One of my fellow Rainers wrote the following, I have deleted the name of the inspector for good reason, the original, edited post is from Jason Samiam. He has a point, but we never name bad inspectors, we simply try to avoid them, if possible.
I do not recommend any real estate agent using this home inspector
I do not recommend any real estate agent using this home inspector
This inspector my client used is a home inspector that I DO NOT recommend. My client insisted that he wanted to use this guy instead of the few that I recommended to him. Here are a few things that this inspector said (not exactly the same words but close enough).
" there's nothing good I can say about this house" - I asked him about the roof, and he said that was good. I asked him about the foundation, and he said that was good. I asked him about the outside walls, and he said that was good. The house is definitely a fixer, but all the bedrooms and one of the two bathrooms are in fair condition (livable). One of the bathroom did need a lot of work. There's mold and a couple of holes in the wall and the floor warping a bit (I'm guessing from water damage). Btw, the original wooden floor was also in good condition, and so was the central air and fireplace. I just can't believe he said this and he kept saying it throughout the inspection. Just to be fair and to give you the full picture, the house in general was in good shape. The once I thought were in bad condition were 1) car port infront of garage 2) pool 3) one of the bathroom 4) maybe unpermitted enclosed patio. The rest of the house was in fair livable condition.
"the pool needs at least $10,000 worth of repair" - the listing agent and I thought it was maybe around $3,000 worth of repair. There's a few cracks (maybe a dozen) throughout the pool. But regardless, he is stepping way outside his boundary to give an estimate on how much that pool was going to cost.
"overall the cost of repair will be around $30K to $40K" - this is just ridiculous. This inspector doesn't even have a contractor license. I know because I asked him if he did, and he answered no.
This inspector crossed the line when he went beyond the scope of hi duty, obligation and expertise.
Comparables in Santa Fe Springs for 3bedroom 2bath SFR is around $340K to $375K. We offered $300K and suggested we can ask to lower the price to $280K. But because this home inspector has instilled fear on my client's mind, my client ends up cancelling escrow.
Never in my experience did I ever come across a home inspector that conducted business this way.
If you are a real estate agent, I wouldn't recommend using the home inspector indicated below:
