[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by GGG

Then you shouldn’t have put in an offer with a non-refundable deposit for cold feet. If you are willing to give up the deposit that’s fine but to use the inspection to try to get out the deal because you no longer like it is unethical.

But doesn't the opposite hold true? Many of you seem to keep commenting as if you assume all sellers are honest and ethical individuals and any prospective buyer getting an inspection done is an unethical schmuck. That's not necessarily a cold feet situation, that's a straight up avoidance of being sold a bill of goods.

Unlike most of you who seem to be on par capability wise with the best of the best home inspectors out there, the average other buyer isn't knowledgeable of much of this stuff. I know a bunch, but that's because the inspectors I used were fantastic and explained to me how a home should be upkept, when what to keep in the back of my mind as potential repairs/timeline of those repairs once I own a home. You guys don't need an inspector to know what to look for cool. But there's tons of prospective buyers who I bet wouldn't know which direction to point a screw driver.

I've walked into a house before and it was absolute crap. The seller realtor was trying to brush it all off as the natural aging and wearing down of a house and a coat of paint could freshen it up and my realtor who has extensive experience and used to be an inspector/property developer as well pointed out where they had tried to hide damage in the past when I was green and gullible just to teach me a few things about homes in general. That's the superficial stuff that the inspector would point out. Stuff you think is common sense, isn't so common.

"Oh, the seller realtor says the leaks from the hot water tank can be fixed for a few hundred bucks." vs "Inspector says, "You don't repair stuff like that, that's an old tank that needs pure replacement."

That's the super low bar stuff that the inspectors are there for and there are absolute liars of realtors out there.

Originally Posted by Red

IMO Home Inspections are terrible value. They are not allowed to dig deep enough.

My inspector flagged potentially hazardous pot lights. He said that some of these require a can and some don't, but he can't tell which ones they actually are. Asked him to go up the attic but they are not allowed to lift the insulation to check. LOL.

Loved the pictures of a cracks in the sidewalk. Or the chipped paint on the garage door outside trim. Or the note on a broken garburator which was already disclosed anyways. Thanks tips.

One room colder than the other, well, get an hvac guy to give a better advice. Or wait for the sun to move.

Hot water? Run the tap, use a fancy thermometer. Voila, hot water is hot enough. Could be more or less hot depending on what the water heater is set to. Mind blowing information.

Moisture? Ya, get a heat map meter on amazon. Most of the time you won't need one anyways.

Furnace, water tank ? They can't tell anything of value. Check filter, little dirty. FURNACE SERVICE REQUIRED !!! Scary stuff when the wife reads it.
They can only tell you how old and what their expected life is. You can google that. Common sense stuff.

Foundation cracks ? Sure, anyone can see one from outside. But if the basement is developed, you are SOL.

Sub panel in the garage. Why? Can you tell me more about it? Advantage, disadvantage? - Sorry, you need to consult an electrician.


And if the inspector misses something major, well, they have a waiver. Not responsible.
Now please give me your $700.00

I've bought 4 houses. Only used an inspector once, on the 3rd house. Never again.

I paid $520 and to me I thought the guy was fantastic. He was skilled in all types of trades in a past life so he was excellent and he was even amazing at explaining in a way that even I and my wife kinda understood. He said he wasn't allowed to dig deep, but he did (with small cameras etc.) and basically if he saw something behind something, he'd see if he could see evidence outside where he was superficially allowed to inspect (basically trace backwards) to include in report.

He would show me things that I'd think were superficial and he'd explain whether they were bigger parts of other issues or nothing. He'd even advise on questions we can ask the realtor to disclose and confirm before finalizing (ie: Water damage, things in violation of code that are OK to leave as is, but in future to be aware that it would need to be brought to code if extensive work done to it, electrical issues such as non grounded plugs, whether he agreed on the urgency of the sellers declarations of original roof/window/HVAC, trivial things like spalling that we shouldn't be alarmed at, trees that he thought we should prune back a ton or remove in general, spouts we could consider diverting to avoid water going back towards the property, what to know and be concerned/not concerned about for grey pipe, WETT inspections, what wasn't to code but trivial etc.) not necessarily as negotiation, but as potential protection if the seller misrepresents the longevity of a thing.

For a newbie like me, that was great to know about the place. But I can see why those who are handymen or have gone through the walkthrough with the inspection a few times already consider it dumb.

However, I never expected to re-negotiate the price based on a few grand worth of trivial things. I would only discuss potentially splitting the difference on things over $5K on things that the seller had not disclosed/misrepresented. I didn't re-negotiate as it was all up front by the seller anyways and they were disclosing in good faith, so I would negotiate in good faith too.

The inspector explained things to me worth addressing and discussing in the final negotiations with the seller (basically nothing and things that were nickel and dimes that should be my responsibility anyways). He explained things I should address immediately after possession. He explained things that he agreed with the seller on regarding the urgency of addressing and explain what he thought the ballpark cost of those items would be if they suddenly became more urgent that expected. That's important to me.