This is a post I wrote for my personal window cleaning blog. Check out RESA. It is a national organization of businesses that set up the inside and outside of homes to make them more appealing for sale. These professionals are used by real estate agents all over the country. The very first thing that a RESA rep will suggest is to make sure the home is clean. Top on that list should be the windows. Some of us have capitalized on this by contacting real estate agents in their area. But few realize the tremendous benefits of coupling clean windows for staging with the kind of technical inspections we can off. I am now in the process of getting to know RESA. I want them to use me as an information resource. My first business meeting with the Mass chapter of RESA is in the beginning of March. Here below is my article in full.
Staging Homes and Glass Smart Inspections
Few people realize that having the windows professionally cleaned in a Home that is being put on the market can be one of the most powerful staging tools. Certainly no one would want to show a home with dirty rooms! Then why would anyone want to show a home with dirty windows? The eyes of the home should be as bright as they can be. This has a very strong subconscious effect on the buyer. They might not make mention of it but they certainly do recognize it. And it has a direct influence over their viewpoint and decision making.
When the windows are cleaned your Glass Smart professional is able to inspect the windows like no Home Inspector ever could! If a window is dirty it is absolutely impossible to detect insulating seals that have just lost their integrity and have begun to cloud the glass. Or whether there are mineral deposits that require a restoration of the glass. Inspecting for the presence of micro fines on tempered surfaces are critical to any future cleaning of the windows since they can create zillions of very obvious scratches. It is also impossible to note any other defects such as the incorrect placement of low e solar films. Or factory defects such as thumbprints in between the lites of an IG Unit. Or very light scratches that are very noticeable in the direct sunlight but are impossible to see when the window is dirty. Or whether the window has a severe negative deflection such as when the argon gas has leaked out. These windows have been noted to implode without warning. Your Glass Smart professional has a very simple method used during the cleaning process to check for negative deflection! And knows which window brands are very likely to have this problem. Since windows must be cleaned before this type of inspection can be performed it is highly doubtful that the Home Inspector is going to want to spend an extra ten to twenty hours performing such an inspection by cleaning the windows. Not that they could do a professional job or even know what to look for.
A âGlass Smart Inspectionâ is absolutely free. Since we perform such a service while we are cleaning the windows. If the Real Estate Agent or Home Owner chooses we can write up a detailed report at a contracted fee. Otherwise we can simply give either a verbal rundown of the discoveries at the end of the job. Whatever happens the Real Estate Agent is always in control of this information unless we were hired directly by the Home Owner who is selling the house. Glass Smart Inspections are also performed on commercial, high rise, and store front properties.
Tell me what you think.
Henry
