I hung out at one of the home inspector web sites for a while and I just got too disgusted to stay. The problem is not that they are not good about looking for things that the average home buyer would not see. It is simply the fact that they do not have the qualifications to actually inspect the systems in a home. The buyer usually never complains because they end up with a long punch list of items they can use to drive the price down but it seldom actually reflects the actual code or the enforceable code.
They limit their own liability by saying the buyer should have the house checked out by a licensed trade in whatever disciplines they "ding" but that leaves the customer wondering what the home inspector actually did for them.
BTW I got a 94 on their 50 question test and I was $350 away from being a "certified" home inspector. I would have done better I guess but I have never seen an oil fired boiler and I found a question in the electrical section that was simply wrong.
