Building inspection

    A building inspector is a person who is employed by either a city, township or county and is usually certified in one or more disciplines, either as a residential or commercial building inspector, a plumbing, electrical or mechanical inspector or other specialty to inspect structures at different stages of completion. Most building inspectors employed by governments are certified by the State or the International Code Council (ICC). These inspections are done to assure compliance with whatever building, plumbing, electrical, mechanical or specialty codes, such as swimming pool codes, that are being enforced by the jurisdiction in which they work. There are many categories and levels of ICC certified inspectors.

The term building inspector is sometimes used for persons who inspect houses to assure compliance with the plans and to check workmanship as well as code compliance, or a home inspector consulted in conjunction with a house sale. These building inspectors are private contractors and are not connected with any governmental department or agency.

Consulting engineers often carry out structural building inspections for strata properties where there are structural elements of the building found to be unsafe. Whether it is the balconies, balustrades or cracking due to settlement in the walls, consulting engineers provide building inspections of the property and make the appropriate assessment and provide dilapidation reports followed by proposals for remedial action.

Building inspectors are often contacted by strata managers or body corporate with stormwater design issues, structural design proposals or civil design modifications. In addition, individuals are often required by councils to carry out dilapidation reports and building inspections of adjoining properties and associated council properties before and after construction, to establish that no damage has occurred due to the work carried out.

A real estate broker is a term in the United States and Canada that describes a party who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate (or real property as it is known elsewhere) and attempts to find sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy. In the United States, the relationship was originally established by reference to the English common law of agency with the broker having a fiduciary relationship with his clients.

Estate agent is the term used in the United Kingdom to describe a person or organization whose business is to market real estate on behalf of clients, but there are significant differences between the actions and liabilities of brokers and estate agents in each country. Beyond the US, other countries take markedly different approaches to the marketing and selling of real property.

In the US, real estate brokers and their salespersons (commonly called "real estate agents" or, in some states, "brokers")[1] assist sellers in marketing their property and selling it for the highest possible price under the best terms. When acting as a Buyer's agent with a signed agreement (or, in many cases, verbal agreement, although a broker may not be legally entitled to his commission unless the agreement is in writing), they assist buyers by helping them purchase property for the lowest possible price under the best terms. Without a signed agreement, brokers may assist buyers in the acquisition of property but still represent the seller and the seller's interests.

In most jurisdictions in the United States, a person must have a license before they may receive remuneration for services rendered as a real estate broker. Unlicensed activity is illegal, but buyers and sellers acting as principals in the sale or purchase of real estate are not required to be licensed. In some states, lawyers are allowed to handle real estate sales for compensation without being licensed as brokers or agents.

real estate queen

Mortgages in real estate

In recent years, many economists have recognized that the lack of effective real estate laws can be a significant barrier to investment in many developing countries. In most societies, rich and poor, a significant fraction of the total wealth is in the form of land and buildings.In most advanced economies, the main source of capital used by individuals and small companies to purchase and improve land and buildings is mortgage loans (or other instruments). These are loans for which the real property itself constitutes collateral. Banks are willing to make such loans at favorable rates in large part because, if the borrower does not make payments, the lender canforeclose by filing a court action which allows them to take back the property and sell it to get their money back. For investors, profitability can be enhanced by using an off plan or pre-construction strategy to purchase at a lower price which is often the case in the pre-construction phase of development.[citation needed]But in many developing countries there is no effective means by which a lender could foreclose, so the mortgage loan industry, as such, either does not exist at all or is only available to members of privileged social classes.