What Every Agent Should Know About Home Inspections | The DASHcast Podcast with Derrick Taylor featuring Garrett Daly

Episode originally aired: May 26, 2026

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In this episode of the DASHcast Podcast, the DASH Carolina team dives into Home inspections can make or break a real estate transaction and understanding the process is critical for both agents and buyers. In this episode of DASHcast, Derek Taylor sits down with Garrett Dail…

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Episode Overview

Home inspections can make or break a real estate transaction and understanding the process is critical for both agents and buyers. In this episode of DASHcast, Derek Taylor sits down with Garrett Dailey, owner of HouseMasters, to break down the realities of home inspections, common misconceptions from buyers, and what real estate agents should (and shouldn’t) say during the process. From crawl spaces and roofing issues to new construction inspections and moisture concerns, Garrett shares expert insights on how agents can better prepare clients, avoid surprises, and add value during home showings. Whether you’re a new Realtor or a seasoned agent, this episode is packed with practical advice to help navigate inspections with confidence and professionalism.

Full Episode Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript of this DASHcast episode. Some portions may be condensed for readability.

Foreign. If you like your standards high and your growth even faster, pull up a chair because this is the dashcast podcast. I’m Derek Taylor and welcome to another session of a conversation that we’re going to be having today with none other than, than Garrett Daly, the owner and operator of housemasters. He’s going to tell us about what to look for and the ins and outs of a home inspection. Welcome. Well, thank you for having me there.

So glad you could make it. Weather outside is horrible, but it’s a good day to show houses, right? It’s all matters. So I want to start this off with what are the three things that a real estate agent should know right off the bat from a home inspection? From a home inspection standpoint, I think that they should know what is a home inspection? Okay. Basically that is a visual, non invasive evaluation of a house first and

foremost, you know, because then it gets it to where what are we going to be doing, you know, with that and how is this going to start? Also the limitations, you know, from a home, from a home inspection saying, you know, of course, a home inspector, we can’t move furniture, we can’t see inside the walls, we can’t turn off certain valves. So kind of, you know, for what they know and they can pass on this information

to their client. And then also, what other services besides the home inspection should that they be having? What kind of house are they on? Septic? Are they on? Well, of course we need a pest inspection, we need a radon test and so forth just to make it as knowledgeable to the client so they’re as informed as possible. So pretty much educating them as much as possible without stepping over the line as to what it is that

they should be getting and looking for when looking for a home. Yeah, it’s really, it’s trying to set this up, you know, of what is a home inspection. And from that, you know, with the clients and stuff. I always kind of tell people, people think that they like surprises. Okay. You know, people are like, oh, surprise birthday and so forth. Right. But really nobody likes surprises. Nobody likes it, you know, unless we’re. It’s a horror. It

is. Unless we’re a little kid, it’s like, oh, surprise. But we don’t, you know, with that, you know, it has to be to where, you know, setting up the expectations, you know, especially from a first time home buyer standpoint. I was going to bring that up because one of the things that we hear a lot or we get a lot from, from our clients, especially if they’re a first time home buyer, they have this belief that

a home inspection is either going to be a pass or fail. So how do you suggest we go about letting them know? It’s not like that. I think hearing it multiple times. Okay. And it’s awesome if, if you all are saying that because from our standpoint, how we train our people and my inspectors, that’s one of the things that we’re going to sit there and tell the client every time. So we actually have a book that

you know, that they get. It’s inspection resource guide. And one of the first pages is a home inspection is not a pass fail test. It’s a picture of time of us coming out, taking the evaluation and doing the inspection and then giving them, making them as informed as possible. So I always kind of joke, I’m like, you know, we’re not coming in, giving a big check mark, you know, if everything passes or if I give a

big X, then the bulldozer comes and bulldozes the house. It’s not how this operates, it’s just the evaluation at this day and time. So I mean we could like go down a lot of avenues with this conversation because we could talk specifics about specific things and I mean we could have a whole dialogue. I guess I want to get more of a general understanding of what the home inspection entails. Depending on the type of house, what

