Sunday, February 16, 2014

Natural Gas Leaks: A Story

By Jim Thorpe


In a perfect world, we would learn to properly maintain every potential fire hazard in the house. Our heaters would always be in perfect working order. We would never leave a flammable object close to the open flame of a stove.

Candles would be properly blown out before going to bed at night. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world, and we often forget to take care of one small detail. The resulting fire damage is enough to change our lives forever. Accidents happen and there will always be a need to put these flames out.

I was sitting at the kitchen table getting some work done and the kids were in the other room playing quietly when a loud knock rapped on the door. I got up and walked to the door expecting a neighbor's child asking to play with the 4 year old. Instead, when I opened the door, I was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of natural gas.

So although you can't always protect your family by keeping the heater working right, or remembering to blow out the candle every night, you can do at least one thing to ensure the safety of your family, you can maintain your fire alarm and sprinkler system.

3. Call Around You should be calling around and finding your loan before you have begun looking at houses. This gives you more time to negotiate with banks and reduce the pressure you may feel. Now that you are actively seeking a deal you need to 4-5 different lenders. Call these different lenders and act for different quotes. In order to get the most accurate quotes from lenders you need to give them the most accurate information.

The USFA believes strongly that the routine maintenance of your fire alarm could protect more lives than just those of those in the home, and reducing fatalities from fire damage is the USFA's number one goal.

They call their campaign Install. Inspect. Protect. They want everyone in the house to have proper warning of impending danger. If residents are awoken at the first sign of danger, the chance of them getting out of the building safely increase dramatically. For this reason, the USFA wants you to install smoke alarms inside and outside of sleeping areas and on every floor of your home.

On the third page of the GFE document there is space for you to compare your different loans and see what your different options include. Again you want to compare accurate information not commercials. Mortgage rates in commercials are showing rates that will only be offered by the ideal borrower.

5. Call again and Negotiate Now that you understand what your options are. Go to your top three lenders and call them. Explain what your needs are and what better deals you have been given. Give them reason to bid against each other. The better your credit score and history the more bargaining power you have. Call them until you receive the deal that you are looking for. You will probably feel like a jerk when negotiating.

If there was one thing you did to fight fires at home, it should at least be the proper maintenance of your smoke alarms (and sprinkler systems if you have them).

Luckily all of us were able to stay safe and the leak was small. If the situation had been worse we might have had to leave the home while they turned off the gas until the leak could be dug up and fixed or, if the leak had been inside, we would have had to tear down walls until the leak could be located and repaired. The moral of this story is, when it rains, it pours and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Many general contractors try and work their way around the tight regulations but these laws are strict and there have been many law suits in the past because people tried to bypass them. Safety should be everyone's #1 goal.




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