The Importance of Pre-Listing Home Inspections: Maximizing Your Home’s Value
When preparing to sell your home, it's crucial to present it in the best possible light to attract potential buyers and maximize its value. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through a pre-listing inspection. This proactive step can provide a...
Navigating New Construction Inspections: What to Expect and Why They’re Essential in 2024
Updated August 6, 2024 When it comes to purchasing a newly built home, many buyers assume that everything will be perfect, considering the property is brand new. However, new construction inspections are a critical step in ensuring the quality and safety of a new...
The Role of Home Inspections in Negotiating Real Estate Deals
Home inspections play a crucial role in the process of buying and selling real estate. They provide vital information about a property's condition, which can significantly influence negotiations between buyers and sellers. Understanding how to leverage home inspection...
How to Keep Your House Cool in Hot Weather
As North Texas braces for another scorching summer with temperatures soaring into the 100s, homeowners can employ various strategies to keep their homes cool and comfortable. Utilizing ceiling fans and portable fans to enhance air circulation can significantly improve...
Can You Fail a Home Inspection? Understanding the Outcomes
When it comes to buying a home, the home inspection process can often feel like a crucial exam that the property must pass for the sale to proceed. However, the idea of "passing" or "failing" a home inspection is a common misconception that needs clarification. Unlike...
Do I Need to Be Present for the Home Inspection? Engaging in Your Future Home’s Assessment
For many home buyers, the process of purchasing a home is fraught with questions and decisions, one of which includes whether to be present during the home inspection. While your attendance is not a requirement, the benefits of being on-site during this crucial phase...
What a Home Inspector Can (and Can’t) Tell You About a Home’s HVAC System
Talk with any builder, home contractor, or home inspector for long and you’ll likely hear the term HVAC come up. HVAC is an abbreviation for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. An HVAC system is the integrated ecosystem of a home’s heating and air conditioning...
How Much Does a Home Inspection Cost in 2024?
By Keith Boggs Updated April 18, 2024. Did you know that it costs nearly $700,000 to buy a home in Frisco Texas in March 2024, which is trending down -2.1% year over year? The media listing home price per square foot is $256. Without a doubt, homes are the largest...
Navigating the Home Inspection Process: A Comprehensive Guide for Buyers
The path to home ownership is a journey of anticipation and, quite often, a learning curve for many. Among the numerous steps that buyers must navigate, the home inspection stands out as a critical milestone—one that can significantly sway the decision-making process....
Winter Home Maintenance Tips for Texas: Keeping Your Space Cozy and Efficient
While Texas is not known for its harsh winters compared to some northern states, it's still essential to prepare your home for the colder months. Winter in Texas can bring chilly temperatures, occasional frost, and even the rare snowfall, which can impact the comfort...
Why You Should Inspect Your Newly Built Home
The question "Should I inspect my newly built home?" is easily answered: Yes, you should have an inspection before closing the deal. Here's why: Varied Skill Levels Among Workers During construction, anywhere from 60 to 100 professionals may enter the home to perform...
The Long, Hot Texas Summer: Unexpected Costs for Homeowners
Summers in Texas are infamous for their relentless heat. While many are familiar with the challenges of keeping cool, few realize the hidden costs this scorching season can bring to homeowners, particularly concerning their home’s foundation. Ignoring the implications...
Home Inspection Checklist for Buyers
When searching for a home to buy, what you see isn't exactly what you get. You will see freshly painted walls, colorful flowers, gleaming hardwood floors, granite countertops, and other high-quality touches. However, what you won't see is the unreliable plumbing...
The Importance of Home Inspection: How to Avoid Costly Property Issues and Make the Right Investment
Buying a property is a significant investment, and ensuring it's in good condition is crucial. This is where a home inspection comes into play. A home inspection is a comprehensive examination of a property's structural and maintenance conditions. In this article, we...
10 Ways You Should Prepare Your Home for Winter Now
Winter is fast approaching, and ensuring your home is adequately prepared is crucial for both safety and comfort. Here's an in-depth guide with expanded information on each of the ten ways to get your home ready for the colder months: Heating System Maintenance:...
