In this episode of the Team Lally radio show, we are joined by Nathan Baker, Franchise Owner and Certified Home Inspector from Pillar To Post. He talks about how he has lived in Arizona and Iowa most of his life and how he ended up in Hawaii. We discuss the importance of getting a home inspection prior to any home purchase. Nathan talks about how Pillar to Post sets itself apart from other home inspectors and the high standard of training they go through. He talks about the differences between Hawaii homes and those from the mainland and lots of advice about dealing with home inspection!
Also in this episode: Tips of the week, Quotes of the day, special events, this week’s Open houses and Coming soon listings.
A Pillar To Post home inspection will give you a clear, unbiased evaluation of a home’s condition. They will answer any questions you may have, and help give you peace of mind.
Read word for word from the episode with Nathan Baker:
Announcer: It’s time to enter the world of real estate in Oahu with Hawaii’s only true real estate radio show: the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Grab a pen and get ready to take notes. For the next full hour Hawaii’s premiere real estate leader Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi will bring you the latest in real estate news and real world strategies on how they can guarantee to sell your home at a price and deadline you agree to – or they’ll buy it! Now here are your hosts Adrienne and Attilio.
Adrienne: Welcome to the Team Lally Real Estate Show home of the guaranteed sold program – or we’ll buy it. If you have any questions you can give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Well hey everybody this is Attilio. I was at Buckingham Palace visiting with Queen Elizabeth.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: This lady came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, started asking me a bunch of tax and legal questions and I said, “Those are great questions. Highly recommend you see the appropriate licensed professional,” and then I said, “But mom what other questions do you have?”
Adrienne: So…
Attilio: You’re supposed to say “What were you doing at Buckingham Palace?”
Adrienne: Oh!
Attilio: I gotta set up and tell you what to do?
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: No I wasn’t at Buckingham Palace but I had been watching the Netflix series Crown.
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: And it’s pretty cool. It’s like a documentary-
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Drama documentary, so it’s really cool, learning some things about England and Winston Churchill.
Adrienne: Okay so speaking of legal and tax advice we do have something coming up for some legal advice on Monday.
Attilio: Yeah!
Adrienne: January 23rd from five until six. We have an estate planning seminar that is very helpful. All of your questions that you’ve ever had about wills, probate, estate planning, all that good stuff, will be answered.
Attilio: Yeah so it’s going to be at our office in Kapolei at the James Campbell building.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Where do they go to RSVP?
Adrienne: They can go to teamlally.com/estate.
Attilio: Uh-huh
Adrienne: Or if they just go to leamlally.com under the events section, all of the information is there.
Attilio: Yeah. Go to teamlally.com, go to the events drop down menu and click on the estate planning. You know here’s three very important reasons why you should be doing estate planning. If when you – typically when you have a room full of people, and you ask “How many people have a trust?” I would say less than 10% of the people in the room in any given situation are going to have a trust and one of the reasons why it’s important to have a trust is that if you die with a will, or heaven forbid not with a will, then it just – It’s pure chaos as far as-
Adrienne: How everything is distributed.
Attilio: Yeah, all your assets. People think “Well I don’t own much.”
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Well there’s a lot of things that people accumulate and if there are some people you want to have those things, and some people you don’t, even if you have a will, will it work?
Adrienne: It’s still not good enough.
Attilio: It can be contested
Adrienne: You’ve gotta have the estate plan. You’ve gotta have the trust all set up with all of your wishes.
Attilio: Yeah, and have it set up correctly. The second thing – so knowing what’s going to happen with everything and making it a situation where it’s not going to be contested. The second thing is that you avoid probate, and probate is basically the court’s process of them being butinskis and getting the stuff to your heirs, and it’s public, and it’s costly, and people can fight it, and it just ends up having your family literally – here’s our tagline: fighting at grandma’s gravesite for all of her assets and things like that which is unfortunate.
Adrienne: Yeah and we did do a little quick video about it so you can check that out as well.
Attilio: So again when is it and where?
Adrienne: It’s on Monday, January 23rd, at our office in Kapolei.
Attilio: How much is it going to cost
Adrienne: It’s free. It’s free and it’s from-
Attilio: Two licensed attorneys will be doing the presentation.
Adrienne: From five until six and they’ve also set aside some time after to answer any kind of personal questions that you might not want to ask in front of the group.
Attilio: So if you have assets, if you own a home, if you have children, and most people don’t realize that even in the trust it talks about who will care for the children should something happen to the parents before they reach the age of 18.
Adrienne: Yep.
Attilio: Things like that.
Adrienne: Okay so I have some quotes of the day.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: Courtesy of Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: So Duke is so kind. He sends these out every morning to us.
Attilio: Go for it.
Adrienne: Alright but I don’t know who they’re from. These are just quotes.
Attilio: Okay, spit it out.
Adrienne: Okay. “Give people a piece of your heart rather than your mind.”
“Prove yourself to yourself not others.” And lastly, “Giving is a lifestyle.”
Attilio: I have a quote for you.
Adrienne laughs.
Adrienne: Uh-oh.
Attilio: If someone needs your liver, give them a piece of it.”
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: Did you know when you take of someone’s liver and you donate it, if it’s a match that it actually grows?
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: To full size. So you can actually donate a chunk of your liver. I don’t think you can do that with other organs though.
Adrienne: So are you saying that you’re going to be like a liver donor now?
Attilio: No. Well I mean yeah if somebody out there is a match, no I’ll probably-
Adrienne: But you just said – that was your quote.
Attilio: Yeah it doesn’t mean you’re going to do it, you know I quote like “jumping out of airplanes 50,000 feet above the planet’s surface is fun” but I’m not necessarily do that either.
Adrienne: Mmm. Okay, moving on. I think we have Janyce on the line to give us her tip of the week on permits and drafting.
[Dream House Drafting Jingle]
Attilio: 50,000 feet that’s too high. That’s like up in space.
