52 - Winter Inspections with Dave Kolesari
This is John Gescheidmeier of Wisconsin Real Estate Today, your real estate expert. This podcast is designed to equipping people with the teaching and tools they need to succeed in real estate. I hope you enjoy this episode and subscribe for more real estate content. Hey, podcast listeners. John Gescheidmeier, your host of Wisconsin Real Estate Today and, today we're bringing back good friend Dave Colasare.
John Gscheidmeier:I don't did I ask is it Kolesari?
Dave Kolesari:Kolesari.
John Gscheidmeier:Kolesari. Out of all the times we get together, I should know that.
Dave Kolesari:That's alright.
John Gscheidmeier:Dave, introduce yourself. You've been on the show before a couple times. We're gonna talk today about, a timely topic and it's something I thought that the listeners would find interesting and it is inspections in winter, advantages and disadvantages. But introduce yourself and your company.
Dave Kolesari:Dave Kolesari Homesite Inspection Services. We have been around for almost our twenty eighth year. We do Southeastern Wisconsin, do probably more inspections than anyone in the state of Wisconsin. We have an eight person team. We have several offices, client care people, office managers, rate on tax, marketing people.
Dave Kolesari:So basically a small army to get what we done get done every year. And we, last year's we actually did fantastic last year. We ended up 32% up, which is, more than what other home inspection companies can say from what I understand.
John Gscheidmeier:Well, I think you you've really perfected your business to to be start to finish. I mean, you've got home warranty under your roof. Correct. Right? That's a third party vendor, obviously, but we order it right through your website.
John Gscheidmeier:And it's not just a twelve month inspection or a warranty. It's a it's an eighteen month as long as somebody uses you.
Dave Kolesari:To inspect a home. Correct?
John Gscheidmeier:Inspect a home. Plus you do commercial buildings, you do pool, you do all that stuff.
Dave Kolesari:Yeah. We we try to do all aspects of it. We also own a mold remediation company that helps out sometimes times when agents need someone to do some mold remediation in a timely manner. But, yeah, commercial properties, you name it. We just scheduled a 63 unit, apartment building that we're gonna do next week.
Dave Kolesari:We let two months ago, we did a 400,000 square foot, hotel in Manitowoc. So it just doesn't end with residential.
John Gscheidmeier:And you're a veteran owned business, which I love. Thank you for your service. Thank you. So let's dive into the topic at hand. As we record this here in January and we're gonna publish this later today, it's two degrees out when I woke up this morning.
John Gscheidmeier:Good old Wisconsin.
Dave Kolesari:Yep.
John Gscheidmeier:When I was in law enforcement, I used to do presentations across The US on drug stuff, drug recognition, all this other stuff I had an expertise in. And every time somebody would ask a question when I was like down in Texas, it was always, How do y'all do that up there in Wisconsin? And I would have to remind him there's no e in Wisconsin, but it gets cold. People buy homes 20, three 60 five, three 60 six in leap years. What happens when I shouldn't say what happens.
John Gscheidmeier:Let's talk about inspections in winter.
Dave Kolesari:Well, it's funny you ask because last year we put a presentation together on the pros and cons of inspections winter. And without a doubt, people ask us when they're booking a home inspection, you know, what what about this? What about that? Most most common, I guess, question is how about the roof? How do you look at the roof?
Dave Kolesari:And you know what? There's an equation. If you go to if you go to the house and you're driving there and the house is maybe 60 years old, I'm I'm guessing, you know, first layer of roof is gonna last twenty, twenty five years. Second layer is gonna last twenty, twenty five years. So that brings me up to 50.
Dave Kolesari:So this roof, I'm guessing, is about 10 to 15 years old without even getting there. That just from the equation of how long roofs last and how old the house is. And then what I do is I'll, you know, try to whisk off a little bit of snow to see if, if I can see the condition of the shingles. You know, I, I don't pretend to know everything about the roof because it is covered with snow. But sometimes if you're lucky, you'll have little spots of sun that dry or not dry, but melt the snow off and you can see and either, you know, make your, observations correct or incorrect.
