John Martino's (looksmart) Blog

As a mentor home inspector, I often get asked what I enjoy most about being a New Jersey home inspector and what I enjoy least about the home inspection profession.  Home inspection can be both a challenging and rewarding career. Potential new NJ home inspectors should interview veteran home insp...

When you finally get to the point of having a home inspection in this very challenging real estate environment you are probably very stressed and challenged. It is a tough market to get an offer accepted and get to the home inspection stage of the home buying process. Once here how do you get the...

Home inspection is a challenging career. Being a successful NJ Home Inspector is not easy. Fortitude, resilience, and dedication are needed to have any staying power in the profession. I have to say all in all it’s been a rewarding career. I really feel like I made a difference in clients making ...

As a home inspector in New Jersey, one thing that I have to be aware of when performing home inspections is the presence of lead paint an older New Jersey homes. Lead was a common component used in paint until the late 1970s. Lead paint does present significant health risks even to this day. It i...

New Jersey home inspectors should be familiar with the components and the operation of private water wells. There are over 400,000 private water wells in New Jersey. There are more than 23 million households that have private water wells for providing potable water in the United States as indicat...

New Jersey home inspectors should be looking for improperly installed or missing chimney flashing details. The chimney flashing is the set of sheet metal details that keeps the area between the chimney and the roof watertight. Chimney flashing is often poorly installed or missing altogether. With...

Home inspectors in New Jersey often inspect properties with wood retaining walls. As home inspectors we often find problems with these wood tie walls such as wood rot, water damage, insect damage and inadequate construction.  Often these walls are built over masonry, pavers, or stone walls becaus...

As home inspectors in New Jersey, we still come across electrical panel boxes that are made by the Zinsmeyer company. These panels were installed in homes in the 1950's to the 1970's. Zinsco electrical panels were both used in residential and commercial applications and their appeal was their low...

New Jersey home inspectors should be on the lookout for powder post beetles while performing the wood destroying insect piece of the home inspection. Termites and carpenter ants get most of the attention however we can't forget the powder post beetle which can cause havoc to a wood stricture over...

NJ Home inspectors often discover mold growth in attic of the homes they are inspecting. Attics are an important portion of the home often being used for storage and sometimes having the homes mechanicals such as furnaces and water heater units. Mold in attics can be a significant health hazard f...