As home inspectors, we see a lot. After ten plus years, we’ve seen the gamut. But every year reminds us that we have not seen it all. As always, this year has brought everything from fun to strange to scary. As our team continues to grow, we expect to witness even more. As these experiences happen, we use them to learn, laugh, and grow. Culture is important to us and we always try to find fun. After discussing all our experiences this year, the team decided on a few of our top finds.
Strangest
The first find we will share is the most bizarre. Like everyone, we have a place where we live. It is full of things that help make us more, well, us. You can learn a great deal about a person just by stepping into their home. Their décor says a lot about the individual or family. Athletic jerseys or signed memorabilia tell us they could be sports fans. Pictures of the beach or turtle sculptures hint that they are probably ocean people. When we see mounted animals from a hunt, it most likely means they are into hunting or living off the land. But, when we saw this deer mount, we were pretty much speechless. My guess is this individual or individuals knew how to have a good time. Still shaking our heads.
Most Stomach Turning
Our most cringe-worthy find almost always deals with waste or pests. We’ve encountered everything this year in terms of pests from angry wasps to termite empires to a family of attic raccoons. But our top stomach-churning find had to be an open sewer pipe dripping into a holding container. Sadly, finding sewage in homes is more common than you think. Usually, we find issues with it in the crawlspace where most people have no idea it is happening. That’s what makes this one so cringy is someone knew what was collecting in the tote. At least they should have known from the smell!
Most Surprising
Our biggest surprise this year comes from inside the electric panel but has nothing to do with electricity. When one of our inspectors took the cover off, he discovered a bird’s nest. How in the world did that momma get in there? She was there long enough to build a nest and lay eggs. However, once the nest was discovered, the access point was most likely sealed, and she was not able to return. The next question was why the person who sealed the hole didn’t take the time to remove the nest. The only thought was it was sealed from the outside and the person didn’t realize the hole lead to the panel. Needless to say, that’s not something you would expect to find in a panel. Neither are beehives or snakes, but we’ve seen all three now.
Funniest
The funniest find this year came from a sewer scope. I don’t know about you, but sewers don’t exactly scream fun. However, it was more about what we encountered in the sewer. In the video, you can see this feisty crawdad…crayfish…. mini lobster. Well, whatever you call them, it was ready for a fight with our sewer camera. As you can imagine, we had a job to do, and it had to go. It was irritated with the camera for sure, but after it threw up its claws and went a couple of rounds with our scope, it retreated deeper into the pipe. So, how did it get in there? Seems like this sewer scope was worth it!
Scariest
The last find we will share with you was actually a very serious and scary situation. One of our inspectors started the inspection on the outside of the property and then moved inside to complete the interior portion. Once he entered the house, he knew something was wrong immediately. The inspector saw blood smeared down the hallway and spots all over the floor around the bathroom area. He called out to see if anyone was home or if they needed help. He tried to check the bathroom and was met by a door that didn’t want to fully open. You can imagine the thoughts running through his head. When he peeked around the door, he saw a towel covered in blood. The bathroom was empty. He immediately left the house and called our office. We started making phone calls to try to figure out our next steps. After speaking with the agent, we learned the woman in the house was having some issues with her veins and they had to leave in a hurry to go to the emergency room. Just goes to show how inspectors need to expect anything.
As you can see, we’ve had an interesting year! As things come our way, we meet them head-on. Culture is important to us because we want to surround ourselves with people who make this fun. We’ve built a talented team for that and we are constantly educating ourselves to be prepared for anything. We encounter some pretty common finds on a daily basis, but the experiences we shared with you are the ones that stand out the most because they are unique. Whatever this year brings, we are ready and waiting as a team!