Beyond the Surface; The Home Inspector’s Perspective

Confidence comes from understanding the full picture. 

This episode provides valuable insight into the home inspection process, helping consumers understand what findings truly matter, what is common, and how inspections can influence their decisions and confidence when buying or selling. At the same time, it supports agents in their role as trusted advisors by offering perspective and language to help guide clients through inspection findings, manage expectations, and navigate with clarity, professionalism, and reassurance.

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Transcript

Christan Bosley 0:00

When you walk into a home, it's easy to focus on what you can see. But the real confidence often comes from what lies behind the walls and beneath the surface. Today, we're talking about the role of the home inspector and how understanding the full picture helps buyers and sellers move forward with clarity and confidence. For nearly a century, Bosley has been helping to shape the landscape of Canadian real estate. This podcast is an extension of that legacy, our way of staying connected to what matters most to you. Join us as we sit down with leading voices from across the industry and beyond to explore the ideas, trends, and stories that move real estate forward. Whether you're an agent, investor, homeowner, or just curious about the market, there's something here for you.

Intro to Frank from iInspect360

Christan Bosley 1:02

Welcome, Frank. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Frank Bernardo 1:05

Thanks for having me.

Christan Bosley 1:06

So Frank is with us from iInspect 360, and we were just chatting, and you said you've done over how many home inspections?

Frank Bernardo 1:14

Um, probably over 4,000.

Christan Bosley 1:17

4,000? Yes. Okay. Tell us about your journey into becoming a home inspector.

Frank Bernardo 1:23

Um my family's been involved with home construction, and basically I got the bite from that. Um, seeing how a house was built, and then a friend of mine was getting into the industry as well, and he says, you know what, why don't you take a look at doing this? There's a real need right now. And uh looked at Seneca College. They had a uh a night where you can go and see what was going on and how what what's involved with the course, and that's where it led me to where I am today.

Christan Bosley 1:55

Okay, amazing. And so how long have you been doing this for?

Frank Bernardo 2:00

15 years.

Christan Bosley 2:01

15 years. And how did you come to be connected to the world of Wosley?

Frank Bernardo 2:06

One day I was doing an inspection for a client and I happened to see some marketing material at at this house, and it had the name Anita Merlot.

Christan Bosley 2:16

Oh.

Frank Bernardo 2:17

And um, I cold called her and I basically said, you know, if your inspector is busy, I know you're probably using somebody. If your inspector's busy, give me a call and uh, you know, hopefully you can give me a try out. She called me and we had like a little brief on what she's expecting out of a home inspection, how long she's been in the business. And I told her, Well, I haven't been in the business that long, but I'm starting out and I want to show you what I can do.

Christan Bosley 2:44

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 2:45

So she gave me a try on one of the houses that uh she was listing. And um, from there it's been 15 years and we're still working together. And, you know, we we have very many discussions about the inspection report that I write for her because she's questioning some of the stuff that I put in there and whether it's valid, or you know, if we could soften the wording a little bit. But at the end of the day, we have a great working relationship. She knows what to expect out of my work, and I know what to expect out of her uh listing a house.

Christan Bosley 3:21

Yeah. And I think the benefit of working with someone like Anita, who has been with our company for over 20 years, is that she does know what she's talking about, right? So she actually has the ability to challenge the findings and have meaningful dialogue about what everybody needs to be transparent about.

Frank Bernardo 3:38

Yeah, and that's one of the things that I admire about your group as well. Like a lot of the agents that I work with at Bosley have the dynamic and the education that they show me as a home inspector that when I'm working with them, there's a level of professionalism that I don't see in other agents that I work with.

Christan Bosley 3:58

That was that just really warmed my heart, Frank. And I promise I did not pay him to say that. So thank you.

Frank Bernardo 4:06

It's the truth. You know what? Honestly, every um every uh time you guys have brought me in, I've met new agents, and it's almost like that level of expertise that I'm working with that shows me that your agency really cares about its clients.

Christan Bosley 4:22

Amazing. Well, thank you. I really appreciate that moment, and um, I will take it. We'll we'll keep doing what we're doing. So let's talk about the inspection because you know many of our agents will recommend either a pre-list inspection before the home goes to market or a home inspection on behalf of the buyer.

Understanding The Role Of The Inspection

Christan Bosley 4:42

From your perspective, what is the true purpose of a home inspection?

Frank Bernardo 4:47

So the home inspection gives, so if you're looking at a pre-list, the home inspection is basically the same process. Uh the pre-list inspection gives the seller an idea of what a buyer is potentially going to see with any deficiencies in their home. Right? We examine all the systems, we look at you know all the mechanicals, the roof, plumbing, electrical, and we give them a report to give them an idea. Should I fix this? Should I just let the potential buyer fix it? Or should we, you know, just leave it the way it is and sell the house the way it is, right? Obviously, your agents give them the guidance as to what should be done when it comes to doing a pre-list. On the buyer side, it's the same thing, right? You're going in with a potential buyer and you're showing them all the systems, the mechanicals, the roof, the air conditioning, the electrical, if there's any structural deficiencies, and you're bringing it to their attention. So basically it's an examination, a visual non-invasive examination. So we're not opening any walls, we're not looking behind things that could actually do damage to the house. Uh, we try to employ tools that help us to find any further deficiencies, like I use a thermal camera at the end of my inspection to give me an idea of, you know, is there any possible moisture behind the wall? Is there a deficiency in the insulation? Just to give them an idea of any possible findings that we can't see on the exterior that could be possibly going on behind the wall. So it gives you an idea of what to expect so that there's no major issues when you're making your decision to buy the house. And that's on the buyer side.

