Trust but verify
This has been a busy morning for me. That’s because I needed to be out at a property, that we have under contract to sell, to meet with both the septic and HVAC companies I use.
The reason we were meeting out there was because our buyer had just completed their inspection of the property, and we had some crazy issues surface that we had to figure out before the due diligence period was up. Let me explain.
This particular house is an older brick ranch in an established older neighborhood. It was in pretty good shape when we bought it. As such, the rehab was mainly cosmetic. But we always get the HVAC system serviced, and the septic tank pumped because we want to make sure those systems are in good working order for our new buyers.
Yesterday, our buyer let us know two things that had come up on the inspection report: One, our heat pump was not coming on and he thought the system needed to be replaced; and Two, they believed the field lines were bad and that the field lines needed to be replaced.
Those are some pretty big ticket items and causes for both the buyer and us as the seller to worry about. So last night I contacted both the Septic and HVAC companies, and they agreed to meet me out there first thing this morning.
The septic man, Eddie Hilley, was first on site. He and Anthony, his brother, went to work uncovering the septic tank’s back lid. I didn’t realize this, but septic tanks often have a lid in the front and a lid on the back. The reason for this is you need to have access to both the inlet side, the side coming from the house that has both water and solids in it, and the outlet side, which lets the overflow of water leach out into the field lines. If either side gets clogged or falls into disrepair, the system does not work, and water backs up into the house.
On this house, it had an older system comprised of field lines made of a concrete-type pipe that had a bell shape on one side and a straight edge on the other. Since concrete doesn’t bend, these systems utilize something called a distribution box, or “D Box” for short, to make connections to angle off to the different field line beds.
On this one, the D Box is located just after the septic tank and is connected with a single pipe. Once that single pipe enters the D Box, there are a number of different outlets built into the box. And each outlet leads to a field line bed in the yard. So, when water from the tank comes into the D Box, it exits each outlet in the D Box and gets divided throughout the yard in the different field line beds evenly — thus allowing the yard to soak up water uniformly and not have just one area getting all of it.
What Eddie and Anthony found when they dug things up was the pipe that led from the septic tank to the D Box had disintegrated. This meant the water in the tank was not making it to the field lines and would eventually back up into the house. Eddie and Anthony were able to repair that pipe. Then they ran water into the outlets in the D Box to make sure the field lines were working properly. They were, and that was a good thing.
Next, the inspection from our buyer revealed that our heat pump was not coming on. The report said our heat stripes were on, but the heat pump was not working and the system needed to be replaced. I found this odd since we just had the system serviced and even had a new thermostat put in. The lead tech that was on site this morning was named David. He’s a great guy and knows his stuff. And within minutes, he found the issue.
What had happened was when the new thermostat got installed, one of the wires that went into the thermostat had not been secured in place and making good connection. That one little wire is the one the thermostat uses to tell the heat pump that it’s time to turn on. So, without it, the thermostat and the machine outside could not communicate. Once David secured that wire into place, the machine kicked right on and purred like a kitten.
I’m grateful for this inspection we got from the buyer. It really did reveal some issues we didn’t know we had. What I didn’t like was it scared us, and the buyer, into thinking we had some major issues like the field lines were all broken and the HVAC needed to be replaced. Those things would’ve cost over ten thousand dollars to replace. That’s a lot of money, not only for us, but also for a new buyer. Thankfully, we didn’t take the inspection for face value. Instead, we had our own people investigate. And the real issues were found and cost a fraction of what replacement would.
So, the moral here is you don’t want to just trust an inspection. You need to go and verify what’s really going on and fix those issues instead. And you’ll come out better on the other side.
Joey and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joey at 678-986-6813.