BY GREG POWNALL , GULF POINTE PROPERTIES
Being a Florida Realtor ® and a qualified Master Home Inspector , I have seen firsthand the perspectives of a home buyer , seller , Realtor ® and inspector of a typical home purchase . There is one area that I see over and over again costing many Florida home buyers wasted inspection dollars and costing Realtors ® grief as well .
The issue is home insurability . While a home inspector is hired to find defects in a house , there are a few very common , easily identifiable , uninsurable components in a home that Realtors ® need to identify and address with the sellers prior to the buyers making an offer and ordering a home inspection . I ’ ve seen it over and over - deals fall apart because the sellers will not negotiate items after the full home inspection . A typical scenario is the potential buyers fall in love with a home , enter into a contract , order a $ 400.00 inspection only to find out there are insurable defects present and the seller will not negotiate ( or offer very little ) to correct the issues . Buyers cancel the contract , losing their inspection fee . I have personally inspected up to four houses for individual buyers in the past for what this article is about .
DEFECTIVE ELECTRIC PANELS
All Realtors ® should find and be able to identify the manufacturer of an electric panel on their initial walk-through . The Federal Pacific ( FPE ) Stab Lok and Challenger are the most common defective panels found . Many are still out there and are not insurable . These electric panels are easy to identify , as the manufacturer label is right on the face of the panel itself . Keep this in mind when doing your own homework about a scheduled showing : FPE panels were widely installed in houses between 1950 and 1990 . Challenger electric panels were installed between 1980 and 1990 .
PLUMBING
Polybutylene plumbing or PB Plumbing was very common in the late 70s up until the mid-90s and is not insurable or has limited or excluded benefits . PB plumbing will be a grey flexible pipe and sometimes with a red or blue stripe along the side , but always with “ PB2110 ” printed on the side . The other surprisingly defective plumbing is PEX which is more than 10 years old . PEX
8 RPCRA . ORG | JUL / AUG 2017