Christan Bosley 6:38

Okay. And how much does a home inspection these days typically run a client?

Frank Bernardo 6:43

I generally, for a house that's under about under 2,500 square feet, I charge 475 plus tax.

Christan Bosley 6:50

Okay. And that includes, does that include your thermal image? It does. It does.

Frank Bernardo 6:55

My prices go up as the size of the house goes up just because of the amount of work that's involved. And I don't run through a house. I take two to three hours to do a house, plus, I also take two to three hours to write a report. I do have narratives that are set in my program.

Christan Bosley 7:14

Right.

Frank Bernardo 7:14

But every house has its individual uh things that you want to address. And you want to personally address them to the people that you're speaking with, right? You want that audience to understand what you're seeing. And one of the things that I've learned in my business is that 70% of the market has had been or continues to be first-time homebuyers.

Christan Bosley 7:36

Yes.

Frank Bernardo 7:36

And when you're dealing with a first-time home buyer, sometimes they don't know what we know. So my language in my uh report tends to be an educational tool for them. I try to make sure that they understand what I'm seeing. So they're not going back to your agent or they're not calling me for a follow-up on something that they just misunderstood.

Christan Bosley 7:56

Right.

Frank Bernardo 7:56

Right? It's important to give them some guidance. And I try to use my inspection report as a tool for them for maintenance on their home.

Christan Bosley 8:05

Okay. Also a wonderful tool. So tell me, what is something in your experience that clients or people often misunderstand about what it is you do in the inspection process?

Frank Bernardo 8:16

Sometimes they look at my job as providing them a warranty on the house when it's not necessarily a warranty. It's more, this is what we're seeing today. Um, something could happen tomorrow, but on the day of the inspection, this is what we saw. So we try to give them an idea that it's not going to be something that when they move in, that it's just going to be fixed.

Christan Bosley 8:44

Right.

Frank Bernardo 8:44

Right? There is potential that they may have to do some maintenance to the house. There might be some repairs that might be needed in the house, or they may have to repair or completely replace something. Like if a furnace is old and the seller decides that they don't want to uh replace it, there could be like a short lifespan on that furnace and they may have to replace it in the near or you know, longer term.

Christan Bosley 9:08

So when I was in sales, I had this experience in my very own home. So I bought my first house, moved from a condo to a house probably three years into my sales career, had the home inspection, went to go renovate the bathroom, and the entire wall fell down in the bathroom because it was insulated with newspaper from the 1970s. And my siding had been leaking for so long that nobody had any idea. So the entire wall disintegrated and fell down. First thing Tom said to me, my dad, was, Well, didn't you have a home inspection? And so the thing that I really didn't understand was home inspectors really are not, to your point, invasive. They're not seeing behind walls. So I used to tell my clients straight up, this is a this is a tool to tell you as much as we can tell you about what you can see in the home, but it is home ownership, so you're still gonna want to put $10,000 to $20,000 aside for the what ifs, right? Because there's a lot that we can't see behind the walls.

Frank Bernardo 10:08

And I think that's a good thing to tell people because I think they're predisposed or they're thinking of what they're going to expect out of the result of the home inspection is that they can easily move into every house and that there's not going to be a problem.

Christan Bosley 10:28

Right.

Frank Bernardo 10:28

I sometimes do get phone calls that, for example, I recently got a call from a client or an email from a client on Super Bowl Sunday that they found that there was a little pinhole leak in their plumbing in the condo that they were just moved in. They just literally moved into it, and it was a week later, and they had asked me why did I not inspect it?

Christan Bosley 10:54

Right.

Frank Bernardo 10:54

So one of the things that I do, and I'm not sure if every other inspector does, is I take pictures of every square inch of the house. This is a backup for me, and it's also a way for me to show the buyer that if something changes from the time that we've done the inspection to the time that you take possession, I have record of it.

Christan Bosley 11:14

Right.

Frank Bernardo 11:14

Right? So I went back in my file, I immediately emailed the client back and I said, I'm not at in a position to respond to your email right now, but if you give me to tomorrow, I will get back to you. And by later afternoon, I had pictures of that exact plumbing that I saw, and I basically said to the client, unfortunately, this is what I saw, and I showed that I was running the plumbing and that there were no deficiencies with the plumbing at that time. Right? It's really hard for me to tell what's going on internally.

Christan Bosley 11:48

Yeah.

Frank Bernardo 11:49

It's like a doctor. Like when you go, you can be in perfect health, and then all of a sudden you go and get a test done, and your doctor or somebody says to you, you've got this problem, right? It's we can't see what's going on on the inside of something. We can only make sometimes an assumption. Right? So we try to do our best to show what we do see and test systems so that if there is a possibility for a failure, it will happen at the at the time of the inspection. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way.

Christan Bosley 12:22

That's full service, Frank, responding to emails on Super Bowl Sunday. Wild.

What Make or Breaks Deals

Christan Bosley 12:28

In all of your experience, I expect that there are some trends about things that make or break deals. So can you tell me what one of your findings is that tends to have the largest impact on a transaction?

