Guy,s
I'm looking for some advise. The Realtor Board in my area has asked me to help in putting together a committee to establish some level of standards for renovation and rehabilitation of older homes, since we have such an overstock of older neglected homes. Their contention is buyers are avoiding these because any improvements or repairs they would make would be subject to a code inspection by the AHJ which scares the hell out of people and puts the cost out of reach. The municipal inspectors power kick atatudes make it just not worth the effort and pose an even bigger risk.
The idea is to come up with some criteria where we could avoid having to bring the repairs or improvements up to today's codes, but also protect buyers and homeowners trying to improve their home for sale from Homer or Bubba jobs and still be safe and not adversely affecting other functions of the structure or systems.
I've heard talk here of some states already implementing something of this nature, but could not find the thread it was on.
My interest in this is not business related. I'm not trying to brown nose a bunch of realtors. This simply falls into the reasons I entered this business in the first place, to help people less fortunate than me, with the knowledge I've aquired, not make mistakes that will cost them dearly either monitarily or safetywise with their homes.
If anyone has some experience in this area, and would like to share it I'd appreciate it. Maybe you know some hurdles we will run into and how to avoid them, or maybe even have a laid down set of standards already.
Thank You All for your attention

Jim Weyenberg
HouseMaster Inc.
Senior Inspector
2006 HouseMaster Inspector of the Year
jimweyenberg@new.rr.com
920-309-3410