If the tenant is willing to allow the vendor in unsupervised, that's an agreement they can make themselves.I only escort the vendor if there's a legitimate reason to assist or if I want to use it as an opportunity to inspect.

I have an inspection tomorrow where I plan to point out all the issues I see with his work and plan on using that date as the day I noticed defects.

Their inspection report is not insane or nit-picky.

Have an independent property inspection too if possible. 

I assume you got an inspection and that's where this is coming from, and I would suggest it would probably be better to become more learned on systems before making offers than just waiting for inspectors to tell you the obvious and hope to beat down the seller on price.

How do you calculate repair costs when you haven't inspected the property?

If tasks within a draw require a municipal inspection, then passing of the inspection should be required for that draw to be paid.Retainage / holdbacks are another consideration.

Wait until you have an after inspection request. 

Your inspections should carry over, though!

Something had to be wrong but the inspection came back clean and no capex deferred maintenance.