Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
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9:41
A vendor says there’s no subfloor access, then a manhole turns up inside a wardrobe and the entire deal changes. We bring Evan back for a rapid round of building inspection questions, and he shares the kind of real-world find that can save buyers from inheriting widespread rot, moisture damage, and repair costs that spiral into the hundreds of thousands.
We get practical about trust and due diligence: when a vendor supplied report might be fine, what actually differs between pre-sale and pre-purchase building reports, and why the scope, independence, and access you’re given matters as much as the words on the page. Evan also explains which build eras make him cautious, including the early to mid-1990s period, and why details like timber treatment, junction design, and water control can quietly drive long-term risk in New Zealand homes.
Then we sort the “looks scary” problems from the genuinely expensive ones. We cover common buyer panic points like minor brick cladding cracks and small areas of weatherboard decay, and contrast them with hidden gutter systems where you often can’t see the damage until it’s advanced. We also unpack moisture readings around showers, what it means when water is visible versus unexplained, and when further investigation is the smartest money you’ll spend.
If you want a clearer head when you’re reading a building report, negotiating repairs, or deciding what risk you can actually carry, this one is for you. Subscribe for more, share it with someone house-hunting, and leave a review telling us the one part of a home you never want to buy blind.
What's the worst thing you found that the Vendor Sword didn't exist?
SPEAKER_00
Okay. You did ask me this question before we started recording, and I should have come up with an answer. But Vender once said that there was no subfloor access, and you found it. I did find it. There it was a it was a stucco house and it had a complete concrete ring foundation. They'd done some renovations to the house, so the area where the manhole into the subfloor got covered up. And then as I was doing my inspection, I did notice that there was a manhole in one of the wardrobes. And are we now and I I was like, oh, is is that down into the subfloor there? And and they're like, Oh yeah, but I don't think I don't think that you'll be able to fit down there. I was like, Okay, cool. But when I asked if there was any access to the subfloor, you said no. And she was like, Oh no, no, no. No, there is, but yeah, you just you just won't be able to fit. I was like, Well, can you just take your shoe rack out and I'll I'll see if I can or not? And lo and behold, like I could I could have dove in that hole. It was big enough, yeah. Get in there, and there was a ground moisture barrier in place, so it was beautiful to slide it around in, so it wasn't getting too dirty. Underfloor insulation, there was probably like a good eight, nine hundred mil of space, which you know, if if you don't know subfloors, that's enough room to swing a cat. Yeah. Awful analogy, but yeah. Okay, easy, easy as to get in underneath there. Walking around, yeah, essentially walking around. That's how much space there was. I got into the perimeter, and all the exterior bottom plates were completely rotted out. Just awful. I could I could put my finger into the bottom plates and they just crumbled away. So that there, and you know, at that time I couldn't I couldn't seriously say, oh yeah, that would need a full reclad because earlier on I didn't have as much experience as I had now. There is no possible way that that wouldn't need a full reclad, which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was bad. It was very, very bad. And all because they didn't want to want to let me in. And I just had a sneaking suspicion, I had this like gut feeling that they didn't want me to know something when I was talking to them.
SPEAKER_01
So it was just Because they probably knew, they probably already had someone down there.
SPEAKER_00
Probably. Yeah. Probably. They probably had a building inspector down there at one stage.
Yeah. Which brings me to the next question. Should buyers ever trust a vendor supplied report?
SPEAKER_00
That's a hard one. I I really want to say yes to that because our reports, our pre-sale and pre-purchase reports, the only difference in those reports is the actual name of the report, presale pre-purchase. That's the only thing that's different. We inspect houses exactly the same.
SPEAKER_01
You don't make it favorable one way or the other.
SPEAKER_00
Not at all. We're there to state the condition of the report, the condition of the house, and that's it.
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. I won't go too much further into that. Okay.
Any build errors. I mean, we all know a build era. Any nineties era, I guess. Yeah. Let me guess. Well, thousands is they they started bringing treated timber back in, but as soon as they started getting rid of the treated timber, so that that early to mid 90s, that's that's the scary part.
SPEAKER_01
I want the whole episode on that. Can we just do an episode on the whole 90s and not treated team, but like who came up with that idea? That would be really good. Can we dive into that next time?
