(by Todd Omundson)
I sell Real Estate for a living, but my interest in real estate goes way beyond being my source of income. I have loved building things since I was a kid. I built a couple of tree houses and I used to build all kinds of things around the farm I grew up on, including stalls for my horses, a chicken house, dog houses and fences.

As an adult I love being around construction sites. I like watching the stages of construction and learning new skills and seeing tricks of the trade. Some people look at a mountain and see it as a challenge; I see a rundown home in need of rehabilitation and I see my Mt Everest. I take great pride in my work and enjoy the surprise of my friends and family when they see the transition of my diamonds in the ruff. I believe my interest in the construction of homes makes me a better REALTOR. I know how things should be and I can spot a problem or potential problem, such as common cause of wet a basement’s negative grade, plunged or sagging gutters or lack of drain extensions. As much knowledge as I have I am not offering my expertise in replacement for a whole house inspection. Home inspectors have been trained and prepare extensive reports. I highly recommend everyone have a home inspections done, a good inspector can save you thousands of dollars on hidden or not easily identifiable repairs.

I know construction materials and I can tell my clients if components are cheap fixes or quality. Some flippers and self-proclaimed handy men and women, will use the most inexpensive grades of finish materials. They may look great when new, but will not last as long as a more expensive product. You need to look at the inside of the cabinets to see how they are put together, feel the carpet to see how heavy and dense it is. Inspect the wood work make sure it is real wood. The base corners and miter joints around doors and windows should be tight and not full of wood filler. Please shoot me any questions you might have on fixer-uppers on my Twitter account.

@ToddOmundson