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RUNNIN' VEGAS - The John McNamara Podcast
Talking local sports, business and real estate.
RUNNIN' VEGAS - The John McNamara Podcast
Chris Moscato's Insights on Home Inspections and Market Shifts
Hey guys, john McNamara host running Vegas. We're talking local sports, business, real estate. If you guys like what you see today, please subscribe, like. Follow us on Run in Vegas podcast on Instagram. And today we got a special guest, mr Chris, thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me Owner Colombo Property Inspections in the house today, chris Moscato.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being on. So tell us about you. You know where you're from, what's your story.
Speaker 2:I'm a native of the state, born in Ely Nevada.
Speaker 1:Small mining town, very small.
Speaker 2:Raised in Reno and got into construction right out of high school. So started to build my foundation with that career and got into HVAC oh, wow, and pushed it. Then eventually moved out, went to music school and college and all that, and then moved to Vegas and one of my real estate agents when we bought our first place here, she said, wow, with all your experience experience you should be an inspector. Wow, and I was doing HVAC here at that time as a foreman and I went through the school and the rest is history. That's great. Yeah, pushed into the industry and it's I've never looked back excellent. So what was so? When did he move to Las Vegas? I moved here in 2003 from Los Angeles. Okay, oh, wow, okay, so that's big move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, spent four years. Very usually like a very usual thing California's moving, even though you're you're born and raised in Nevada, but, but not unusual. So 2003, yep, so you got to see. You've've been in this, been a local for over 20 years. Yes, so you got to see a lot of Vegas, because 2003, 2007, the market was on, what like it was going up, got fired 2007, and then it collapsed. So tell me a little bit about that market coming up to that 2007 downfall.
Speaker 2:I still remember properties that we had put offers in our when they had bidding and lines of people 1500 people in line taking tickets because the properties were going up so fast they couldn't keep up with the demand. So you were getting a draw. Okay, this is your number. And about the spring of 07, we could see the change starting to happen. Things just started to drop off, the numbers of people in the line started to drop off and then no sooner did that happen about the end of summer, that august, september, everything started to fall, yeah, fast, and uh, yeah, it collapsed by the first of 08.
Speaker 1:It had pretty much excellent collapsed so I'm getting some flashbacks here, because I was the smart guy. I in 2005 I got into real estate. I sold in new york and I was smart, so I moved to Vegas. When this was all collapsing, I was completely ignorant to how bad it was. I remember my even my broker just like, yeah, we're depreciating 3% a month and we had 36,000 homes for sale. I don't know what that freaking meant.
Speaker 2:That's exactly how it was, yeah.
Speaker 1:It was a crazy time. I was doing like 40 short sales at a time. I had no idea what the heck I was doing, making no money. But yeah, tell us a little bit more about that, because I mean, I know, like gosh, 2008 through 2011,. It was rough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of investors came in when they saw the market collapse. Like you said, 36,000 houses hit the market. A lot of investors came in when they saw the market collapse. Like you said, 36,000 houses hit the market. A lot of big investors were coming in from around the world a lot of stuff from New York, canada, australia and obviously, the China. A lot of people were coming in, yeah, because houses had dropped Down to. I had a property that I had to let go, where it's $17 a foot, oh my God. It sold for an auction oh my God, $17 a foot. And it picked up for me because all the investors were coming in, all the houses were hitting the market, so they were buying in bulk. So I would get calls from investor groups. They would send their representatives over and they would say, hey, we just picked up eight or ten houses. We need these inspected in the next week and my business just lit on fire. From December of 07, all the way up until currently now, it just hasn't stopped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one thing I always thought was interesting in real estate. Right, Because there's no such thing as a bad market. There's always opportunities. And I remember not that I was making a lot of money in those times because the prices were so low, but I was still selling a lot of real estate. I remember thinking like, if this is the worst of the worst, because I, unfortunately, when I got here in 2008, I was licensed in 2009.
Speaker 1:I had missed the opportunities to get, you know, work with the banks, investors. I really just had, you know I didn't have those established relationships, I was starting from scratch. But it was a lot of tough conversations, just like you said. Right, Like a lot of tough conversations where people are $300,000, $500,000, $700,000 upside down on their homes and I can't get. Necessarily, I'm not a financial advisor, but I had to have those tough conversations because we knew like the market was going to probably take a decade and there were some people that held on their homes. But it was that tough conversation to be like you should probably short sell yeah, Take your bumps and then buy in about two years.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's. It was tough. I ended up in total, we lost five in total, oh god. Okay. So, four rentals and a primary, so and you just had to take your licks. But eventually the market did come back because if you had money at that time, you were picking up properties at, yeah, 17, 20, 30, 60 bucks a foot.