Frank Bernardo 12:41

Well, it all depends on the buyer.

Christan Bosley 12:43

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 12:44

Sometimes, like if you're you if you're dealing with a first-time home buyer or a buyer that's gone from a condo to a house, they're always fearful. So the biggest issue with buyers is the big bad nasty word mold.

Christan Bosley 13:02

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 13:02

Right? So we and I'm starting to see this more often, like attic molt. So you the last thing I do is I check the attic because I don't want to have insulation fall all over me and then I'm tracking it all over the house. So I usually tend to do the attic last, and I kind of temper my clients to tell them, look, there's gonna be things up there. I haven't gone up there yet, but there will probably be something up there that may cause you to worry. So I'm just giving you a heads up from now. And most of the time I go up there and everything's fine. But there is the time when you go up there and you could find somebody's left stuff up there, they've disturbed the insulation, the house didn't have pot lights, so they did a DIY and they've put the you know recessed lights in there themselves, not knowing to cover the lights, and all of a sudden your attic's covered in mold, right?

Christan Bosley 13:58

Or the bathroom vent is venting into your attic. Or the bathroom vent is venting in your attic. That's a common one.

Frank Bernardo 14:03

So a lot of the problems tend to be uh where people have a fear rather than having an understanding. Okay. Right? So mold is a problem. Attic mold is a problem structurally, it doesn't affect your health, right? Because it's in an area where airflow is moving up, the airflow is not coming down to the house. So people are very fearful of mold, right? Because they read about it. And yes, mold is something that you need to be cautious about, right? There's different, there's 200,000 variations or genera, as they call them, of mold spores. And there's three or four that are toxic that you have to be very cautious about. And if you have problems with that type of mold, it can affect your health, right? So those are the things that kind of come up in an inspection that make or break a deal sometimes. I can talk to people about how to remedy the situation, but sometimes those remedies could cost money. So those are the things, you know, the risk tolerance that some people need to be ready to face when they're looking at uh a cost, you know, in the 15 to 20,000 sometimes to repair.

Christan Bosley 15:21

Right. And what about water penetration issues? Because in my experience, this is something that buyers always panicked about, right? And I also tended to sell, I would say, older homes on average. So I had things like knob and tube and water in almost every house that I looked at. So how do you what are the indications that you're seeing when you're going through the house and how do you kind of have that discussion with any potential buyer?

Frank Bernardo 15:47

Uh again, it comes to the age of the house. With older homes, you're gonna get as soon as you walk into some some of the houses, as soon as you walk in the door, you'll get that woof of must. Yes. Right? And that's my biggest worry. That's my biggest worry walking into a house. Right? Where are we gonna find water? Has there been a leak?

Christan Bosley 16:09

Okay, right?

Frank Bernardo 16:10

Generally, it's because of a block foundation. A lot of them were cinder blocks before. They're older houses. Uh now the the mortar joint has a little bit of an opening and you're getting water that's coming in behind a wall. Sometimes very hard to detect, right? Um, you generally some if you know it depends. Did the house get renovated? Did they put up new walls? Did they paint over something? Did they take out the drywall and leave the damage? Like it's very difficult to figure out unless you actually see some visible evidence.

Christan Bosley 16:48

Right. Right. On the foundation wall.

Frank Bernardo 16:50

Because or on the the the drywall.

Christan Bosley 16:53

Yeah.

Frank Bernardo 16:53

Right? Because if there's a wall in front of that foundation wall, it's gonna be very difficult to make a reasonable judgment that there was damage.

Christan Bosley 17:02

But this is where your thermal reader comes in, isn't it?

Frank Bernardo 17:05

But if if, say, for example, you're going through 30 days in the summer where there hasn't been any moisture, you're not gonna get that read that's gonna tell you unless you see some voids. Like the the insulation will be wet and it could create a void in that space. So hopefully you're looking at that and you're saying, okay, there's a possibility that there could be something going on behind the wall, and you bring it to the to the buyer's attention. A lot of the times, these repairs are like they're not difficult to fix, and there's new methods to fix them. They generally don't have to dig on the outside of the house anymore to waterproof a house. It can all be done on the inside. Yes, it could be a problem if you have finished uh walls on the inside of the basement. It could be a little bit costly, but not as costly as you're doing digging on the outside of the house.

Christan Bosley 18:01

Right. They have creative solutions these days.

Frank Bernardo 18:04

Yes.

Christan Bosley 18:05

Okay, amazing. So we've touched on mold, we've touched on water. Um, I currently have a wonderful lawsuit going on over termites. Oh. Yes. And so, you know, you've indicated that it's not unusual for people to perhaps drywall over damage that they don't want people to know about. I would say that's a very similar situation to the one we're in at the moment. Do you inspect for termite activity? What is it that you look for? Do you know the pockets? Like, do you talk about it at all, or is that just not part of the inspection?

Frank Bernardo 18:43

So I look for anything that can be a deficiency.

Christan Bosley 18:46

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 18:47

As long as it's visible.