Adrienne: Yes. Yeah. That is pretty extreme there.
Attilio: You would just float you wouldn’t even fall.
Adrienne: Well welcome Janyce.
Janyce: Thank you!
Adrienne: And thank you for calling in with your tip for our listeners. So what are you going to-
Attilio: Whatcha got for us?
Adrienne: Yeah what are we going to learn this week?
Janyce: Well the tip for this week is to allow time for processes to take place.
Attilio: Mhm.
Janyce: So whether it’s design, and deciding actually how you want everything done, getting an ADU pre-check, or even getting your building permit through the building permit process, we have the availability of a third party review service nowadays for residential remodelers and builders but even so it takes time. So just want to encourage everybody, don’t want until the last month of freedom from these two. Start your ADU precheck if you’re selling, get your permit checkup inspection done before you list the property, if you’re planning to remodel don’t go borrowing money and paying interest before you have your designs set and your drawings and everything submitted to the building department. That’s our suggestion for this week.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: So Janyce-
Attilio: Slow down, slow down to hurry up.
Adrienne: What kind of timeframes would be acceptable to factor into these plans?
Janyce: Okay so design is going to be a factor of how your design professional works with you, and how much you’re willing to explore and wanting to see, So design and how long that takes it going to be strictly a factor of the homeowner, how quickly they make their decisions, how many possibilities do they want to see. ADU prechecks – I’ve seen some take a few months to come back. On the other hand some have been returned within two and a half weeks either approved or disapproved. So really wide, big discrepancies in time frame. Right now I’m nagging about one, calling over and over again and not getting a response, but sometimes you know you just don’t get a response from DPT. They’re very busy, still seeing high volume in permit applications each month. So I mean by high volume, each month when someone submits a set of plans they’re given an application number for each project that they submit, and I’ve seen numbers in the high 1000s, the low 2000s, and the counter is reset each month.
Adrienne: Mmm.
Janyce: That just gives you an idea of how many applications are coming through.
Adrienne: Wow.
Janyce: Third party review services can only get your permit issued within a month time, however if there are any factors that come up that need to be addressed before they can issue it, of course those things still have to be hanldled and there is definitely a fee that’s added for those services.
Attilio: Alright well thank you Janyce.
Adrienne: Yes. Excellent tip of the week. Have your time. Take your time in your planning
Janyce laughs.
Adrienne: Alright so that was Janyce Myrland of Dream House Drafting. You can reach her at-
Attilio: 206-7107. What’s that number?
Adrienne: 206-7107 or check her out at dreamhousedrafting.com.
Attilio: Yeah so if you’re thinking about any type of design work or selling or buying, come on and get an expert involved.
Adrienne: Yeah. Give her a call.
Attilio: Give her a call.
Adrienne: So speaking of experts, we’ve got Duke- Oh. Duke is no longer on the line.
Attilio: He said give him five minutes.
Adrienne: Okay.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: He’s in the middle of something. He’s taking care of his clients but you know Duke’s – What’s great about Duke’s team, Hawaii Pacific Property Management, is that they are a professional property management company.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: And it’s important – You know here’s the #1 reason – Why did we not personally manage properties when we had our licenses?
Adrienne: Because there’s so much more that I think can go wrong like when you look at all of the lawsuits that are happening, they’re typically involved with a property management type of situation, so like 90% of it is involving-
Attilio: It was a risk management decision from our standpoint to not get involved as licensees with property management.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Something to think about or to pass onto you as a homeowner, so guess what Duke’s with his client right now. We’re going to give you the property management tip of the week. Have professional property management because most of the lawsuits in the real estate industry have to do with property management and they’re literally going to be tenant/landlord-
Adrienne: Related.
Attilio: -Issues.
Adrienne: Yep.
Attilio: So get a property manager.
Adrienne: You get a tenant that really knows that tenant/landlord code in and out, and you know they may-
Adrienne and Attilio: – take advantage.
Adrienne: Because the law is written to the benefit of the tenant. So you know you definitely need a professional on your side.
Attilio: Yeah ‘cause they settle for treble damages and that’s uh – Trebles is those furry things that were multiplying on that Star Trek episode.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: And that’s not the trebles we’re talking about. Treble means like – I think it’s latin for like triple.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: So if the dispute was over $1,000 and they win it’s $3,000 to them. Triple damages, or treble damage is how they say it.
Adrienne: I mean I’ll share a story about y’know my experience before Duke and Hawaii Pacific Property Management and then after. So we were, y’know, taking care of our tenants ourselves and-
Attilio gasps.
Adrienne: Yeah!
Attilio: Scandalous!
Adrienne: Yeah, no but it was-
Attilio: Outrageous.
Adrienne: Y’know what I found was that because they knew that were the owners-
Attilio: Yeah
Adrienne: Yeah there was just – I think that they were almost-
Attilio: They had a bumper sticker that said “Whatever!”
Adrienne: Pretty much, and they just were taking advantage, so now with Duke and his team involved, it’s like I don’t hear anything. They just take care of it.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: I get my check every month. The property I know is being inspected regularly and making sure that there’s maintenance that’s being done and upkeep and you know like they deal with it. So there’s no stress, I’m not hearing from complaining tenants. Like heh ears from the complaining tenants, I don’t have to hear about it.
Attilio: Here’s the deal folks. If you’re a nit picky slumlord please don’t call them because they don’t want to work with you. You’ve gotta be somebody that’s willing to invest in your property, trust in their judgment, and getting things fixed and repaired, putting that property back into shape so you get a good tenant.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Because in the end it preserves the value of your investment over the long term and keeps you from having to be in court.
Adrienne: That’s right.
Attilio: So they have a couple guarantees. We’re going to run through them real quick for you. They’ve got a rent guarantee. What’s that one about?
Adrienne: So basically if they don’t rent the home within 30 days, they’ll pay the rent.