Speaker 2:You know if you could hang on another year or two, which I ended up doing later down the road picking up a nice property great, you know, 2,400 square foot for 140,000. Yeah, so it it was. It was a tough time, but business was really good and a lot of people, like you said, lost homes and then just better to let them go. They were so far upside down.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, kudos to you, because to lose five homes, that must have been really tough on your mindset. How did you deal with that? And obviously you picked yourself up. You have a very successful inspection company. You've picked up some properties over the years. How did you deal with that?
Speaker 2:some properties over the years.
Speaker 1:How did you deal with that?
Speaker 2:After dealing with fighting with the banks and all that. It actually became a relief. It was frustrating, obviously, to lose the investments because we had picked the properties up for so cheap, but they had lost so much so fast and, reading the market, we never thought we would get anything back, so it was just easier to have them. Just all right, take it back. I was going through a separation at the time so it was like, okay, if you want them, take them.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of like a new start for you in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was a new start for me Wipe it clean, I knew I could continue, business was doing really well and I knew eventually I would get back into that field again of buying, getting rentals. Because it's Vegas, yeah, you know, this city never stops, this real estate never stops, because I've seen the market bad here in the 80s as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Growing up in Reno. I've seen the markets fluctuate here, yeah, since I could even recognize real estate, so it always bounces back here, it's, that's just does yeah it's just Vegas well it could be.
Speaker 1:I know for myself and a lot of like clients and friends I had that were going through. It was a big hit to the ego for most of us. And then you kind of realize you're talking to most people like everybody else was going through it.
Speaker 2:You know like, yeah, we were all losing it something eight out of ten people I think was the average was going through a short sale or a default at that time, yeah, and then obviously financially.
Speaker 1:If you're stressed too, it affects relationships, it's, it was. It was a tough time. I remember. Yeah, I remember going through it, but I appreciate you giving insight on that and kind of being vulnerable a little bit.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about home inspections. You've been doing this for a while. You're super successful at it. I've gone to home inspections with you. One thing I really appreciate with you is you're great with clients. You take the time to explain everything you know and you're very personable, which is nice as well. Sometimes with home inspections I can get some really analytical and there's not a right or wrong way to do it. But I can get some really analytical inspectors and sometimes they can scare people because if you don't really convey this in a way you know because a lot of times I don't know about you, but I try to pre-paste my clients all the time, I promise you I've sold over 700 homes in my career. I've never seen an inspection report with nothing on it. There'll be a minimum 15, 20 things. I don't care if it's new construction. So you do a really good job of conveying and you know and explaining things so they feel comfortable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, delivery is very important. Yeah, cause you can have somebody describe an issue in a bathroom in a way, that's okay, this is what it is, it's a very simple fix. Or have somebody come in and over do it and freak people out when it's really not that serious. So delivery as an inspector is very, very important. Yeah, and explaining hey, this is a maintenance item, this is a light handyman job. This can be done very easily. This is not that bad. I don't really like to get into the noting of contractors or anybody in that engineering area unless it's absolutely necessary, because most handyman and licensed handyman can get it taken care of pretty simple yeah, you know the houses are pretty clean here in Vegas.
Speaker 2:They're not like they've been along the east coast and stuff. We don't have a lot of wood rot, natural disasters and things like that yeah just delivery is just very important to make sure everybody is comfortable and let them know. Hey, it's not as bad as it looks. There might be 20 or 30 items on the report, but they're not all that bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a. That's a good point, cause 90% of the homes in Vegas are like 20, 25 years or younger. I grew up in New York and I grew up in a house that was built in 1911.
Speaker 2:Yes and I Great example.
Speaker 1:And I was, and I was selling homes for three and a half years in New York. I mean that were 50, 75, 100 years old. So to me, like none of like. I mean the houses out here are great, like some of them are just standard condition, but that's a really good point, like it's not like this massive thing. We live in good weather, you know. We live in the desert, so summer can be a little rough, but we don't have moisture, you know.
Speaker 2:No natural disasters here outside of the heat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, just stay out of the sun during the summer, right?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, um.
Speaker 2:So I've tried to do that over my career just be very gentle with people, because I've seen houses that have caved in I've been to houses that have caved in in perrump sandy valley and I've seen houses that have burnt all the way down to a slab, only with just stub out sticking out of the ground or gut it completely, and everything can be rebuilt, even the houses that I saw out in Pahrump and stuff that actually caved in. They went out, refilled it, they brought the engineers out, they pumped concrete underneath there, leveled everything out and rebuilt the house. You would never know it had ever collapsed. So you know, I just try to be very gentle on delivery and not overstate things if it's not necessary.
