Forum Overview :: =( :: Re: That's fucked up reasoning. You should explain it.

[quote name="motherfuckerfoodeater"][quote name="Fullofkittens"]Here's what struck me at my own home inspection: My agent hired the guy. I had never heard of him prior to (or since) the inspection itself. My agent makes a commission if I buy the house. He gets nothing if I do not buy the house. The inspector gets paid if my agent refers him to potential homeowners. If my agent stops referring him he stops getting paid. Ergo, the inspector and the agent are both always on the side of "you should buy the house," unless the house is so royally fucked that you could damage their reputations by saying they recommended it. In my case, they did not check the plumbing because it had been winterized, and the plumbing ended up being the big problem about the house. The inspector and the agent both said that the plumbing was probably fine. In reality, since the house has copper pipes and it sat empty for almost a year, it was almost assured that the plumbing was <i>not</i> fine. But I had to find that out on my own. My recommendation is to remember that when you are the buyer, you are the only person who won't necessarily benefit from you buying the house. That includes the inspector. [/quote] But your agent gets hired if you by <em>a</em> house, not <em>this</em> house, and ideally (s)he would want a commission and an intact reputation out of the deal (in fact, the latter is more important, because you run through the former eventually and need to make more). Presumably some damage has already been done to that reputation. I mean, you would advise someone who asked against using that agent or inspector again, would you not? Also, ignoring any major system because it has had work done to it (regardless of type and timeframe) should be a huge red flag. I would say that even if you do end up with problems like yours, it's way better than a case in which the inspector is beholden to the seller (because then it really is a matter of convincing you to get <em>this</em> house) or the financing institution (because banks are interested in keeping prices down these days, which almost caused a problem for me). I know it's hard to feel like you can really trust a real estate agent, because even the nicest ones are cons of one kind or another, but of all the people involved in the transaction they are the one whose interests are closest to yours.[/quote]