Real Estate Community Network Podcast

Unlocking the Mysteries of Home Inspections: Tips, Tricks and Tales with Matthew Rodriguez

• Mike Bazadona & Steve Franco • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Ever thought about what really goes into a home inspection or how you could accelerate your home buying process without compromising on quality? Join us as Matthew Rodriguez, Franchise owner of Pillar to Post Home Inspections, sheds light on these topics and more. Matthew takes us through their comprehensive offerings including investor-specific inspections, virtual tours, maintenance manuals, floor plans, and P2P estimates. He also discusses their collaboration with Punch List to provide accurate estimates and how they can be particularly beneficial for rental properties. Moreover, we delve into the affordability and functionality of two virtual tour services, Matterport and Daki Sketch, for all you investors out there.

In a fascinating twist, I, your host, share my journey from HVAC engineering and automation to Pillar to Post, underlining the importance of meticulous home inspections. I share how taking extra pictures and providing maintenance recommendations can pave the way for confident homeownership. We also provide tips for accelerating the home buying process, explaining when it's time to call in a professional home inspector. Matthew and I also discuss some strange experiences we've had during home inspections. So, whether you're a homebuyer or an investor, prepare for an episode filled with practical advice, fascinating stories, and an inside look at the world of home inspections.

Mathew Rodriguez
Pillar To Post Home Inspections 
Phone: 570-672-7772
Email: mathew.rodriguez@pillartopost.com

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Community Network Podcast. I'm Mike, I'm here with Steve and we're here with Matthew Rodriguez from Pillar to Post Home Inspections. This is going to be a good episode. So welcome to the Real Estate Community Network Podcast. Steve, I'm going to let you take it off. You're a fan of this stuff.

Speaker 2:

I ran into Matt a few weeks ago at a training class I was at and basically kind of started off by having him come to one of our meetings and he worked with a couple of our investors. and he does not just home inspections, he also does inspections for investors, which I call inspections like go in there, check the important stuff and then you know, not every outlet, not every faucet, but enough that the inspector knows the building is solid and is, you know, valid for their, for the situations. And he also does some 3D tour stuff and some other stuff. So, matt, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do and how you got in?

Speaker 1:

the game and just tell us about Pillar to Post first, and then we'll get into all these.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, sounds good. Thanks for having me on, guys. I appreciate it. Yeah, i've been with Pillar to Post now as a franchise owner for about six, seven months. Before that I had a pretty extensive HVAC background, so I kind of fit right into this wheelhouse. You know, had a pretty good electrical background too. You know I love Pillar to Post and everything that we have to offer.

Speaker 3:

Like you said, steve, we have not just home inspections, we do a lot with virtual tours, home maintenance manuals, floor plans, and we have what's called P2P estimates, which is, you know, getting estimates for any deficiencies you have in the house. So you're not calling, you know five, six, seven different contractors that come in and give you estimates. I think we all kind of know right now different contractors are really hard to get a hold of because they're so busy, so we kind of have that offering right there on the table. So Pillar to Post has a lot of good offerings that we have even for investors, you know, especially for investors. I think our virtual tours are really valuable to them. If they're trying to rent out properties, we can get all the great 360 videos, you know, all those nice little angles that they can use in their marketing and stuff.

Speaker 1:

That's cool. I actually have my own Matterport machine. I do my own 3D tours. Oh yeah, i don't know what you guys use, yeah.

Speaker 3:

We use Daki Sketch, which is pretty similar to Matterpoint. Yeah, it's a little bit different, but yeah, it's the same thing So then you guys can print out the schematic floor plans, room size, everything. Everything, just like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's pretty accurate.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah 99.9%.

Speaker 1:

It's crazy.

Speaker 3:

I think at the bottom it says plus minus 5%. But yeah you know, if you're really squabbling over 5%, it's like, yeah, that's not good, yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 1:

And listen. I think they're great. They're great for rental properties. You know I did before and after. We do before and after for our flips, yeah For our flips. You know it's anybody listening. I don't actually do it for investors, but Matt does.

Speaker 3:

I do Yep.

Speaker 1:

So reach out to Matt for that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, And it's really affordable. It's not a one square footage but it's a really affordable price, especially for doubles or singles, even what you have. But we do everything all the way up to one guy I was talking to had a 20 apartment complex. We'd go in there and definitely do that at a pretty affordable price for them.

