Bordeaux Smith Realty

As I'm sitting in a chair at Carolina beach today, I have 4 homes that have just gone under contract. We recommend doing inspections even if the lender does not require. One of the inspections that is available is a radon test. Radon is an odorless radioactive gas that can Cause lung cancer. My home inspector uses a company out of Raleigh NC but said for personal home use, he would pick up a radon testing canister from the local home improvement  store. Smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer but some experts say radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer especially if radon exposure has been long term. The only personal experience I've had with a radon level being above the amount of 4 pCi/L was in a home we sold several years ago that had a basement. We have a basement and I keep telling my husband we should have it checked so the next thing on my to do list after we return home is get a radon test kit and get our home checked. There is an interesting site tha...

We often get panicked, last minute calls from a potential buyer that has been house hunting on their own.  They "knew" they would be using Bordeaux Smith Realty, but had not made official contact yet.  The panicked call goes something like this, "We just went to an open house and we LOVE the home and want to make an offer right now".  WHOA!!!!  While that is great, the buyer wasn't aware of the steps needed to make a strong and competitive offer.  Currently in the Triangle (NC), it is such a seller's market that the buyer needs to have all their ducks in a row.  If they don't, their dream home may be gone before they can get their ducks moving. First thing's first, CALL US!!!  We will make sure you have everything you need to go in with a strong offer in a season where many homes fall under a multiple offer situation.  Things we will ask: Do you need a loan or will you be paying cash? If you need a loan, have you spoken to a lender? If not, we...

Believe it or not, hardly anything is required by your lender. For some loans, the underwriter will require a well water test and a Wood Destroying Insect Report (WDIR). Most folks refer to this as the termite report. It is completely up to the buyer to inspect or not. As your Realtor, we always encourage our buyers to get all inspections. A thousand dollars during the due diligence time period could save you tens of thousands later on. A couple of personal examples: A home built in the 70s that was immaculate had a cracked septic tank and so much rot under the home that the band, 18 floor joists, and about 600 sq of subflooring had to be repaired/replaced. There was also quite a bit of fungus, so the crawlspace had to be cleaned and treated with Concrobium  to prevent any fungus after the water intrusion was stopped.  This ended up costing about 18k but since we found it during our due diligence period, the seller agreed to take care of these repairs. Just last week, a...

While creating our new website, we had the thought of doing a blog.  Mostly it will be an informational blog related to real estate, inspections, buying, selling, and investing, with a little bit of humor and real life experiences thrown in.   I tell people in my listing presentations that we have a website so we can say we have a website.  Our website is NOT what sells your home.  It is being a member of the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that automatically goes out to other internet sites such as Zillow, Realtor, and many other sites that pick up info from an Internet Data Exchange (IDX) We hope you enjoy our new website and our new attempt to blogging.  If you have any specific topics you would like to see on our blog, email us at info@bordeauxsmith.com and let us know what you would like. Tammy