Dave Kolesari:And another half of it is, you know, the attic, getting into the attic and seeing what you can see from there because that's a pro. Because if a roof leaks, you're gonna have an icicle hanging down, right? So that's something you definitely can't see when it's summer. So, yeah, we may not know everything about the roof, but we can get a good idea of what's going on with that roof. And to be honest, if if it really is a concerning piece, we can we can go back and check it when the sun melts, to kind of help with the with the transaction or the process.
Dave Kolesari:Other things we we we don't normally see the condition of is, you know, your flat surfaces, your patios, your sidewalks, your driveways. What condition are they in? Are they pitched towards the home, which is really important with, with water flow? The grading, is the grading pitch towards the house? That's something we can't see as well.
Dave Kolesari:But then again, on the flip side, we can see, hey, are there going to be ice dams in, on the north side where there's not a whole lot of sun? Things that that you normally wouldn't see, like even with a hose faucet. There's a hose faucet dripping where you get a big icicle where in summer you wouldn't necessarily see that. So, there are some there are some pros and cons with it, but, it it does diminish the view of things, but we we pretty much can get an idea of what's going on.
John Gscheidmeier:Well, I think listeners, when they think of an attic, they don't realize it's cold up there or it's hot up there, depending on the time of the year.
Dave Kolesari:Correct.
John Gscheidmeier:With obviously, there's ventilation and there's a reason why that is. But you also mentioned insulation.
Dave Kolesari:Yeah. Your attic should be as warm or as cold as it is outside. Okay? So if it's one degrees, like I was outside on a roof yesterday, it was five degrees in my own I I almost froze my fingers off on the roof. But, a a pro is, you know, if you go to a house in winter and you see that all the snow has melted off the roof, that's a sign that you might not have the best ventilation.
Dave Kolesari:Our value's there. So, that's something that can be verified once we're in the attic. But another thing which we find a lot of is mold in the attic. Okay? And mold is derived from having the attic having moisture in it.
Dave Kolesari:It. And it could moisture can be in your attic from a few things. It can be from, a minimal amount of insulation. It can be from a lack of ventilation. It can also be from, you know, not having proper air sealing around your light fixtures and stuff like that at the ceiling.
Dave Kolesari:So heat is actually getting into the attic and if you don't have the proper ventilation or insulation, that heat will not be dissipated and it'll condensate and create moisture, you know, because it reaches dew point. It's hard to see sometimes in summer, but in winter, what are we gonna see, John? We're gonna see frost.
John Gscheidmeier:When I mentioned to you that there's an unfinished part in my basement where it's got fiber fiber cement on the outside, Tyvek over plywood or OSB, whatever's out there, studs, and then insulation, and then plastic. Mhmm. But I can see the frosting from a what must be a pinpoint leak or something like that, and I would never be able to see that in the winter.
Dave Kolesari:That's right.
John Gscheidmeier:You know, so I I remember when I saw that a year or two ago, which just goes to show you how far I am in fixing that issue. Far I need to get it done. But I marked it with a, you know, just with a marker. Leak. Right here.
John Gscheidmeier:And so now I gotta and and I'm doing some projects in my house and that's one of the things I gotta do. But
Dave Kolesari:Yeah. But that's the advantage of of having a cold winter inspection. It's not all bad. Like, we can't check things out. Another thing you can look at is, you know, if you have plumbing on the outside wall, so your kitchen is on the outside wall, your bathroom shower is on the outside wall.
Dave Kolesari:Are there any leaks? Do you see any heat tape where people are actually keeping things warm so that it can drain properly, showing a persistent, you know, freezing over the years. That's something else we can look for. So,
John Gscheidmeier:And you see those more in older homes, obviously, because the technology and the things we've learned over the years as builders, you know, and I always get into this discussion. In fact, I just had it on behalf of one of our agents, who had a listing. There was an attorney on the other side who was also the buyer's agent. Mhmm. I love attorneys.