Attilio: No way that’s crazy.
Adrienne: It is!
Attilio: Okay. They also have an eviction guarantee. If they put a tenant in there, per their credit check criteria-
Adrienne: Their guidelines. Yes. Mhm.
Attilio: Their background, their reference checks, and everything works out, if they put that tenant in and for some reason they gotta evict they’ll do it at their cost and time and they’ll take care of it. However if you have a tenant that does not fit their criteria and you’re desperate to get somebody in, you’re insisting that they put them in there, but it falls below-
Adrienne: That tenant’s not – yeah, they’re not covered on the eviction guarantee..
Attilio: Then you’re paying for the eviction should it occur but so they’ve got an eviction guarantee. They’ve got a communication guarantee, return and respond to all emails, texts, calls, y’know.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Number one complaint that consumers with our real estate agency industry is what Adrienne?
Adrienne: Communication.
Attilio: Communication. Speaking of communication I think we need to communicate a break at this point.
Adrienne: Yes I think so too but stay with us, we have a very special guest in studio with us today.
Attilio: We’re going to talk about home inspections and how helpful it is for you as a homebuyer.
Adrienne: Stay with us.
[Commercial Break]
Announcer: The Team Lally Real Estate Show continues.
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne>
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And if you have any questions just give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Hey Adrienne I think somebody’s at the door. So hey! When opportunity knocks open that door wide open. Listen up folks!
Adrienne: We have a very unique situation. A local chain of stores is looking to be bought out.
Attilio: If we told you the name you’d recognize it immediately. Many of you have freqeuented one of their locations here in Oahu in the last year. Maybe even last week!
Adrienne: We cannot disclose who they are unless you a sign a nondisclosure. This business generates $30,000,000 every year with a net profit of over $150,000 per month.
Attilio: If you or someone you know wants to know more details just send us an email to info@teamally.com with the phrase in the subjective line “30,000,000.” Okay, and we’ll tell you what we came across.
Adrienne: Alright so we have a very special in studio guest.
Attilio: Uh-huh.
Adrienne: Today Nathan Baker of Pillar to Post-
Attilio: Home Inspection Services.
Adrienne: Home Inspections, yep. So I just wanted to give a quick intro about Pillar to Post and Nathan. Buying a home is one of the most significant decisions and one of the biggest investments you’ll ever make. A Pillar to Post Home Inspection will give you a clear, unbiased evaluation of a home’s condition. They will answer any questions you may have and help give you piece of mind.
Attilio: Every Pillar to Post Inspector is trained in the classroom and in the field. You can have confidence in the fact that Pillar to Post inspectors are required to continually upgrade their skills and keep current with new technology and professional standards.
Adrienne: So as I said earlier our guest today is local franchise owner and Pillar to Post home inspector providing professional home inspection services for the state of Hawaii. Please welcome Nathan Baker.
Nathan: Hello thank you for having me here today. It’s an honor to be here.
Attilio: Awesome. Well I got a quick question for you. How many homes have you inspected that have pillars?
Adrienne and Nathan laugh.
Attilio: I’m just kidding.
Adrienne: Probably not many in Hawaii.
Nathan: Trick question.
Attilio: “Here we go another house with a pillar so I’ve gotta do the whole thing ‘cause now they got a pillar and I’ve gotta go all the way to the post.” But um anyways so we kind of touched it in the beginning, prior to the break and in the intro, that it’s critically important. Adrienne would we ever – Has there ever been a situation where we advise the buyer to not get a home inspection? I don’t think-
Adrienne: No. Well I mean maybe if it was vacant land, or it was a complete teardown and that was their plan, was to just-
Attilio: Maybe those’ll be the exceptions. You know what – and you had a story. Share this with Nathan. I’m wondering if it’s happened to him. Wasn’t it something with a relative? I know who the relative is but don’t say where. It created a friction between the relatives because they were buying from each other and didn’t do a home inspection and all this stuff popped in.
Adrienne: Oh I have no problem saying who it was.
Attilio: Uh-oh! Here it goes, here comes the jerk.
Adrienne: Okay so my sister purchased-
Attilio: Ooh! Uh-oh!
Adrienne: -my dad’s home.
Attilio: Uh-oh.
Adrienne: And I told her – I said, “Hey,” and I’m all the way here in Hawaii, she’s in Maryland, so she’s not even going to hear this so – I told her “Hey, make sure you get a home inspection I know that, you know, you lived in the house for some time but this an older home. You know you definitely want to know what you’re getting into because if there’s major repairs then you’re going to have to budget for that and then also account for that as far as the price point.” So she didn’t listen and they went ahead and just went ahead with the purchase-
Attilio: Stuff came up and – Wasn’t your sister not talking to your dad for like a longtime?
Adrienne laughs.
Adrienne: Yeah. They didn’t talk for like probably close to two years.
Attilio Yeah.
Adrienne: And then finally you know they all made up but there ended up being a whole lot of things that needed to be done that were like major repairs not basic, cosmetic things. And then actually she ended up short selling that house so-
Attilio: Oh.
Adrienne and Attilio:
Attilio Anyway end of the story.
Adrienne: Get a home inspection!
Attilio: Trimming it down. Alright so Nathan how did you get into – Well are you from Hawaii or if you’re not how did you end up here in Hawaii?
Nathan: No I’m not originally from Hawaii.
Attilio: Okay.
Nathan: I grew up in the Phoenix area and eventually moved to Iowa where I spent 24 years of my life.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: Mmm.
Nathan: How I got to Hawaii – in 2013 my wife and I visited out here, we stayed at the beautiful Ko Olina area and we visited a little church there on the Waianae coast and kind of just fell in love with the people there and as we got back home we started discussing, you know wouldn’t it be great to go out there and just be a help to those people? Move our family out there? And so about 18 months later we found ourselves moving to Hawaii and have been enjoying it very much. The people here are very warm and loving so we enjoy living here very much. So that’s how we ended up here in Hawaii.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Living the dream.
