is critical when including it in your reports. This panel has two double taps. Not good when the panel is already in questionable shape. Here we see where the home owners has been working on the panel.... 03/28/2013

Medusa is back. Vines take over. Time to clean up. I had a post a while back about the townhome I inspected for Desert Sun Home Inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico I was thinking I had been here before. But this home was in the same line of town homes that I had inspected in the past. I generally do a street sweep for the address, this makes sure I had not inspected the home in the last 60-90 days. I had not been to this address yet. So we were good to inspect the home. This home had a electrical mast for an overhead electrical service that was just covered in vines. This was an electrical hazard and a fire waiting to happen. This is simply unacceptable by the inspector and the buyer. There are simply too many things that can go wrong with this mess. The vines had been cut, but another ... 03/17/2013

Has anyone ever seen a "naked A coil"? Pictures don't lie. Next step. On this home inspection it was a typical home inspection. For Desert Sun home inspections I just never know what I will find when inspecting homes. I had made it to inspecting the furnace  and the air conditioning "A Coil" when there it was or there it was'nt. The "A coil" was there but that was it. Sitting tall on top of the furnace like a Sphinx. What in the world I though as I tried to get a better look. The front cover or door was there with the filter in place, but there was no shroud around the "A coil" sitting on top. This is an down draft electric furnace with the A Coil sitting right there on top with no protection at all. I pointed this out to the buyer and the seller was quick to say they would have this ta... 03/10/2013

After the inspection the electrician said the home was fine. What? The seller wanted a second opinion. That was fine with me. I don't want to miss anything as I perform home inspections in and around Carlsbad New Mexico. The seller said there was nothing wrong ith the electrical condition of the home. So they called in a licensed electrician to inspect the home for any thing they could find. After the electrical inspection their inspector told them all was fine and there were no issues with the home. Is this guy for real? Where did he get his license from? I'm hoping he is really a licensed electrician with the state of New Mexico. Let's see what I found when Inspection this home. First oof there is a hanging connection for the Range. It is not attached to the wall like it should be for... 03/04/2013

Just because it looks good it may not be. Inspection in Carlsbad, N.M. As a home inspector and owner of Desert Sun Home inspections in Carlsbad New Mexico, I see all kinds of things that are not right with a homes working day to day operations. How often do you think of the dryer vent? Probably not very often at all. Once the dryer vent has been installed probably when the home was new or upgraded. It's an out of sight out of mind kind of thing. In this first shot we see a dryer vent that looks like it is working and doing the job as intended. But when we look into the vent we see the vent is in really bad shape. This can cause a fire within the homes venting system not to mention a fire in the dryer. The interior view of the dryer vent seems to be a picture from the Carlsbad Caverns. N... 03/02/2013

Touted as a "GREEN HOME" but they forgot to add something. Not good. This home is touted as a Green Home. This means the home was remodeled to meet the GREEN definition for energy conservation. At Desert Sun Home Inspections and Energy Audits in Carlsbad New Mexico, I see this all the time. There is a criteria you need to follow. I think this flipper just wanted to add it to the wording of the home's marketing. This way the home would seem more appealing to the general public as an energy efficient home. In this case, it was not the case. There are a few things that the flipper needs to do to meet the Green home status symbol. Lets take a quick look at the attic where energy loss is at the highest for a home. There is a lot of "missing insulation" in this attic. Too much to not notice h... 02/28/2013

Home inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico. A fireplace worth mentioning. At Desert Sun home inspections in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We serve three counties. Eddy, Lea and Chaves counties here in Southeast New Mexico. I get calls and e-mails from all three of these counties for home inspections. It's not uncommon for a Realtor to call and say I did'nt know you even existed. Really? I had sent you a E-Mail with my information. I had stopped in your office and had a meeting with your broker. "Short of having a Realtor luncheon, how do you know I don't exist?" In this home inspection I found a fire place that was worthy of memtioning for the Active Rain members. How many times have we seen a fire place that was out of commission? Too many I say. In this shot we see a fire place that had been sh... 02/25/2013

When homes are right. It makes my job easy. When homes are the way they are supposed to be, it makes my job as an inspector a lot easier. Many times I end up finding all kinds of issues with homes and this creates a lot of problems for the sellers and the buyers. In this case it was not the case. I did find an issue but nothing that would or could be considered a "deal killer". The home had a new lifetime roof just Two years ago. A new Heat pump had just been installed just Two days before the inspection and the homes interior had been remodeled over the last three years. This town house was a very good home. Here was the only issue I had found during the inspection. Not much at all for this buyer or seller. I don't get to see this very often. Have a great day every one. 02/03/2013

Why do sellers do or don't do this? If your selling be prepared. At Desert Sun Home Inspections in Carlsbad New Mexico, we try very hard to give the best inspection possible for the buyers or sellers. When the sellers are ready to sell the home, why don't they prep the home for sale. I mean really? There are issues with homes that are so easily fixable. Why leave these things for the buyers to see and more worse, the inspector to find. Did you know that there is a high number of sellers who think the home "IS NOT" going to be inspected by a certified inspector. Here is what you don't want to see as a buyer in a home.   I have talked to a number of sellers and this is what they were thinking when they listed the home. The Realtor who LISTS the home needs to inform the seller as to what t... 01/31/2013

Anyone up for a little retro? This is really cool. I inspect a lot of homes and when  get the chance to inspect a home built in 1950 I jump at the chance. Hoping there will be some great things to see in the home while inspecting. The best part...I get to take pictures and share them with my Active Rain family. Here is a look at this Retro Range. When I first saw the unit I was looking at it wondering what the heck it was. Here is a shot of the range when I first saw the unit. This retro rang had three ovens and four burners. Now all I had to do is learn how to open the dang thing. And then I did. And the Range did perform well. The only thing missing was dinner. :-) Have a good night everyone.     01/28/2013

We forgot that. We missed that. And the list goes on. On a brand new home inspection, you would think that there would be very few things to find when inspecting for the buyers. Not so in this case. Desert Sun Home Inspections has a challenging time when inspecting a newly constructed home. Many times there is no one there to answer all the questions about the home. In this case the actual builder was there. I would ask a question about an "issue" and he would say "We missed that" or he would say We forgot that". When building a new home, you cannot do just that. Miss things or forget things. Here are two examples of why you don't just miss things or forget things. Here we have a missing dryer vent hood. i did find the hood inside by the water heater. It was broken and in disrepair. I t... 01/17/2013

  Do Inspectors get complacent? Over time many do.   When local building inspectors like construction, mechanical, plumbing and electrical inspectors are on the job many for a long time, they do get somewhat “complacent”in their inspecting duties. I was at a home inspection last evening and found several things not right. These are now “issues“in my report for the buyer. There was the builder there the owner of the company that built the home. He told me that I was the third inspector to be at the home today. I asked who all was there and he told me he got a final on the electrical, the building, plumbing and mechanical permits. Lets take a look and see what was found after I was at the home. First we look at the attic for any thing that is not “right”. Here we have a open junction box ... 01/14/2013