LK, Great response.
We recommend to our clients that they hire their own licensed contractors for further evaluation to design repairs, give cost estimates etc. We tell them that they will be living with the results of the repairs, not the seller and not the realtor. That contractor I hope would notify the buyer of any additional problems that were not reported/missed by the home inspector. The educated buyer will get the estimates from a contractor they would like to have the work done by and take a cash settlement. That is the ideal situation, which I know is not always the case. We try to get it across to our clients they want someone working for them.
What LK brought up definately is a problematic situation, especially if your working for the seller but the buyer is the end user and will be living with hazardous conditions that may be present that were not disclosed/documented by the seller or contractor.
So, if the home inspector was not performing the inspection in the first place the buyer and seller most likely don't know a potential hazard exists. If the home inspector is there the seller and buyer may be made aware of potential hazards.
When the contractor comes to do the work on the problems that are documented by the home inspector he/she finds additional problems. (That does not surprise me that an inspector would not know about a problem(s)and/or one problem reveals another.) How do you guys usually handle this?
EB
