What You Probably Never Knew About New Home Builders

Most of the desirable places to build homes in, happen to already be taken these days. New home builders most choose from among the leftovers - places where the soil isn't what it should be. When a home they build a home on expansive soil or soil that is known to expand and swell when it rains, your home could fall prey to a number of problems. If the soil under the back porch begins to expand, it will begin to pull your back porch away from the rest of your home.

About half of all new homes in Southern California are built on soil like this.  in a litigious society like California's, that's a lot of construction lawsuits waiting to happen. And some of them are not even waiting.

Building on unsuitable soil isn’t the only kind of construction mistake that new homebuilders can make. About five years ago, as was widely reported, a bunch of hillside homes in La Jolla in California just slid off their foundations and went down the hill after a landslide occurred. In other words, if you're buying a new home today, you have to really do that soil test first and make sure that the builders using the right building techniques for the soil.

New home builders have forever depended on the old "slip a few poor quality materials in" trick to make a little extra money on the side. Ever since the housing market collapsed five years ago though, it's grown worse. They've built homes with very thin roofs that are not sealed against rain water leakage, they’ve built them with the drinking water pipes cross-connected to the drainage pipes, they've built without hurricane straps that keep the house bolted to the foundation when a hurricane blows by, they'll use substandard uncured wood and so on. When there is a hurricane, people just find their homes blowing away. And it isn't just the small building companies that do this. A major company like US Home has been caught doing this kind of thing.

It's surprising, you're thinking, that new homebuilders could cut corners in such serious ways and get away with it. Aren't they afraid of all the regulations they're violating and how the’ll be sued out of business?

Well, that that's the thing - those regulations aren’t as serious as you might think. Did you realize that only one out of three US states even have any regulatory body to oversee who gets to be a builder? A builder doesn't need any qualifications, any experience or anything at all in most states. Louisiana, Utah, Arizona and Maryland for the best states for enforcing standards. With the others, just about anything goes.

How to Hire a Home Inspector - If You Are a Home Inspection Company

It can be difficult building an honest home inspection business that offers the customer value for money. Why is it hard to run an honest home inspection company?

The thing is, US law doesn't have any provisions in place yet to certify qualified home inspectors. Just about anyone with a bit of experience around buildings can call himself an inspector, start a home inspection company and get into business.

If you're interested in running an honest business, you don't really have much help from an established system. While there are a few certifying schools and bodies for home inspection out there, there are no rules that say that one has to be qualified. And so, it's rather hard for any home inspection company to find qualified and experienced team members.

If you run a home inspection company, you should of course first start out by looking for potential candidates who are members of the American Society of Home Inspectors - a strictly opt-in membership.

It isn't just about right qualifications when you look for someone who's a member the ASHI. It's also about hiring an ethical inspector. Membership rules require that member inspectors never have a vested interest in the homes they certify. They have several employees because it's been known to happen that inspectors will on the side, agree with local realtors to come in and pass a bad house just for a cut of the proceeds they get later.

Considering how most people find a home inspection company to hire through their realtor, this is a possibility that everyone needs to be careful about. The ASHI isn't the only home inspector certifying body. But it's the biggest one. Andno inspector is offered membership unless he has a couple of hundred inspections under his belt, is willing to sit for an exam and is willing to submit himself to the regular training to keep up with new building techniques.

Before you hire a new team member for your home inspection company, you would do well to ask him the kind of questions you have seen clients ask home inspectors before hiring them. You do need to make sure personally, that the person showing up for the interview actually is a home inspector.

Ask him about the building techniques he is familiar with. Ask about the kind of experience he has with residential buildings and commercial buildings. Ask if he's willing to put himself through the membership requirements set up by the National Society of Professional Engineers , to National Institute of Building Inspectors or another body.

It could take a while to discover someone who is just right. When you come upon the right kind of person though, he should be a real asset to your business.

Dads -- 3 Crucial Ways To Love Your Kids In Christ

Dads...

By loving your children in the following ways, you will be taking important steps toward the goal of turning the hearts of your children to Christ.

Is it a guarantee that all will go well in terms of seeing your children respond by loving the Lord, your wife and you in the process?

Answer: of course not. Nothing is: but it most definitely reflects three worthwhile efforts.

Put these on your high priority list not only as ways to love your children as a Christian father should, but as practices that will serve to love your children *to* Jesus:

First: Love the Lord.
Second: Love your wife.
And Third: Love your children.

--- Love The Lord ---

You love your children by loving the Lord first. In other words, model a priority way to live.

Model as much as you can according to what you know at any given time in your life.

Do what you can,
When you can,
While you are involved in the learning process.

--- Love Your Wife ---

We model the love of Jesus to our children by loving our wives as Christ loved the church (See Ephesians 5).

And here are five ways to model such love.

1. Honor.

Honor her so the kids know and feel that you honor her.
In other words, you want them to feel the honor in their hearts.

2. Compliment.

Be complimentary toward your wife “from the inside out.” That is, compliment your wife both inside and outside of the home.

And do not forget to get rid of those “cut down wife jokes.”

3. Defend.

Defend her in relationship to others. Let your children see you defend her in public.
Defend her within the confines of your own home.

4. Pray.

Pray for her.
Let the kids know you pray for her.
And initiate prayer for her with your children.

5. Remember.

Remember her “special things.”
Her special things could be special days, events or concerns.
Show the kids that “When its special to mom, its special to me.”

--- Love Your Children ---

Remember these key concepts as you seek to love your children to Jesus. Meaning: love them in such a way so as to prompt their seeking to love the same Jesus you know and love.

Key Concepts

1. "Admit and Ask." Admit when you are wrong. Ask forgiveness when you are.

2. "Forgive." Forgive your children when they fall short.

3. "Affirm." Affirm your children at all times!

** Admit and Ask **

Putting it simply, you will be loving your children to Jesus when you:

Admit you are wrong,
Ask forgiveness when you are,
And truly ask with no excuses: just ask.

** Forgive **

Forgive your children when they fall short -- truly forgive.

Don’t bury them alive by degrading them,
Being on a rampage,
Or not listening in anger.

** Affirm **

Affirm your children like crazy.

Affirm what they try,
When they fail,
And everywhere in between.

Just affirm.

--- How Are You Doing? ---

Why take a reflective moment and rate yourself on the 1 to 10 scale below?
(1 = awful; 10 = excellent!)

“Am I modeling Jesus as I should?”

I would rate myself here as ____.

“Am I loving my wife as I should, realizing that in doing so I am modeling love for Jesus in the process?”

I would rate myself here as ____.

“Am I loving my children to Jesus by ‘admitting, asking, forgiving and affirming?”

I would rate myself on “admitting” as ____.

I would rate myself on “asking” as ____.

I would rate myself on “forgiving” as ____.

I would rate myself on “affirming” as ____.