Dan Mayfield, owner of the HouseMaster Chattanooga franchise and certified home inspector since 1995, says it’s very simple to open a crawl space door, look around, and say it looks OK. It’s much more difficult to put on your coveralls, crawl around underneath the home to the shower at the back of the house, and see it is disconnected and water is draining into the crawl space. Identifying these potential maintenance issues, and educating customers and Realtors on where their property stands is what Mayfield and his team does.
Mayfield was born and raised in East Brainerd. He grew up in the termite and pest control business, as his father owned Red Wing Exterminator Company for many years. When his father sold the business, Mayfield had been looking at the HouseMaster franchise, decided to get into another type of business, and purchased the franchise in January 1995.
A home inspection is an independent, unbiased opinion about the property being purchased, Mayfield says.
“We are going to look at the electrical, heating, plumbing, air conditioning, roof, foundations, crawl spaces, attics, doors, windows…top to bottom, inside and out, and give you a full written report,” he says. “We use digital photography, all our reports are Web based and we try to give you the condition that we observe the house in at that time, with any defects that we see.” A HouseMaster inspection also aims to give clients the estimated age of the major components of the house, as well as the estimated remaining lifespan of these components. This element, and the home inspection itself, is important, because in today’s environment and market, the more information a potential purchaser and Realtor have about a property, the more they can make a better informed decision about the purchase of the property, he says.
“With the market being what it is, there is quite a bit of bank-owned properties and homes that have been repossessed, and really there is no history on those homes,” Mayfield says. This means that there is no one to say what repairs have been done or what has been replaced. The home inspection develops a profile to establish what the priorities are on repairs and maintenance of the house as well. “We are there to educate, to help inform and help teach the potential buyer all we can about the house,” he says.
Although there are multiple home inspection franchises across the U.S., Mayfield says he chose HouseMaster because of their technical expertise and their reputation as the oldest franchised home inspection business in the country. He says, “If we are on a home inspection and run across something odd or out of the ordinary, we can call an 800 number while we are there and talk to the technical people and get advice. I really felt HouseMaster was the strongest franchise and national brand across the country. HouseMaster has really been a leader in the home inspection industry in establishing reporting techniques, forms that we use, as well as the overall business model itself of the home inspection business.”
As a home inspector, Mayfield is required to be licensed by the state of Tennessee, a process that involves a very rigorous course of education and training, along with a passing score on the National Home Inspectors certification examination, and 35 hours of continuing education credit every two years. Certified home inspectors must meet the financial, insurance, education and training requirements, and with HouseMaster, all instructors are additionally certified by the National Institute of Building Inspectors, with annual training and written recertification.
“In order to be a home inspector, you don’t just hang up your shingle and say you are a home inspector,” Mayfield laughs. The study to become a home inspector includes a little bit of everything. Mayfield says inspectors are like general practitioner physicians, in that they are trained to look at all the different systems of the house. In addition to training in plumbing, electrical, structural, and appliance operation, they have to be knowledgeable about different construction material types.
Another thing Mayfield likes about the HouseMaster franchise is the frequent technical updates he receives, such as if a trend is developing across the country on a certain type of siding defect, HouseMaster will send out the information to their franchises.
“I feel like we are right on the cutting edge of changes in the materials and workmanship, and in the last 15 years, there has been a pretty significant change in building materials and products which are used on houses, and so you have to stay on top of it,” Mayfield says. Mayfield is also going to have to stay on top of being a new grandfather, as his first grandson was born last week and will be engaging much of his free time. He spends the rest of his free time with his wife on the lake, and they are both long-time UT football season ticket holders.
Mayfield says, “We encourage every buyer to have a home inspection because what we find is once a buyer makes an offer that is accepted, then the buyers tend to put blinders on. They focus in on the things they like about the house and don’t really want to see the things that need attention. “By using an independent home inspector, an unbiased third party is looking at things to give you a report so you can make less of an emotional decision, and more of a rational decision on your prospective purchase on a house. The home purchase is still the largest single investment that most Americans make, and so it’s important to understand what you are buying and what you are getting into.”
Mayfield says they inspect all their homes as if they were doing an inspection for a family member.
“We are part of the team of Realtors, appraisers… and all the different pieces of the puzzle that have to come together in order for a purchase to take effect,” he says. “We recognize that we are part of that and want to develop as much information as we can for somebody so that they can make an informed and intelligent decision.”