Assessing the Situation
The first step often taken when under contract to purchase a home is to have a general home inspection. A home inspection takes a broad look at all aspects of a home, including foundation, electrical, appliances, and more. A buyer and their agent will often use that report to decide if any follow up inspections are needed, and to get quotes from vendors. We knew right away that our first step when working with the Owen Street family was to have an inspector take a look at the condition of the home, and make a list of priorities of what needs to be done to get the house back to livable and comfortable condition for this family. Scott Capouch of SRC Inspections & Consulting gladly donated several hours of his time to assess the situation in the home and to help us create a priority list. Scott lives in Durham, and has inspected countless houses for UDR clients. He was both a general contractor and engineer, so his background is perfect for home inspections and this project. The list of needed repairs was long, and included almost all aspects of the home. From rotting flooring, leaky roof, completely broken furnace, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, and broken appliances. While we work with issues like this everyday as agents, even our team was overwhelmed and at a bit of a loss on the best way to proceed. Thankfully we have amazing vendors with whom we work and we knew we could count on them, but managing who comes when and what permits are necessary, was an area we were less familiar with. We knew that we might need to bring in some logistical help to get us to our goal.