Burnt Outlet With New Cover

Obviously someone had an electrical outlet problem and then installed a new electrical outlet cover, but didn't choose to repair the damaged electrical outlet itself.

Home inspectors and real estate professionals run into problems like this on a regular basis.

The homeowners main objective is to sell the house with minimum home repairs. If the bottom electrical outlet works, that's good enough for them, most of the time.

The bad news about a damaged electrical outlet like this one, that still working is the fact that the damage hasn't been fixed yet and could actually start an electrical fire, under certain conditions.

Home Repair Tip: I will say this as many times as I have to, until I get my point across to everyone reading about home electrical repairs and damage.

Fix all electrical damage as soon as possible to prevent further electrical damage and the potential of a home fire.

Home Buyer and Inspector Tip: Every once in a while you will run into an extremely creative homeowner who will paint over an electrical outlet that's damaged like this one. Obviously electrical outlet damage like this is easy to spot, but once they have been repainted, they might be harder to find.

Once you find damage like this on any home, make sure that you spend a little more time inspecting the house than you normally would. Most of the time, when you find something like this, there's a good chance that you will find more home damage that's covered up or poorly repaired.