You're right. It's $12 here.
My house. It was my first house, and I learned the tough truth that you can't trust home inspectors to be that competent... regardless of reviews. Either get multiple inspectors, or have some friends that know a few things.
Home inspectors are often incompetent or simply cannot do their job properly due to constraints. For example, to search for most problems, they would need to cut open the walls, ceiling, get into the attic, etc. They can't do that for obvious reasons (can't destroy the walls for a house they don't own) and cost reasons (actually getting into the attic may take so many additional hours that it makes it unprofitable to be a home inspector). You can buy as many home inspections as you want, but they won't do anything that you couldn't easily do by walking around with your eyes open.My house. It was my first house, and I learned the tough truth that you can't trust home inspectors to be that competent... regardless of reviews. Either get multiple inspectors, or have some friends that know a few things. In this case, it's more eyes the better! In my case, if half of the what-should-have-been-obvious things were pointed out to me prior to purchasing, I would've either asked for a 10-20% reduction in price, or just not purchased the house. I also learned some things like never accept a home warranty in lieu of something being old on the house. They gave me a home warranty lieu of the HVAC being old, but the HVAC being so ancient (14 years -- I found that out a lot later as no one knew how old it was or the sellers were just faking not knowing) just cost me tons of money every month that it kept trucking along during the 1-year warranty. I would've rather asked for about $5k off as that's about half of what it would cost to get a good HVAC system replacement.
Home inspectors are often incompetent or simply cannot do their job properly due to constraints. For example, to search for most problems, they would need to cut open the walls, ceiling, get into the attic, etc. They can't do that for obvious reasons (can't destroy the walls for a house they don't own) and cost reasons (actually getting into the attic may take so many additional hours that it makes it unprofitable to be a home inspector). You can buy as many home inspections as you want, but they won't do anything that you couldn't easily do by walking around with your eyes open.
Instead, even the best home inspector can only do things that you yourself could do. If the walls are not vertical, don't buy. If there are water stains on the basement walls and a musty smell, don't buy. If there are mud trails along the exposed wood, don't buy. If the HVAC is older than 10 years, you know it is on its last legs, so buy with that in mind.
My biggest regret too is buying my first house. Days later my wife at the time started cheating on me. After the divorce I didn't need the space of a house, nor the upkeep of the yard.
Home inspectors are often incompetent or simply cannot do their job properly due to constraints. For example, to search for most problems, they would need to cut open the walls, ceiling, get into the attic, etc. They can't do that for obvious reasons (can't destroy the walls for a house they don't own) and cost reasons (actually getting into the attic may take so many additional hours that it makes it unprofitable to be a home inspector). You can buy as many home inspections as you want, but they won't do anything that you couldn't easily do by walking around with your eyes open.
Looks like it was a little under $100 for sides. Still I regret it. They were all huge, and couldn't take extra with us as we were not going home. $80 is a bit high for not telling us. Everything else was exceptional, we had two servers too.
Looks like it was a little under $100 for sides. Still I regret it. They were all huge, and couldn't take extra with us as we were not going home. $80 is a bit high for not telling us. Everything else was exceptional, we had two servers too.
I spent the same amount at Peter Luger's Steakhouse in NYC. Most expensive meal I ever bought. Kind of regret that one too because I can make a steak just as good as they can.
. I had always seen them while growing up, but I had no idea that you had to have them for quite a few years. Also, if any work was done on the a line that entered a room that needs GFCI protection (bathroom, garage, laundry room, 6' of the sink in a kitchen), you are supposed to ensure the line is up to code.
the technique employed by Peter Luger's is mindboggling. yet somehow it works for them...
One time I bought some stuff from some Libyans and it didn't turn out well.
Hope you also read the parts about Arc-Fault circuit interrupters. Ampacity and wire gauge is the most fun though. Regular circuit-breaker trip mechanisms were the most surprising when I looked into them.
You just gave two examples that can be easily seen by you in your next purchase. If you grew up with GFCI outlets near all water, but your potential new house doesn't have them, that should raise a flag. If you are to finish the room and there is wire running under the joists so that you can't nail up drywall, that should raise a flag. These are the types of "tests" that home inspectors do. You can do them just as easily by looking at everything. You might not know if a wire behind the wall was done up to code, so you will miss some issues, but neither can a home inspector (so the inspector will miss many issues as well).The wiring is mostly stapled to the bottom of the joists, which is against NEC 2014 as it requires them to be on a running board or through holes drilled in the joists.
the technique employed by Peter Luger's is mindboggling. yet somehow it works for them...
If you grew up with GFCI outlets near all water, but your potential new house doesn't have them, that should raise a flag.
If you are to finish the room and there is wire running under the joists so that you can't nail up drywall, that should raise a flag.
You might not know if a wire behind the wall was done up to code, so you will miss some issues, but neither can a home inspector (so the inspector will miss many issues as well).
Easily my worst purchase was my Asus Transformer Prime tablet. It never worked right, due to a design flaw of an all (and I mean all) aluminum back. GPS was completely screwed, so bad I got an external GPS (really) and a $17 settlement check for it. Real problem though was wifi don't work worth a damn either, and the storage used inside was crazy slow so the tablet usability was crap. Funny thing is, the iPad 2 I bought for my wife around that same time was one of my best purchases.
Glad I didn't pull the trigger on that one...
It was at Ruth's Chris, and yes it was overall worth it. Even if we didn't know about the sides. It was also the experience. When we made the reservations we told them it was for her 18th birthday. We wanted to treat her out, they treated her very nice. The table had extras on it, etc. We got dressed up some and had a nice evening. I don't regret spending the money so much, just the damn sides.