Nathan: Oh yes.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: Nathan ran into a local guy. The guy said “‘Ey brah you should move here!” And you know what Nathan told him? “Shoots.”
All laugh.
Attilio: And here he is. Alright so now let’s – Adrienne was going to ask you a question.
Adrienne: Yep. So how did you get into the home inspection business?
Attilio: Mhm.
Nathan: That’s a good question. I grew up – my dad has been in construction his whole life so I grew up around construction. I worked it for several years out of high school with my dad and building homes and different types of commercial construction. And after that I injured myself and went to school and figured, use my brains versus my brawns.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nathan: And got an IT degree. So I worked as an IT manager for a hospital for 8 years and then moved out here and then in the process I spoke with a friend of mine who does this out in Ohio, and introduced me and said “With your experience you should look into it.” So I did, went out, got certified, did all my training and have been doing it ever since and it’s an industry that I love, you know it’s something that I thoroughly enjoy and it’s a passion of mine now.
Attilio: Now one of the things that most people don’t realize is that there’s really no kind of regulation, right.
Nathan: Correct.
Attilio: Or licensing for home inspectors. What I like about your background is two things. You have an IT technical background, and then you have a construction background. If you think about it a lot of homes today with all the modern gadgetry and systems in it, you kind of need both of those kinds of backgrounds. But we’ll talk more about that, but tell us more about the qualifications or the processes that you went to to become a home inspector.
Nathan: Exactly. So at Pillar to Post we require that all our inspectors be certified by our company. We have a very high and strict standard. You must pass a 200 question exam in a three hour period and get 80% or above so it’s a pretty high standard. It’s a really difficult test.
Attilio: Yeah.
Nathan: And then also we require that you be part of a local organization of home inspectors in your area, that way you kind of know the ins and outs of the things that are specific to the area that you’re in. So you know there’s all different kinds of continuing education that we require to make sure we’re staying up on top of what’s out there, the technology, the issues that are there, so that way as inspectors we’re giving our clients the best possible home inspection so that way they can protect their investment.
Adrienne: So Nathan you mentioned something about things that are unique to Hawaii or our area. Could you tell us some of those things that are a little different about our islands?
Attilio: Yeah what’s one or two of them?
Nathan: Well the biggest one is that I don’t have to inspect furnaces here.
Adrienne: Oh yes.
Attilio: Yep!
Adrienne and Nathan laugh.
Nathan: But you know part of the old construction here, the plantation home styles here, it’s something-
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nathan: I love that old construction. It’s very unique to Hawaii but it’s very different than the single wall like you mentioned. We’re used to a very thick wall with insulation and a very tight – this is a little bit different so, it’s off the ground so we have crawl spaces.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nathan: So that’s unique to the area that I’m not – y’know back where I’m from that was not the case so-
Attilio: And not too many basements you get into right?
Nathan: Correct, yeah.
Nathan and Adrienne laugh.
Attilio: Wine cellars.
Adrienne: Have you seen any basements since you’ve been inspecting?
Nathan: Not in the ground basements but I have seen like, similar, they’re halfway down beneath the ground, but very few.
Attilio: Yeah. You know a lot of people sometimes they think “Ahh! You know what, I’m just going to get my drunk uncle who lost his general contractor’s license, I’m just going to have him take a look at the house.”
Adrienne and Nathan laugh.
Adrienne: He’ll know.
Attilio: And then you go meet your drunk uncle, he’s going to walk around, stumbling around, you’re going to find him passed out in the living room, wake him up and say “What do you think uncle?! Should we buy this house?!” And you know what he’s going to say? “Shoots.”
Adrienne and Nathan laugh.
Attilio: Now let’s compare what you do for home inspections. Kind of us walk us through what a homeowner can expect.
Adrienne: Nathan versus the drunk uncle.
Attilio: Drunk uncle who lost his contractor’s license.
Nathan and Adrienne laugh.
Nathan: That’s good. It’s important to have an inspection done. With your story that you mentioned there, a lot of us really don’t even know what the condition of our own home is.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Even having lived there.
Nathan: Exactly so you know when we do a home inspection we do it inside out from foundation to the roof, the walls, everything is inspected. A thorough, professional inspection. That way you have – we have an unbiased opinion of what the condition of this home is so that way, you know, structurally, any repairs that are needed, you know we look at the systems of the homes. The electrical system, the plumbing, the air conditioning, you know it’s a big part here in Hawaii.
Attilio: Yes.
Nathan: That way you have a good understanding before you make one of the largest, if not the largest, investment of your life. You will know exactly the condition of the home that you are getting into. So you know it’s a priority of mine to do the best possible inspection every single inspection.
Attilio: Mhm.
Nathan: It’s as though I’m doing it for my parent, or for family. I want to do the same quality that I would do for myself as I would do for each and every one of my clients.
Attilio: Now what’s the finished product or tangible thing that you give them that says, “Here’s your home inspection!”
Nathan: Oh well at Pillar to Post we do something that we feel is unique. We have a very unique binder that we present to our client onsite the day of the inspection. In that binder we give you a full colored, detailed, easy to read, easy to understand report that lays out all our findings of the home, and we go over that with you so that way you have a good understanding of it, and you know you take that home, you review it, if you have any questions, we’re there to help you. So you know that’s given to our clients onsite during the day of the inspection.
Adrienne: So take us through the process. The inspection is scheduled, right? Then you head out to the home-
Nathan: Yep.
Adrienne: And you spend anywhere between-
Nathan: Depending on the square footage I would say that the average home takes 2-4 hours to do.
Attilio: Uh-huh.
Adrienne: To go through thoroughly.
