 Ladies and gentlemen, there are three main reasons investors and home buyers lose money when they buy properties. It is not the intention or anything more than they do not know what to look out for. Or in many cases, the seller is actually hiding the defects. Today I want to discuss three of these items with you, damp, cracks and the roof. And maybe with a little bit more information, you will be more confident when you go into your next property viewing. Why does this little finch nest have no damp, no cracks and no roof leaks? He is very picky about the grass he uses and he follows exact guidelines. But most of all I think it is because he knows his wife will rip the nest to pieces if it is not built properly. Unfortunately in today's property market that is not the case anymore. Building standards have deteriorated and home owners do not do maintenance because they don't know how to do maintenance and when to do maintenance. Join me tomorrow for more on maintenance. When you viewed the property, you could see that there were some paving bricks that were lifting in the driveway. You also saw this hump in the driveway. But you don't know what I have seen. The exact same tree that was lifting the bricks in the driveway has also caused a structural crack on the boundary wall. It is going to cost between $6,000 and $10,000 to remove the tree and the root ball and anything up to $20,000 to repair the boundary wall. Do you have this extra money? The difference is that I am Marisha Robes, the owner of Houting Property Inspections. I have 12 years construction experience and eight years inspection experience and I did not learn everything in a book. I picked up experience on the site. I'm an Abyss certified master inspector and my mission in life is to ensure that my clients do not lose money. Everybody can see this crack but I will tell you why it has cracked and how to repair, not patch it. Remember if you patch something, it is temporary. It is going to come back. But if you repair it, it is done permanently. The seller said he repaired this crack. I don't think so. It has appeared again in the middle of the band aid he applied. How much do you think you can negotiate the price of this property down with these beautiful structural cracks? When I climbed on top of the roof, this is what I found. The roof facing the street was beautifully painted and created a good impression. But on the other side, the paint was peeling. You might say, so what? I agree, so what? But for me, the alarm bells were ringing. What else was the seller hiding? I now had to have a hawk's eye to ensure that I find everything he was trying to hide. Do you climb on top of a roof and into a roof when you view a property? My lad is in my car and I love roofs. Aren't these roof trusses just absolutely beautiful? I'm an ITC certified roof inspector and I will give you a detailed report on the condition of the roof. Pumi and Bongani were very happy and they said they were extremely lucky that they did a property inspection before they bought their dream house. Pumi absolutely fell in love with this property and she just wanted to put an offer in. But Bongani was the cautious one. He decided that he needed a property inspection. He was concerned about the roof and he was worried about the part where the seller had done extensions. I did the inspection which took just over three hours and took more than 190 photographs. They were totally flawed when they received a 60 page report. They did not think there were so many defects in the house. They did not notice the structural crack on the boundary wall which was caused by the neighbour's tree. And Bongani thought that the peeling paint was just poor workmanship but he did not realise that it was rising damp which was going to cost thousands to repair. But their biggest surprise was the roof. They did not think that this little dent in the roof was that serious. I shared my report with a seller and requested to reduce the purchase price by the amount it was going to cost to repair all these major defects. The seller refused and they walked away from the deal. They were disappointed but in actual fact they were very grateful that they did not buy a house which was going to cost them a lot of money. The seller was totally shocked by all the defects and he lost a sale but he only had himself to blame because he has not done regular maintenance on his house. Please join me tomorrow for more on maintenance. Paul and Sandra had mixed emotions before they bought their first property. They were excited, they were concerned, they were worried whether they were making the right decision. The house created such a good impression. It was beautifully painted and they would not have to paint for about five years. They really enjoyed dreaming about building beautiful play areas for the children in the garden. After a lot of collaboration with family members they decided to submit an offer to purchase. The agonizing weight of approvals and transfer was eventually over and just over three months later they got the keys to their dream house and eventually they could move in. What a shock. Paul ran into the kitchen when his wife screeched while unpacking the kitchen. There was major damp and mould in the kitchen cupboard which came from a leaking balcony above. The outlet had not been waterproofed. They did not open the cupboards when they viewed the property. But the biggest shock was under the zinc. The zinc unit was totally rotten inside. I opened all the cupboard doors and I also flushed the toilets when I do a property inspection. But the biggest disappointment to them was the crack the seller had declared and the seller had said it's not serious, it comes and goes and I have repaired it. It was actually a structural crack. They were totally, totally disappointed and they now had huge repables or they had to go the legal route. If only they had done a