Speaker 1:That's a good way to do it, Cause I think nine times out of 10, a lot of buyers when they see a list of like 15, 20 things, which is probably a typical inspection report 10 to 20, right.
Speaker 1:Give or take right, but just normal and your job is to find things. So I think a lot of them when they see that they go. This is like 10, 20 grand of work most people don't have an understanding of when you look at the list. I usually when I look at a list, I'm like 90 of this is like just handyman stuff, maybe a couple things here and there, you know, um. So yeah, it's, it's good that you take the time to explain that because unfortunately, people aren't don't buy and sell homes every single day or month. They do it every four to five, maybe ten years. So yeah, it's a good way to do it and it's.
Speaker 2:It helps the transactions go better. Everybody, everybody, is put at ease, because there are some inspectors that sometimes will throw egos out there and overstate things that don't need to be overstated.
Speaker 1:Well, they lack professionalism. I can't tell you how many times where it's just like just be a professional at the end of the day. So you do a really good job of that. You greet somebody, you have positive energy, you have good energy. So that's one thing I really appreciate about you. Thank, you.
Speaker 1:So is there anything like major red flags, like you go in a house and you know something that somebody should really consider that you would stay away from, like if it comes up Not that it sounds like it comes up too much in Vegas?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like if you're going to walk into a house as you're bringing a buyer in for a first time, look on a property and I know everybody's excited, especially when you're looking at a house, and people's eyes tend to just not pay attention to little things. I always tell them, you know, look for water staining, check your door jams, check your baseboards, look at the house. But really look at the house, open up the cabinets, check underneath water areas, sinks, bathroom sinks, kitchen sinks and just glance around and that kind of gives you an indication of how the house has possibly been taken care of just by walking around.
Speaker 2:If you don't see any water stains, anything, any heavy damage, it's usually the house has been cared for a little better or people pay more attention to the home that they live in and just some, you know, pride of ownership. And then just walk around the house and just see general condition of walls, look at the landscaping, see how the outside's taken care of, and that'll give you a really good indication of how the house has been taken care of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you bring up a really good point because it's really easy to fall in love with a house. But yeah, when those things start adding up, there might be something you get an idea of the house is kind of taken care of, if there's pride in ownership or not. Because I know myself when I purchase properties, if there's pride in ownership, I want the house even more because I know it's, it probably was taken care of.
Speaker 2:Not that you're guaranteed that, but, um, I agree with you on that so and some people will look past a lot of the cosmetic stuff which I try to tell them. You know you can always picture it with new flooring, new paint, um, and if it's the house you like, if you don't see anything that throws up any red flags to you as a buyer and you go. You know I can handle this, I can handle that, I mean push forward to it, but just always keep your eyes open when you walk in and looking for water damage or anything out of place, holes and things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good's good advice. I do think, like most buyer I mean like nine out of 10 of them they kind of want the house so you can just walk in, don't have to do anything. I will say this though the savviest buyers which is maybe one out of 10 people they look at that know they can get a good deal on it and then they just fix it all up, put the stuff that they want in it if they have the cash, right, yes, so don't be scared of those things. If you have a good realtor or a contractor, a great inspector can explain these things to you. You can actually get a better deal and then make the house the way you want it to. You know, end up being so. There's not a right or wrong way to do it. You know exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So how about for like the first? Because I know myself like if somebody's bought a house four or five times, it tends to go a little bit smoother. They're used to home inspections. I know I enjoy first-time homebuyers because they're excited. You tend to need to explain things a little bit more to them, but how about you as an inspector? Because that's usually the big thing for first-time home buyers and they get that inspection report, do you treat them a little bit different? Or do you give if you know they're a first-time owner? Do you give them it like specific advice when you meet them? I'm just kind of curious on that, um. I.
Speaker 2:I do. I can get that feeling of the first-time home buyer. They're obviously nervous and they're a young couple, so I do approach it with the more attention of you. Know. Let me go through the house and I'll give you my honest opinion of what I think of the home. You know, I'm not going to misguide you anyway and I'll do a walk through with you and say, hey, this is important, this isn't, this is maintenance, this is light. So, yeah, I want to make them feel comfortable and at ease with everything on the property and assure them that everything can be repaired. It just comes down to negotiation and talking between the two parties. Yeah, and just, you know, if you like the house, these are the few items.