7 Major Defects Found in a Home Inspection
By Keith Boggs, September 28, 2022. A home inspection is vital when buying or selling a house. It is a top-to-bottom evaluation of a house done by a licensed home inspector. In most cases, buyers pay for home inspections before purchasing the house. This is done to...
What Fixes Are Mandatory After a Home Inspection?
By Keith Boggs Updated May 9, 2022 at 10:00am CST As a prospective home buyer, you know that no home is going to be perfect. A home inspector will uncover defects, regardless of how well the property looks on the surface. So, what happens after you find out what those...
Why You Should Get a Home Inspection on a New Home
New-build homes are often thought to be perfect, free from defects. Unfortunately, that is not true. While new homes offer modern designs and ease of purchase due to lack of onward chain, they could come with costly weatherproofing or structural problems you might not...
Home Inspection: Mistakes People Make When Buying a Home
For most people, buying a home is a big decision and could be the most important one they will ever make. Therefore, when buying a home, you may ask questions such as what is the price range of the house you want? What is your preferred location? And perhaps, most...
What Do Home Inspectors Look For?
A home inspection is one of the crucial elements of real estate. During a home inspection, the inspectors look for anything that could be problematic in a house and can affect the normal operations of a potential buyer. Through home inspection, both sellers and buyers...
Inspecting and Cleaning Your Fireplace Before the Winter Cold
With the temperatures falling and the winter season fast approaching, most of us are already preparing our fireplace for the cold season. If you enjoy the heat and the crackling sound of burning firewood on your fireplace and you have not yet cleaned it recently, you...
Why You Should Consider a Pre-Sale Home Inspection
As the home-buying season approaches, usually in spring, prospective sellers shift their focus on whether their homes are ready for the market. To answer their question, many opt for a home inspection. A home inspection is part of the home purchase process. While it...
What Does It Mean When a House Is Contingent?
If you are house hunting, you can agree that the experience is both exciting and stressful. While you are looking forward to settling in your dream home, you may be uncertain of some terms and processes when it comes to owning a property. In real estate, a house is...
What Constitutes an Annual Home Inspection in Dallas?
Just like you would visit the doctor annually for routine checkups and not necessarily for ill health, your home needs an annual inspection. Even if you are a vigilant homeowner who performs repairs and seasonal maintenance from time to time, it is worth scheduling...
For Homebuyers: What Happens Before, During, and After a Home Inspection
By Keith Boggs Posted September 13, 2018 at 17:51 CST. Many of our clients are first-time buyers. Others may not have had a home inspection in so long, they can't recall how the process unfolds. If you're in one of these groups, you’re probably wondering what happens...
Home Inspection 101: What to Expect When You’re Inspecting
By Keith Boggs. Posted August 20, 2019 at 11:15am. It's hard to believe that we've been performing Dallas home inspections for more than 10 years now! And we've learned from experience that a lot of people don't know what to expect when a home inspector walks through...
A Simplified Home Inspection Checklist for Buyers
By Keith Boggs Posted January 15, 2020 at 10:00am CT So, you’ve made an offer on a house and have entered the “option period” — those critical five to ten days during which you must assess the home's condition, identify issues, negotiate for repairs on certain items,...
A Simplified Home Inspection Checklist for Sellers
By Keith Boggs Posted February 15, 2020 at 10:00am CT Your home is on the market and there’s an offer on the table. Congratulations! Now it’s time to get ready for the buyer’s home inspection — an event that can make or break the deal. But don’t be too concerned. By...
Five Tips for Getting the Most Value from Your Home Inspection
By Keith Boggs Posted March 15, 2020 at 10:00am CT Buying a home is one of the biggest investments you will likely make in your lifetime. It can also be scary. What if it turns out to be a lemon? What if it becomes a money pit? This is why the home inspection is one...
What Does a Home Inspector Do?
Many first-time homebuyers are unfamiliar with the processes that take them from house-hunting to moving day. Who’s involved? And what happens when? In fact, we see that even buyers who have been through the real estate process several times before often need a...
The Most Important Questions to Ask a Home Inspector
By Keith Boggs Posted September 18, 2020, at 7:00 am CT Are you about to make an offer on what you think will be your next home? If so, don’t underestimate the importance of the home inspection! It will give you the information you need to: Fully understand the...
