inspector gamble

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Is hiring an inspecter always a gamble . waht if he finds out a bunch of bad stuff about the house and you dont wanna buy it . They you still have to pay . Is there some way to off set this ?

Some of you here said you looked at 20 houses . Thats a lot of inspections even if you didnt have to inspect just a few of them .

[slow06]

Well in my experience you only inspect it after you have agreed on a price, so at that point you are basically ready to buy. At that point you negotiate from there to work the price down or have repairs made.

If the inspection is bad enough to scare you away then that will be the best money you ever spent, and walk away smiling. Better to spend a couple hundred bucks and find the problems up front rather than spend a couple hundred thousand and find the problems later when they are your problem.

We just bought a house 2 months ago. We probably looked at 20 or 30 houses, but only had 1 inspected, that was the one we ended up buying. You shouldn't be inspecting 20 houses IMO.

[red95gts]

You wouldn't inspect every house you look at. Only one where you have an accepted contract. Most (if not all) TX real estate contracts will have an option period to allow for inspections, etc. you can back out at any point during that option period if the inspection goes south.

Have you considered working with a realtor? It costs you nothing as the buyer and they can provide quite a bit of valuable insight.

[RCITNet]

When I go view a house that has been on the market longer than one would expect I always look under the kitchen sink for an inspection sticker. If not there I check the other kitchen cabinets. If you find an inspection sticker call that inspector and ask for the report. If they won't give it to you which they might not, the seller might have been given a copy by the person that was trying to buy but backed out.

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[SMEGMA STENCH]

Ok thanks can yall recommend a good inspector ? Somthing tells me they are not all created equal .

Also is the inspector the guy that will tell you if the well and the septic tank are all on the same property ? Or is that the sellers job to tell you that .

[forbes]

9 outta 10 times the inspector is recomended by the Realtor, the reaqltor gets a kick back and the inspector will only point out and document if it's big. but not enough to ruin the deal . u are better off getting someone who will work on your side for you ...
and as for septic, i use to do the inspections in cali on those. they must be on the property. also the owner should pay for the pump and inspection. inspection it should take a water hose full blast into the leech field for 20 minutes with no back flow. also it must have an inflow tee, outflow tee, transfer tee or baffels. It is also wise to have the leech fields located. often there is a distrubution box within 10 feet of the outflow where black water is dispersed among different fields (depending on age. never ever and i mean never... listen to anyone say they saw it when it was put in and knows exactly what is there, they never do. just trust me.) also to have riser on both sides of the tank is very helpful for regular pumping. if they say they have been adding yeast or septic solutions to the tank for maintanance, have it pumped. that stuff kills the natural bacteria a septic needs to operate.. a 2 way clean out and diverter valves when needed are also nice and costly to put in afterwards
hope that helps

[Tannerm]

Ok thanks can yall recommend a good inspector ? Somthing tells me they are not all created equal .

Also is the inspector the guy that will tell you if the well and the septic tank are all on the same property ? Or is that the sellers job to tell you that .

http://www.ashi.org/homeinspectors/Texas/Colleyville/17393AJ.aspx

Craig Lemon is a good dude who is very honest. He also has goodies he gives out after a successful inspect. Etc. at least use to. Its been a while since I've seen em. He and his wife make the best damned candybar cookies evar!!! tell em officer tanner said hello.

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Ok thanks for the help everybody

[RCITNet]

I can get you the info on the guy I use. Ex military and good and honest guy.

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[jayjohnson600]

You should only need to get 1, maybe 2 inspections. From there you have a list of what
to inspect, yourself.

Then when you target a property to buy, you do your own inspection for rule-in/rule-out.
Go to a pro if you must, when you are ready to pull the trigger on a competitive offer.

When you buy a house, you buy at a price that includes fixing the things that need
attention. Don't pay a price, then get surprised by repairs, even if you really want the
house. This is almost always too expensive. Offer the price that covers potential repairs.

Best case scenario, is that you buy a place close to it's intrinsic value.
30 days ago, I watched a place sell for less than the 4.5acre land appraisal value,
and they got the 4300sqft home and pool for free.

What's really crazy, is that the neighboring house sold in February for 12% above
the list price, and the county appraisal.
Living in interesting times.

[ceyko]

Contingencies are your best friend...

I wanted my house BAD, and the sellers wanted to move fast. Turns out they were hiding nothing, but there were numerous systems I was not familiar with and wanted inspected on top of the normal home inspection.

So, just put all that in contract under contingencies and started scheduling inspections.

A lot of times you may pay 200-3K in inspections (depending on what and how many...etc), but depending on what they may find - you maybe able to get some of that back in repairs the seller has to do as well.