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I know of two scenerios: The first. My husband and I hired an inspector that wasn't recommended by any of the parties involved. We hired one that came recommended by several friends and co workers who had recently purchased a house and they loved the inspector. He not only covered every inch of the house, but put a lot of stuff in the report that could have made it a deal breaker if we wanted to (an electric box that had items plugged into it that were against code; he listed the age of all of the equipment like heaters, air conditioners, water heaters, and told us how long we had before they had to be replaced. He climbed into the attic, got down in all the dirty places and gave us a report that was about 5 pages long without the disclaimer part that they all put in. We bought the house after we had some problems fixed (the inspector used a randon detector and our randon was too high so the home owners were required to install the proper equipment to pull randon out of the house).
Second scenerio? My sister purchased a house that she just HAD to have. She didn't want to pay $500 for an inspector so bought it "AS IS " basically. Within the first 6 months they had to replace the air conditioner, have all the duct work in the house removed and replaced, which of course made a hugh mess, they had a foundation problem that cost them $25,000. They had a bathroom where the ceiling caved in because the roof had been leaking for years. All these problems because they didn't want to hire a home inspector.
I'm sure there are bad inspectors because they are bad people in every field of work. But if you ignore all the suggestions from the home sellers and anyone else involved in the deal, and find an inspector that is highly recommended from people who have recently used him, you have a better chance of at least knowing what you are in for. We know that our 2 heaters and 2 air conditioners have maybe 3 years of life left, we know our hot water heater is new, we know the ex owners didn't pull a permit for a couple of items they had worked done on so we had to get the city inspector out to give us a certificate of occupancy.
What all these words are saying is this. In my opinion, and only my opinion, I wouldn't dare buy a house without an inspector, and also would make sure that the inspector didn't know the home owners, didn't go to lunch with our realtor, etc.
One last thing. Getting an inspector that truly knows your neighborhood is a great thing. He knew who built our house by his first name, when, he knew that what we thought was our property line was wrong and we actually had quite a bit more land than we thought. He also gave suggestions on how to protect the type of house we have (solid wood with a wood shaker roof) and told us to install a fan in the attic and have the roof sealed every few years and it would last us 20 years instead of 5 or 6. He was invaluable.
I'm sorry if you got a terrible inspector, but if you were standing there and they didn't even open the electrical panel to make sure there was no illegal wiring, you should have gotten rid of him right there and gotten someone else.
Since October 2009
Since October 2009
I personally think inspections are a very good thing. It sounds like your buyer had a terrible inspector. I've had some great inspectors, I too, have seen not so good inspectors. A lot of my buyers have been handy in home repair, so yes, they will sometimes inspect the property themselves.
Since February 2009
Since February 2009
Since February 2009
The inspectors we work with always go in the attic, crawlspace, basement, etc. They always take the cover off the electrical panel. You just bumped into a bad seed, unfortunately.
Make sure when you buy a place you get a good referral for your inspector, it makes a huge difference.
Lender rating
Since October 2009
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Home inspections are such a waster or money.. I have a better choice.
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scouttster
Contributions: 32
Zillow All-Star
Since October 2009
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Home inspections are such a waste of money.. I have a better choice
I sold this house and the buyer had the home inspector come out. He didnt crawl in the crawl spaces to inspect the joists and determine if they were termite free. He looked at the electric panel and didnt take the cover off to inspect the wires ( maybe old ) The roof he looked at and told her it was an OK roof... The chimney base was rotted out and degrading and he totally missed that. He never even fired the boiler up and inspected it.. He pointed out stupid stuff, like chipped paint and cracks in the asphalt driveway.. A better choice is to have someone you know that is pretty good with fixing stuff.. A guy that is willing to crawl in and look at the joists, etc.. After seeing that, I think they are a waste of money. They point out the obvious.. Whats your take?
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