John Gscheidmeier:I've got an attorney on my team that also sells real estate, but some of them can be a pain. Mhmm. And they bully and this guy was trying to bully us on ground fault circuit interrupting outlets. You have things like legal nonconforming things,
Dave Kolesari:you
John Gscheidmeier:know, like I believe in 1971 they started to mandate where GFCI outlets needed to go. Now they're everywhere. You know, if you remodel your kitchen, you have to bring it up to today's standards and you have to put those in and usually in a series. But, you know, like venting into the attic, that's another one. You and I talk about this all the time.
John Gscheidmeier:What did they do in a nineteen fifties ranch? All that moisture stopped right in the attic and the thought was we'll just vent it out through the venting, which were, you know, not a full ridge vent back then, but just a series of, let's say, five or, you know, four or five vents, aluminum vents.
Dave Kolesari:Right. With soffit vents, and it's just directing somewhere into the attic.
John Gscheidmeier:But my point is you can see all those things now, whereas maybe in the past, you know, it wasn't as evident, but it doesn't make it wrong necessarily based on some of the things that we used to do. And you buyers and sellers can decide how they want to negotiate that.
Dave Kolesari:An attorney's always gonna give you, if he's on the wrong side of you or the opposite side of you Well, Dave, I the GFCIs are not needed to be put in.
John Gscheidmeier:Let let me tell you something. I put that guy in his place. I'm just saying.
Dave Kolesari:I have no doubt. I have no doubt.
John Gscheidmeier:I mean, he was dead wrong on a lot of these things. Alright, so let's get back to this. You also mentioned grading gutters. Talk about grading specifically and and actually tie it into what you said about patios too because like you go to my patio which is always, probably see 70% of sun. Mhmm.
John Gscheidmeier:And it's a big patio for the most part when you walk out of our lower level ranch. And it's it's kind of grayish, so it it does attract some sunlight. You could probably see that thing, but if I had five feet of snow out there, you have absolutely no idea what the grading looks like. You have no idea what the patio leveling looks like or anything like that.
Dave Kolesari:Right. So, your grading whether well, let's talk about dirt first. If for every one foot away from the house, the grading should be down about an inch. And if you can extend that four to six feet away, that's ideal. You can't always determine that when there's a lot of snow.
Dave Kolesari:Patios, you want it directly, you know, pitched away from the house as well. Sometimes there's patios and concrete I mean, it's not just patios, it's sidewalks, it could be driveways, anything that's cracked and pitched towards the house can direct water towards the home. So if if you don't if you can't see these areas outside, the next default look would be to go into the basement and look at the foundation walls. If you look at your foundation walls and you see high stains, high stains is from high water. So that could be related to patios, it can be related to grading, anything like that.
Dave Kolesari:So that's kind of your next line of defense, not necessarily defense, but, troubleshooting is if I can't see the grading outside, I'm gonna go downstairs and take a look at my foundation walls and see if I can see stains that are relating to some particular issue of grading and and and patio or concrete is being, you know, improperly pitched. But, another thing that we can't inspect is what? This is pretty common. It comes up all all the time and that's the AC unit. You can't operate the central area
John Gscheidmeier:unit.
Dave Kolesari:It's 65 degrees in the last twenty four hours. And and our guys stop it doesn't even have to be snowing. You know, no snow. It doesn't matter. A day like today wouldn't you know, if there's no snow on the ground, it's too cold to operate it.
Dave Kolesari:There's no one that will operate the unit, and there's always somebody in the spring that calls us and says their AC is not working. So I mean, there's not a whole lot any home inspector can do. They can look at it to make sure it's installed correctly, look for signs of problems. But as far as turning up and verifying it's working, nobody will do that. And so therefore, you kind of default to the property condition report.