Christan Bosley 18:48

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 18:49

Again, work most of the time if a basement is finished. The only accessible area where you're going to see floor joists or any wood that's connected to the exterior of the house is probably in the mechanical room if they haven't drywalled that area. Um, you're gonna see tubes, you'll see like little penetrations in the wood. Generally, the the termite tries to create a tube out of mud, and it uses that to travel. And where it where it looks for is it looks for wood, right, to to dig into. That's their source of food. And you try to look along the edges of the the wall where they where the floor joist connects to the concrete, like either the poured concrete or the concrete block. And you look for little tubes or little things that are hanging, right? And that's where you're gonna basically find. Is it a hundred percent uh reasonable to say that we don't see it? Yes, because if somebody's drywalled over their uh floor joist, um that's gonna be very difficult to deduce that there's there's termite damage. But also, termites don't only work in the basement. Like sometimes you just you can walk around a house and if you bang a wall, if it sounds a little hollow, you can make a deduction that possibly it could be a source of termite damage there as well.

Christan Bosley 20:26

Yes, in this particular situation, they had to tear the house down. Wow. Yes, it was significant.

Frank Bernardo 20:31

And the seller had drywalled over that?

Christan Bosley 20:34

Yes. Oh boy. Yes, very large, very large legal ramifications there. So um termite activity. Do you often recommend other resources to your clients in the event that you know you're in kind of a termite activity region, or do you typically partner with a realtor on that resource?

Frank Bernardo 20:54

Um I generally so when any properties south of I would say Bloor Danforth are red zones. Uh so I usually try to spend a little bit extra time and then I'll make a recommendation that they should get it further checked or at least call a company. Aetna. Aetna is the company that wrote the Bible on termites damage and um treatment in the GTA. Um I also have a family member that does has been in the pest control business for 50 years. Uh, I make recommendations to them or to Aetna.

Christan Bosley 21:38

Nice.

Frank Bernardo 21:39

Right? Just because uh what I can't see, maybe they know. Right? So what we usually do is ask the either the realtor or the buyer to make a phone call and just say, I'm looking to buy a house in this neighborhood on this street, but because of privacy issues, they can't tell. You exact addresses, but they'll tell you that they've done work in that area.

Christan Bosley 22:04

Yeah.

Frank Bernardo 22:05

So it's a good resource to contact them.

Christan Bosley 22:07

And when I was selling in the East End, it was always a bonus when I came across a seller who had done preventative treatment that like had a had a warranty around that. They did it every two years. I think that makes a home saleable. It's the little things that help, you know. Yeah.

Frank Bernardo 22:23

And that, you know what? Those are the things that as a home inspector, you like to see when you're walking into a house that somebody has laid out all their invoices.

Christan Bosley 22:33

But it also shows a pride of ownership, right? Yeah. A pride of ownership, and you know that you're purchasing a home that's been well cared for.

Frank Bernardo 22:39

Exactly.

Christan Bosley 22:40

And that, you know, really you're talking about systems.

Frank Bernardo 22:42

Yeah. You know, I like to tell people, like, whenever I do a house and I I see, like, when I do home inspection, I don't just do the job the day of. I try to look at Google Street View to see, you know, like have anything, has anything changed? Because Google tends to go like either in certain areas, they'll go every six months, once a year, twice a year, maybe every three years, depending on the frequency, right? And you can go back up to I think 2007, right? So I try to look at the house today and then back as far as Google will take it, as well as looking at previous listings, right? Like what were the were there any changes in the property? Was there any indication of a roof replacement?

Christan Bosley 23:32

Right.

Frank Bernardo 23:33

And then when you see that there has been no information online, like if you're looking for a listing, you kind of know that, okay, that person's been living there a long time. A long time, yeah. And then you ask yourself, well, why are they selling? Right. And I tend to go to my inspections a little early, especially if it's a buyer inspection, because I try to catch the seller when they're coming out to ask them, why are you selling your house? Right? Just to see if they'll give like people like to talk. So they'll give you that information. Well, I'm retiring, you know, I need something smaller. I'm gonna go into a retirement home. I've been here for 40 odd years. And right there, that gives me confidence that you know what, this person looked after their house. So, and I tell people, whenever I see somebody that's walking walking into a house that's been loved for 45 years, whatever deficiencies I find, they may be minor. Because even if the furnace is old, you know that person serviced it every year.

Christan Bosley 24:33

Right.

Frank Bernardo 24:33

Right? And that's the key to, you know, looking for your right house.

Christan Bosley 24:37

Absolutely. So let me ask, when you're going back and doing this Google search, do you happen to notice the size and scope of any trees on the property?

Frank Bernardo 24:48

Sometimes you can see, depending on what you what angle the the photo. I mean, you're not gonna Google doesn't take a picture of the backyard. It only takes a picture of the front.

Christan Bosley 24:58

Okay. Right?

Frank Bernardo 24:59

But you can also see that, you know, like if you look at a different angle, because I don't want to only look at the house from the front view. So I'll I'll take a look at an angle down the street to see, and you'll see that there's a big tree in the backyard. So yes, you you'll you will find that a tree will be on the property.

Christan Bosley 25:17

And is that something that you typically speak to buyers or sellers about in terms of the infringement of roots on the potential foundation of the property?

Frank Bernardo 25:25

So I do speak about it. But the pr the the misunderstanding about trees is that tree roots will only go where moisture is. So the area around your foundation, if your drainage is done correctly, you should be seeing that that area is dry. So there would be no reason for your house or to the house to be affected by the tree. Okay. The roots generally will go where the water is because roots are trying to gather water for the tree.

