For over 20 years, Tom Iovanne would arrive home after a busy day as Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, take off his jacket and put on a tool belt.
“For the past 23 years we’ve lived in a 1920’s craftsman home on Olympia’s historical register. There are always remodeling projects when you own an older home, and the work of repairing and remodeling is something that I’ve always enjoyed,” he explained.
When he retired from the Washington Center for the Performing Arts two years ago, he gravitated toward a second career that would use his foundation of knowledge acquired over years of hands-on building projects. Iovanne took the required classes and obtained his home inspection license, and opened Watermeade Valley Home Inspection. Today he has built a business that boasts one of the highest home inspection ratings on Angie’s List for Thurston, Mason, Pierce and Lewis counties.
From the beginning, Iovanne understood the need to differentiate Watermeade Valley from the competition, and after two years in business, he has decidedly found his niche.
“Our service is exceptional. We offer a 100% money back guarantee. If, at the end of the inspection process, you don’t think we’ve earned the fee, we’ll refund your money,” he described. “Next, we offer a 90-day warranty. We work with Residential Warranty Services, Inc. to provide, at no cost to the buyer, a 90- day limited structural and mechanical buyer’s home warranty. This covers things like roof leaks, plumbing, the electrical panel, the furnace and hot water heater.”
Watermeade Valley also runs each appliance in the home through a recall check program by submitting model and serial numbers. Within 48 hours, the homeowner or buyer will receive an email that will point out if there has been a recall on their appliances.
“From 2002 to 2009 there were over 1,500 fires caused by refrigerators, as an example. This simple system saves buyers money and removes a potential disaster,” Iovanne said. “There are a lot of hidden dangers. No one thinks of dishwashers causing fires, but they do.”
Many buyers choose Watermeade Valley because of their pay at escrow option. Typically, the buyer pays the home inspection company at time of service. However, for the cash strapped buyer or the buyer who wants the seller to pay for the inspection at closing, pay at escrow is a great service.
Home inspections are not limited to buying a home. Watermeade Valley also conducts presale inspections for homeowners who are getting ready to put their house on the market, but want to be sure that there are no surprises when they do get an offer and the house goes through the inspection process. “For not a lot of money, we’ll give you a list of suggested repairs to complete before listing your home. For example, the biggest enemy of a house is water: rainwater, groundwater, and leaking pipes. If home owners know ahead of time what needs to be fixed to avoid structural issues they’ll be in good shape when it is time to list,” he said.
Iovanne also understands older homes, having lived in historic homes for most of his life, and knows what it takes to keep them well maintained. Due to this expertise, Watermeade Valley is usually top of mind when buyers need an older home inspected.
The bottom line, said Iovanne, is that the process of buying a home is loaded with emotion. “Once the inspection process is under way most buyers are already picking out paint colors and are mentally positioning furniture, and most sellers are counting their money. Any quirk that pops up causes people to go overboard with worry. What I tell my clients at the beginning of an inspection is that I’ve never met a perfect house. It is not a pass-fail process. Anything can be fixed, it just depend on how much money they want to spend.”
To learn more, contact Watermeade Valley Home Inspection at www.watermeadevalley.com or 360-339-7624.