Speaker 1:

It's nice. It's definitely for renting. It's great to send out. Here's the apartment. Take a walk around, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're getting our management company going and our first couple clients we're talking about slowly edging into it because they've each got like 60 units. I'm not talking about doing 60. I'm talking about, as they turn over, we'll send them in and get them done And then you have them, you know, as they renovated. Now, on and on the on the estimate side of things, because I looked at your, the other pet, the other document you have, with all the things priced out, how good is P2P estimates, that sort of regionalizing, you know, like in California things are, frankly, a lot more expensive than they are here. So how good is the estimator as being like, oh well, this is NEPA pricing or this is Manhattan pricing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a good question because I get that a lot And really what it is is. People use you know, we use this partner called punch list. What they do is they tie into Home Depot system So they know what a two by four is going to cost in Scranton, pennsylvania. They know what a two by four is going to cost in California And those numbers are going to be drastically different. So their estimates get pretty accurate, pretty close.

Speaker 1:

So you go into a house, you can go into one of my flips and tell me what things should cost.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, i mean any deficiencies we put in the report, i send it out to punch list. I can't give an estimate legally in the state of Pennsylvania, but I can partner with companies that do, and that's where punch list comes into play, where they'll get that, that number, for you.

Speaker 2:

That's pretty cool. So that comes in as part of your. Is that like an add-on for you guys, or is that coming in as part of your inspection service?

Speaker 3:

That's part of our inspection service. That's not an add-on. So we try to give as much value to our inspections as we can. So the virtual tour and the p2p estimates comes with all of my home inspections.

Speaker 1:

Cool, that's.

Speaker 2:

Neat, that's nice Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Because I just like that it, so it's getting the home DPO value at least.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's, and that's really what I was, what I was looking for, because you know, if it gets you in the ballpark, obviously it's going to be. They're going to be conservative, they're going to go a little high of the ballpark, but at least you're like okay, should you know. And he's saying 5,000 shouldn't exceed, should not exceed six. Okay, fine, you know, you kind of put your head ballpark, where I'm at, exactly.

Speaker 3:

Nothing's ever going to be perfect. Everybody has their idea of what their value is and things. But at least you're budgeting 10,000 for something, say, and it doesn't come back at 25, you know it's gonna come back close.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty neat. I think we have to use them on our next one.

Speaker 2:

I think I think definitely on the next one. And for the investor side of things like do you, would you do like the investor, investor inspection type thing on a we finish a flip, we send you in. We may not find everything the bank inspector is going to know, but you'll be like, hey guys, before bank inspector sees it, you miss that.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, we get into everything I get hands on on. I love getting hands on on everything, whether it's in an attic, basement, anything in between, we're going to touch it, make sure it doesn't move, or if it's supposed to move, it moves. You know those kind of things. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we're gonna, we're definitely going to dive deep into it and try to find those things before the bank comes in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. And and actually, on the investor, the first investor inspection, we'll, ravi, you know, get up in the attic and it's like oh, i found vermiculite. And you know you were good at explaining, okay, vermiculite could be asbestos, but realistically it's not a practical problem because in PA, as long as it's encapsulated. So you gave him hey, there is a possibility of this, but it's not a train wreck.

Speaker 2:

The word asbestos doesn't always mean death, you know. Okay, be aware of it, but it doesn't necessarily kill you deal. That's really what I appreciate. It wasn't like you know now, if it's something should kill the deal, tell them. But it wasn't like, oh, my god, the word asbestos means life is over. I didn't expect you're on a different house that I was selling. 14 feet up was the ceiling of the basement. He saw some white spots that oh, that's definitely mold. And I said how do you know mold from 14 feet away? I said I just how do you test something you can't touch? So it was great that you were like hey, could be not sure could be a problem, but here it is And that that really is helpful.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you're just open yourself up from some liability to say, yeah, that is mold. You know we aren't mold. Well, some home inspectors are. I'm not mold certified because you're never really going to know exactly if it is or isn't unless you test it, in which case I am certified to test. We'll send it to the lab, we'll get it checked out for you. But in the case with Ravi, you know, reviewing the home inspection onsite is extremely important. You know some guys will say, hey, i have the inspection, i'll email it in two to three days. Where, with my home inspections, i review it right there onsite on the iPad, because as I'm walking through the house, i'm completing my, my inspection report. Um, so that's why it's good I can review it. Calm them down, reassure them. You know, if it sounds kind of scary to them, then it might not be scary, it might not be a deal breaker for the house. So that's what's really good about our um software that allows me to do that through the inspection.

