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Word of advice: Get your home inspected by a licensed professional home inspector.
Your home is likely your biggest financial investment. Spend the $400 to have it inspected before you buy it.
I would handle it a bit differently and not hire an inspector per se. I would use your friend as a general inspector and on top of him i would hire:
A licensed electrician
An HVAC or heating/cooling company
A licensed plumber
A chimney company (is applicable)
all with recommendations of course. have them inspect their respective areas. If your builder friend has any sense he should be able to give the other areas a look and determine if there are any problems. remember that inspectors are only responsible for whats "visable" so its not like they will catch everything. My method may cost you more, but it should allow you to sleep a little better at night once you move in (depending on the outcome of course!).
I copied the quote because I don't believe there is much of this going on as I see posted. HI depend on doing home inspections for a living. If they miss things, they could get sued and/or lose their license. I don't know too many people willing to put their livelihood on the line for that, reward vs. risk. I think most Realtors and HI are good honest people but like anything else some are better than others.
Hello Brandon,
Yes, "most" of the RE Agents and HI's are honest but unfortunately, like any other business, there are those out there who just can not seem to be. For those HI's that are not so honest they whitewash reports in an effort to curry the RE Agents favor and further referrals for inspections from them. For those RE Agents not so honest they turn their heads when they see the whitewashed or deficient reports in an effort to close the sale and collect the commission. If the situation causes a stink the RE Agent then dumps the liability back on the Inspector and tries to walk away.
I've seen some of these reports first hand and it is amazing the significant report discrepancies you can find from the HI's own photos in the report itself. I've also helped buyers who have come to me after the fact with these type situations.
It is extremely sad but in the world of real estate the phrase "Caveat emptor" is so appropriate!
I would handle it a bit differently and not hire an inspector per se. I would use your friend as a general inspector and on top of him i would hire:
A licensed electrician
An HVAC or heating/cooling company
A licensed plumber
A chimney company (is applicable)
all with recommendations of course. have them inspect their respective areas. If your builder friend has any sense he should be able to give the other areas a look and determine if there are any problems. remember that inspectors are only responsible for whats "visable" so its not like they will catch everything. My method may cost you more, but it should allow you to sleep a little better at night once you move in (depending on the outcome of course!).
Uconn97,
Please don't take this wrong as it is not an attack on your very good suggestion. The value of a good, and honest, Inspector is to save the client a great deal of money and time trying to bring in all of the various trades and people (not all listed above) to tell a homes condition. One good example of saving a lot of money is bringing in a plumber. Since most plumbing is concealed anyhow a plumber's inspection is going to be no different than an HI's. That is unless they start performing expensive video scans of the waste systems. Beyond that, in the case of concealed plumbing, there is not much else they can do that is not destructive in nature. An electrician can go much farther than the HI but would require some specialized equipment and the time taken would not be cheap!
I can relate one story regarding the previous post about whitewashed and/or deficient reports that falls right into your suggestion and demonstrates the value of bringing in individual professionals. I was contacted to perform an inspection on a very expensive home. The buyer sent me a copy of a previous inspection report on the home. The report was so poorly written, worded and arranged (purposely ??) that at first glance it did not sound that bad. It took me over 2 hours of reading, re-reading and deciphering this badly written and whitewashed report. Talk about a confusing report, and I'm an Inspector to boot! After reading and deciphering the report and homes description all types of red flags went up regarding the potential negative condition of the home.
I certainly could have done what many Inspectors here do. That is to book the inspection, go out and find that the conditions in the report were true, collect a VERY LARGE fee and started referring the client to all types of specialists who they are now going to pay again. Instead I directed the client to start first with one specialist after the other to inspect each system and make a decision at each point if it is worth continuing on. I did a rough check of the cost of all of the specialists and the total cost would have been several thousand dollars! Of course on a $750K + home with potential serious deficiencies that is a small price to pay for peace of mind!
On the flip side when we do not know before hand (as in the example above) the condition of a home, a home inspection by a good HI could potentially identify significant issues the buyer does not even want to deal with or are considerable more expensive than they were planning to deal with. The HI's fees are much less expensive than assembling all the rest of the trades people together to inspect.
No offense taken - however the actual costs of repairing a deficient home when the general inspector misses things will far exceed the cost to hire the true professionals. Just my opinion of course.
First of all, you need to find someone that is unbiased. Your friend, while possibly well qualified, is probably not unbiased.
As a professional inspector, I have "no dog in the fight" if you buy the house or not. As far as "the county" inspecting already....well, my web site is full of photos from new homes that were already inspected by the County.
I really get a kick out of the people that contend that home inspectors are out there in bed with the Realtors or Builders. While there may be some that think that soft selling the inspection will bring them lots of work, the vast majority of us are doing the best job we can to provide our clients with the most thorough inspection we can.
If we leave something out, it is likely it will show up at some time, and it's highly possible that the buyer is then going to sue us. Why on earth would I risk getting sued so someone else can make a commission? My fee for an inspection is peanuts compared to the Realtors commission, or the Builders profit. It's insane to think I would risk so little for so high a risk.
It is far easier to give an honest report, and let the chips far where they may, than cover something up and wait for the court summons to show up.
it is true that the really good inspectors will gain a reputation as a "deal killer", though I have never quite figured out how doing an excellent job by telling the truth was such a negative thing.
I have been a professional inspector for 20 years. There are several Realtors in town that call me the deal killer. There are a few builders that refuse to let me in there houses. But the other side is I have a very long list of happy clients that provide me with a constant referral stream BECAUSE I did a great job for them, and I DIDN'T sugar coat stuff. I also have a few builders that have me inspect their homes before they put them on the market. And I also have a long list of ethical and honest Realtors that also refer me business BECAUSE I do a great job, and tell the truth.
Call some Realtors and ask them who they thing the deal killers are, as well as who they think are the best. Ask them who they would hire if THEY were buying a house. Then call those inspectors and talk to them.
I really get a kick out of the people that contend that home inspectors are out there in bed with the Realtors or Builders. While there may be some that think that soft selling the inspection will bring them lots of work, the vast majority of us are doing the best job we can to provide our clients with the most thorough inspection we can.
Yes the majority are operating as legal and honest as they know. But there are still those out there that choose not to. It is an unfortunate fact of life that dishonest people will always be around, and many will be ignorant (or play ignorant) of the laws that control their profession.
This is a Nov 2004 article regarding RE Brokerage referral services. Read about the Inspection company that had, at that time, quite a few judgements against them. Since 2004 these "Pay To Play" services have flourished in RE Brokerages.
Team 4: Home Inspector Fees - Team 4 News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh (http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/team4/3948871/detail.html - broken link)
These are just a couple of examples of this unfortunate condition. This was all occurring when the RE business was doing very well. Human nature only dictates that when the going gets tough more dishonesty will occur.
Call some Realtors and ask them who they thing the deal killers are.
Thanks, that is a good idea. I was wondering how to find a good inspector. I would rather have an inspector give me a report with everything, even the small details, rather than gloss over things. Then, I could decide which ones I would like the seller to take care, which ones I would ignore and which ones I would take care of myself.
Word of advice: Get your home inspected by a licensed professional home inspector.
Your home is likely your biggest financial investment. Spend the $400 to have it inspected before you buy it.
Hi - a builder that I know and trust offered to do a home inspection for us on the home we buy or build. We won't be able to use him as our builder b/c the lot we want to purchase will only let you use specific builders. I have seen comments from this forum saying inspectors are in bed with realtors and was wondering if I am better off using a reputable builder as the inspector rather than an inspection company. Would love to know your thoughts on this. Thx!
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