Ted saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars!
We have used Ted’s services about 4 times to purchase condos in Vancouver. He has always advised us objectively about the pros and cons of each property, giving us enough details so that we can make an informed decision.
Recently we fell in love with a view property in a building that was built in the 1980’s. Knowing that Vancouver still has a large proportion of leaky properties that have not been rainscreened, we were quite concerned about the state of the building.
Ted to the rescue! He pointed out all of the building’s deficiencies with cause and required repair scenarios, while providing a range of eventual rehabilitation costs. He also agreed with our suspicions that when the strata declined to commission an engineering or depreciation report, it was quite apparent after Ted's critical observations, they were trying to hide the actual state of the building. In the latest case, it became obvious that the strata was busy putting out fires, (pressure washing, painting and caulking) nearly every year. The strata had accredited the "health" of their building exterior to the diligent annual building envelope inspection, pressure washing and repairs by a window washing company.
Ted explained that a good building does not require this level of diligence to maintain a healthy exterior and therefore must be fighting off inevitable and costly failures. Ted's explanations were detailed; changing our ignorance to a more advanced degree of building enlightenment. Ted explained that our previous experiences were not EIFS exteriors (somewhat good-looking exterior even today) relieving our embarrassment for choosing a troubled building after all our previous educational encounters.
If we had bought, we would have been heavily burdened with huge assessments in our retiring years; we would rather keep our little nest egg for future travel and possible emergencies. Even though I am disappointed, I appreciate Ted’s honesty and commitment. He is one of the few independent inspectors in Vancouver who cannot be bribed or influenced by realtors to produce a kinder inspection report. He is working for you and you alone! He may be more expensive than the others, but considering the cost of Vancouver real estate, does it make any sense to hire a cheaper inspector to do a quick inspection and report?
- Approximate cost of services:
- $630.00
- Company Response
Hi Hoda,
It was so good to work with you again, you are my perfect kind of customer; keenly interested in the details of every corner of the home/property.
What is scary and you pointed it out was; there were backup offers, yes somebody will buy that condo unit with a little nudge from their agent. The strata has diligently buried critical information regarding their building’s history. They do know what is wrong with the building because even real estate agents know enough about early EIFS exteriors to offer a similar assessment as we discussed. They have painted that building so many times that water blisters behind the stucco like exterior skin cannot drain and cannot breath. I understood the real estate agent was quite upset for wasting her time. What she's not considering is had you purchased without subjects or with a less experienced inspector, you could've been saddled with a very diminished future than what you had in mind. She is also not considering the grief that you would have experienced had you purchased this property, she's forgetting that her job is to provide access and to facilitate your needs in the purchase, you are the one that should be upset for the waste of time and money.
Yippee, Dodged another bullet to live another happy day.
Happy trails ...
Ted Gilmour