agents should look for, what they can and should not tell their clients. When are they stepping over the line? Okay, so let’s take first one. So first one was what, what an inspection entails. Okay. So you know what I typically tell our clients, I tell agents, so what a home inspection is, is a visual, non invasive inspection or evaluation of all the major systems. So from a home inspection standpoint, we’re going to be taking a look

at the roof, the exterior, your major systems, the H Vac, the plumbing, the electrical, also coming in inside the house, checking their built in appliances, the walls, the, the floors, and then all the outlets and windows that we can get to. Typically what it takes is a home inspection is going to be about two to three hours on your typical home. We’ll take a bunch of pictures, we’ll get over the report, then we send the report

to them. So that’s kind of what the nitty gritty of what a home inspection is. Also what I tell clients is what we’re looking for is any signs of damage, water intrusion, concerns, lack of maintenance, future maintenance issues, things not functioning as intended. And that’s where it goes. Like we don’t pay too much attention as far as like cosmetics. Like a lot of clients might think, hey, they’re gonna be looking at maybe a couple. Like the

paint’s a little bit blemished here, maybe a little nail polyp, you know, back and forth. No, it’s the bones and the structure of the house. Like we might for new construction point out a couple more cosmetic. But typically it’s bones and structure. Do you find it difficult or a new home, new construction versus a resale home. Do you find the inspections to be somewhat easier? Can be. It has a different set of, I guess things that

could happen or limitations, you know, so let’s take a new home. So a new home, typically of course it’s been inspected by the county. So most of the time, like, you know, it’s not going to be anything kind of crazy, anything big, however you can. People, you know, these are built by humans and also a human like the county inspector, they’re coming in, taking a look. So you have that human factor coming in. But typically a

new construction isn’t going to take as long. Now what kind of new construction, you know, what kind of limitations or issues could kind of arise. We could have. Are the cleaners there, you know, or that they’re on our way? Are there different contractors? Are they sitting there doing the paint? Are there people and other agents showing that particular house, you know, because it’s a model house for another one. So those are kind of like our outside

influences. You’re going to kind of have back and forth. What’s your feeling on those clients who say, oh, it’s new construction, I don’t need an independent inspection on it. I trust the building. So what it. And so what is I always kind of bring up, like I said, you know, right before is it’s the human factor. So your trust. Trust and that a human who comes in and builds his house that is expected or inspected by

another human, that they’re getting everything. Wouldn’t you want another set of eyes to take a look on the inspection to advocate on your behalf on the biggest purchase of your lifetime? Of course, you know, average home inspections, 4 to $500. If you’re spending 4, 5, $600,000 plus, what do you want to make sure what you’re getting and what you’re paying for. Right. It’s right there and everything’s in line. It’s a no brainer. It is. And the

things that we found, I mean most of the time like they’re the same things. Whether it’s going to be a couple issues. Lifted shingles on the roof, maybe a leaky faucet, maybe a couple electrical like outlets kind of loose and stuff. We’re going to see like the same stuff. But I mean, I remember one new construction one time out Wake Forest. It’s a million dollar houses. Right after Covid was happening, they sealed the crawl space wrong.

And so when I go up in the crawl space, I told him in the pre drywall inspection, because it’s gonna be a sealed crawl space, that they’re doing it wrong. You need to get ahead of this. They didn’t listen. And then when it comes down for my final, they had nothing. They had a bunch of mold, fungal growth, wood destroying fungus. So thousands of dollars worth of damage that happened. And that was a new construction home.

