The clock is running. Every flue gets scanned once.

An accepted offer starts a countdown you do not control. The chimney can come up during the buyer's inspections, on a house where nobody has looked at the fireplaces in a long while.

On a larger home the question is bigger. It is not one flue, it is the main living room, the primary suite, the pool house, and maybe a barbecue chimney outside.

We start by phone. Tell us how many fireplaces and chimneys the property has and where each one sits, indoors or out, main house or guest house.

From that count we plan one visit. Each chimney gets a camera run from top to bottom, and where we can safely climb or crawl, we look at the attic, the crawlspace and the roof around it.

Nobody wants a single paragraph that says the chimneys look fine. You get a written note for each chimney, with photos, so the guest house flue does not hide behind the main house one.

Report and photos are in your inbox on inspection day. You decide whether it goes to your agent, to the buyer, to both, or to nobody yet.

A sale is one of the events NFPA 211 lists for a Level 2. Fire in the flue, shaking from a quake and a switch in fuel are the rest.

Suppose a note lists something below NFPA 211 or the building code. The buyer could then ask for a fix, money off, or a return visit, and your agent carries that talk. Contracts are outside what we do. We work in Encino, along with Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, Calabasas, Studio City and Brentwood.