Fullofkittens wrote:

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 not 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.