A SORRY, SAD SITUATION

Almost all of the inspections I’ve been making over the past year or so have been on foreclosed houses or ‘short sales’ on homes of owners in financial distress. Although I appreciate the work (inspections), it is very depressing thinking about the shattered dreams and lives of those that have lost their beloved homes to the foreclosure monster. It really becomes apparent what kind of stress these people were under and pressure to move out when, as I methodically go through my inspection regimen, I open a cabinet door to find the interior of the cabinet stuffed with either food stuffs or personal belongings that were overlooked in the rush to get out. At that point I have to stop, take a deep breath and then ‘power up’ my stamina and try as best as I can to over look the obvious sadness and move on with the inspection process as I know that all of my attention and abilities must be brought to bear for my deserving client who is purchasing the home and hired me to make sure that they are fully informed of the condition of the large investment they are about to make.

As with every dark cloud, there is always a silver lining if you look close enough. Of course the silver lining in this mess is that first time home buyers who were completely priced out of the market two or three years ago, can now afford to buy a home because the price reductions have made the homes affordable again. These new home purchasers are well-qualified buyers, as they must meet some pretty tough standards to qualify for the home loan. I find that these homebuyers are also, for the most part, very wary and selective about the homes that they put in an offer on, and have previewed many homes before doing so. But, unfortunately, I find that most of these prospective home purchasers still fall into the age old trap of allowing their realtor to choose which, if any, Inspectors are to be engaged to provide information to the purchaser to help them feel comfortable in their decision to actually close escrow and buy the home.

This is a most unfortunate circumstance as the prospective purchaser is lulled into a false sense of security thinking that the realtor will take care of every little detail and it will be with the purchasers’ best interest at heart foremost. Although there are a few exceptions, that line of thinking is far from the reality of how the process usually unfolds. First, a realtor is paid ONLY after escrow closes. So, a quick and easy path to that close of escrow is always desirable, but probably NOT in the purchasers’ best interest most times. Second, the homebuyer has no ‘one on one’ connection to the Inspector, as he or she didn’t ‘hire’ the Inspector. Most of the time the Inspector hired by the realtor is one that they (the realtor) have used on a regular basis and the out come of the inspection is ‘predictable’. A predictable outcome has no place when it comes to an inspection, as a REAL inspection is obviously not being performed. Besides, how can an Inspector serve two ‘masters’ at once; The realtor that sends inspections his way continually, or, the buyer who didn’t actually hire him and the Inspector will only be involved with in this one instance. I can go on and on including one nightmare example after the other, but I won’t. But I will say that I think that a realtor should never be allowed to choose the Inspectors that a buyers needs to make their purchasing decision; No not even giving the purchaser a list of Inspectors to choose from! What do you think about this situation? How do you handle your ‘due diligence’ when purchasing a home?