The woman had just bought a house an investor flipped in Montgomery County
 She skipped a home inspection to compete against other buyers and, a couple months ago, she asked inspector Ben Poles to take a look.
As part of his usual examination, Poles, who owns Rest Assured Inspections in Pottstown, filled up the tub in a second-floor bathroom. The water didn’t get hot. When he went downstairs to investigate the cause, he saw that wasn’t the homeowner’s biggest problem: Water was pouring through the ceiling, and the drywall was coming apart.
“When I was borrowing paper towels from the neighbors, I was thinking: This is why you get an inspection before you buy the house,” he said. “Because now it’s on you to fix things.”
He called the homeowner, and “you could hear her heart just sink.”
To make offers more attractive in a strong sellers market and to beat competitors, buyers are continuing to skip home inspections, which are meant to protect them. And they’re doing so at rates the real estate industry has never before seen. Inspection contingencies let buyers back out of a deal or try to get sellers to pay for repairs before a sale.
“In this white-hot market, buyers feel the pressure to make all sorts of concessions,” said Angela Giampolo, managing attorney at Philadelphia-based Giampolo Law Group, which mainly represents members of the LGBTQ community.
It can be a winning — if risky — strategy for some.
“For better or for worse,” said Scott Reidenbach, founding principal of Reidenbach & Associates, based in Wayne, “you now have the house.” And some buyers find themselves in the “worse” category.
The Montgomery County woman with the destroyed bathroom was one of several of Poles’ clients who waived the home inspection and then later told him, “we just want [one] for peace of mind.”
Related News
SF Pricing Explained SF Pricing Explained – We have multiple options with our skip tracing and property data services. I’m going to break it down for you so you can make the best decision for your business. For skip tracing, there’s member pricing and nonmember pricing. Now you’re going to get the same data for […]
Skip Tracing Our Property Data Skip Tracing Our Property Data – We’re in beautiful Costa Rica right now with my family just kicking back, having a cocktail right as my team is closing deals right now back in the States. We got three under contract this week, and I think we’re going to do two […]
Improve Your Cold Calling Improve Your Cold Calling – So when it comes to marketing, everything works, okay? Everybody’s looking for that special list. Everybody’s looking for that special thing. But truth be told, nothing is special about this business except for consistency. If you’re able to be consistent, every channel works. We choose cold […]