When you’re home shopping and find a home you really like, you want to see things positively because you’re optimistic. With that optimism, you give trust. Unfortunately, sometimes that trust is taken advantage of, or things are overlooked, such as an uncertified roof.
You need to follow a certain process when buying a home and that includes getting a roof certification from a licensed roofing contractor. I had a client that recently called us for an inspection, but he did it after he purchased the home.
When we got out there, we realized that we had been out to the home before, but for the seller. As it turns out, we flunked this home. It was un-certifiable. The seller, however, didn’t pass this information along to the buyer’s realtor.
The seller’s realtor told the buyer’s realtor that the roof had been taken care of by Roof Life of Oregon over the year, and that was good enough for the homeowner.
Cut to three months later, and we’re telling the new homeowner that the roof is shot and will need to be replaced within the next year or so. We’re talking a thirty-four thousand dollar mistake that could have been avoided with a three hundred dollar roof inspection.
An example with a more positive outcome was when we inspected a $600,000 home for our client, who was also the buyer. She made an offer that was accepted and called us during the ten-day inspection period.
We found that this roof was absolutely gone. It was rotted, crumbling, had a loss of resin, and all the fiber was falling apart. I told her that this roof was going to leak anytime. This was a forty-two thousand dollar roof.
Using that information, she was able to negotiate her new home down forty thousand dollars. And she only spent $300 to get that information.
This happens a lot in Portland, but my concern is that it doesn’t happen enough. A lot of people are losing their equity and hard-earned dollars. Get your uncertified roof, certified by Roof Life of Oregon and know what you’re buying.