How to Choose a Home Inspector? These are Our Top 5 Tips.
By Keith Boggs Posted October 15, 2020, at 7:00 am CT On our blog, we provide a lot of advice on how to choose a home inspector. Because, unlike finding people to provide other home services — for example, landscaping, appliance repair, or fixing a garage door — there...
Tips To Speed Up Your Home Inspection
A home inspection assesses the physical conditions and systems of a house for a potential buyer or seller. The house inspector will thereafter submit pictures, a detailed analysis, and recommendations to the respective persons typically within a week for further...
In this Hot Real Estate Market, Don’t Waive the Home Inspection
With the housing market becoming increasingly hot by the day, inventory of new homes and existing inventory are low and options periods are becoming shorter and shorter. This poses a challenge for buyers as realtors and builders are encouraging buyers to waive the...
5 Steps to Optimize Your Home Buyer’s Option Period
The Good News About Option Periods You’ve found what you think is your dream home and have decided to make an offer. The Bad News About Option Periods You really don’t know what you’re buying yet, because you haven’t had the home inspected. You also don’t want someone...
5 Plumbing Leaks To Look Out For
A typical household in the United States loses up to 20,000 gallons of water annually from plumbing leaks. Therefore, if you want to sell or buy a house, you need to pay close attention to your plumbing system. Regardless of the age of your home, a plumbing leak can...
5 Ways to Dispose of Paint and Hazardous Waste in the Dallas Fort Worth Area
Look into any home's garage and you're likely to see a collection of paint cans — some old, some not-so-old — but most of which are likely to sit unused for years. Why do we hang on to them? Because figuring out how and where to get rid of them safely — without...
Moving to Texas? You’ll Need a Home Inspector—Here’s How to Find One
Everything really is bigger in Texas—including our population growth. In the past year, the Lone Star State added more residents than any other state in the U.S., and those numbers just keep growing. And if you’re one of the thousands of people making Texas your new...
Why So Many West Coasters Are Moving to Dallas Fort Worth—and What to Do If You’re One of Them
Talk of a "California Exodus" is sweeping the country—masses of residents, from tech giants to everyday Americans leaving California for less-crowded, more affordable states. With COVID-19 accelerating the outflow, it leaves many wondering: Where are they going? The...
What You Should Know About the Most Common Issues Found on Home Inspections
By Keith Boggs Posted January 15, 2021, at 7:00 am CT Our job as home inspectors is to find and describe a property’s defects, so you, as a potential home buyer, understand as much as you can about its condition before you commit to what will likely be one of the most...
What is Not Included in a Home Inspection? You Should Know.
By Keith Boggs Posted December 15, 2020, at 7:00 am CT “What is included in a home inspection?” This is a question we get all the time. And we’ve written several articles going into a lot of detail (perhaps too much detail!) to help buyers and sellers understand what...
Can You Fail a Home Inspection? The Answer Is…
By Keith Boggs Posted November 16, 2020, at 9:00 am CT One of the most interesting questions I get about home inspections is this: “Can you fail a home inspection?” I suppose it’s a reasonable question, particularly for those who haven’t been through a home inspection...
How Long Does a Home Inspection Take? COVID-19 Changes Our Answer.
By Keith Boggs Posted July 17, 2020 at 2:00 pm We are living in some very challenging times, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Life, however, goes on. And while some home sellers have decided to take their properties off the market until better times (thus reducing the...
Debunking the Top Five Myths About DFW Home Inspections
By Keith Boggs Posted June 15, 2020 at 8:00 am CT There’s so much that goes into buying or selling a home: The listings, the viewings, the appraisals, the inspections, the negotiations…and the QUESTIONS! Doing a Google search can deliver answers, but how do you know...
Answers to Your Common Questions About Home Inspection Costs
By Keith Boggs Posted May 15, 2020, at 9:00 am CT Buying a home can be the largest investment you will make in your lifetime — which is why a home inspection is such an important part of the home buying process. It’s also an inexpensive service compared to the cost of...
