Move-in ready on top. Rotting through underneath.

A long-running plumbing leak under the hall bathroom had soaked the framing for years. The main joist directly below the tub had rotted all the way through and was no longer supporting the floor — and the surrounding subfloor was water-damaged as well.

This is active structural failure beneath a finished, retiled bathroom. The floor that looked solid on a walk-through was being held up by little more than its finishes. Left alone, it gets worse and more expensive — and it's not something a buyer can see.

Above the kitchen, a ceiling joist had been cut completely through to make room for the range vent running to the roof — severing a structural member instead of routing around it.

That's the third structural element compromised for the sake of a finish detail. Individually each shortcut seems small; together they show a renovation done for looks, not for the bones of the house.

The water heater in the crawlspace was actively leaking and not operating safely. The inspector pulled the electrical disconnect and shut the breaker off on the spot as a safety precaution. Its temperature-pressure relief discharge line was also missing.

This was an immediate safety and replacement item in a home listed as move-in ready — the kind of thing that should have been caught and replaced before the house ever went back on the market.