Nathan: So we do a thorough inspection on the outside of the home, the roof, then we move into the inside and we inspect the electrical system, the plumbing, test all those functions, and we look in the attic and make sure that we have a good understanding of the complete condition of that home. When the client gets there I go over everything, I walk through the home, show you all the things you need to know about the home, any of the findings that I have so that way you know that day.
Adrienne: So you do the introduction to the home, so you’re doing the inspection and so at what point though – so the binder is there when you’re walking through the home? How does that work?
Nathan: Okay. Typically I get to the site and do my inspection and then the agent and the client show up with me. Then we do what we call a walkthrough.
Adrienne: Yes.
Nathan: So I go over the report with them and then we walk through the home and I show them any of the findings that I have, point them out, explain to them, give them advice on my recommendations on how to handle those things and then any questions that they have we go over those at that time so-
Attilio: Yeah I think critically a lot of buyer agents there, one of their main concerns is the bedside manner, you know, and delivering the information ‘cause I’m sure you’re not walking around going “What the hell were you guys thinking?!”
Nathan laughs.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: “Oh jeez!” Stuff like that, but just kind of giving them the professional-
Adrienne: In a calm-
Attilio: – calm opinion and/or report on the things that you’ve noticed.
Nathan: Yep and that’s, y’know, at Pillar to Post that’s something we emphasize in our training is what we call non-alarmist.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nathan: Every home – We know not every home’s perfect.
Attilio: Yeah.
Nathan: We know we’re going to find some things in most homes. So it’s more of educating the client on how that can be handled, how that problem can be fixed, and usually in most cases at the very, very – a small problem that’s easy to fix. So don’t send them screaming out of the house over a broken door knob so-
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: And then even like on the new construction homes sometimes you think “Oh it’s a brand new, the home must be perfect” but builders can miss stuff too.
Nathan: Absolutely.
Attilio laughs.
Adrienne: Talk to some of the experiences you’ve had with the new construction.
Nathan: I was talking to one of my colleagues at Pillar to Post and he did an inspection on a new home, went in there, and they had forgotten to fasten down the countertops to the kitchen so-
Nathan laughs.
Attilio: Oh wow.
Nathan: So they were completely loose. So builders maybe they have timeframes-
Adrienne: That happened to me actually.
Nathan laughs
Nathan: Oh really?
Adrienne: It was scary!
Nathan: Yeah.
Adrienne: Scary.
Nathan: Even though it’s new constructions, and you say “I don’t need that,” things happen.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Yeah.
Nathan: And it’s good to protect that investment.
Attilio: Put your your elbow on the counter, spilled your Coronas all over the counter.
Nathan laughs.
Adrienne: Oh no! No! Like my kids were swinging from the island. It wasn’t attached.
Attilio: It wasn’t attached?
Adrienne: No.
Attilio: The house you live in right now?
Adrienne: Yeah!
Attilio: What the?
Adrienne: I know!
Attilio: Alright
Adrienne: So even if it’s new construction, brand new house, it’s still a good idea to have a home inspection. So what other instances when we’re buying a home? New construction? Let’s talk about selling.
Attilio: Yeah let’s talk to you sellers out there.
Adrienne: The sellers.
Attilio: Sellers, come close. Come a little bit closer
Nathan laughs.
Attilio: Right up to the radio.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: One of the things – actually you realtors too. Come listen too because we’ll share some tips with you. One of the things we always recommend is getting a home inspection upfront when you’re getting ready to sell your home because I think most-
Adrienne: There’s no surprises.
Attilio: No surprises. You can give them something. They may still want to come in and pay for one but at least, if you provide that upfront, you’re being super open as a seller-
Adrienne: And it’s much better than just the seller’s disclosure and it could even be like “Alright here’s the checklist of all the things that the home inspector found. We’ve fixed all of those items. This house is now pretty much next to perfect.”
Attilio: Yeah.
Nathan: Yeah it’s an excellent idea for sellers because A.) like I said a lot of us don’t know the condition of our home.
Attilio: Uh-huh.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nathan: And it’s showing that you have a proactive-
Adrienne and Nathan: Approach.
Nathan: To getting your home – You want to find out what’s really wrong and then you can show, you can lay out during your open houses the report, and say “This is what we’ve found and we fixed it, and this home is in really good shape,” so that way it helped you sell your home faster. So it’s a very good idea and a good approach.
Adrienne: I think buyers feel less nervous about the unknown, right?
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: So if they know upfront what they’re getting into and then what’s been fixed, that they’re going to feel better about coming in with their offer.
Nathan: Exactly.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: They’re not going to find something scary when they do their home inspection.
Attilio: Yeah you don’t want to be one of them dudes that gets the furniture set from Ikea and then you pull out the instructions, fling it on the side, and start putting it all together and go “What’s all this missing parts over here?”
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: That’s kind of like buying a home or getting into a home without a home inspection you are – I don’t care who you are, you’re not going to be that thorough looking through your home. Who in the heck walks around through the home with volt meters and all the other equipment that you use to check things out?
Adrienne: But I just also want to point out that as a home inspector, it’s like you have kind of a different way of looking at the home than the actual homeowner even if they do have some level of construction or knowledge.
Nathan: Exactly.
Adrienne: It’s like a second set of eyes.
Nathan: And it’s something we do everyday. We’re trained to do it, so we know what to be looking for and maybe you’re good with concrete and you can figure out – but what about the rest of the house?
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Yes.
Nathan: Are you familiar with plumbing? Are you familiar with electric? You know those are very important aspects of the home that you might not be used to looking at and that’s where we come in and we find any issues that might be there so that you have a good understanding, and you can make a good, informed decision when purchgasing a house.
Attilio: Yep. And Nathan’s a trim guy so you know he’s going to get up to them crawl spaces.
Nathan and Adrienne laugh.
Attilio: He’s not going to be like “Yeaaahhh I looked at it…” No! He gets up there, gets all sweaty and hot, and so… Anyway who we have in the studio before we take a break?
