Mark Cosentino doesn’t like surprises. So when he bought a home in Oak Lawn two years ago, he made sure to have it inspected.
He took careful notes as his inspector moved through the ranch home. He paid close attention when the inspector told him roughly how many years he thought the home’s furnace and water heater had left in them. Armed with this knowledge, Cosentino set up a “building repair fund,” a pool of money he’d dip into when the furnace broke down or the water heater went on the fritz.
“I found out how much everything would cost, and I’ve been putting money aside so that when things do come up, they won’t be that hard to replace,” Cosentino said.
Cosentino’s plan is sound. All homes, even those whose owners are religious about maintenance and upkeep, eventually need repairs. And some of these can be quite costly, as when a roof begins to leak or a furnace suddenly conks out. Homeowners can’t prevent these things from happening. Water heaters, roofs and central heating systems wear out with time. It’s a natural, if expensive, process.
But homeowners who know how long their furnace should last or how many years their roof has left can prepare themselves.
A study conducted last year by HouseMaster, a national chain of home-inspection companies, gives buyers and owners a list of what problems homes could encounter based on their ages.
The report, known as the resale home deficiencies survey, gives home buyers and owners a rough guide of what problems they should watch for, whether their property was built in 1900 or 2000.
It tells buyers of a newer house, for example, that they’re more likely to encounter roofing problems than they are inadequate water pressure. It tells owners of homes that are more than 30 years old that they’re quite likely to find problems with their house’s central heating system.
It’s always unpleasant for homeowners to make expensive repairs, but the study at least helps owners prepare for the inevitable breakdown of their homes’ costly equipment.
“We want to alert consumers to the surprises that might await them if they don’t have a professional inspection done,” said Kenneth Austin, president of HouseMaster, based in Bound Brook, N.J. “Most buyers can accept a deficiency if they know about it upfront. This survey really is designed to awaken consumers on what could happen if they don’t take the proper precautions.”
Company officials compiled the survey, which they released in September 2000, from the results of 2,000 inspection reports. They considered all defects that cost $500 or more to correct.
According to the survey, the most frequently found home defects are those associated with roofing, electrical systems, plumbing systems, central cooling systems, central heating systems, insulation, a home’s structure and water seepage.
And while newer homes do report fewer defects than older ones, even homes that are less than a year old have problems. Roofing problems are the most common with newer homes, defined in the HouseMaster survey as those younger than 13 years old. Usually these problems are the result of roofers using low-grade materials or installing adequate materials improperly. Owners of new homes should also pay close attention to their residence’s central heating and electrical systems; These are the second and third most common problem areas in houses younger than 13 years old.
For homes that are 13 to 29 years old, the survey found that central heating systems most frequently need repair, followed by roofing problems and insulation defects.
For houses that are more than 30 years old, HouseMaster officials found that roofing problems topped the list of defects. Central heating issues came in second, with insulation problems third, just beating out electric problems.
The survey results aren’t surprising to Austin. His company performs the survey every 10 years. So far, the results haven’t varied much from survey to survey.
Austin was surprised, though, that the survey showed that only about half of homebuyers order a home inspection. While an average inspection can cost anywhere from $150 to $300, the cost of replacing a roof or furnace can run thousands more. An inspector can uncover a roof that needs immediate replacement; This discovery might be enough to make a buyer pass on a house he otherwise would have bought, a purchase he soon would have regretted.
“We find that people who are buying in the lower-end of the housing market, those people that are buying more inexpensive homes, many times don’t have an inspection done,” Austin said. “And, God help them, they are the ones who need it the most. Generally, they’re buying into an older house that has the chance to have more defects.”
The most sobering part of HouseMaster’s report is the section that explains just how much it costs to repair the most common home defects. House repairs are expensive. That’s one reason for homebuyers to order an inspection before agreeing to purchase a house. A surprise roofing job can add $5,000 or more to a home’s cost.
According to the survey, it costs homeowners an average of $3,200 to $5,000 to replace a wood shingle roof. It costs them $1,500 to $2,500 to replace an asphalt shingle roof.
Other repairs aren’t much cheaper, according to the survey. It costs owners anywhere from $800 to $1,200 to replace or repair an air-conditioning compressor; $2,000 to $3,000 to do the same to a water boiler; and $1,500 to $2,200 to repair or replace a warm-air furnace. Owners can also expect to pay $350 to $600 to replace a hot-water heater and anywhere from $3,500 to $5,000 to install a new drainage system.
Those are frightening numbers. And it’s why local home inspectors recommend that buyers order inspections before buying even what appears to be a meticulously cared-for property. And buyers who are purchasing new homes shouldn’t expect their new residences to be automatically trouble-free, either.
“I inspected a home a month ago. It was an $850,000 home in Aurora. Its ceiling was cracked. Its foundation was cracked. And it was only a year old,” said Karen Collier, owner of Universal Home Inspection in Chicago. “Just because it’s a new home, that doesn’t mean it won’t have problems. People sometimes use poor-grade materials when they’re building new homes. If they do that, it will bring on problems.”
Local home inspectors say that most homebuyers order inspections before purchasing a home. But many buyers disregard their inspectors’ findings or ignore the inspection report entirely.
“People spend good money on an inspection and then quite a large number of them don’t even read the report,” said Richard Hofeld, owner of the HouseMaster office in Homewood. “We’ll get calls from someone when water comes into their basement during the first good rain after they’ve bought their house. They’ll want to know why we didn’t find that the basement had water problems. Well, we’ll look at our copy of the report and find that, yes, we did find that and we did make note of it on the report.”
Other homebuyers choose to believe that they can keep a house’s equipment functioning properly with regular maintenance, no matter how old it is. This, inspectors say, is a fallacy. If a roof has a 30-year life span, homeowners will be hard pressed to get it to last longer.
“Things break down sooner or later,” said Mike Maggiore, owner of Probe Inspections, a home-inspection company based in Chicago. “Of course, things might wear out more quickly if they’re not taken care of. For instance, if a roof has a shingle missing and no one takes care of it, then things might rot underneath.”
Finally, some homebuyers confuse an appraisal with an inspection. An appraisal, though, is conducted on behalf of banks making mortgage loans. Appraisers are only interested in a home’s value. Home inspectors are looking for problems.