Dave Kolesari:Right? What did they put on there? Did they say it was working? Was it operating? And if you go to a property that doesn't have a property condition report or they refuse to fill it out for whatever reason, you're kind of, you know, vulnerable there.
Dave Kolesari:You really don't know.
John Gscheidmeier:Well, and estate sales, new home construction, you know, if there's a foreclosure, none of those will require a condition report. You know, you mentioned ACs and I forgot about that. That's a great point. You have to go back, I think, if you're a listing agent and and I think people listening know that I specialize in listings, although I'm a great buyer's agent. But if you list a home in the winter, especially when there is snow on the ground, you really should go back and try to get summer photos if you can of a lot of different things.
John Gscheidmeier:One, I mean, we wanna see what it looks like in the summer. And and folks who are selling their home always wanna tout their gorgeous landscaping, their foliage, their flowers, their shrubs, all that stuff that blooms. Right? So they want those usually in the listing but also photos of grading along the four sides of the house. What the patio looks like, what the driveway looks like.
John Gscheidmeier:Retaining walls look like. Retaining walls, another great one.
Dave Kolesari:Those are expensive.
John Gscheidmeier:Well, and I think though that you can do those just just like with an AC unit. If you know you're going to be listing in the fall or the winter, get your AC and your furnace tuned up in the summer. Right? Have all that stuff, at least on paper, available to the buyers. I always make this point and you and I have gotten to know each other really well over the years.
John Gscheidmeier:I think well ahead I think compared to most people and I know you do too. We think about, we collaborate on our businesses, we think about the future of where inspections and real estate are going, but more importantly, I always tell people if you're thinking about selling your home in a year, get me in that home today. Let's start that process together because if you're not gonna sell until next spring, it might be earlier. Let's get some I'll send my professional people out to take photos in the summer when everything's blooming and looking great towards the spring. You know, stuff like that I think that people don't think about.
Dave Kolesari:That's unique. That's unique, Johnny. That's I mean, I wish more were like that. Just more agents were like that in the fact that, are a little proactive in in in their listings and the fact that, you know, they have that documentation because that really does help, that type of stuff.
John Gscheidmeier:Well, and I've always said an informed buyer makes the better decisions. Right? So the more information you can give and not that we just that we thought we're gonna talk about this, but pre inspections is a great example. Mhmm. We've been talking about that a lot.
John Gscheidmeier:I've got some announcements to make in the next month or so about some programs we're running. But when you have a pre inspection done on a on a property, it gives that buyer some peace of mind. Now, yeah, there's a risk that the seller is gonna have to do some things that they didn't know about like mold in the attic or attic discoveries because let's be honest, most people don't go in their attic.
Dave Kolesari:Right. Right.
John Gscheidmeier:I mean, you might on a nineteen twenty or nineteen thirty or fifties duplex in Milwaukee, you know, where you can walk up there or not duplex, one of the old style homes. But most people don't go in their attic. They don't peek up there. And it forces people to to look to look about those things because wouldn't you rather wanna control the the buyer's demands long before the buyer even entered this equation?
Dave Kolesari:It's music to my ears. It's music to my ears. I've always thought real estate transactions were backwards.
John Gscheidmeier:They are.
Dave Kolesari:It it definitely brings you know, and and some people have the misconception that if I have a if I have a prelisting inspection, then I have to fix everything. No. No. You don't. You don't have to fix everything.
Dave Kolesari:You don't have to fix anything.
John Gscheidmeier:Correct. Now there are some times when you shouldn't do it, like an estate sale is a perfect example of that. If I'm selling, you know, I had to sell my mom's house when she passed away many years ago and I mean, I grew up in a home up until I was 21. That was, you know, fifteen years ago. No.
John Gscheidmeier:But I, you know, all I put on the condition report is that I haven't lived here since I was 21 years old. I previously I put the year in there and that I, as the estate representative, you never wanna open that up just for liability reasons. So then you probably wouldn't. But I, you know, that's like three to 5% of sales, maybe. The rest of the time, I just don't understand why people aren't doing more of those.