Christan Bosley 25:59

So this is why we typically see tree roots hitting sewer lines rather than house foundations.

Frank Bernardo 26:05

Yeah, and if they are hitting a house foundation, it's because the moisture that's draining from the house. So your water management, your drainage and your discharge are causing the water to collect around your foundation.

Christan Bosley 26:20

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 26:20

So a good sign would be, I mean, obviously you're not going to see the tree root, but if you have drains that are discharging in ground, there's always a possibility of failure underground, right? Because we can't see the pipe going underground. And a pipe in soil will be deteriorated over time.

Christan Bosley 26:43

That's really interesting. If we were gonna sum it up, what is one issue that you find that should absolutely never be ignored?

Frank Bernardo 26:53

Structure.

Christan Bosley 26:54

Structure.

Frank Bernardo 26:56

So foundation cracks. Some cracks are reasonable, like if you're looking at a poured concrete foundation crack, um, you're gonna see cracking. It's only normal, right? Houses move, ground shakes, you're gonna get some cracking. It's also part of the natural curing of concrete that you'll get some shrinkage cracking, right? But if cracking is significant where you see displacement, then that's an issue that you have to be concerned about.

Christan Bosley 27:25

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 27:25

And that could be costly down the road, and you just don't want to leave it to your buyer or even potentially the seller to not disclose it to a potential buyer or the buyer not to be aware that it may be a costly repair.

Christan Bosley 27:42

Right. Okay. So needless to say, foundation is something that will f help a deal fall apart.

Frank Bernardo 27:47

It could.

Christan Bosley 27:48

Yes. Okay.

Buyer and Seller Behaviours in Home Inspections

Christan Bosley 27:50

If we're gonna talk about, you know, you've been in the business for 15 years, as you said, you've seen a market go straight up, you've seen the pandemic market, you've seen it go straight back up, and now we're kind of leveling off. So, you know, we've spoken quite a bit on this podcast about the difference between sellers' markets and buyers' markets and where we are now. Uh, I think we're actually in more of a balanced market than we've seen for some time. But how does that play out in the buyer mentality when they are getting their home inspections on a conditional deal?

Frank Bernardo 28:23

A lot of the times in today's market, people are asking me whether they can go back to the seller and ask them for an abatement. And I always tell them that's between you and the seller.

Christan Bosley 28:40

Right.

Frank Bernardo 28:40

I'm only here to inform you of what I'm seeing.

Christan Bosley 28:44

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 28:45

Right? So I think I think the mentality of certain buyers in today's market is that they're trying to bully the seller.

Christan Bosley 28:53

Right.

Frank Bernardo 28:54

Either fix it or I'm walking away. Right. And I I don't think that that's the right attitude because if that's your house that you want to buy, I think you have to accept that there are going to be some deficiencies. I do tarry-on inspections on brand new houses, and I could tell you that some of the deficiencies I find from the builders are almost worse than the houses that are 100 years old, right? So I think going in with how there's you there's so many different things that that you should look for as a buyer. Is the house suitable for you? Is the price suitable for your your finances? Um, can you stay in this house for a long period of time? Or are you like, what are your intentions with buying this house? Like, is today's market people were buying? I remember five, six years ago, even up to 2023, people were buying the house using it as a bank account.

Christan Bosley 29:53

Yes.

Frank Bernardo 29:54

Right? So will this house go up in in value? Am I gonna buy this house and then in two years I can flip it and make a hundred thousand dollars on it and then go to the next house?

Christan Bosley 30:06

Well, that investment mentality is gone, right? Now it's we're back to searching for a home. But to your point, we are seeing more abatements than we've seen in many years. And so for people who don't know the term, that an abatement is when a buyer has purchased a property conditional on a home inspection. Frank comes in, does the home inspection, finds a few deficiencies, and the buyer instructs their buyer's agent to go back and renegotiate on price as a result of the deficiencies. Okay.

Frank Bernardo 30:34

But let me let me bring something up to you, which I think people fail to understand. The abatement doesn't fix the problem.

Christan Bosley 30:42

No, never.

Frank Bernardo 30:43

It just reduces your mortgage payment.

Christan Bosley 30:45

Yep.

Frank Bernardo 30:46

So at the end of the day, the problem is still there. You haven't fixed it. Now, where are you gonna come up with that money to fix that problem? You reduced the price by 20,000, but that didn't fix the problem.

Christan Bosley 31:01

No.

Frank Bernardo 31:02

And now you have to either like, do you have the finances to fix that problem? Or do you have to take out a line of credit, put it on your credit card? You know, those are the things that I always tell people. Regardless of you negotiating a lower price, will that lower price fix the problem?

Christan Bosley 31:22

Right. Yeah, it's a different perspective for sure. So we are seeing a lot of that in today's market. If you're gonna flip to the listing side, one of the other things we're noticing in today's market is that homes that are listed, that are well cared for, that are beautifully staged, that have great marketing and a good strategy, they're selling quickly, right? For still very good prices. From a listing perspective, how can a home inspection help us do that?

Frank Bernardo 31:52

The home inspection will give the seller a roadmap to what the buyer is potentially going to ask you to fix.

Christan Bosley 32:01

Right.