Wow. So interesting. Do you ever find that in the crawl space area that there are some crawl spaces that not necessarily would pass the test, but that are absolutely fine. And then the client moves in and it’s a disaster. Like do you. Do you think that it was something that you could have found or you should have found? Or is it just something with crawl spaces that they go haywire? They can. And it usually doesn’t happen

like very quickly. Like it usually can kind of happen over time. But when people move in, it’s their environment. Okay, how are they living in the house? What if that. What kind of improvements that they’ve done or change and alterations to the house and the landscape. So for instance, with the crawl spaces, a lot of your gutters and your downspouts, like the drainage that comes in. Okay, so say the homeowner comes in and they want to

build up like these flower gardens in the midst of it. They make the grading towards the house. It’s bringing the water and the moisture towards the house. Or said they don’t clean the gutters like how the previous owner did. Clogs up, water comes back. So that can exasperate the issue of making that moisture level in the crawl space up. Right. Deals with mold, fungal growth. And then therefore that can kind of alter it. And you know,

also their H Vac system, right. You know, how are they running it? Is it is there and they not serviced it. So then the humidity level in the house, interior of the house is higher. Then that can also affect the crawl space. Based off of an inspection standpoint with new construction, is there anything that you see builders doing that you really wish they would change? Say for instance, the air handler in the attic, the washer dryer

on the second floor. Without a pan. Like, are there things like that that you. So things that I would change, definitely. Like the water heater. Okay. And really the water heater up in the attic area, they still do this. Like they put them up in the attic and it’s to code and stuff like that. Now just me personally, I mean, you bring water all the way up. If something happens, it’s coming down. So from a personal

issue, I’d like it down the main level, maybe in the crawl space or even the best space or place is going to be the garage. Because you’re seeing it like you don’t really go in the crawl space when you’re an owner, but you can see if something’s happening. So definitely I do the water heater. I like the washer dryer. You know, having a pan up underneath is a good practice. Let’s see here. Me being selfish. Okay.

You know what I would like is, I’m sure you’ve seen me testing the GFCI outlets. You know how I have to push the little button and then I run back and I have to hit the reset button. So in the bathrooms, you have one outlet that controls all the bathrooms. Well, let’s take a three level house now. For some reason, and I, I think it’s the plumber or not the plumber, the electrician that’s kind of laughing

at this. He’ll put that reset button all the way down in that bathroom in the basement. That works the third floor. So it works the third floor. So it gets, you know, I mean, I need to kind of hit the gym a little, you know, so I’m running up and down. You know, if they had one on each level, from an inspector standpoint, my knees would like that. I’m sure my knees would like it. I would

like the reset button to be a little closer. Right. Burning question that people always ask. Is it better to have a house with a crawl space or is it better to have a house that’s on slab? A slab, great question. So I bought a house that has a slab and people kind of laugh and they kind of ask me back and forth like, well, why did you do that? I crawl in the nastiest, tightest, dirtiest crawl

spaces all the time. I do not want to go in my own house and have to go under that kind of crawl space. Now from a customer kind of standpoint, you know, people will say, well, if it’s on slab, what if I have an issue? Okay, you have an issue down and you have to, you know, possibly drill through Mess up the flooring and drill through to fix the piping and the slab. Several thousand dollars. Okay.

To do this. And so that’s the argument that people who like crawl spaces. Now I’m going to flip it with you. Is in the crawl space, if you have high levels of moisture mold, you have to seal the crawl space. That’s thousands of dollars of like for issues. So really, which one critters do you want? Critters? Yeah, we could go off on that one. I mean, I try not to give my opinion when I’m with a

client, but personally I’d much rather have a house with that’s honestly slab. They’re easy. And your floors don’t creak? No. Yeah, the floors don’t creak. There’s nothing up underneath, especially the older ones. Sometimes some mice and stuff. I just, I’ve lived on a slab a long time and I think they’re pretty easy. So what’s the deal with you and your team not being able to turn on electrical outlets or breakers or light the hot water heater?