John Gscheidmeier:But
Dave Kolesari:Especially in in
John Gscheidmeier:But thank God, we're gonna have some stuff to talk about maybe in a month ish.
Dave Kolesari:Hopefully.
John Gscheidmeier:No. No. No. We will. Okay.
John Gscheidmeier:We will. Alright. So to wrap things up, I don't think we talked about things like pools.
Dave Kolesari:Correct.
John Gscheidmeier:What those are a little tougher as well.
Dave Kolesari:We just had somebody an agent call us or text us. We have like a hotline for agents that can text us with questions. And they, she asked you, can a pool be inspected if it's winterized? Well, visually, which is basically nothing. There's really not a whole lot you can do about it.
Dave Kolesari:I mean, you can't see if things are if the the inlets are working, the outlets are working, or is the heater working? Is the pump working? Are the filters working? You can't even see if the cove around the pool is pitched properly away from the home or towards a home, you know, are there cracks and movement? So above ground pools pools, we just don't do.
Dave Kolesari:But in ground pools, outside, if it's winterized and cold, you just can't do it. You just can't do it. So again, I guess you're probably defaulting to a property condition report for anything that's wrong with it. Now we can get a good idea maybe at how old the equipment is, but as far as short of running it, we can't we can't do that.
John Gscheidmeier:So I'm gonna take that one step further. As a pool owner, we have an in ground pool. You've been to my house, I believe. The, you go back to maintenance records. Most homeowners don't close the pool themselves or open it themselves.
John Gscheidmeier:I tend to open my pool. I don't tend to close it. It's just a pain in the ass. I don't feel like dealing with it. But I have done it.
John Gscheidmeier:I know what needs to be done. I know what properly you know, it's just like when you walk into a home, and I'll use the word flip. I don't normally like using that word. But a bad flip is easy to spot. You look at the moldings, you look at the base shoes, you look at, you know, the the miter joints in the corners, you know, and some of the base moldings.
John Gscheidmeier:Those were the first indications to me that this was a novice flipper. A novice pool closer probably doesn't do everything that they're supposed to do, but all you gotta do is ask the homeowner who closed the pool, when was it last made, you know, and by who? There's some really good pool companies in Metro Milwaukee. There's some I would avoid. So you can do some You
Dave Kolesari:can do that. That's good information.
John Gscheidmeier:Yeah. But you gotta you gotta be proactive, right? You can have an agent who understands all that stuff.
Dave Kolesari:Yeah. Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier:And we all know that unfortunately, agents are not created equally.
Dave Kolesari:Well, without a doubt.
John Gscheidmeier:So any wrap up points?
Dave Kolesari:Yeah. We didn't talk talk about condensation on windows. Ah. That that comes up quite a bit. That's something you can't see so much in That's true.
Dave Kolesari:In summer. You know, you want your This is
John Gscheidmeier:the gift that keeps on giving, David.
Dave Kolesari:The the condensation, you know, you get you get into a lot of houses that have stains around their windows, but you don't know how much kind of what the what the history is on the condensation. So, I mean, these houses are built so tight. There's not proper air exchange. And we're talking newer houses here, of course. And, you know, they maybe have high humidity in their house.
Dave Kolesari:I mean, your human body lets off a lot of humidity. Okay? If you cook a lot, if you have a lot of plants, if you have fish tanks, if you have pets, I mean, you got humidity, humidity, humidity. So you really don't want it any higher than like 45% in your home. And, if you don't have, like I said, proper air exchange with an HRV or an ERV, heat recovery ventilator, energy recover ventilator, Those are usually installed on high, high end homes where they take air from outside, mix it with, with air that's inside.
Dave Kolesari:And so you have a proper air exchange. It's connected to your furnace. But that can definitely reduce the humidity and condensation levels in your house. But, yeah, you can really tell it on a on a on a winter day, but not so much on a summer day.
