Not having an inspection is sort of like going to the doctor. If the doctor looks at you and states that you are fine without doing an exam would you be happy when you found out there were problems? An inspection can show problems that need to be taken care of now rather than later. Can also be a reason to back away from the property. Being in construction does not mean that a person is familiar with all of the trades and their proper methods.

As long as you're willing to crawl under and above, and have some knowledge of hvac,electric,plumbing,and structural systems. Or it's a gut rehab anyway. It would also depend on the age of the home. The older it is, the closer you'll need to look at the major systems.

I would check with the county/city planning and tax office to check for any non-permitted additions.

And remember in most states, the only thing a home inspector can be liable for is refunding the cost of the inspection. So some will dig, some know what their looking at and for. Some, like the last one I ran across, don't have sense enough to know what a disconnect for a water heater is for.

maifleur01 I totally agree but he's literally built homes from the ground up and has experience in excavation, carpentry, plumbing and electricity. The only thing he's subbed out is drywall and painting because he hates it, ha.

Taylor's Cabinets & Interiors that's what I'm worried about - we get someone that knows less about building then my husband. It was built in 1983 so it's not extremely old. He's already talked to the city's building inspector and knows the last renovations were done in '03.

I would never consider purchasing an existing home without an inspection, short sale or not. Whether or not any defects would be paid for by the owner is far less of a concern than knowing what those defects might be and how they could impact the value of the house. And being familiar with construction is not enough of a skill set to evaluate all the problems that could be present. Licensed home inspectors know precisely what to check and how to be properly thorough.

btw, a termite inspection will only tell you if termites are present or have been present.....not what kind of hidden damage they might have created. For a few hundred dollars, it is well worth the investment of a proper home inspection when one is contemplating spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the purchase. A mere drop in the bucket, all things considered.

I think an inspection is good, but not essential, I've bought homes with no inspection for reasons similar to yours. It is up to you, many are saying inspectors will find defects you may not. How many times have people on this forum posted about defects an inspector didn't find.

My son had a bad inspection (roofer was to go up on ALL the roofs and house had had multiple additions over the years). My son was there, had to step away to take a phone call, and the lazy inspector decided this was his chance to not have to go up on the roof yet again.

Fast forward a year or so - leaks in ceiling under that particular part of the roof. Roofers showed them photos of significant damage that idiot inspector should have found but by not going up on ladder, did not. My son threatened to sue him - his insurance for inspection had expired - and he paid for the repairs, both to the roof and the ceiling inside. It would have been subject to negotiation if they had known at the time. This was in CT and he was clearly liable for this.

I can't help but wonder why you are so opposed to an inspection. If your husband is in construction, surely he knows who the "good" inspectors are and whom to avoid. If it's cost, then you most likely are far too under-capitalized to buy a short sale house. In addition to a regular inspector, I'd want a structural engineer to take a look at the house as well. No one needs unpleasant surprises, being "experienced" in construction or not!

We've bought a few houses without an inspection back in the day when they weren't so popular. We had inspections on the two houses we bought in 2015 but we have no skill in evaluating that ourselves. One of the places had some obvious damage and I didn't trust the inspector to really know if something was fundamentally wrong with the construction so I also had a building contractor I knew look at it. Nothing major was found in either case other than a leaking water heater which the seller replaced so that was worth the price of the inspection. The other inspection revealed nothing to be done.

The buyer of one of the houses we sold didn't have an inspection. The other did - it revealed nothing for us to do even though the house was over 40 years old.

What I found useful about the inspections is the general information provided by the inspector about the age and condition of things. Kind of a nice "inventory" of what you have and what you're going to need to plan for in the future.

I have to confess, we did buy an investment property without an inspection some years ago - the house was only two years old, solid brick, in good shape to the naked eye. Eventually, there were problems, but that was 11 years into our ownership and the result of a faulty water main. We were lucky. Knowing what I know now, yep, I'd have an inspection.

