If you’ve read any of our other articles about real estate, you’ll know that I consider buying and selling a home to be a complicated affair. There are so many different parties involved, performing various appraisals, inspections, and assessments. Whether you are the buyer or the seller, there are times when you need a professional contractor’s assessment of the home in question.
Because we are a well-established foundation repair company, realtors and their customers frequently contact us for these assessments. Acculevel is a family-owned and operated company, based out of Rossville, Indiana. Since our start in 1996, we’ve helped more than 30,000 homeowners repair and protect their most valued investment: their homes.
Before scheduling an appointment that involves real estate, our call center representatives ask some very specific questions. We don’t do this to create roadblocks for realtors or their customers; our guidelines are based on our desire to be honest, ethical, and transparent in our business practices.
This blog will outline the three major principles that we adhere to, when scheduling a free in-home estimate appointment for any property that is for sale.
We Must Have the Owner’s Permission
If you are a potential buyer, you will need to receive permission from the seller before we can schedule an appointment. This is because our project manager cannot perform an accurate inspection of the foundation without access to the inside of the home.
You will need permission to access the property, and you need to meet with the project manager at the scheduled date and time. Please do not tell our representative the lock code, and ask them to perform the evaluation without anyone present. We need you there as the person who has been granted permission; otherwise our employee may risk being accused of trespassing.
We Respect Our Customers’ Rights
If we have performed an assessment and given a written estimate to the seller, we cannot give the estimate to the buyer. That is privileged information, and not ours to give out to others. You are certainly welcome to ask the seller for a copy, but we cannot provide it ourselves.
The same is true of other buyers. If we have been out to the home and given a written estimate to Buyer #1, we can’t share that with Buyer #2. However, our call center will take your information and contact the project manager who wrote that estimate. They can then speak with you about what they observed; however, they can’t give you a copy, nor can they write a new estimate for you.
We Do Not Permit Internal Competition
Acculevel is a genuinely family-oriented company, and our culture allows for friendly rivalries to take place. (March Madness brackets are widely distributed and tracked by one of the Beerys.)
But we do not allow multiple project managers to evaluate a single residence. This means if one of our project managers has written an estimate for the seller, another project manager cannot write an estimate for a buyer. This would create a clear and decisive conflict of interest. Much as a divided house cannot stand, a company cannot compete with itself and succeed.
Do You Have Other Questions about Real Estate?
We explain the differences between a home appraisal and a home inspection in this article.
Want to know what a home inspector is looking for? We discuss that here.
Not sure who you need to contact about the issues found in an inspection report? We review when you need an inspector, an engineer, or a contractor.
If you have concerns about issues revealed during the home inspection process, we address the most frequently asked questions in this blog.
Want to Learn More about Potential Home Problems?
If you have concerns about something you noticed while touring a potential home, use our free interactive diagnostic tool:
When you select your area of concern, you’ll be offered information about the potential causes, significance, and repair options for each.