The hot water here, all the valves, what’s that about? So the state of North Carolina dictates that if a valve or a breaker or something is turned off, let’s say the pilot light for the fireplace, if it’s turned off, it is turned off for a reason. So then if the home inspector then turns it on. So even with the permission, that means that we are taking on all of the liability. Okay. Now we have, you know,

from us standpoint from, from my company, we carry way over the top insurance. But if we turn on a valve and we cause damage to the house, and then my insurance company says, well, how did that happen? And if I first say, well, we turned on the valve, their response is going to be state of North Carolina tells you not to turn on the valve. Why did you turn on the valve? Now you have that. I

know it’s an easy kind of thing, but you never know the reason why. Most of the time the place is vacant and so forth. Now if we get permission, sometimes it’s a gray area, sometimes I’ll do, you know, here and there. But typically if it’s off, it’s all for a reason. We need somebody to turn it on. So from the scope of items that you don’t have on your checklist that you can check or that you

can view and see how they’re working, what are some of those things that you can’t or don’t look at? Example, fireplace. So we’ll look at the Fireplace, but the gas valve is off for, like, a gas fireplace. I can’t test it. Right. So I can’t like the pilot. You know, you can’t like pilot lights and so forth. So it’s not on. I can’t look at it. A couple of things also, you know, that we don’t. That

aren’t part of the scope of a home inspection. For instance, is the refrigerator and the washer dryer. Those are considered personal property from a home inspector standpoint. We look to see, you know, is it leaking? Is it leaking water? How’s the line, you know, has it caused damage to the adjacent elements? But we don’t test to see what’s the water quality, is it making good ice? The washer? You know, I don’t run my clothes, even though,

you know, I could put my crawl space clothes in there. I think they would be nice. I could dry some things. I could, you know, I could multitask. But we just. Yeah. And Garrett, I have a client who just bought this house, and there’s a shed in the back, and they’re turning it into a she shed. It already has electric, and they’re thinking about putting a sink in, but it’s not on the inspection report, what happened.

So, also for a home inspection, and this is per the state of North Carolina, the home inspection is for the dwelling only, the main dwelling, any other outbuildings. And it’s in the contract to say, you know, that the client signed the agreement. And it’s also in the scope. Standards of practice in North Carolina that all adjacent buildings are not part of the big home inspection. Now, from us, if the client would like, we can take an

evaluation inspection of those other outbuildings. But. But it’s an additional. Okay, is there a. A checklist of things? And I’m. I’m asking this question for new agents, basically, that they could review or go over of things that they can look for before the inspection or things that they can. They should not talk about. Okay. With their client. So we’ll take. For. What are some things that they should do, like when they’re kind of showing. And like,

we were talking about surprises. Right. You know, when I. When I’m talking to a client and I’m talking to, like, especially a newer agent, and I’m pointing out things of issues and concerns of the house. Things are actually pretty visible, you know. Right. That you can see. And I start to get this deer of headlights kind of look, you know, and in my mind, I’m like, this is right here. Like you, you don’t have to be

inspector to see this. Like, it’s right there. It’s going to, it’s going to hit you. It’s going to hit you right there. Right. But I’m like, okay. And then it’s, you know, the deer headlights. And now what we have to do is we have to kind of back up on the explaining of, okay, well, here’s, you know, here’s what’s kind of going on. So what are some things from a new agent to kind of look at.

Take a look at the roof. What is the condition? Do you see, you know, it’s pretty easy. Can you see lifted shingles? Do you see damaged shingles? How does the roof compare to maybe the neighbor’s roof? Kind of use these kind of comparisons just to kind of guide. I’m not telling you to say, hey, it needs to get replaced, but just point out a couple of things. Like, I can see a couple of issues with the

roof. The home inspector is going to do a further evaluation. So when you’re kind of pointing these things out, always followed up by the home inspector is going to take a further look during the inspection and then he’s going to let us know the course of action that we need to take. So you’re not taking ownership. Right. But you’re pointing things out in a very friendly evaluation. What you don’t want to do is, yep, that roof’s

old home inspectors could tell you that we’re going to need to replace it. No, we need to cut back up. You’ve kind of overstepped. Also. Don’t ever, like make a statement like that. You don’t. Yeah, just kind of notice it. Just notice. Just point it out, like as a conversation. Like, hey, I see that the roof has a couple of things. Or let’s walk around the house. Do we see wood rod up underneath at the windows

