I have had 1000’s of inspections. From investors who had them done and I walked as a GC to give pricing and such, city/lending inspectors reviewing my projects, to having my flips reviewed by the buyers rep.
The bottom line is that they are all human and thats about the only similarity. A lot are fantastic and will go above and beyond (crawlspaces) to ensure they look at your home as if its their own child buying it. Some took a class; knew nothing before and learned nothing since. There was 20+ people in my class and not one knew jack diddly or squat about construction or houses in general. Like, we had to stop to explain the difference between soffit and facial boards to make sure folks knew where to set their latter. It was kinda gross, but I digress…

The point of the inspector isn’t to tell you everything that is wrong with a property. Its not even to tell you the about things you REALLY should know. They are (in TX anyway) only allowed to tell you what is wrong on their list of things. Life safety, outer envelope, code, blah blah blah. BUT…they cannot tell you even if its something you should have fixed/replaced. Let me give you an example. Codes change every so often. If your house was built before 2008, its not code compliant. That doesn’t mean you need to fix all those things as you are “grandfathered”. But that also doesn’t mean that some of these things should be fixed/replaced. Like if you have old wiring or plumbing for example.
The inspector cannot (legally) talk about things not on that list; like cosmetic issues. They can’t make suggestions or give you an idea on price. And frankly, you wouldn’t want them to. Thats not what they are professionals at doing.

You should also know that they basically hold VERY little liability if they overlook something as most of their contracts state that they are not liable for the condition of anything after they leave the property and that their report is based solely on the condition while they were on site. I.e. if you buy a house and your a/c goes out day one, don’t look to the inspector to fix it. BUT!!!! if they miss a MAJOR flaw or defect that isn’t possible to have changed; you want that inspectors insurance to cover you.

Here is why I am glad I did it: Confidence.

Taking that class and field labs taught me that I was doing things right, that I had all the skills I needed and then some to call myself a pro. 15yrs in construction at that point and for the first time I had a piece of paper that said, “I know my shyte”. I had validation to what I knew about myself, for myself. I expanded my circle of knowledge a small amount, but my confidence expanded 100 fold. I was the authority, the one who could be called an expert and it really mean something.

Sometimes you pay 2500.00 and spend dozens of hours to qualify for something you never intend to do, because the lessons and direction you gain is worth the investment. Its one in yourself, and thats the most ROI you can ever gain. (unless its to a “guru” weekend, those are silly)

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