What to Expect from a Home Inspection During the COVID-19 Crisis
By Keith Boggs Posted April 15, 2020 at 10:00 am CT COVID-19, aka Coronavirus, has slammed the brakes on nearly all aspects of daily life. It’s surreal — like a nightmare science fiction movie where some unknown creature seems to be lurking around each and every...
Stonebriar Property Inspections Celebrates 13 Years of DFW Home Inspection Success
Stonebriar Property Inspections, a leading North Texas home inspection company, is proud to celebrate 13 Years of business success with more than 5,000 high-quality home inspections in Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas. Keith Boggs, founder and professional...
The Silent Killer: What You Should Know About Carbon Monoxide
By Keith Boggs Posted December 16, 2019 at 4:00 pm CST This past Thanksgiving turned terrifying for actress Anna Faris and 12 of her family members when they were exposed to toxic levels of carbon monoxide at their Lake Tahoe rental home. As the story has been told,...
Learn How to Save Water and Cash During Fix a Leak Week March 20 – 26
Did you know that minor water leaks account for more than 1 trillion gallons of wasted water each year? That's the amount of water that 11 million homes use every year. Ten percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more every day. Is yours one of them? You...
Close the Deal! Our Top 5 Home Inspection Tips for Sellers
For sellers, the home inspection process can be nerve-wracking. You know someone is interested in buying, but the outcomes can make or break the deal. You also want it to go smoothly. It shows your support for the buyer and desire for negotiating a fair contract....
Be Prepared! Our Top 5 Home Inspection Tips for Buyers
By Keith Boggs Posted September 16, 2019 at 10:00am CST. Out of a sea of homes, you think you’ve found the one that is just right for you and your family. Congratulations! As a buyer, you still have a lot to figure out and many steps to take. One of the most important...
Selecting a Home Inspection Company: You’re Hiring a Person, Not a Company
Whether buying or selling, you want the best home inspector you can find to make sure your interests are protected. You'll find there are many inspection firms to choose from in the Dallas area — some with multiple inspectors, others with just one or two, like my...
What is Included in a Typical Home Inspection? Here’s What Buyers Should Know.
For potential home buyers, the home inspection is a critical milestone on the real estate journey, especially in a tight housing market. An inspection can confirm the seller’s assertions about a house's condition — or it can uncover defects no one knew were there, for...
How Long Does a Home Inspection Take?
By Keith Boggs Posted July 15, 2019 at 07:53am One of the most frequent questions people ask when scheduling a home inspection is about how long the inspection process takes to complete. The simple answer is that most home inspections take between two and four hours,...
Home Seller’s Checklist: Here’s How to Prepare for a Home Inspection
You’ve just accepted an offer on your house, and the inspection is the last step before you finalize the deal. You and the buyer both want to get to that point. And no matter what the inspector finds, you’ll have the option to fix defects or provide financial...
How the Outcomes of a Home Inspection Can Affect a Pending Sale
Whether you’re in search of a home or trying to sell one, you know the home inspection is a pivotal event. If the outcomes are good, the sale will likely go smoothly. If not, it may be dead in the water. So, what does that mean for you? Here’s how the outcomes of the...
Termite Inspection: A Small Price to Pay for Peace of Mind
We recently shared a few reasons you might consider adding both thermal imaging and ZipLevel measurements to your home inspection when you’re about to invest in a new home or other structure. Because these two techniques help your home inspector identify potential...
Two Tools Your Home Inspector Should Offer to Find Hidden Hazards
Texas home inspectors are required to visually inspect accessible systems and components inside and outside the home. But what about the parts of a home you want to buy that aren’t “accessible”? Inside the walls? Under the flooring? Or in those tiny crawl spaces and...
Increase Your Home’s Value by Transforming Your Garage
If you're getting ready to sell your home, you're probably developing a master project list based on a number of questions and decisions: What needs fixing? What needs freshening up? Where will you spend your money before putting your home on the market? And what...
The Most Important Question to Ask a Home Inspector Before You Hire
Earlier this year, we put together a list of 13 questions you should ask a home inspector before you offer him the job. The questions are all valuable — after all, you’re about to make one of the largest investments of your life. But one sticks out as the single, most...