The inspector on my first ABQ house purchase taught me more in 90 minutes than 3 months of Zillow scrolling
When we bought our place off Tramway back in 2019, I figured the home inspection was just a box to check. The guy who showed up, I want to say his name was Ray, spent almost the whole first hour in the crawlspace and came out with a flashlight and a notepad full of notes. He pointed at the swamp cooler up top and showed me the rust line that said it was maybe one summer from leaking through the ceiling. Then he walked the yard and told me the grading sloped back toward the foundation, which explained the hairline crack in the garage we had almost signed off on. Ray said something I still repeat to friends: buy the house you can maintain, not the house you fell in love with at the open house. We ended up getting the seller to knock $2,800 off for the cooler and drainage fix, which covered our closing costs almost to the dollar. Has anyone here had an inspector actually save them from a bad buy, or do most folks just skim the report and file it away?