Frank Bernardo 32:02

So going back to our conversation that we had a minute ago, you're giving the seller an idea of what they are going to be faced with when the negotiation process comes into play.

Christan Bosley 32:17

Right.

Frank Bernardo 32:17

Right? Some people, when they live in their homes, it's their pride. Right? They think that their house is, there's nothing wrong with it. That everything works fine because they've been living in it and it's been working fine. But that's for them.

Christan Bosley 32:32

Right.

Frank Bernardo 32:33

A potential buyer will walk in and see that this thing doesn't suit their thinking or their main level of maintenance. Right. And that's where they're gonna say, well, this was good for the book the seller, but it's not good for me.

Christan Bosley 32:50

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 32:50

Right? So I think where I see it sometimes, like when I have when I do a pre-listing and the seller is in the house, and they're asking me why I am disclosing that this is a problem or a deficiency, it's because they don't understand what deficiencies are.

Christan Bosley 33:09

Right.

Frank Bernardo 33:10

Right? For them, they've been living in a house for 30, 40 years. Houses have been running fine, but certain things that are expected for a house to operate properly are gonna be missed by the seller because it was working fine for them.

Christan Bosley 33:26

Right.

Frank Bernardo 33:26

Right? We have to give a non-biased opinion on systems and functions in the house so that a potential buyer, A, is not gonna think that I'm in cahoots with the selling agent or the seller to sell the house. So we referred to working with your agents.

Christan Bosley 33:47

Yes.

Frank Bernardo 33:47

And I've said to them before: if you see that I'm putting things in the report, it might be minimal for you, like a minimum uh small deficiency. But it gives the reader confidence that we're presenting the house the way it should be presented.

Christan Bosley 34:02

Right.

Frank Bernardo 34:02

Right? So even small things that are in a report will give the uh buyer, the potential buyer, confidence that, hey, look, you know what? The seller is not putting their bias on this house, and neither is the agent trying to mask things to sell this house. The person's giving an honest opinion or an honest picture of what the house should look like, presenting it to the market.

Christan Bosley 34:28

Right. And I think that that's a really great tip if there's any realtors listening, right? When we talk about how agents can better prepare their clients for inspection results, right?

Frank Bernardo 34:38

You know what? We're not we're not the friend of the seller and we're not the friend of the buyer. We're there to protect both sides.

Christan Bosley 34:44

Right.

Frank Bernardo 34:44

Right? So if there's something that's going on and you didn't know about it, we're here to tell you about it. And if it means that you have to pull the listing off, because sometimes I'm hearing agents telling me, oh my God, I'm listing this house in three days and we're not gonna have time to put it on the market. Change the calendar date, right? Right. Get make sure that the house is completely ready before you put it on the market.

Christan Bosley 35:09

Absolutely. It's the most important part.

Frank Bernardo 35:12

And to be honest with you, I think, and stagers and painters are gonna hate me for this, but I honestly think a house should be sold for the condition that it's in.

Christan Bosley 35:24

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 35:25

Because staging makes the house look beautiful, and I think most people will walk into a house and like say, oh my god, this is my dream house.

Christan Bosley 35:35

Right.

Frank Bernardo 35:35

Right? And they'll look at the bells and whistles before they look at anything else. And then when I come in and I rein on their parade, they're all of a sudden upset with me.

Christan Bosley 35:46

Yeah, and I think it's the, you know, that's another good point in terms of managing expectations. But I think there's a difference between the emotional appeal of a home and then the objective reality of the property, right? So I think that staging helps with the emotional appeal of the home. So it helps a buyer feel like, oh, this could be my home. But I used to, when I walk through with buyers, say, listen, you know, we're gonna sit on the couch and make ourselves comfortable in the living room at the end of our showing. But right now I want you to look at floors, ceilings, windows, doors. I want to actually make sure that you know outside of this decor what the space actually looks like. Exactly.

Frank Bernardo 36:26

And that's the right way to take a position with a potential buyer. Like I recently traded my truck in. When I went to my dealership. When I went to my dealership, they inspected my truck for four hours.

Christan Bosley 36:44

Come on.

Frank Bernardo 36:45

Four hours. They took the wheels off, they looked at the brakes, they checked underneath the vehicle. I was doing a trade-in. What dealership is this? People buy houses in 15 minutes.

Christan Bosley 36:58

I know. It's true.

Frank Bernardo 36:59

I'm buying a $50,000 pickup truck, and a potential buyer of a million-dollar home has walked in there for 15 minutes and has made a decision to buy their house after 15 minutes of looking at the walls and the drapes and the nice cabinets and the nice stone on the cabinets.

Christan Bosley 37:20

I know. Well, and to your point, it's amazing what a coat of paint can do, right? So it is important. I'm a huge believer in home inspections. I do admittedly believe that they don't tell you everything. I do think it's important to have a slush fund. But especially for first-time buyers, your point about first-time buyers, you know, the estimation in 2026 is that 45% of the buying market in the GTA will be first-time, first-time buyers. I think the only thing that, you know, we didn't touch on from that perspective

Condo Inspections

Christan Bosley 37:51

is a lot of first-time buyers right now, particularly with the market the way it is, they're moving towards condos because there's a lot of great opportunity in the condo segment. So, how does a home inspection differ between a condo and a freehold? Because there are far fewer systems in a condo.