or the door frame areas? How is the deck look? You know, let’s point those couple things out. A big one also, you know, from a new agent kind of standpoint is look at how the house grades or not the house. The. How does the yard grade towards the house? Like, what you want to do is you want to make sure the water goes away from the foundation. So sometimes water will be running towards. And if you

see it, then it should kind of trigger like, huh, maybe there’s water. So in the crawl space, maybe there’s some water we need to kind of take a look at. Let’s open up that crawl space door. Right. So, you know, I Always kind of recommend. You know, I joke with agents. I’m like, you don’t have to get in the crawl space, right? But open the door, maybe knock on it, you know, in case something, a critter’s

in there, you kind of startle them and stuff like that. Hey, come in to check your house. Yeah, we’ve seen a couple things, you know, and it’s really interesting. If a house is on a slope, where the slope is going towards the house, that’s like easy money for an agent to go in and walk around the outside to show that they know what they’re looking for and point out things. Not that they’re always going to find

something, but it’s, it’s like easy money for you. Just go and do it. And that will show that that client that you have some knowledge about and what it does and it shows the worth. You know, let’s go. From an agent kind of standpoint is when you’re showing a house, okay, and you’re walking around and you’re kind of pointing out these visible things that you can see, you don’t need to be inspected, but you’re pointing out

like, hey, the roof or there’s some water here or the crawl space is damp or maybe has some humidity issues. When the home inspector comes in and reiterates then from a client standpoint, then it kind of sees, wow, my agent is awesome. They’re going above and beyond. This is why we hired them. This is why we sat there in expertise. And it just brings value. Yeah. And not only does it bring value for today’s transaction, it

brings value in tomorrow’s. Their friends, their family. That’s what we do from a home inspection standpoint. So we come in and we’re, we’re telling and showing all these things. It’s not about always inspection. Today we’re going to do fantastic. We do 110%. But we want to sit there for you to talk about it, you know, with your family and friends. Right. One quick thing, because we are, we, like, we’ve been talking a storm now. So the

roof situation, I know that you are doing drones that go over the roof and check the shingles and things like that. Is there anything that you’re going to be adding to the home inspection for house masters that may benefit our clients in the future? So what we’re trying to do, so we do, like I said, we help doing drones to assist with the roots. We also do thermal imaging with all home inspections. You know, this is

going to help us look for any kinds of water possible water leaking inside the walls, the ceilings that you’re not always going to catch with a visible eye. One thing that’s kind of like we’ve talked about a little bit about I suppose got back burner but is as far as from a housemaster Neighborly is our parent company. Okay. That they own 25 different home service businesses, franchises across the country. There’s about 20 something in our area.

Now one of the big things that from US standpoint, from the client standpoint, when you get the report, what do we do with this report? Okay. So now we to kind of monetize and a lot of times we bring a monetary value and people use it for negotiating tactics. Okay. Now it’s hard to come in. There’s other companies national that will give you an average. Right. But what we’re trying to do is take the data from

all of our other franchise, Mr. Handyman, Mr. Rooter because if they have estimate and AI estimate tools that they can pretty go really exact. Can we pull our information in that would be great. And then get you more of an accurate local quote and that’s, that would be, that’s the big I’ve talked about with our president like she’s talked about with the higher ups and of course with quite corporate. So we’re going to hold you to

that in the next six months. We’re trying. Six months is a hard one. Corporate moves like snail speed. That’s, I mean that’s what we want to do. Like that would be great. It’s because what it does, it helps out the client, it helps out the agent. It helps and it’s a one stop shop. That’s what we try to do. Well I want to thank you for coming and telling us more in depth information about inspections and

house masters and it’s been a great conversation and, and if you’re ever in the neighborhood, please stop by again. Hey, I always appreciate everything Derek. Thank you sir. Thank you. Y’ all have a good one. Thank you for joining us. Please send us your suggestions. Follow us like us. Catch us on the next episode. This is the Dashcast podcast.