If your realtor recommends a home inspector, look-out!If you feel coerced by your realtor to select their home inspector... With two sides to every house transaction, there are two groups of people involved. Those who list the home and their agent, and those who purchase the home and their agent... the selling agent. It is in the best interest of these potential four parties to request a home inspection. The purchasers are the more obvious group as we have discussed. The home inspection provides awareness to the buyers. Why would a realtor like this scenario? For two reasons: 1) it can be used as a condition of sale, or a way out of the deal for the buyers. And 2) with the facts in hand the buyers are able to dispense with reasonable doubt as to the condition of the home. This is not to say that if the house is not perfect, the deal falls through. The more the buyers know what they are dealing with, the less doubt the agent must deal with to ‘sell’ the home to the purchasers. 
Here is one example of what we call a complex roof. It means that there are many penetrations through the roof, many surfaces, sidewalls, vents and even a chimney. The more features there are on a roof, the more chance we will find leakage, now or in the future. The not so obvious group involves those listing the home for sale. In this case, the owners know exactly where they may have to negotiate problem areas. (Although our SMART Program could be used to assist owners in understanding the difficiencies within their home, we do not recommend presenting a SMART Program report in lieue of a traditional home inspector's report.) In any case, for the realtor, the owners are certainly more committed to sell than if they hadn’t commissioned an inspection, and the agent can be better prepared to suggest a selling price and terms for negotiation. There will be fewer surprises during the sale and best of all, those listing will be able to show the home inspection report to the potential buyers, making them feel more comfortable with their possible purchase decision. The buyers may still commission their own inspection, of course... but, may not. Return from Realtor to The Basics
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