Frank Bernardo 38:08

So, firstly, is the price.

Christan Bosley 38:10

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 38:11

Price is a lot lower depending on the size of the unit as well.

Christan Bosley 38:14

Right.

Frank Bernardo 38:15

Um, we're not checking the c common elements of a condo. We basically don't check the elevators.

Christan Bosley 38:25

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 38:25

Again, that's part of the condo, and it's beyond my inspection capability.

Christan Bosley 38:30

My understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, my understanding is that the home inspection can only cover inside the walls of the unit, correct?

Frank Bernardo 38:36

We only do the inside. But you know, it that's an apartment. When it comes to like a condo townhouse, I still do the exterior. Because the exterior, I mean, you still want to tell the buyer what to expect is going on, right? Even though the exterior elements are part of the condo corporation, I still check the exterior elements as well as the interior, right? So if you're looking at a condo apartment, the systems are a little less than a home inspection. So you're not going to take as much time. I generally like a any a unit that's under 800 square feet or sorry, under a thousand square feet, I should do it within about an hour. Right? I'm still checking the plumbing. I'm looking at the plumbing, right? Because you know, the biggest issue with condos in the downtown core has been Kitech.

Christan Bosley 39:28

It's wondering if you were gonna say it's a lot of people.

Frank Bernardo 39:29

You know, it's not, you know, and in Ontario, there have been very few incidences of failure. The problem with Kitech is that it got a bad rap through the class action lawsuit. But every construction material has class action lawsuits against them. Every component maker has a class action lawsuit against it. The thing is, Kitech just took the brunt of it. And like I said, in Ontario, through every inspection agency, we haven't seen many failures. So the only problem that we see with Kitech is, and I tell people this, I'm not seeing the issues that are common with Kitech, but it's your insurance company.

Christan Bosley 40:16

I was just saying.

Frank Bernardo 40:17

You may not be able to get insurance on this property.

Christan Bosley 40:20

Right.

Frank Bernardo 40:20

So there are insurers that insure, but they do charge a premium, right? Because of the knowledge that the system could possibly.

Christan Bosley 40:28

Yeah.

Frank Bernardo 40:28

Right. And I've done houses where there's been knob and tube. Uh I did a century home with Anita, and the knob and tube was in really good condition.

Christan Bosley 40:39

Right?

Frank Bernardo 40:40

Still in use. So it was hard for me to defect that. The only thing I wrote in my report is it's a it's there, yeah, and your insurance company may ask you to replace it.

Christan Bosley 40:50

Yeah, and typically they give you 60 days to replace it, or you just pay a premium.

Frank Bernardo 40:54

Yeah.

Christan Bosley 40:54

Yeah.

Frank Bernardo 40:54

So back to the condo, we're basically looking at the walls. If there's any openings, like I like to open up a couple access doors to see, you know, what's behind the wall. You'll always find the Tim Hortons cups from the builders back there. And, you know, you just want to make sure that you're you're not seeing anything that could be uh a problem for the homeowner that's going into that property. Right. So you you do try to find places where you can look behind walls, but basically it's checking the plumbing, making sure that the walls don't have any deficiencies, the doors are operating properly, and the windows and the HVAC unit is working is properly.

Christan Bosley 41:32

Yeah. Okay. Well, listen, insurance ramifications that can often come up. What are the what are the two biggest things from my recollection? It's nov and tube and Kitech. Is there anything else in there that impacts insurance?

Frank Bernardo 41:51

It's hard to say. Uh I think those are the two biggest um structural issues. Obviously, but the only way that the insurance company will find out if there's a structural issue is if they ask for your inspection report.

Christan Bosley 42:06

Right.

Frank Bernardo 42:06

Which I generally tell people the report belongs to you. The information that you provide to the insurance company is in the report. You can't lie to the insurance company about certain elements. For example, oh, and another thing is 60 amp uh electrical service.

Christan Bosley 42:25

Right.

Frank Bernardo 42:26

Right? There are still a lot of houses, post-war houses in Toronto that haven't upgraded to 100 amps. Yeah. Right? So that might be something that may come up as uh an issue with insurance companies, right? The 60 amp service.

Christan Bosley 42:41

So we have electrical, we have a little bit of Kitech plumbing. And please don't lie to your insurance company about anything. Never. Because they'll avoid your insurance.

Frank Bernardo 42:53

Well, any deficiency that comes up, if they see, for example, the first thing an insurance company does if your house catches on fire is they do an electrical examination. So as a homeowner, you're allowed to do certain things to your electrical, but according to the ESA, you're not, right? So anything that you've changed that a licensed electrician was supposed to change, they will not pay for your damage.

Christan Bosley 43:25

Okay. Well, we don't want that. That explains it. I have a house in my neighborhood that has been literally burned to a crisp for at least three years as she's battling with insurance trying to get some money out of it. So, yes, insurance companies. I'm gonna stop there. Frank, yes, thank you so much for all of this wonderful information. Before you go, I do like to do this weird thing where I ask the same questions to every guest on the show. I don't know you at all, so I have zero predictions about what your answers will be. Are you prepared to play?

Frank Bernardo 43:58

Let's play.

Christan Bosley 43:59

Okay. Okay, okay. Um what's one lesson you've learned that you wish you knew earlier in your career?

Frank Bernardo 44:07

One of the things that um I do now is I write more extensive reports.

