As we watched the home inspectors swarm all over our prospective condo and the surrounding building, we realized with homebuying novices we were. We hadn’t warned the seller’s agent that we would want to check out the roof, so he played coy and we had to go hunt for someone else to let us on the roof. The sweet-looking little old lady in the penthouse? Turns out she’s not so sweet.
After we strike out there, we stake out the front entrance for the maintenance guy. He arrives bearing keys, and my inspectors swarm the roof. It’s a flat roof, not quite 10 years old. There are a fair number of patches already. The inspector doesn’t like the look of them. We find out later that the board gets the roof checked annually. Our inspector declares the roof is shot, the board says it’s fine, and only needs the occasional patch. What’s a homebuyer to do?
As for the little old lady – she was smart not to let us on the roof. Turns out the installation of her penthouse deck wasn’t exactly by-the-book, and as a result, the deck is putting pressure on the roof.
She’s no first-timer.
By the way, I promise that’s the last time I’ll use retro Top 40 hits as inspiration for headlines – hope it doesn’t stick in your head too long.