Speaker 1:

Just you know, home inspectors scare me Every time I saw a house and the people are. You know, we gotta bring a home inspector and I'm like oh.

Speaker 3:

I'm scary, all five foot six of me.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, i just like they're gonna ruin me.

Speaker 2:

I well, I tell everyone because actually the flip, the flip at one of the flips we're working on, you know, the contract is like oh, the city inspector is no big deal. I said city inspector is not the guy you're worried about, it's the guy who works for the buyer and the bank. His job is to ruin the deal. You're not, it kind of not, but he's, he's. He's the one looking deeper. The building inspector is coming in there for 30 seconds. He's like I'm out. Good Yeah, you're going in there and taking panels off, taking wires off, which is the other thing I like, because even on the inspection light for Ravi, you still took the face of the panel off. Still to know, okay, you know what inside of the wires wires, you know nothing was double tapped, whatever, whatever. Because unless, unless you do that, you don't know what's inside There could be, you know everything could be on one breaker.

Speaker 2:

You don't know what you get into until you open the box.

Speaker 1:

So so when you come to an investor's house, you're going to come to one of my multi families. What do you actually go through? Are you gonna let me so? Steve saying it's not a full inspection, but what kind of inspection is it? then I could do a full if I want, yeah, and then there's, i guess whatever he's calling, he's making up a name for you. Yeah, i guess.

Speaker 3:

So I don't know, inspector light, you know we still, we still gave Ravi quite an extensive, you know inspection. I think really what it comes down to the ground, to the roof? absolutely, you know, we use the drone. We went up, we checked the roof for him.

Speaker 3:

We got all the nice close shots. You know it. We're governed by what's called an SOP, a standards of practice, and what it says in there is like we test a reasonable amount of things, right, so you don't walk around and test every single outlet, but you test, you know, 50, 60, 70 percent, or one or room, something That's a reasonable amount, just a random check, right, exactly because you know a lot of receptacles are linked together or things like that. So that's what we're trying to do for investors is, you know, hey, we'll test a reasonable amount of windows, a reasonable amount of outlets, things like that, and we're definitely gonna make sure that this is a sound house, the structure is good, the, the rafters aren't, you know, splitting apart on you, and this house is gonna be, you know, a good investment and not a big money pit.

Speaker 1:

That's really what we're trying to do for foundation plumbing, plumbing electrical. What a heater, everything.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we were there, you've been. You hit every, every single thing. You know That was. it would be important to an investor. You really went through a lot further than I thought it was gonna be on on that And and and. You know, as we've said in this podcast before, that's really what matters is is an investment. It's about the math. So if you run through and you're like, oh, i'm expecting a $5,000 repair budget on systems and Matt's Matt comes back and say It's $25,000. Well, that might change whether or not you can do the deal.

Speaker 1:

Yes or at?

Speaker 2:

what you can do, the deal You know. And yeah, he's not pricing. Well, gee your carpet, whatever he's pricing the important stuff. But at least you're like all right, you know what? my roof is actually not in great shape. It's caving in. On the outside It looks great. By the inside, not so good.

Speaker 3:

You know, in our inspections are a little bit lengthy, you know, according to some real estate people, you know, two to three hours. They're like well, that's a little bit long. We're used to the one-hour inspection. In my opinion, personally, if you're doing a one-hour inspection, you're going faster than you need to and you're missing things. Yeah, you're just trying to hit the general stuff. Oh, this is good and that's good. Where I'm like no, let's take our time, let's really dig a little bit deeper and talk to the client as well. You know, I liked having Ravi and you next to me. You know I like having my clients near me. If they want to ask questions, if they want me to retest something, or if they don't know how something operates, i'll show them.

Speaker 2:

Hey, let's do it, you know.

