When Looking at Houses, A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

We have all heard that one before, but does it really it really work out that way? Sometimes with real estate pictures, a few pictures can tell you all that you need to know. Take these two pictures for instance.

First thing I notice is that we have a air register that is vertically mounted instead of horizontally. Along with that, it’s not in the correct location in the room. It should be located on the floor under the window(s) where there is a heat/cooling loss. Cutting the baseboard instead of locating it above is perhaps the final nod that this is an amateur installation. With that in mind, I now have other questions. Was the HVAC system sized and then properly balanced to allow for this room? Did the owner/contractor pull permits with the county? What am I not seeing behind the walls?

This is where a home inspector really pays for themselves.

This next one requires some focusing of the eyes to really get a sense of what is going on. I’m questioning why an architect would create a room with two opposing staircases that meet on a small landing that doesn’t appear to have enough headroom. You also know the ceiling height isn’t right by the fact that the door jam protrudes into the crown molding (which doesn’t match up size wise with the adjacent wall). Was this an addition to an existing house? Are they matching the existing slope on the roof and it’s forcing them to go with a very low room? Did they pull permits for this? Should we be concerned with the electrical? Once again, at quick glance, it looks like an amateur move.

If I were showing this house my antennas would be twitching something fierce and I would be wondering what else we might find.