Christan Bosley 44:15

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 44:16

So uh one of the things going every year you learn. You listen to what your clients tell you. So basically, if I could have started when I first started writing the reports that I'm writing today, I think that would be a benefit. Uh secondly, expanding my business. Um there are days when I do three inspections a day and I'm working 18 hours a day, right? And driving all over the place. I want to expand my business. I could have expanded it a while ago. Um so that it was just the I think I'm ready now to do that, and I've found a couple people that I'm working with that will help me to expand my business.

Christan Bosley 44:59

Great. Congratulations. So big plans for 2026.

Frank Bernardo 45:03

Thank you. Yes.

Christan Bosley 45:03

Okay. Do you read?

Frank Bernardo 45:05

I do.

Christan Bosley 45:06

You obviously write quite a bit. What book is on your current reading list?

Frank Bernardo 45:10

Um I'm reading a book called Uh Maiden Voyage.

Christan Bosley 45:15

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 45:16

By Bruce Dickinson. So Bruce Dickinson's the lead singer for Iron Maiden.

Christan Bosley 45:21

Oh.

Frank Bernardo 45:21

And um he's quite a dynamic person. He's a commercial air airline pilot as well as the lead singer for a heavy metal band.

Christan Bosley 45:31

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 45:31

Um, and I've I've seen him do like a spoken word thing, and I got really interested more in depth into learning about this guy and uh big fan of the band. And yeah, that's one of the books I'm reading. And I just recently got a book. Uh, one of the parishioners in the church I I I've I go to uh told me about this book that she was reading, and it intrigued me. It's a cardiologist's view of Jesus.

Christan Bosley 45:57

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 45:58

Right? So going more in depth into more of the spiritual side.

Christan Bosley 46:03

Fascinating. I feel like I just learned so much in such a short response. Heavy metal, biographies, and religion.

Frank Bernardo 46:14

Yes.

Christan Bosley 46:15

Oh, and health. And health, yes. Cardiologist. Okay. All right. I'm gonna take that away.

Frank Bernardo 46:21

I'm also a long distance rider. So I do the ride to conquer cancer every year.

Christan Bosley 46:25

Okay. Do you do it with Anita?

Frank Bernardo 46:26

Uh no, she does the ride uh for brain health. Yeah, but I do the ride to conquer cancer, which is 200 kilometers from Toronto to Niagara.

Christan Bosley 46:35

Amazing. Good for you.

Frank Bernardo 46:37

Thank you.

Christan Bosley 46:37

Look at these things. So if you were asked to give a TED talk, what topic would you give it on?

Frank Bernardo 46:43

So my TED talk, which I hope to write a book one day, is about something that everybody complains about.

Christan Bosley 46:51

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 46:52

So the title would be Um Driving Me Crazy. The Perils of Driving in Ontario.

Christan Bosley 47:02

Oh my God. I love that so much. That's amazing. Yes. Certainly the realtor community would very much.

Frank Bernardo 47:09

Well, we all do because we put a lot of kilometers on our car, right? And the infrastructure that we're faced with and things that you see on a daily basis drive you crazy.

Christan Bosley 47:20

They do. They do drive you crazy. I took uh I took my dad down to our Queen West location today, and we had to sit and wait for approximately, I think I counted eight and a half minutes as people were backing out of this alley, and Tom was going mental. And I just sat there and I was like, yeah, it's a beautiful sunny day in the city. We're warm in the car, just listening to some good tunes. Everybody needs to just relax. That's good.

Frank Bernardo 47:49

Very anti-you can manage that.

Christan Bosley 47:52

You know what? I was early for the meeting, that never happens. I had nothing to be stressed about. I was I was coming today to meet you. It was all good. Good. So speaking of things that bring me joy and bring you joy, good traffic does not bring me joy at all. So I'm assuming that it drives you crazy. What are the things that do bring you joy other than your long distance riding?

Frank Bernardo 48:13

Um, I do a lot of community work.

Christan Bosley 48:15

Okay.

Frank Bernardo 48:16

Uh I used to run a food drive for 11 years in in uh Scarborough that I'm looking to start up again. We used to provide 450 families with a month's supply of food at Christmas time. So raised a lot of money and raised a ton of food, like 250,000 pounds of food. We used to raise about $100,000 to help people and family, being with family.

Christan Bosley 48:39

Amazing.

Frank Bernardo 48:40

Right. Um, my girlfriend's got two boys, and uh, I love being a mentor to them and uh giving them the right tools to manage life.

Christan Bosley 48:51

Okay. Wow, those were good answers.

Frank Bernardo 48:55

Thank you.

Christan Bosley 48:56

Okay. Well, listen, thank you so much for sharing your perspective today. It was so amazing getting to know you a little bit. Um, it's clear that we're not talking about perfection in real estate, right? It's about understanding the home and making informed decisions with confidence, which you help buyers and sellers do. So thank you.

Frank Bernardo 49:16

Thank you.

Christan Bosley 49:18

And thank you so much for listening. That's a wrap on today's episode of Like a Boz. Bye for now.

Credits

Christan Bosley 49:25

Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who might find it valuable. We've got more conversations coming your way with incredible guests across design, finance, wellness, tech, and more. All through the lens of real estate. A special thank you to our set design sponsors, Stage Right.