Speaker 3:

so I don't rush through anything. If that takes a little bit longer, then hey, we got the time for it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what's the difference of an hour, two hours Exactly, and I'm buying right if an actual inspector was in and out in an hour, especially on a multi, but even on a single, i'd be like did you really look as close as you could? Well and I can't judge what somebody else does, but that just seems like you really can't go as deep you know Right.

Speaker 1:

But as a seller, if I'm selling I'm knowing the bank. They're saying, okay When they take a little bit longer. Yeah exactly.

Speaker 3:

When I first got.

Speaker 2:

When I first was trained, my first one of the agents I worked with, like, the longer an inspector takes on your listing, the worse it's gonna get. No, no, just that's how I feel. So you know, yeah, there's a lot of times where that's a myth. You know it's like Oh man, he's fine.

Speaker 3:

And then I get people that are like Why are you taking so many pictures? What is wrong with this place? And that's not what I'm there for, you know, a lot of times the reason I take so many pictures is because in my report I give a lot of maintenance recommendations. You know we have this motto. You know it's called echo. We want to ensure confident homeownership. You know we're not just there to say, hey, you need a new roof and your foundation's bad. No, how can we put some notes in here to make this house maintenance, you know, up to maintenance and what should they?

Speaker 3:

recommend recommendations, that kind of stuff. So you'll see a lot of that through the report. I even locate some GFC I locations for you. You know, if your GFC is outside and the reset is in the panel, i write that in the report. Hey that's useful information. You need to know that.

Speaker 2:

That's very neat, and actually that was one thing Ravi said to me on that deal. He's like This is this is like I'm keeping this document. He's like it wasn't just a one time thing, because I know when, because he is ending up buying that place, you know. He's like I now have something that'll give me an idea In three years. I got to look at that two years ago. Look at that, so I mean to so. So you said you came to it from an HVAC background, though. So you were an HVAC technical electrician before you made the jump, or was that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so I have a degree in HVAC technology and then a bachelor's degree in automation engineering. So I worked on DC for a couple of years working on some larger buildings, doing a lot of building management systems. Then I worked for a local company, working for geisinger hospitals, doing the same kind of work. I took some time. I went and worked for the government for a little bit, a couple of years. That was what it was. But I said, you know what? I got to get back to my roots and find, you know, something in that community that works for me. And that's when I found pillar to post. they're a veteran friendly company And I think I met with them once or twice and I was hooked. That was it. I was all in. That's great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Right, I couldn't do inspections. I don't know what else you got to ask Steve.

Speaker 2:

I mean, honestly, that's, that's pretty much it. I mean, do you have any tips for, given most inspectors like like me, like to Yahoo everything? Oh, walk through that, i don't need an inspector, i want to accelerate the process. Number one do you have any tips of what, what we would visually see? That's like, oh my God, now we need an inspection. And number two is like, how can they, you know, in this competitive sellers market where nobody wants to do an inspection because you're afraid the seller will tell you to jump in a lake, how can they accelerate you? Is it a matter of saying, hey, matt, when can you and I go to the house together? Is it more of that? So I guess, kind of two questions. You know, if they are going to Yahoo it, what do they see? Is it the right? I used to tell everybody if it doesn't look square, it doesn't look right angle, call somebody because it's probably wrong. Like, how do they know when they need you? and how do they accelerate the buying process and still use you?

Speaker 3:

So I always tell people water is the biggest enemy of any house, right?

Speaker 2:

That's going to be your biggest thing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, if things are squared off or not, so squared off that you know, maybe call somebody in, but water is your biggest indicator of any problems. If you got water in your basement, the sheathing on your roofing is is, you know, a little saturated water stains on the wall, something like that. You got to call somebody in there. You know those are the biggest things that I would say. Or when you got to bring somebody in. And what was the other question?

Speaker 2:

And like, how could they work out? because so many sellers don't want to wait for an inspection. They see the inspection thing checked off. It's like not going to happen. Yeah, how do they, how do they work out to speed that up with you? Like, should they make sure they make their first visit with you? Should they say, hey, listen, i want to go see this house on Tuesday And they take a chance with $300 for how they see something? Or is there, is there another way they can accelerate it to not look as scary to the buyer or to the seller, rather, There's a couple of different ways.

