Reply to The HGTV effect on home inspections

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[quote=Anonymous]My recollection from buying 20 years ago was that you did a home inspection, if the house was falling into a sink hole, you walked away. If the A/c unit was totally nonfunctional during the inspection, you got a credit for closing.

We have bought and sold several times in the last 8 years, and it seems that the inspection has become an expected second opportunity to negotiate the price downward. Any inspector is going to find 100 things to note in its inspection with any house - no matter how well maintained.  The report will note an electrical outlet that has reverse polarity but works fine. A toilet where the seal has worn away but works fine. An 18 year old hot water heater where their "appraisal life value" is only 8-10 years.  Or a roof that is 22 years old where their appraisal life is only 15-20 years.

Human beings know that the first two examples are not things that need to be repaired.  For the latter two examples, human beings know that the "appraisal life values" are, like accounting life classes, just formulaic data that have no relation to the actual life expectancy of any given roof, and that most roofs will last 30-40 years with some minor repairs.

But for some reason, people now expect that they can go through the inspection report and add up all the "anticipated repair costs" and ask for a discount on the house based on, say, 50% of such anticipated repair costs.  Even if they never intend on making the repairs.

I blame this on HGTV, where, whenever there is a homebuyers show, in order to insert drama before the last commercial break, they inevitably show the inspector flagging something "major" like a 15 year old roof or lack of a French drain, and the inspector tells them it is life or death if they don't get this repaired NOW (despite the fact that people have been happily living in the house for 100 years).  Like much of these shows, this was staged drama that wasn't based in reality. every episode involved an "inspection moment of crisis".

But much like HGTV has made everyone weirdly focused on granite and stainless steel (even in lieu of more expensive, prettier options), everyone is now super focused on made up stuff in the inspections, and expects the seller to compensate them for it.  It's a weird change in the house buying process over the last 20 years.

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