By: Brian Schutt
If you are an Indianapolis area Realtor, read on for some great HVAC tips!
Fairly or not, clients expect you to have expertise in everything inside the home. On top of dealing with the complications of a crazy housing market and the expectation to find a good deal, clients want you to do investigative work on potential issues before they happen.
Inspectors help find major problems, but great realtors will look for obvious issues which can build better relationships with clients and help increase referrals.
Since HVAC is one of the biggest expenses inside of a home, it’s a great area to be knowledgeable to help your buyers or sellers position themselves to make good proactive decisions.
3 HVAC Tips for Indianapolis Realtors
If your client is a buyer, perhaps the biggest impact area related to HVAC is the age of the system.
HVAC Tip #1: Knowing Age of HVAC System Can Help Realtors
Age of the HVAC System: Many heating and cooling products have a nomenclature that is similar to one another. Carrier and Bryant are two of the most widely installed systems in Indianapolis and have a nomenclature that makes it easy to tell the age. The furnaces and A/C have four digits at the beginning of the serial number. The first two are the week it was built. The second two is the year. This is a quick way to see how old a furnace or AC is.
Trane is another major HVAC manufacturer, which makes it even easier by providing a date of manufacture on most systems.
Regardless of the HVAC manufacturer, there is a website called Building Center which gives you any manufacturer or a reference point to know the age system.
HVAC Tip #2: Reviewing HVAC Service Record Can Help Realtors
The second area that we recommend to realtors to help clients is the service record. Usually, this would be a sticker or paper next to the furnace. You can see if there have been any HVAC repairs or recommendations over the years, or you could see if the system has been serviced at all. If it’s been serviced with a clean record that keeps you a vote of confidence, but the opposite can give you some information to discuss with the listing agent.
As you review the HVAC service record, look for any major repairs to the furnace-like blower motor replacements, heat exchanger replacement, or control board failure. For the air conditioner, look for compressor failure or refrigerant leaks that might be caused by a breach in the evaporator coil.
HVAC Tip #3: Trusting Your Eyes Can Help Realtors with HVAC
Obvious Wear and Tear: Finally, we’d recommend looking for obvious stains that are signs of wear and tear. While you can’t judge a book by its cover with mechanical parts. Signs of water stains or signs of dirt and debris accumulation are a pretty good indication of how well-serviced systems have been.
As you can see with our example system, the flue is showing visible signs that it has had moisture in it. Additionally, you can see signs of leaking below the furnace.
While these don’t necessarily require replacement, if your client is interested in a home for the long run, this can be a predictable expense and something to proactively include in a negotiation.
Call Homesense Heating & Cooling For Inspection Questions Related to HVAC
At Homesense Heating & Cooling, we service all over the Indianapolis area, including popular suburbs like Carmel and Fishers.
Hopefully, these HVAC tips helped. But should you have any questions on an inspection report or want to investigate an HVAC issue for your clients, don’t hesitate to call us at (317) 458-9255.