Speaker 3:

I mean, generally speaking, i can get to a property within 24 to 48 hours. I schedule my times to make sure that I'm always available in that time frame. I get booked up pretty quick. But you know I do nights and weekends for a good portion of the year, and I'm not putting this out there too too. You know much. But I will be hopefully hiring somebody as a second inspector here very shortly.

Speaker 3:

So we'll have tons of availability that way as well. Nice. But you know, as far as getting out there at the right time, when it comes to the investor part of things, we can do walkthroughs with them. We can price things a little bit differently and say hey, if you're looking for an upfront walkthrough, not a full inspection, something like that, we can. You know, we can look at it. Now, that'll just be a quick walkthrough, something visually. If you want the full report, something that you can use as a tool going forward, hey, like Ravi did, in two years I need to do this. Three years, i need to do that, then let's go through the full inspection And, like I said, if they're on a time crunch, i can make their schedules always work. And I always tell people this whether it's an investor or you know, just somebody looking to buy a house, getting a home inspection, i can always justify my price. You know, a couple hundred bucks If I find one leak if.

Speaker 3:

I find one receptacle that's going to be a problem. I'm you know it's going to be a couple hundred dollars now to repair. That's going to save you tens of thousands of dollars down the road.

Speaker 1:

I'm always going to be able to justify that, before I buy a house, that foundation needs to be repaired, or something I didn't see Exactly.

Speaker 2:

And normally when I do what I make offers is I'll go through a house and say, yep, i'm thinking this is the number. If we agreed on a number, give me, give me. You're saying 24 hours a month, 24 hours, give me, give me 48 hours to bring, to bring my investor in and make sure. And that's when you come in and do the thing. So you're not slowing them down much. You're looking at some. We've agreed to a price. I just need 24 hours to bring my other guy in and we're good, as opposed to having to having to bring you to every single walkthrough and then find out you didn't get any.

Speaker 2:

The sellers that know to all your offers. Right, because that's the problem I've been having. When I I get buyers call me up and I love buyers, they're wonderful. But I'm like, unless you're willing to offer over asking, let's not even play the game because you're going to lose then this current market. So so it's good to know that you're pretty quickly available. If we, if we got an, if we got an understanding with the seller, hey, matt, can you come over on Tuesday at two, you know? whatever, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so what's so like? what's the like? the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you on inspection. The weirdest, like you know me and Steve going addict and there's pigeons or uh, we, we run into a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3:

You know, it's funny. You say that I was just on an inspection this morning and I'm like man. I really haven't run into anything too crazy. Yet You know about seven months have been doing this now And I'm like, hmm, I haven't run into any bathrooms with anybody sitting in there just yet, or something weird like that You know, so nothing to no crazy stories yet.

Speaker 1:

Maybe next year we'll, we'll do this again and I'll have some. I'm sure you will. You know it depends, especially if you go in any of mine and Steve's homes. Oh, it's just a matter of time.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes. The more investors homes, the more dump you go into Investor homes is where you're going to yeah because they're already emptied and animals are living in them. If you're in an abandoned house abandoned six unit and you go into one of the units and there's lights and heat on and just watch out.

Speaker 3:

You're going to find a body. It's going to happen. We'll just walk around, we'll keep going through. No, no, no, that's cool. I guess we'll just wrap it up here at this point?

Speaker 1:

Where can they reach at? Do you want to give them your phone number? Do you want me to put it on the at the end? Yeah, I could put it in our listing. I'll definitely put it in the description of.

Speaker 3:

Let me just plug the phone number Now it's 570-672-7772. That is our office line, so we can't get text messages there because it's an office line. But that's where you call the book and inspection with me, perfect.

Speaker 1:

Cool, i guess that's it right, steve. Yep, that's it, that's great. We're going to finish up here. Thank you everybody for listening to the Real Estate Community Network Podcast. Don't forget, join our Facebook group Real Estate Community Network PA. Listen to the Real Estate Community Network Podcast. That's us Second Wednesday of every month. This Wednesday actually Meet up mountaintop King's Pizza, great time, great food, great drinks, great people. Come mingle. That's it. You got anything else? Stacy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, come on down network. OK, thank you guys.

Speaker 3:

I'm all good.

Speaker 2:

Thank you All right, thank you, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening.