@Noah Jacobson I work with between 10-15 buyers per month and most of them are first-time buyers so I hear this a lot and your concerns are both common and have some small roots in reality. 

I made sure that the apartment had all new copper plumbing above ground, but not under ground and that is where the problem ended up being.First thing you want to do is remove all trees, roots getting into the sewer system, finally there are not as many plumbing problems.

And to me its rooted in MLM  Amway type pitch's.. that all said most agents can learn everything they need to know just going to their office meetings and interacting with the top agents.

(In reality you both will be sued, but your contractor's insurance should bear the bulk of the burden if the root cause was all your contractor's fault.

There are so many variables regarding scope of work and project specifics that any proclamations of overpricing or greed on PM/ contractor part are rooted in ignorance.

@Buyan Thyagarajan I would say the biggest thing to look out for is water, structural damage, or any roots coming in to the basement through a tree. 

This is key, if they miss a sagging floor, foundation cracks, roots growing under the driveway, it will eat up your budget quick.

I will be submitting paperwork to head back east to my roots in New England (Hopefully Mass or RI area).

I had an inspection, and then later found out from a tenant that the tree roots had pierced the foundation and water flooded into the house every spring.

. $40 sounds cheap but get to the root cause first.