[MuseChaser]

My experience with "home inspectors" has been similar to my experience with Microsoft customer "support;" the information they provide is essentially correct, but not useful nor indicative of what the actual problems may actually be.

The real estate "industry" has spawned a few sub-industries in the thirty-five years I've been buying houses... not that I've bought that many (four, to be exact). Used to be... a realtor showed you the house, a bank approved a mortgage, and a lawyer made sure the deed was clear and all the paperwork was in order.

Now... "Home inspectors" are touted as being an absolute necessity. I've always had a friend who was a builder look at properties for me (and, at my insistence, paid him for doing so) to point out any possible issues, rather than some inexperienced "trained" "home inspector" who checks off a standard form, kind of like those "120-point inspections" that dealerships sort of do, kind of, sometimes. I used a home inspector on our current house when I bought it back in 2000, and it was a waste of money. He missed some very obvious issues, and made a big deal out of stuff that wasn't.

The other sub-industry that has sprung up that drives me nuts is the "staging" industry... you pay somebody thousands of dollars to "stage" your house with certain furnishings in order to make it more appealing to prospective purchasers.. and possibly hide certain flaws. As a purchaser, I'd like to either see the house empty of contents, warts and all, so I can formulate my own ideas for the future (and see any cosmetic or structural deficiencies that need addressing), or, if that's not possible, see it as it's being lived in, so I can see how the previous owners cared for it. "Staging" is like putting on a tuxedo t-shirt. I hate it. It just smacks of dishonesty. I mean... do you want a wonderful, kind, caring wife, or an actress who will appear to be one until you marry her?

/curmudgeon mode