Adrienne: We’ve got Nathan Baker from Pillar to Post.
Attilio: Mhm. What’s a good number to reach him at?
Adrienne: You can reach him at 492-1675.
Attilio: Or on the- is this the website? Nathan Baker dot-
Nathan: That’s my email, nathanbaker@pillartopost.com and our website is www.pillartopost.com/nathanbaker.
Attilio: Slash Nathan Baker. Stay with us because we’ve got more questions.
Adrienne: Alright so stay with us.
[Commercial Break]
Announcer: It’s the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Here’s Adrienne and Attilio.
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show, home of the guaranteed sold program – or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne.
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And if you have any questions just give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Hey Adrienne I’ve got a question for you, how many homes did we sell last year?
Adrienne: 171 homes.
Attilio: 171 homes? Holy cow! Hey folks, listen! 6,000 realtors on the island of Oahu. 90% of them are going to sell about a handful of homes. We sold 171! Either we’re like the mafia so you come visit with us, we pull a gun on you and tell you sign the-
Adrienne: Put you in a headlock.
Attilio: And give you noogies until you do business with us. Or maybe we’re doing something right and we’re doing it at a high level of right.
Adrienne: Mhm. I think it’s the other one.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: I think we’re doing something right.
Attilio: So give us a call. Y’know we’re not high pressure salespeople.
Adrienne: Interview us! See what we’re about.
Attilio: Interview us. We’re consultants, we advise you. We’ve told sellers not to sell.
Adrienne: Yeah.
Attilio: Because we took a look at the numbers and we said-
Adrienne: “Hey hold onto this! Rent it out.”
Attilio: What the hell, keep it. So even your consultation with us, surprise, surprise we’re going to give you the best advice for you and your family, not for us as realtors. So what number should they call if they want to set up a free consultation?
Adrienne: They can call 799-9596. So speaking of the best advice, we have Nathan Baker from Pillar to Post on and we recommend Nathan for home inspections. He does excellent work for our clients and welcome back.
Nathan: Thank you
Attilio: Here’s the thing for Nathan: For us there’s two schools right?
Adrienne: Yep.
Attilio: Don’t refer anybody just send them to the phonebook. Then there’s a second school that says, “Give them three names,” and then there’s the third school, “We’ve done business with Nathan.”
Adrienne: “This is who you should call.”
Attilio: We’ve met with him.
Adrienne: If you call someone else then you know, that’s it.
Attilio: We only have one recommendation. It’s Nathan. 492-1675. If you’re realtors and want to get your good bedside manner we call him the “Marcus Welby” of home inspectors.
Nathan and Adrienne laugh.
Attilio: I’m dating myself, that was a doctor.
Adrienne: Well that’s before my time.
Attilio: That’s from like the 70s.
Adrienne: Yeah before my time.
Attilio: He did commercials for like old people drugs and he says “I’m not a doctor but I play one on TV.”
Nathan and Adrienne laugh.
Attilio: Marcus Welby.
All laugh.
Adrienne: Well Nathan is a home inspector. He doesn’t play one on TV.
Nathan laughs.
Nathan: Nope.
Adrienne: He does this everyday.
Attilio: This is the real deal.
Adrienne: So okay so speaking of doing this everyday Nathan could you maybe share with us an interesting or funny kind of situation that you came across in your home inspecting?
Attilio: Mhm.
Nathan: Oh yes, sure. You know just like every job there’s things that you love and there’s things that you might not be so fond of and one of my things that I’m not so fond of is snakes and rats.
Adrienne: Okay.
Nathan: So I’m doing an inspection on a home and I climb up into the attic and I’m looking around with my flashlight and I turn and here’s a rat staring me at the face and I was expecting him to scurry off, but he just-
Adrienne: Stared.
Nathan: We do a staredown here.
Adrienne: Oh!
Nathan: And so yeah-
Adrienne: How big was it?
Nathan: Big enough that I scurried down as quick as possible from the attic because all I could envision him is crawling up my pant leg or going in my shirt.
Adrienne: Eugh.
Nathan: Yeah me and rats don’t really mix so it’s something I have to get used to because it is something I encounter once in awhile.
Adrienne: Well luckily we have no snakes here. It’s just the rats you have to deal with.
Nathan: Yep. Exactly, exactly.
Attilio: Well you know we know it was a local rat because Nathan was like “Hey can I take a look at your-” ‘cause they’re very territorial.
Adrienne: Yeah.
Attilio: Nathan asks the rat, “Hey can I look at the-”
Adrienne: At the attic.
Attilio: “Can I look at the crawl space?” and the rest said, “Shoots.”
Adrienne and Nathan laugh.
Adrienne: So one of the dangers of home inspecting is… rats.
Attilio: This is what I tell people. When you go ahead and look at houses, you know like you’re a regular homeowner and you go to open houses, when is anybody ever going to go up in the crawl spaces and, y’know, look at the foundation. No you’re just looking at all the aesthetic things that y’know we as listing agents, sellers, that’s all – we want to promote the aesthetics aspects of it because it’s an emotional decision, but you need that logical aspect of your home buying process to kick in and that’s when you bring in a professional like a home inspector. So speaking of realtors-
Adrienne: What about realtors?
Attilio: You know if I’m a realtor Nathan how much lead time?
Adrienne: Yeah how do you help the realtors in this industry with the booking of appointments and-
Attilio: Yeah how does that work?
Nathan: Sure. Well if you need to book an inspection you can give us a call at 492-1675 or you can shoot me an email. You know my goal in my business is to be no more than five days out.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nathan: Because we know that the J1 inspection process here in Hawaii is very short. You’ve only got ten days, so I want to make sure that I’m only five days out. That way I can get your home inspection done and give your client and yourself enough time to go over the information and make an informed decision so…
Attilio: Yeah ‘cause for you sellers out there, it’s nice tio have the home inspection done upfront because when you’re in the contract –
Adrienne: You can move things along a lot quicker.
