Wasted $300 on a home inspection that missed everything
I paid $300 for a full home inspection on a 1950s house in Denver, and the guy didn't even catch that the main sewer line was collapsed. After I moved in, the basement flooded and it cost me $4,500 to fix. Anyone else had an inspector miss something big like that?
Man I feel your pain. $300 is basically the "I'll pretend to look at stuff" rate in Denver, I swear. Mine missed a cracked heat exchanger on a furnace that could've killed me. Had to drop another $800 on a new unit after I moved in and started smelling something weird. It's like they spend 20 minutes walking around and then write a generic report they copy paste from the last job. The sewer line thing is brutal though, $4500 for a collapse nobody caught is just insulting. Next time I'm paying for a separate sewer scope no matter what, even if the inspector says it's included. Learned that one the hard way too.
Grantparker nailed it with the sewer scope thing. I've been burned too - paid a guy $350 and he missed a leaky roof I found in the first rainstorm. Now I always tell people to hire a separate plumber and roofer to check those two things before closing, no matter what the inspector says.