Home buying season is in full swing in the Upper Peninsula. Like all good media outlets, Marquette Michigan’s TV6 News is always looking to offer a fresh perspective on trending topics—including seeking out experts to interview.

To say that we were pleased that they chose to reach out to our very own home inspector Rich Beasley to interview on the topic “What to Know About Home Inspections” would be a huge understatement!

Click on the video below to watch Sarah Blakely interview Rich on TV6!

Transcript of TV6 News Interview with Home Inspector Rich Beasley (May 24, 2023):

TV6 News Anchor Sarah Blakely: Tonight on Insights, we are learning more about buying a home. There are quite a few steps to go through before you get the keys and can start unpacking. And one of those important steps is the home inspection. Joining us tonight is Rich Beasley, a home inspector based in the Marquette area. Rich, thanks for joining us.

Certified Home Inspector Rich Beasley: So home inspections are quite a lengthy process. What is the home inspection? What’s the purpose of it? The purpose of it is so that we can assess a home and tell you. It gives you a good picture of what you’re purchasing. There’s things that I look at that a number of home buyers wouldn’t look at when they walk into the home.

TV6: Mm-hmm. Uh, so we want be aware of what, what’s there. It helps you to evaluate the home’s price and the, the distance you’re gonna get from your home. Uh, it’s not just, Hey, we’re walking in and finding everything that’s wrong. We’re finding the right things too, you know, so we can educate a buyer on what they’re purchasing.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: That’s huge. Uh, cuz you know, like a first time buyer doesn’t really know what they’re looking at. They knew the home they lived in. Or the apartment and they didn’t do the maintenance. Didn’t do those things that, you know, a homeowner does. So they’re not aware of a lot of, many of these things. So we can give you a good picture of what you’re purchasing.

TV6: Gotcha. And so is, is those things that you go through on the inspection list, would the seller be liable for those things or would the would-be home buyer be liable for those things?

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: It’s kind of a mixed bag.

TV6: Gotcha.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: There’s a disclosure statement. Realtors talk about disclosures.

So the, the seller discloses what they know about the home and the inspection report gives you a negotiating, a negotiation tool. To come back and say, well, we found these things wrong also, so we need to address this. And the realtors do a good job of that.

It’s amazing. We live in the home. We don’t see the things that are deteriorating.

TV6: Right, right.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: You know, so often I find things that it was deferred maintenance or wow, it’s been like that for 20 years. We didn’t know.

TV6: Mm-hmm.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: So the seller often isn’t aware of the issues with their own home.

TV6: Gotcha.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: You know, it’s like wearing your favorite shirt. You don’t realize how old it’s gotten.

TV6: Right. You know?

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: Exactly.

TV6: So what are some of those things that first time home buyers or all home buyers should be on the lookout for in those houses?

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: Okay, so when you pull in the driveway, um, and this is what I do as an inspector, I pull in the driveway and I get a first impression of the home.

Has it been well maintained? Do we have peeling paint? Do we have curling shingles on the roof? You know, that’s a good representation of what we’re gonna see in the home, you know, because if we haven’t maintained it, the exterior, typically we haven’t maintained those systems in the home that need maintenance. Um, we are all agog about painting the right colors in the bathroom and all those beautification things, but we forget about the structure and the mechanics of that home, of that envelope.

So I look at the outside and I say, well, I pull up and if I’m a new time, first time buyer, I’ve got rose colored glasses on. This is an amazing house.

TV6: Oh, it’s amazing, right? It’s a cute little house.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: It’s a cute little house, but then you see the peeling paint on the windows, and that’s a red flag. We see that the, like I said, the shingles are curling. That’s a red flag. So, and, and not that they can’t be mitigated or repaired, but it’s something you want to be aware of.

Um, when we get inside the home, it, when you have all these beautiful old homes in Marquette that have old wiring. So we see a two-pronged outlet, you know, outlets around the room. That means we have ungrounded wiring. So there’s gonna be some upgrades there. It’s just something to be aware of.

Um, old windows. I was fascinated the first time I saw an old window with that rippled glass, but then I realized, no, I’m losing energy out that window. Right? I don’t want that. It’s an upgrade that we can make, but those are going to be expenses long term that you’re gonna have to deal with.

And some of the other things that we look at, When I walk into the home, if I see, you know, we go in the basement, we look, we see the old furnace or the old boiler. They’re neat. They’re great. But they’re not efficient and they’re going to have to break down and they’re going to be a maintenance sink. You’re going to have money going into that continually.

Uh, insulation is other thing which you wouldn’t see that I would see. I’ll climb into the attic. I don’t ask a customer to climb the attic.

TV6: That’s good.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: That’s good. But if I walk up there, we have four inches of insulation where we need 22. We’re going to address that.

And those, that’s not something the seller quite often knows about because many sellers didn’t have a home inspection. Nobody went in the attic. They just paid that electric bill or a gas bill all these years and wondered why it was so high.

TV6: Right.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: So we can address some of those things to an inspection.

TV6: Excellent. So really quickly before we wrap, where can people go to get more information about your business and just home inspections?

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: We have our website, uphomeinspection.com.

And uh, we have an extensive blog in there. We write almost every week about something home related. They can find us there. Uh, you know, and we have articles from radon and what we do and what have you, the testings that we do there. But it’s, it’s pretty extensive. My wife is a copywriter, so every time I breathe there’s another blog post that comes out.

TV6: Awesome. So it’s a good pairing then.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: It’s a very good pairing.

TV6: Awesome. Well, Rich, thank you so much for your insight. We really appreciate that.

Home Inspector Rich Beasley: Thank you. I appreciate it. Absolutely.