I mean, at the end of the day, you should always use your own inspector and they shouldn't be in any way working with the realtors. My mother is a realtor and she always reccomends an inspector who is widely regarded as the best in the area, but he's also disliked by many realtors because he finds every flaw. But she will also recommend multiple other inspectors for her clients to choose from. If I was buying a house, I'd ignore whatever report he gave and bring in my own inspector to do the job.
This Just blew my mind Tom, but really not that shocking you have talked about this .. in fact in one of our videos we talk about what folks should look for in a home inspector... I started my RU-vid channel because of you ..I sure hope you have subscribed .. good to see you here 👌👍
I've always been a little bit uncomfortable with pre-sale inspections. There is nothing wrong with a seller getting a pre-sale inspection in order to learn the home's deficiencies and consider repairs... but you have to make sure your client understands clearly that they are not supposed to present your report to a buyer, especially not as a substitute for the buyer's own inspection. That should also be spelled out somewhere in writing in your pre-inspection agreement. Some pre-sale clients may not hire you if you clearly state that, but so be it. Of course, then the problem is, you can't control what they do with your report afterwards, and if they DO give it to a buyer, you'll probably never even know. Do you think it's best to just refuse to do pre-sale inspections altogether?
There is a conflict of interest here. I think this is also a question of ethics. If that inspector is also getting kickbacks from the selling agent there may even be a case to be made of fraud. However this may fall under "Buyer Beware". The home buyer should have the same intention towards having an inspection of their own regardless of a preinspection being done or not. The inspectors with grievance may have to wait for this guy to get caught, and for details to become public.
Are you a expert? Your buying the unknown, do as you would with a used car, get it inspected, independently, don’t get rushed into any decision by the person/agent selling
