Low interior home temperatures = possible broken dual pane windows...

I have blogged in the past about the importance of doing a "Final Walk Through" in the past (aka, Verification of Property Condition). This photo should look familiar to you if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. I learned something new last week! I went to a Carmichael home to do a final walk-through with my buyer clients, and we found a broken window. Uh oh! But upon closer look, we discovered that just the interior pane of glass was broken. How could this be?

Well, I soon learned, after speaking with a glass company, that something called "Thermal Shock" was likely to blame for this. Basically pressure builds between the two panes of glass, causing the interior pane to break. The seller had turned off the heating unit inside the house, during what will likely be the coldest week of the year with our overnight lows last week in the 20's. The average temperature inside dropped from about 70 degrees to the 40's, or lower. This photo was taken of the thermostat in the late afternoon...probably the warmest part of the day. I'm sure the interior temperature was much lower overnight.

So, the moral of the story is be careful if you decide to save a few dollars and not continue to heat or cool your home. Luckily the seller and listing agent were very apologetic, and agreed to fix the broken glass (the seller is contractually bound to keep the property in the same condition in which it was when the buyer first viewed the home), and my buyers closed escrow with no issues there.