We did buy our current home without an inspection, but we had already been living in it for 6 months before we bought it - my husband’s aunt and uncle originally owned it. It was also relatively new and well-built. I didn’t have a problem with skipping the inspection in this case, however, I would probably not skip it in any other situation. I think it all comes down to how comfortable you are in taking care of any issues that will come up (even expensive ones) after the purchase.

I've bought houses without an inspection, it comes down to your comfort level with a DIY approach. When I have had inspections done the inspector hasn't found anything significant that I hadn't already flagged and they missed other important things, like semi-hidden termite damage. That said, a second set of eyes is a reasonable precaution, especially if you can find an inspector who isn't clueless. If I were buying a house that didn't already obviously need major work done (an unlikely scenario) I'd definitely get a second opinion.

I've bought a couple of homes without inspections. There is no magic to what inspectors do. It's a check list and they look for conditions. What we typically do is hire our electrician, plumber and HVAC guys to come look at things. If there is anything else that is concerning, we get a subject matter expert out to take a look.

If you read an inspector's report, they will always refer you to a subject matter expert. We just cut out the middle step.

While there are good ones out there, they are few and far between. If your husband is in the construction trades, it should be good enough. Have him call in a few favors and get the electrical and HVAC looked at by a professional. Otherwise, he should be able to do what it needed. It's not as if they are going to fix something you find.

Actually homechef, you aren't skipping the inspection - you are going right to the expert resource for each of the systems (subject matter expert) which is a more detailed type inspection especially if you know the experience of the individuals checking out your purchase. I think your method is a better way to get a handle on the actual condition of the property - its more like a super inspection(s) rather than a typical inspection IMO :)

I wouldn't bypass the inspection. I assume you are considering it to save $? The thing is, they might find something that could make you rethink the purchase of the house. There is a house in town that had an offer, and then the inspection showed it had been flooded and the foundation was compromised, and it would cost $15,000 to repair it. This is not the only house with this problem. I know of people who walked away from a property (leading to a short loan), with similar basement problems. Would your spouse be able to spot something like that?

I've bought 5 older homes over the years and 4x used an inspector. The last one (150 yrs old) we didn't because it was a bit of a bidding war and waiving the inspection got us the house when $$'s turned out to be equal. My DH is not in construction but did a wide variety of construction for our public service co for 35 yrs. From rehabbing homes over the years we've built up oodles of heavy construction, plumbing, HVAC exp...you name it. We deliberately buy older homes in bad condition because we prefer older neighborhoods and can save a ton of $$ doing it ourselves (some subbing req now as the aging clicks along...:) since we're retired. As your DH seems to be very experienced in all facets, is there ANYTHING that he could not fix? Is it cost prohibitive to consider subbing out if necessary if something is discovered after purchase? Is there anything found in an inspection that would generally prevent you from buying the house? If you answer "No" then you could pass on the inspection I would think. Inspectors do have their limitations. They cannot see through walls, floors or roofs and cannot forecast how long mechanics will last. Frankly, THOSE are the things that have bitten us in the butt over the years so an inspector wouldn't have helped. But we go in willing to fix whatever. You might not be of that mindset. If you are, then it shouldn't be a risk.

Just like in every profession, there are people who are more skilled and do a better job than others so picking a person who is good at finding problems that exist is who you want. Knowing their specialties is also important. In my area, the cost of a home inspection is $350. The findings from an inspection can give you leverage on negotiating a lower price or making the decision to walk away. It's a way to manage risk and a 2nd opinion could help offset blaming your husband if something goes wrong that he didn't find.

Well it sounds to me like your hubby would be qualified to do the inspection so maybe instead of hiring someone have your hubby spend the several hours inspecting everything in minutia and hire experts if he finds anything that needs further investigating or that he noticed, but doesn't feel as comfortable with.

Pay the money, do the inspection. I recently sold a townhouse that was built to my sister's specs and it was 9 yrs old. No inspections were done before occupancy in 2009, I cannot begin to list what had to be fixed, repaired, and hooked up because of no inspection at the time. The three to five hundred will be well worth it.