Speaker 2:This is normal wear and tear. You know every house has a little bit of problems. You know nobody, even even my property. You know my house that I live in. It's not perfect. Yep, mine either. You know new homes that I do, uh, do six to eight a month. You know they're brand new and a lot of people, hey, it's a brand new house, yes, but there's still things that get missed. Yeah, but it can all be fixed. Yeah it's.
Speaker 1:At least they have the home warranty for maybe a year right so yes, great point. If you're out there and you bought new construction, still have an inspection I can't tell you how many times where 15, 20 things are just missing.
Speaker 2:It's, it's worth the payment, um for sure, so great point yes, I do recommend new homes, pre-drywall and finals to be done. That's good information Give us a chance to document the house prior to drywall going up. I photograph everything in the house, all the framing, every room, all the plumbing, the roof, and just give the client a full document showing their house prior to ever having drywall put in.
Speaker 2:And we also look for defects in the production because they're being built a little quicker they are so some companies do things a little shady, so we'll go in and recommend having them corrected, and then we'll do a final yeah, and go through and make sure they're getting what they're paying for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you bring up a really good point, because you've got to keep in mind they're cranking these houses out right. They're on a timeline. Their job is get it done as quickly, as efficiently as possible, so there's always going to be stuff missed.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes that's good and go ahead. And the finished work on occasion gets a rush a little more than like framing and things like that, you'll get a really beautiful house design. Everything's great and the finished work sometimes is a little bit below standard yeah, I typically like new construction.
Speaker 1:I'll do the final walkthrough of my clients because a lot of times they don't have the. I just recommend the agents do a final walkthrough of my clients because a lot of times they don't have the. I just recommend this to agents do a final walkthrough of new construction because you'll see a lot of get on the nose, a lot of stuff that's just missing, and they'll do that touch up.
Speaker 2:It's not a big deal, it's a very normalized thing, so good point yeah, and I offer that service of doing the blue tape marking for the client.
Speaker 1:Oh, that service of doing the blue tape marking for the client.
Speaker 2:So if they can't be present or they want me to do it, just because I know, I did new construction Right out of high school, so I was on seven job sites, I ran crews, so I know how it works. So I say, hey, here's the option. I can give you the blue tape walkthrough and I will mark everything for you, because they're excited.
Speaker 2:They want to see their new home. The superintendents are there to walk through with them and they kind of distract them a bit. Yeah and hey, look at this, this is a faucet and I go through with them. And they kind of distract them a bit. Yeah and hey, look at this, this is a faucet and I go through with a whole different intention.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's worth every penny. So.
Speaker 2:I go through and I'm looking for things that aren't painted, poor install, broken frames. I walk the roofs. I'm there to make sure that that house is perfect prior to closing.
Speaker 1:Excellent, okay, great. Well, make sure that that house is perfect prior to closing. Excellent, okay, great. Well, we got one new construction too, I gotta tell you about after this pod, okay, so how about technology? How has that changed over the years?
Speaker 2:um, it's had a big change. Okay, so when I started in 05, we were handwriting inspections, so we used to order binders and they would have all the sections in there. So we would have to set there and walk around the house and write them and every little item you know, haul, bath tub handle loose, dripping on every, every description, and then at the end of the inspection report we would have to tear out all the carbon copies, put it in a separate folder, click it over and give it to the buyer. Oh wow, and it became a lot, just even with storage. Yeah, so you know you're doing 500 inspections a year, you're storing binders and copies of all this stuff.
Speaker 2:And then home gauge came out. So when home gauge come out, with the digital reports, it was a whole game changer. Oh, I bet. So everything was already there. It's just take pictures, check the boxes. You can build your own software and it just made it go like that and it gives a better product to the client, because prior to that we hadn't incorporated photos in 05 and 06. Oh, so everything was just written.
Speaker 1:That's difficult, yeah, because I can't tell how many times I have to read something three times. But if I can see it visually and then read it, I have an idea, which is good. And one thing I like about the inspection reports now is typically like yours, you do a good job. It's like the things that should be fixed or repaired like right in the beginning, so you know exactly. So you don't have to go through this whole like report because you check everything. So there's over 100 items, so it's just good to be like okay, what are the things that really we really need to have attention to? Because you could you could take you a day to read that inspection report absolutely, and it's so speed.
Speaker 2:It has made the process faster, it's giving the clients a better product and it's more thorough. Okay, because everything and ever. They have such a huge list in each room of everything we check off and inspect and we can photograph everything to help protect the buyers and protect us and the buyers agents as well. It's back in the downfall of the market a lot of houses. I would do an inspection one day, take pictures of everything and document, get a call the next day and the air conditioners gone or the wiring was tore out.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the kitchen was vandalized because the house had been sitting for five months and they broke in and vandalized the house and at least we had documentation to show the condition, so that technology has really given the industry a huge boost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. Do you see anything in the right? Because I know AI is starting to change our industry a little bit. Are you seeing anything on the horizon with AI that's going to help you with?
