How A $500 Inspection Saved Me $5000 Dollars

Lesson learned: Inspections are totally worth it! I am sold! 

Recently, I purchased another househack property, a duplex with a finished basement. My plan is to rent by the room on the 2nd unit to long-term tenants, live in the 1st unit, and rent out the rooms in the basement on Airbnb. I was excited about the purchase, and I wanted to close fast. I was anxious to move in and get tenants in right away. And foolishly, I was tempted to skip the inspection to move the process faster.

However, I read over and over on BP that inspections should never be skipped. So, suppressing my emotions and impatience, I decided to get an inspection. And it paid off!

The inspection took roughly 2 hours and my inspector did an excellent job explaining to me things I did not see during the showing. 

Some of the big ticket items were: 

-Listing and seller's agent said the roof was 4 years old. The inspector found that certain parts of the roof were patched recently. However, some of the patchings were coming apart and most of the roof only had about 5 years left. 

-Listing and seller's agent said the AC was 2 years old. It turned out one AC was 8 years old and the other 22 years old. One needed to be replaced right away. 

-Listing and seller's agent stated that there were 2 water heaters on premise that were 2 years old. In reality, there was only one water heater. And it was actually 15 years old and needed to be replaced very soon. 

There were other code violations that the inspector pointed out that I used to my advantage in negotiating prices. In the end, I asked for a 15K credit but settled on 5K. I was okay with this since I had already negotiated a big discount on the property prior to the inspection.

All in all, my $500 dollar inspection was totally worth the $5000 credit. And now, no matter what the circumstances are, even if a property is listed "AS-IS", I will still get an inspection done. I figure that if I can negotiate more than a $500 discount on the purchase price or seller credit, then it's definitely worth it. And if my negotiations fail, then still, I will learn more about my property and make the necessary rehabs to bring the property up to code. 

In conclusion, don't skimp out on inspections! You'll regret it if you do!