Who do you trust: Inspector or General Contractor

[Drew Y.]

Looking for advice. I am contract on a mixed used apartment complex and we are currently in the inspection phase. We are deciding whether or not to pursue the deal based off the condition of the unit. However we have been given to very different estimates and scope of work. 

One was from a licensed inspector whom basically told us that it would be 500-600 thousand to conduct repairs and that buildings foundation and walls could collapse at any moment. The other was from a licensed contractor that comes highly recommended and has done work for our partner prior. He quoted repair cost around 300 thousand , more or less and said the foundation and structure was pretty sound. 

I am torn between going with the inspector and the general contractor? Which should I give more weight to as one guy job is to identify risk and the other is to actually get the work completed? 

[Patrick Liska]

Is there really a problem with the foundation ? and your contractor believes he can repair it for his cost? one way to be sure of the extent of the problem is to bring in an engineer, they will give the best analysis of the situation and provide the scope of work to repair, then you can get an actual cost - neither the home inspector or the Contractor know the true work involved. you will spend a little money on the Engineer, but it's better than purchasing and finding out that neither one was right and it will cost you more than they figured.