Attilio: Talk about the timeline.
Adrienne: Yeah so usually that’s the J1. So that timeline is negotiated and typically it’s anywhere between 10 to 14 days at the very most. But if you’ve done the upfront home inspection you can shorten that time period where the buyer and the seller have maybe already negotiated upfront because they had that home inspection. You know what kind of credit or adjustment, or additional repairs that are going to need to be done.
Attilio: So you can kind of narrow the negotiating process once you’re in escrow.
Adrienne: And shorten the closing time.
Attilio: Because most sellers, they’ll realize just because you open escrow at a particular agreed upon price point there’s two other points within the transaction in the escrow process that allow for further negotiations, one of them is a home inspection.
Adrienne: And then the other one’s an appraisal.
Attilio: And the appraisal.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: Alright so-
Adrienne: I have another question for Nathan.
Attilio: Go ahead.
Adrienne: So we know that this never happens but just in case it does I know that, you know, no one’s perfect, if you were to miss something in one of your home inspections, what kind of piece of mind would the buyer or the seller have?
Nathan: Absolutely, yep. Like I said I treat every inspection like I was doing it for a family member, but if there was an occasion where I might have missed something, that’s something we bring, we discuss, and we resolve.
Attilio: Sure.
Nathan: I want every customer to walk away satisfied, happy.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Nathan: So customer satisfaction is something that I take very personal and I will make it right with my clients so…
Attilio: And the other thing too, just to give you some breathing room on that too, it’s not like you’re Superman and you’ve got xray vision, and you can see through walls.
Adrienne: Keep it to a reasonable expectation.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Obviously the see through vision is not the technology that he uses.
All laugh.
Nathan: And that’s something I try to point out when I do a home inspection, you know. We don’t have the privilege to tear apart walls and-
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: Yeah.
Nathan: -and take things apart. It’s a visual inspection so we do our best with the technology and the tools that we have to help you make a good, informed decision at the time that you’re inspecting the home.
Attilio: Alright so if you’re a realtor out there or you’re a homeowner and maybe you want to get one of these done up front, or maybe you’re lonely and you just want somebody to come walk around your house for three to four hours, and talk story with you afterwards going over his report. No not that person.
Adrienne and Nathan laugh.
Attilio: Don’t call Nathan. Call your kids! Kids check in your parents. They miss you. Well what’s a good number again?
Adrienne: You can call Nathan at 492-1675.
Attilio: What was a good email for you? What’s a good email?
Nathan: Nathan.baker@pillartopost.com.
Attilio: Okay and… yeah so feel free to give him a call.
Adrienne: Yes reach out to Nathan. Well thank you so much-
Nathan: Oh thank you very much for having me here today, it was a-
Adrienne: -for being our guest. Yes it was a pleasure and we learned all sorts of interesting facts and thank you for educating our listeners too.
Attilio: Alright we’re going to take a break or bring some people on?
Adrienne: We’re ready for-
Adrienne and Attilio: Abby!
Adrienne: With her open house. Hi Abby!
Abigayle: Hi hi!
Adrienne: Hello. So are you holding an open house this weekend or are you calling us with a tip or both?
Abigayle: I actually do have an open house on this coming Sunday.
Adrienne: Okay.
Abigayle: So I’m going to be at Country Club Village in the Salt Lake area. So it’s move in ready, two bedroom, two bath, and two parking as well.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Abigayle: It’s at 1017 Al Nakunani Street and the number’s 411. It’s gated so I’m going to have signs over there by the, you know, the keypad to call my phone and I’ll buzz you in.
Attilio: Okay.
Abigayle: Move in ready. Really nice. It’s right by the golf course and close to schools, shopping center and everything in Salt Lake.
Attilio: Yeah
Abigayle: So come down and see me. I know there’s football going on that day but
Adrienne: Are you going to have the game on?
Attilio: Mhm.
Abigayle: I’m going to bring my laptop so, y’know-
Adrienne: So if they need updates they can-
Abigayle: Yeah.
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: Or maybe they don’t want it because they’re DVRing it. They don’t want any spoiler alerts.
Abigayle laughs.
Adrienne: So…
Attilio: Anyway come visit Abby. If you see the signs – look for those Team Lally signs in the Salt Lake area.
Abigayle: Yes please.
Adrienne: Alright thanks Abby.
Abigayle: Thank you bye-bye.
Attilio: She’s going to be close to Mapunapuna so bring her some manapua.
Adrienne laughs.
Adrienne: Alright so now we have Brooks on the line to talk about some coming soon listings.
Brooks: Alright, hi you guys. So I think we can all agree that Aiea is a really well located part of Oahu and so-
Adrienne: Yes.
Brooks: Nestled in the hills just above Aiea is a nice townhome development and it’s called Ridgeway.
Adrienne: Mmm.
Brooks: And so this particular unit in Ridgeway is located, situated, on the hills so it has to have a spectacular view of Pearl Harbor and then the greenery of the hills below them ‘cause it’s like on a rimline so to speak.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Nice.
Brooks: So it’s a super nice unit, it’s really well cared for by the current owners. They’re moving out due to a military reassignment. They’re going to South Carolina, Charleston.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Brooks: And what sets this unit apart amongst other things such as the awesome location, is that it has two assigned parking stalls. Now that’s – the majority of the other units only have one … parking stall, so it’s a huge bonus.
Adrienne: Oh wow!
Attilio: Yeah.
Brooks: Yeah. It really is. And the price point is great for small families or a single person or a couple just getting started on their life journey so we’ll be going live with this on Monday the 23rd of January and having our first grand opening event on Sunday, January 29th. How do you guys like that?
[Whistle off-mic]
Attilio: That sounds awesome.
Adrienne: I love it!
Brooks laughs.
