The Reality of Due Diligence

Sometimes due diligence is a real pain in the ass.  When you’re scoping out old houses, and figuring out whether the repairs and maintenance will be within your budget before proceeding, it can be tough to get information.  Especially as a lot of the houses we work with were built back in the 1950s and 1960s - meaning printed info was not always well maintained.  Or easy to uncover.

In our area, the septic system is key for the number of bedrooms a house can be.  And a new septic, can take up to 6 months to arrange.  So validating the septic approval from the Department of Health is crucial, as the septic tank requirements have increased over the years.  So you want to make sure you are grandfathered in to the bedroom count you need.

But apparently the health department in the 1960s used some sort of crazy old xerox paper for this record.  It literally took us 15 minutes just to figure out how to read it.  It’s black on the surface - until we figured to shine the light from the back.  And thankfully the Westchester County Health Department stamp was found!