Speaker 2:I haven't seen a lot with the AI stuff. We're still. Homegage hasn't jumped that far into that side yet. It's still pretty basic. You can still the video part of it has gotten better of people recording, doing video things. That's probably advanced. But AI hasn't jumped into that particular area. Gotten better of people recording, doing video things. That's probably advanced, but AI hasn't jumped into that particular area. Not that I have seen and I've been with.
Speaker 2:HomeGauge since 06. Ok so, and other tools that have helped advance, like thermal imaging wasn't a big thing 06, 07, 08. And it's definitely changed. The industry with thermal imaging and the cameras are getting better and better and better.
Speaker 1:That's great, which helps everybody out, because you can see more, uh, and do more with them yeah, kind of people at ease, right, because, yeah, you see that water stain and most people freak out about that. Yeah, was it really an issue or was it something? Now it's, you know, gone? It's a big difference, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah detecting water leaks underneath slabs and stuff, which has helped out. You can feel the floor is warm, but you don't know exactly where it's at. So you can pull out a thermal imaging camera and literally pinpoint where it's at, put a mark on the floor, take a picture, even measure it out, locating insulation spots where it's missing. Thermal imaging has helped with that, because not all builders do 100% and it's tough to crawl back into the back of a attic where there's no room. So you can thermal image ceilings and stuff and see where there's hot and cold spots, depending on the weather.
Speaker 1:It okay, it looks thin here.
Speaker 2:This looks thin, this looks thin. Okay, so it's been a great advancement for the inspection industry.
Speaker 1:Excellent, Okay, and then I know you were before we started the pod too. You were kind of saying, after the first or the new year you've seen like a little bit of shift in the market.
Speaker 2:Definitely have. Okay, yeah, coming to the end of last year, it had a lot of people were holding their breath, yeah, presidential election year and a lot of investors and people. I talked to everybody just kind of held their breath until after that and then after the first of the year, the business has definitely we're probably up 45% from this time last year.
Speaker 1:That's great, good to hear it, you heard it from this source, because I think people hear me all the time, but I think a lot of too like people. Like you said, their election kind of started early this year because there was Biden, they had the debate and then Biden left, trump got shot in the ear. So everybody just kind of put things on hold, starting in July. Yes, so I think a lot of those Q3, q4 buyers got pushed to this quarter and I think we're seeing more positive signs with real estate. We're seeing positive signs that interest rates are most likely coming down. So there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's what we're hoping. Yeah, and I see people that are doing that. There's like you know, we got a better interest rate. We've locked in lower.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now we can afford it, that you know, lower point, point and a half.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Has taken that three or four or $500 off of my mortgage which I can handle. That now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and buyers out there too. You know a lot of new construction. Let us know there's a lot of new construction opportunity where they're giving you really good interest rates.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:As you're saying, with these new constructions. So, besides real estate, I got a little bit more time with you here. Okay, I heard you play the drums.
Speaker 2:I have. I've been a drummer for 40 years, Wow. So I've been a rock drummer and toured.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And had hair all the way down to my butt.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Went through music college for four years and played with some famous people here and there. Wow yeah, it's been quite a career.
Speaker 1:That's fun. Yeah, that must have been a fun time.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was an eye-opener going to la at that time 98, 99 up to 2003.
Speaker 1:oh yeah, that must have been a fun time yeah, very, really enjoyed it, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:We did, um, we had a fun band, we had a guns, guns N' Roses tribute band and they were separated, oh, and so we got to do that for a long time, got rated one of the top cover bands in the country, that's great and did a lot of touring and it was fun.
Speaker 1:That is fun, I miss it, but I'm jealous, I always wanted to be a rock star, but I had no musical talent.
Speaker 2:Everybody can learn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no musical talent, so everybody can learn?
Speaker 2:yeah, not this guy. So besides playing the drums, anything else you do fun um a huge avid athlete. I love play golf. Oh, cool um golf, pickleball, tennis. Uh, razor rides, ride dirt bikes all over the valley and oh wow, yeah, that's anything outdoors, hunt fish, love guns um, growing up with them my whole life out here, especially with the hunting and stuff out here, and that's that is great for all of that good yeah well, I want to thank you for being on you.
Speaker 1:You really offered some amazing information to buyers out there. If you guys are looking for a great home inspector, chris moscato, he is your man. And guys, we're gonna wrap this up. This is run in vegas and take care of yourselves today.