Do you inspect each and every property?

[Ashley Wolfe]

We just had our first accepted offer on a house that I knew would have some underlying problems.  After the general home inspection, we discovered WAY more than we were willing to take on for our first rehab/rent so we decided to terminate the contract.

We are still putting one foot in front of the other and found a potential turn key deal that we have put an offer on.

We know that doing an inspection is the right thing to do but at what point (if ever) do we decide to save our money and not get an inspection?  Is it worth the money in the long run to always do an inspection?  Is there an inspection requirement of some kind that I may be unaware of?  Could we be held liable for anything if we don't choose to get a property inspected?

Do you have every accepted offer inspected?  After doing this for a while, do you start to see the same problems or start to find the problems for yourself?

(In the inspection we just received, he found 9X9 asbestos tile flooring under the carpet, gas leaks from the furnace and water heater, leaking around the tub, squirrel infestations, termite trails, and old rotted wood siding among other problems.  We would have not known about these things because we are not home inspectors.  So it was WELL WORTH our money paying the inspector to walk away from this deal.)

[John Chapman]

Okay, I'm in your area and I can tell you that, after a few houses, you will find an inspection absolutely worthless.  I don't know what it is in Texas, if the training is just bad or what, but most inspectors in DFW are simply useless.  They'll point out the cracked outlet cover but miss the huge structural issue, like foundation.  (This literally happened to me when I was first starting out.)  Or they'll tell you there is a serious foundation issue when it's just normal settling.

In our market, they are basically there to hold hands with retail buyers and give them some (false) reassurance.  I don't know any investor worth his or her salt who wastes the money on an inspection, and I can't count how many times I've talked to people who've had incredibly negative experiences with them.  

Don't get me wrong, if you want to use one on your first deal or two because you know nothing about houses, there might be some value to it.  However, for accurate, useful information, walk the house with your contractor, foundation person, HVAC person, etc.  They'll know a heck of a lot more than some inspector.