The #1 thing to do when buying a home! Avoid a disaster down the road by doing this up front.

Video Transcription

All right. Hey, David Novak here with RE/MAX Professionals and DND properties. Today, I’m down here in Colorado Springs, getting an inspection done that I normally do on the homes that I buy to fix up and resell, and I also push all my buyers to this. I’m sure many of my buyers watching this will understand this because I pretty much force them to do this

Forces them, yeah.

He knows. It’s a sewer scope. Out of all the inspections that I see done, in my opinion, it is one of almost the top things a person should do because there are all kinds of mysteries underneath this soil here. In fact, today, I had somewhat bad news on this place that I’m gonna buy. We’re gonna let-

It’s a work in progress. It’s not bad news. Go ahead.

We’re gonna let Duane here, though … This guy I’ve been using for many … What’d we say? Six, seven years?

Six or seven years. I’m developing Alzheimer’s, so it might have been 20 years.

Anyway, I just want him to just cover briefly. He’s in a hurry. I appreciate his time. Many of my buyers out there know this company, Mainline Services, because we use them on every deal. I recommend them to everybody. So, it’s yours, Duane.

Sounds good.

Just cut to the chase.

Well, there’s a lot of realtors out there. One thing they don’t want you to know is the sewer line and the condition. But Dave’s not like that. He’s there to protect you. It’s not just a force. He’s there to not only help you get through the process, which we have right here, but also become a winner. It’s all about negotiation. The sewer line, or the waste lateral line, is more expensive right now than even the roof. Like he said, it’s mysterious. It’s underground. A couple of things that drive this industry is it’s corrupt. It frankly is corrupt. You’ve got the cleaner calling the camera guy, the camera guy calling for an excavation. They all make a percentage of the sales on there. They’re driven to do that to keep their jobs. That’s one aspect.

The other aspect is that you need to know if your plumbing line is to code. Code is like one inch every four feet. We go by international plumbing code. We don’t go by opinion. A lot of times in negotiation, the realtor will say, “Well it’s your opinion.” Well, you don’t build a house on opinion, now do you? What we do with Mainline Services is we go by international plumbing code. We’ll inspect your house. Not only an old, medium, but new builds even more so. We do a four-point inspection. We check the internal, the slab-on-grade. We go to the foundation. We see how the house has settled and see how it affects it. Any guttering run-off can lead to negative sloping and breakage at your foundation. Foundation damage is from three to $100000 with helical piers. Then we go out to the main line, and finally the city tap.

Here’s something that’s even more unusual. Because of our technology, we actually have drones in the city sewer. No, they’re not flying drones. They’re tank drones. So, they have tanks. Denver runs about 15 to 20 of them. They’re independent contractors, and they’re looking at the tap connection to see if you’re code compliant. We’re the only company in all the state that I know of that knows what these drones are looking for, what the city’s looking for. So, it’s very important to get a sewer inspection now during the negotiation to give Dave everything he needs to negotiate for you properly, so you’re not stuck with something now or something you can’t resell later.

Thanks, Duane. And yeah, to add here quick. He’s got to go, but if you’re watching this and you own a home for a while and you’ve never had it done, I think that they probably should get a scope done, don’t you?

It’s the last thing you think about and the first thing you’ll worry about. If you get a backup and then you get a predator company coming in, the average mitigation cost is up to $15000, between 8000 and 15000. These guys are coming in with cameras. There’s no money in the camera. It’s all in excavation. You need someone who’s a total neutral, a real inspector to go in there to protect you now and again later. I’m Mainline Services, (303) 596-5803. If you want to pick my brain, I’ve got two cells left and I’ll give you one.

Thanks again, Duane. Everybody watching this, if you’re working with a realtor and you’re buying a home, whether it’s with me, hopefully it’s with me-

Jazz hands.

Or somebody else.

He’s the man.

Make sure that you do that. The cheapest insurance you can do.

We’ve got your back.

Yep. Thanks again, Duane.

Not a problem.

Thank you. Have a good day.