SPEAKER_00
I would love for you to bring another. Can we get uh an architect that did some designs in the 90s on as well? And I'd just love to pick their brain. Okay, you're gonna interview them because I'm a little bit more. I I'm I'm happy. You can you can absolutely be the buy you can be the fly on the wall, and let's just eviscerate them.
What do buyers panic about that's actually fine? And what do they shrug off that's serious?
SPEAKER_00
Good example is maintenance items that they think are massive. So brick cladding, diagonal cracking, that can most often, more often than not, that is literally just because of movement, and it may have happened during like a minor earthquake, something like that. If there's no floor-level variances, there shouldn't it shouldn't be leading to like a significant defect. So minor maintenance that isn't a significant defect, but they blow up about it. Or timber weatherboards where there's decay, but timber weatherboards are very easy to be replaced. And if it's only a localized area, you know, you can pull off one weatherboard. You can pull off I'm not talking about an entire reclad of an entire face. If there's six weatherboards that need to be replaced, people Just replace those. Yeah, but people stress about it.
SPEAKER_01
Okay. But what's serious that they shrug off about?
SPEAKER_00
Hidden gutter systems.
SPEAKER_01
Okay. Tell me more.
SPEAKER_00
That that one's quite big here in Capit Coast. And they they the issue is that they don't see the condition of the gutter, and I don't see the condition of the gutter. The only way to actually see the condition is for the eave linings to be ripped out, and then you see, and again, we're going back to the whole 90s era, untreated timber, timber coming down into a a gutter that's being exposed to water, you just see decay and mould and deterioration around there, and that's a significant cost. It will lead to a big cost.
I have clients freaking out about high moisture readings around showers.
SPEAKER_00
Depends what potentially is the cause.
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
SPEAKER_00
If water's just getting out and it's going into a scooting board, that could lead to high high reading. But if you see water coming out, I like seeing water coming out. If I get an elevated moisture reading and I don't see water coming out, then that's probably more of an issue. And further investigation needs to happen because I don't know where that moisture is getting into the wall. So something's failing, I don't know where. Whereas if I can see moisture coming out and it just pulls against a skirting board or a wall lining, and then all of a sudden I've got elevated moisture there, it probably still needs to be further investigated, but more often than not, it's probably because that wall's getting out and just sitting against it. Okay. And not getting mopped up.
Makes sense. Have you ever told a client to walk away on the spot?
SPEAKER_00
Can't do that.
SPEAKER_01
Why is that?
SPEAKER_00
My job is not to tell people what to buy, it's what they're buying. Simple as that. So I assess the condition of the house, I tell them what the condition of the house is.
SPEAKER_01
It's your job to tell them to buy it or not. Wait a minute. It's funny. It's funny, people people often rely on us telling them what to do. And I'm the same as you. I cannot tell them.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
I can advise them, because I am financial advisor. I can advise them whether that's a good purchase or not, whether that's a good investment or not. But at the end of the day, some people still want to take the risk. Some people still want to go ahead and do whatever. And you can't stop them. And look, if they've got the deposit, if they've got the backing behind them, sure. But if they don't, then I'll be putting my foot down and going, nah, you're not doing that.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. It's a it's it's it's a it's a tricky one. And almost every single so I I typically, if I can get a hold of my clients at the end of the inspection, I'll give them a call, give them a brief rundown. If usually they'll ask me, like, should I do it or not? Should I buy this house? Man, I can't tell you that. I just laugh at them. I laugh at them. I'm like, go ask someone else.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
Go ask your mum.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. Ask ChGPT, put the reports through AI. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Could do. Could do.
Okay. How do you handle agents who pressure you to soften findings?
SPEAKER_00
I personally don't. There are some agents that have asked me to do that and I just shrug them off. I yeah, it doesn't phase me. I'm not there to work for them. I'm I'm there to do my inspection for my client. Yeah. No one's going to change my opinion of the house.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
unknown
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
The house tells its own story.
SPEAKER_01
I love it. Oh, I love that. The house tells its own story. Oh my god, that's gonna go down in history now. I love that.