property inspection they would have not had these problems to contend with now. Even you afford to miss a structural crack in a built-in cupboard which has extended into the roof and now it's going to cost you 150,000 rand to underpin these foundations. There are 15 different types of cracks and you do not repair them all with a well-known crack filler. The most important thing about a crack is to identify it and then to repair not patch it. Why was the entire outside of the house covered in crazing cracks? Is it serious? How do you repair it? Why was the boundary wall covered in mapping cracks? And the seller said this was a settlement crack. No it's not, it is a structural crack and it is serious. Make sure that you identify the cracks correctly and then that you repair them. Don't patch them. Damp is my pet hate. According to me it is the biggest problem in South African houses today and it is because of a construction error. Houses today are not competent and they do not work with competent supervisors on site. This is because of a construction error. The DPC was supposed to protrude by 10 millimeters but it doesn't. I do an average 10 inspections a week and in 2018 and 2019 I found one house that did not have rising damp. It is a nightmare and it is very expensive to repair. It just doesn't stop. It starts at the bottom and goes about 1 meter high. The only way to repair not patch rising damp is to remove the plaster 1 meter high, treat the bricks with a waterproofing agent, then replaster the outside of the house with a waterproofing agent mixed in and then you have to repaint the entire outside of the house again. As you can imagine this is expensive. It costs about 850 rand per square meter. Beware, rising damp is everywhere. Have you noticed the bubbling paint inside the house? Why is it in the passage? What is causing it and how can you repair it? When you arrive at a house and it has been newly painted, please do not walk past the walls and say yippee I don't have to paint for the next couple of years. Look at the walls closely. The yellow circle indicates where the cellar has painted over the damp. It is very clear to see if you know what to look for. The yellow arrows are indicating where the paint has started to bubble again and will soon peel. The red arrows indicate where the cellar has patched the cracks which have started to appear again. Please ensure that you look at freshly painted walls very closely. When you approach a house, look up, look at the roof. Can you see how this roof is waving at you? Please know that if a roof is waving at you, you are going to wave goodbye to some money. The brand ring has started to sag and there could be a problem with the roof trusses. When a king post pulls out of the nail plate like this, it is serious. This roof is going one way and that is down. My client was totally shocked when I did a maintenance inspection for him and found that the roof trusses had been burned. The cellar and the agent never disclosed that there had been a fire in the house previously. Unfortunately the cellar had immigrated and my client now had to foot the ball to replace about six of these trusses. It is important to have an inspection done before you buy the property and know about these defects before the time. This was the worst roof cavity I have ever inspected. There were about 200 doves nesting in this roof cavity. There were numerous fleas and rodents and I do not even want to think about all the diseases that they were. This is a serious health risk. My client's daughter had asthma and they walked away from this house because it would have caused major health issues for their daughter. I always hear that flat roofs always leak. They always give problems. That is true if you do not maintain the waterproofing. Once the waterproofing has started to crack like this, it is not effective anymore. Flat roofs must be kept clean. A roof like this covered in leaves and debris will cause the water to pond and it will cause roof leaks that I can guarantee you. This cellar declared to me that there was a roof leak and he has tried everything and he cannot stop the roof to leak. It was no surprise to me when I climbed on top of the roof to see why the roof was still leaking. This is most definitely not the way to repair a roof leak. The cellar had declared that he fitted new sheets but that they had started leaking again. Creepers do not belong on the roof. They caused the water to pond and the roof sheets will leak very soon again. A broken roof truss is serious. You cannot patch a roof truss like this. There are very strict guidelines from the ITC on how roof trusses must be repaired. This mandate is not going to withstand a very strong wind. Do not accept workmanship like this. When you buy a house you have to make some decisions. Are you going to have a property inspection done or not? Are you going to rely on your own intuition and knowledge to decide whether to buy the house? You have to make the decision. With my property condition report or full home report you can make an informed decision. It is filled with a wealth of information. You will know what defects are serious. What defects could become serious if not attended to in the near future or what maintenance you have to do. The decision is yours. Are you going to have a property inspection done or not and then you can make an informed decision whether you are going to go ahead with a sale or are you going to negotiate a better price or are you going to walk away from the deal but at least you will be able to make an informed decision. There will be no guesswork. You will benefit from our knowledge and experience. Please click on the link below to download your free ebooklet with some maintenance guidance as well as information on what to look out for when you view your next property. And please join me tomorrow when I talk about maintenance. Thank you for your time.