Moving into a home that comes equipped with all the essentials and with the entire legal paperwork is what everyone 
desires for. However, one also has to make sure of verifying certain certifications such as the ones that are issued by the REAC. REAC is a government body that works in tandem with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It is responsible for providing every bit of information related to ensuring decent, safe and affordable housing options. It does this by examining every housing unit from inside out, assessing everything from fittings to electrical work, and then giving an overall score for the property’s worthiness.
Of late, new rule changes were introduced to the way an REAC inspection can be carried out. Effective July 5th, 2016, REAC inspectors are well within their authority to cite anything they wish to as defective, whether that is actually the case or not. So anyone, be it a builder, a real estate agent, or even someone who plans to sell his property, who used to get away with some or the other minor defect, now has to fix the entire thing before he can actually get the REAC approval for conducting the sale.
What the New Ruling Denotes
- All repairs shall need to be made with suitable quality materials and must be free from defects
- Each repair shall be made as per the industry standards for that particular item
- Any defect will be recorded for every sub-standard repair found based on the affected area’s size and/or the item inspected
- List of typical items that can be inspected includes, but is not limited to:
- Cracks in brick wall
- Drywall repair
- Door repair
- Downspouts
- Erosion
- Electrical panels
- Stick to hold up a window
Impacts that the new REAC ruling will bring into play
- Those in the real estate sector won’t be able to get away with use of low-quality material
- Getting certification from REAC will become more challenging for all real estate sellers
- Buyers can gain easy access to more reliable and credible information about their housing options
- Activities such as fraud, abuse as well as wastage of HUD resources will be kept under check
- Technology will play a bigger role in helping REAC inspectors assess a property
- Quality of housing will become much better than the existing standards
REAC as a vital entity has been taking all the measures to help buyers get decent and affordable housing options. With everything properly documented and stored in an internet-worked database, it is also able to process faster and accurate work and produces excellent results for the customers.
Property representatives on their part may use the TR/DBA process to appeal against the deficiencies listed in which non industry standard repairs were done, which they believe should not have been recorded for the deficiency. The document submitted must include supporting standard documentation, along with a written justification by a third party SME for the particular deficiency in question.
To gain deeper insights into the REAC process and new rule changes, you can join this live webinar by Hank Vanderbeek, MPA, CMI, on Wednesday, August 31, 2016, at 1 pm ET. In this session, Hank will provide an overview of the new REAC inspection process—right from the mission and goals of REAC, to the pre-inspection rules of conduct and protocols to an REAC inspection structure. The session will help your property and staff effectively for a inspection and get good REAC scores.