Adrienne: You’ve sold me. I want it. It sounds so great.
Brooks: I heard somebody whistle in the background, that’s pretty good.
Attilio: Yeah!
Adrienne laughs.
Brooks: Alright.
Attilio: Thanks Brooks.
Brooks: Have a great weekend you guys, thanks a lot.
Adrienne: Alright thanks Brooks.
Attilio: Hey guys, I don’t know if you realized but we’re in a sales market so whenever you’re asking a seller, you know, why are you selling, and they say, “You know I’m skipping bail on a murder charge.”
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: No no no. Just kidding. But anyway it’s tight inventory.
Adrienne: Yeah.
Attilio: So you want to be working with a real estate company that’s got coming soon inventory. Keep a little edge on the rest of the buyers out there that you’re competing with.
Adrienne: So if you want that edge you can always give us a call and we’re happy to share with you our coming soon listings.
Attilio: Alright. Next up is Ray.
Adrienne: Yes, with more coming soon listings. Ray.
Attilio: Is Ray there?
Ray: Aloha.
Adrienne: What do you have for us?
Attilio: Hi, whatcha got for us Ray?
Ray: Speaking of coming soon listings, I actually have a two bedroom, one bath townhome … in Pearl City.
Adrienne: Nice.
Ray: It’s actually going to be going live beginning next week.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Ray: And grand open house next weekend.
Attilio: Yep. Alrighty.
Ray: That’s it.
Attilio: Okay. Where is it again?
Ray: It’s in Pearl City.
Attilio: Pearl City.
Ray: Great location, centrally located.
Adrienne: Which building or is it like a house or townhouse?
Ray: It’s a townhouse in … Gardens.
Attilio: Oh … Gardens, okay. Awesome. Yeah, nice location.
Adrienne: Yes I think all that we’ve talked about today has all been like-
Attilio: Central.
Adrienne: Central. We had Salt Lake, Brooks talked about Aiea, and Ray talked about Pearl City. So-
Attilio: Aiea that’s a very expensive word on Wheel of Fortune. It’s all vowels.
Adrienne laughs.
Adrienne: It is.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: It is. Alright cool.
Attilio: Thanks Ray!
Adrienne: Thanks Ray, sounds like a great opportunity for someone. I know that those are all properties that will fit anyone’s budget.
Attilio: Mhm.
Adrienne: Investors, first time homebuyers, whatever you choose.
Attilio: Baseball card collectors.
Adrienne: Yes, baseball card collectors.
Attilio: Wackadoodle football fans that just want to sit at home, watch TV all day.
Adrienne: Them too.
Attilio: Yep.
Adrienne: Them too. So before we end our show I just want to touch again on the event that we’re having on January 23rd at our office.
Attilio: Estate planning seminar.
Adrienne: Yes from five to six so make sure that you check it out on our website teamlally.com under the events section you can sign up there.
Attilio: Bring grandma down so you guys aren’t fighting at her gravesite over all her personal belongings and assets.
Adrienne: Mhm.
Attilio: And get educated.
Adrienne: It’s not just for old people though. I think anyone that owns a home should have an estate plan.
Attilio: You know once I got my trust done I wasn’t scared of buses anymore.
Adrienne: That’s good!
Attilio: – and stepping off the street in front of them.
Adrienne: So you feel like you’re invincible is that why you wear the Superman shirt?
Attilio: So I stepped off the street the other day, this bus ran over my foot and as he drove by I screamed at him “Thank goodness I took care of my trust!”
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: And anyway. You know give your spouse, your children, your heirs, give them that piece of mind by getting that – Give yourself that piece of mind.
Adrienne: Yep.
Attilio: Unless you’re grouchy and you’re like “I don’t care what they get,” you know. But no you want to take care of it right?
Adrienne: Yeah otherwise the other thing is that if you don’t take care of it that it can be very costly and most of the proceeds are going to go to attorneys’ fees and taxes and creditors and it just doesn’t benefit anyone.
Attilio: You’d be surprised how there are wealthy people out there that have no trusts. They’re going to talk about it at the seminar.
Adrienne: Yeah and then they die and how much money that they lost because of the lack of planning.
Attilio: Yeah, illegitimate rapper children.
Adrienne laughs.
Attilio: Seriously, I’m not joking, you think I’m funny hah hah guy all the time but-
Adrienne: It’s true.
Attilio: That was a claim on Prince’s estate, an illegitimate child who is a rapper who is in prison.
Adrienne: Alright thank you for listening.
Attilio: Speaking of illegitimate rappers in prison-
Adrienne and Attilio laugh.
Adrienne: And thank you to our sponsors.
Attilio: Jodie Tonga and Derek Tonga of Pacific Rim Mortgage. They don’t rap.
Adrienne: No. Bradley Mariama of Allstate Insurance.
Attilio: Nathan Baker of Pillar to Post Home Inspection.
Adrienne: Ben and Tony Mamuad of AAA Roofers Hawaii.
Attilio: Janyce Myrland with Dream House Drafting.
Adrienne: John Speed of Kilauea Pest Control
Attilio: Duke Kimhan with Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Adrienne: John Menard of Kama’aina Plumbing.
Attilio: Thomas Pattison with Pattison Land Surveying.
Adrienne: Myran Kamihara of Kamihara Law.
Attilio: If you want to get ahold of any of our sponsors just go to teamlally.com.
Adrienne: We also want to give a big thank you to our producer here in the studio.
Attilio: Who is he?
Adrienne: Stephen.
Attilio: Chee-ooh!
Adrienne laughs.
Adrienne: Make sure to tune in next week. We’ll have an awesome guest talking about something that will change your life-
Attilio: Forever! This is the Team lally Real Estate Show home of the guaranteed-
All: SOLD PROGRAM!
Adrienne: If we can’t sell your home at the agreed upon price and our timeframe we’ll have it bought for cash.
All: THANKS AND ALOHA!