Why a Good Inspector Is Key for Homebuyers

The home inspection industry is one of the most effective scams in the real estate industry. Of course, I always recommend inspections—as long as you can get a good, honest inspector.

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One of the biggest scams in the real estate industry that costs consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year is the home inspection industry. 

Whenever someone buys a home, they always ask me, “Should I spend $500 or $600 on the home inspection?” My answer is yes—if you can get a good home inspector. 

Here’s what happens in our industry: The typical agent sells seven or eight homes a year. When you have a commission on the line that is worth $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, there is a huge amount of pressure on that agent to make the transaction move forward. What I’ve noticed in my 25 years as a real estate agent is that many agents will recommend the home inspector that goes the easiest on the home. 

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Many agents recommend inspectors that will go easy on the home & ignore certain issues.

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When I first started as an agent, I was blacklisted in the industry because I used one of the toughest home inspectors in the industry. Now, this inspector never made up problems—he always pointed out real issues that would have impacted the buyer. 

Weak agents always say, “The house failed inspection.” I have sold homes with mold, bad roofs, radon, and bad wells; some of these homes had all of those problems at once. However, as long as both the buyer and the seller know about those issues and the buyer is compensated for them, then the home can be sold. That is the whole point of full disclosure and great home inspectors. 

When an agent only sells a few homes a year and their commission is on the line, they are really, really worried about that commission. Each one of the agents on my team sells 30 homes a year. We want you to have a great home inspection because we don’t want you to have any issues down the road when you go to list that home. 

About two weeks ago, I had a client who bought with another agent and wanted to sell her home. Unfortunately, the home inspector the other agent recommended actually missed $60,000 of damage in wood rot. She can’t go back to the home inspector because, according to the contract, the home inspector is only responsible for that $500 inspection fee. She also can’t go back to that other real estate agent because technically, the agent didn’t do anything wrong, so she was really stuck. 

As you can see, you really want a great home inspector when you buy a home. I could tell you story after story of home inspectors who have done horrific jobs and should not be in the business, so give us a call. We are happy to recommend some truly great home inspectors for you. Make sure you check their referrals so that you hire someone who will give you an honest home inspection.

If you have any other questions about inspections or the home buying process, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!