John Gscheidmeier:Well, those condensation, when the seal on the window fails, the window pane itself
Dave Kolesari:pane leak. Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier:It doesn't. It's it's you can't see that year round. No. And that's important for people to know.
Dave Kolesari:Unless it's really bad. Right. And that's why
John Gscheidmeier:And it, like, almost gives, like, that moldy type appearance.
Dave Kolesari:Yeah. And it you can't wipe it away. It doesn't mean your window's gonna leak. It just you have this foggy appearance inside that will never wipe away, and and it may get worse. Happens often.
Dave Kolesari:Some warranties, if you have a really good window, they're warrantied. Some companies I know of, like, twenty years, they have warranties on them. But, home inspectors the agents might get a little frustrated with home inspectors because we won't necessarily point out which window it is because it could change tomorrow. And so, well, if we see several, you know, thermal pane window leaks, we'll definitely recommend that all the windows be reevaluated.
John Gscheidmeier:How does one loaded question. How does a window tech, if you will, evaluate that if it's not present?
Dave Kolesari:I guess a trained eye, they may even have, a meter. Okay. Or you can use also use a thermal, a thermal insulator or, I'm I'm sorry, an infrared thermal infrared camera. Okay. Thank you.
Dave Kolesari:That can sometimes show it as well.
John Gscheidmeier:I never thought about that. You know what? I think it's important to know too. Tell me if you disagree with this, but it's not unusual to see frost build up on a window or a door in really cold temperatures especially.
Dave Kolesari:No. No. It's not really.
John Gscheidmeier:I'm I'm not saying like it's huge. I'm like full temperature. Line or something. Yeah. Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier:If you think about the you're you're relying on a window. Right? Which has air trapped in this to as an insulant. Mhmm. And an insulator.
John Gscheidmeier:You've got, you know, I mean, we keep our temperature pretty cold. I won't say how people don't wanna come to my house if they know how cold it is. But, it's just how we live. But let's say it's 70 degrees, and then it's minus five outside or minus 10 or worse, especially at night. I mean, that's a lot to ask of a window.
Dave Kolesari:Yeah. I don't think it's I don't think it's uncommon.
John Gscheidmeier:Especially in some of these old and you inspect older homes with original windows, you know, single pane instead.
Dave Kolesari:Right. If you get a single pane without a doubt, I mean, if it's especially the storms don't work as well as a thermal pane window.
John Gscheidmeier:Well, that's where you put your you know, manually put the plastic up and stuff like that. Storms on the outside if if that's It's drafty.
Dave Kolesari:But, yeah, I mean, if it's really cold, I wanna see those isolated incidents where, you know, the inside's fighting with the outside and vice versa.
John Gscheidmeier:The inside's fighting with the outside. I love it. Always learn something new. Dave, as we wrap up here, give, your website, your contact information, and how people can get a hold of you.
Dave Kolesari:Sure. Homesiteinc.com. Our number is (414) 321-1070 and, or client care at m homesite dot com.
John Gscheidmeier:Appreciate your time and your expertise and My pleasure. I'm not surprised you're up, you know, 32%. I think that's what you said Yes. From last year. You guys do an awesome job, and I think sometimes people place unrealistic expectations on inspectors.
John Gscheidmeier:You're not gods. You can't see through walls. You just, based on what we see today, this is what it looks like and they're gonna change tomorrow. Yep. So thank you.
John Gscheidmeier:Some great information. Listeners, appreciate it. My pleasure. It's great to hear. And as always, if you guys ever need anything inspection related, homesiteinc.com.
John Gscheidmeier:Dave and Jill run an awesome company with some awesome people.
Dave Kolesari:Thank you very much.
John Gscheidmeier:Take care.
Dave Kolesari:Alright. Bye.
John Gscheidmeier:This episode of Wisconsin Real Estate Today has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and let others know if you found this content useful. Until next time, make today your best day.