Not all inspections are created equal, say experts

Shortly after moving into the townhome his home inspector assured him was in mint condition, Faiyaz Sumar had to replace the washer, dryer and microwave.

"The microwave would stop after 20 seconds, and the washer and dryer weren't ventilating properly. The walls of the laundry room were dripping with condensation," said Sumar, who was fortunately able to get the sellers to replace them at their own cost.

"Then we discovered our master shower would run either extremely hot or extremely cold. I just assumed that if you claim to test an appliance, you would run it through a normal cycle. In our case, the inspector may have turned them on or off but didn't check for full functionality.

"If I had any words of wisdom, it would be that you can't just blindly trust what you're told. You need to ask what tests they run and scrutinize what being operational really means to them."

Understanding the importance of pre-listing inspections

Dear Home Inspector:

We just sold our house, but we are not happy. We had agreed upon a certain purchase price, but the offer was conditional on a home inspection, which the buyer arranged.

The inspection revealed a number of maintenance items that came as a complete

surprise to my wife and I, which then triggered a request from the buyer to reduce the purchase price further. We had no time to look into the actual cost of the repairs and were instantly back negotiating.