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🛑 Public Service Announcement: Homeowners, Please Read Before Paying for Attic Insulation Removal 🛑

From Nick Welty – 24-Year Veteran Home Inspector

I’m currently at a 3,200 sq. ft. home built in 1997 where an elderly homeowner just paid $9,000 to have all of his attic insulation removed and replaced—because of silverfish.

Let me be clear: This is predatory behavior. Silverfish are common nuisance pests, not justification for gutting an attic. These kinds of scare tactics are being used by unscrupulous pest control and insulation contractors to exploit homeowners, especially the elderly.

In my 24 years inspecting homes, I’ve seen this time and again—contractors making false claims, pushing fear-based sales, and charging outrageous prices for unnecessary work.

Before agreeing to major services like insulation removal, mold remediation, structural work, or pest treatment, always get a second opinion from a truly unbiased professional. A licensed home inspector or independent tradesperson can give you honest insight without the sales pitch.

Please share this with your loved ones—especially seniors who may be targeted. Knowledge is protection.

— Nick Welty
InspectorNick | Kansas City Metro

Full-Service Home Inspection in Kansas City | InspectorNick.com InspectorNick.com offers Full-Service Home Inspection in Kansas City to make the home buying process easy & to help avoid any major problems in the future.

🛑 You Paid Us to Find It—So Why Aren’t You Making Sure It Got Fixed? 🛠️💸

Here’s a hard truth from someone who’s done over 12,000 inspections in 24 years and leads a team inspecting 1,000+ homes a year:

Less than 5% of buyers get a reinspection after repairs.
Of those few? We find MAJOR issues still unresolved—or worse, intentionally concealed.

Let me give you some real-life, recent examples:

🧼 Mold growth?
Just painted over with Kilz. No cleaning. No remediation. Just a “make it white and walk away” approach.

💦 Water intrusion in the basement?
“Fixed” by setting up a $30 box fan for a day and hoping it smells dry enough to pass sniff test.

🐀 Rodents or bats in the attic?
Not removed. Not trapped. Not sanitized. Just shoved some fresh insulation over the droppings and called it a day.

These are NOT hypotheticals—they’re things we catch regularly when someone actually reinspects. The kicker? Most don’t.

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Let me break it down:

✅ You paid us to find issues (and we did).
✅ Your agent submitted a resolution, the seller said “sure.”
❌ But then no one followed up.
❌ The seller “hired someone” (maybe) to “do something” (maybe).
😬 And now you’re 3 days from closing, finding out the mold is still there, the water’s still coming in, and the attic smells like a hamster cage.

Oh—and guess who’s paying for the reinspection and scramble repairs?
You are. Again.

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👊 Strategy tip (from someone who’s watched hundreds of buyers get burned):

➡️ Buyer pays for the initial reinspection.
➡️ But in the Resolution of Unacceptable Conditions, the seller signs in writing that they will cover ALL subsequent reinspections until the items are actually repaired to professional standards.

It’s fair. It’s smart. It protects you from:
• Negotiating twice for the same issue
• Paying extra for seller shortcuts
• Getting stuck with expensive problems after closing

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Here’s the part that grinds my gears:
Many sellers already have a contract and a closing date, and they know it.
So they skate by. Do the bare minimum.
And too many buyers (and agents) just let it happen.

❗ A home inspection isn’t just a box to check. It’s leverage. It’s clarity. It’s your protection. But only if you follow through.

You paid us to find it. Now let us make sure it got fixed.

Sincerely,
😤 Frustrated but still fighting for our buyers,
The InspectorNick.com Team



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🤖 And for all those wondering—yes, we believe in full disclosure: this post was proudly brought to life with the help of ChatGPT. Now that’s transparency.