THE ‘DEAL KILLER’ HOME INSPECTOR
‘Deal Killer’ is a common term used by some real estate agents, developers and contractors to describe a particular home inspector. The term itself is obviously meant in a derogatory manner. The implication is that it is the home inspector that causes a particular real estate deal to ‘die’ i.e. not go through.
The term unfortunately also shows the immaturity and self interest of the person using it. The use of the term has implications beyond insult. The offending party is clearly more interested in a deal moving forward rather than a buyer getting a good home that works for their needs.
It isn’t the home inspector that kills the deal. Rather it is the condition of the home that results in a buyer deciding not to move forward with the deal. Granted, the attitude of an inspector can have an overly negative impact on a deal beyond what may be entirely reasonable under given circumstances. While that can happen it is not the norm.
Deals typically ‘die’ during the inspection for 2 primary reasons. Large cost factors discovered during the inspection process and extenuating revelations that make buying the house an obvious poor decision. An inspection can reveal that a house needs a new furnace, a new porch and a new roof. These post purchase costs can be too much for a buyer to proceed. During one inspection, we went down to the basement to start. Upon stepping onto the carpeted basement floor the carpet was soggy wet and mold had already started growing along the bottom of drywall and baseboard trims. The newly flipper rehabbed house was taking in water from the front, rear and side walls. The inspection was done in about 10 minutes.
When someone tells you not to hire an inspector because he/she is a ‘deal killer’ then that’s probably the inspector you want to hire.