HOI Property Services

Flippers gonna flip.

Smooth, effortless, completely pointless.

Waiving the inspection to win the bid? Here’s what you’re betting against.

That bathtub looked perfectly fine. Filled it, drained it, and it was leaking straight into the basement.

That’s the thing about waiving an inspection — you’re not betting that the house is fine. You’re betting that nothing is wrong that you can’t see standing in the living room. And the expensive problems almost never announce themselves.

A few days saved on the front end can turn into thousands in repairs you inherited the second you signed. Win the house, sure — but know what you’re walking into.

That’s all an inspection really is: someone catching it before it’s your problem.

I’m at it again. 👃 Found a gas leak right at the water heater on today’s inspection. This is exactly the kind of thing you can’t see on a walkthrough but absolutely want caught before closing. A small leak is a big deal — gas doesn’t get safer with time. Know what you’re buying.

Setting up your laundry machines and utility sink right in front of the electric panel might seem like a space-saver, but it’s a real safety problem.

Standards of practice recommend a clear working space in front of electrical panels — typically 30 inches wide and 36 inches deep — so the panel can be accessed quickly in an emergency. Block it with appliances and a sink, and you’ve got water sources next to electrical equipment and no way to hit the main breaker fast when you need to.

Move the panel or move the laundry. Don’t sandwich them.

Meet the Vulcan Autosonic — a mechanical, wind-up fire alarm from 1971.

Terrible alarm system.

Here’s why smoke detectors replaced these:

🔥 Most fire deaths come from smoke inhalation, not flames

🔥 Smoke fills a room way before the ceiling hits 135°F

🔥 A modern smoke alarm gives you escape time.

A heat alarm, such as this, gives you a warning that the house is already on fire.

Add in the fact that this thing has no self-test, no battery backup, and a 50+ year old spring mechanism that may or may not still work… and you’ve got a device that belongs in an antique store, not a ceiling.

This panel is one of the most well-known fire hazards in residential electrical — and it’s still sitting in thousands of homes. Stab-Lok breakers are notorious for not tripping when they’re supposed to. Found this one during today’s inspection. If you’ve got one, you need to know.

Buyers — this is why a home inspection matters. Cellular core DWV stack with heat damage. The seller’s not going to point this out. Without an inspection, you’re closing on a sewer stack that’s one failure away from soaking your subfloor.

Dead mice all over this basement. Here’s why.

Furnace exhaust venting into a chimney with no flue liner — so the CO is pouring right out of the ash door into the house.
The mice died. People die the same way. Silent, odorless, invisible.

If your furnace vents into a chimney, verify the liner. And get a CO detector on every floor. This is not optional.

Spider webs I can handle. This I cannot ignore. The water heater exhaust had rusted through and fully separated from the chimney flue — meaning carbon monoxide had a direct path into the living space. No visible signs from upstairs. You’d never know without getting in here until it was too late.

Before you sign that contract, make sure the inspection is not waived. It could save your life!