"Why on Earth I should pay $800 for an inspection if I ALREADY BEEN INSIDE THE PROPERTY MYSELF"

Oh, I know. You're right, bro.
It's your money at the end of the day, so you're definitely right!
But I'm just suggesting – if you want – DO inspect the property, DO your due diligence.

A deal I recently vetted for purchase in Alabama. We were actually supposed to close it yesterday (we means me and my dear investors, Bar and Yigal).

We got it under contract for:

$85k purchase
$15k renovation (on the surface – mostly cosmetic interior and flooring, a lot of flooring.)

My realtor was at the property, and the project manager, and the contractor. They said it was an amazing property (location, location, location, looks, etc.).
The roof looked pretty new.
Everything looked good.

I paid for an inspector – even though some would say, "Why do you need one if the contractor was already at the property?"

Well, why do you need one?

The inspector spent 4 hours at the property.
Four hours.
Does your contractor spend 4 hours at a property before giving you a quote?

He took 181 photos for me of the property – defects, notes, suggestions.

I know you know what an inspection is.
So why don't you pay for it?
Because why do you need it...

Now listen, there are deals where you maybe do not need one – if you know you'll do new electrical, new plumbing, replacing the roof, and fixing the foundation – yeah, maybe not bring an inspector

But on this deal – we needed one.

The inspector revealed that while the roof looked new, in the attic he could see daylight, and there were small puddles of water.
He climbed onto the roof and saw that the roof had 3 layers of shingles, and the decking holding the roof was rotted from water damage.

The quote we got to replace the roof (it's a large property and we had to replace everything):
$12,800 – and maybe we could get it down to $10,500.

The inspector also wrote in his notes that I should check the cast iron pipes in the property, because they were already very old.

And here I made a mistake in negotiations.
I thought it would be minor, so I scheduled an inspector for that but first wanted to check if the seller would even be willing to reduce the price.

I managed to get the seller down by $12,500 after the report (yes yes, here's another reason why reports matter, my friend).
Good deal!

We signed, and I scheduled a sewer inspector.

And guess what... you already saw the photo in the post... there are roots in the sewer line god daaa.

Another $1,500 for spot treatment, but if we're already treating it underground (70 feet away from the house), better to replace the entire pipe for $7,000 (I was surprised by the price – sounded excellent to me, by the way).

And so, I went back to the seller with the video of the pipe.
And he refused to reduce the price any further.

So I didn't buy the deal.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because all this information – and yes, there's a lot more that's not related to inspections – but all the information I wrote in this post, I learned from my inspectors.

For less than $800.

I understood that a renovation of maximum $15k
easily became a renovation of maximum $37k.
(There was also an electrical issue in the property I didn't mention.)

$800
That saved us an investment of $110,000 (!)

I recommend to you, my dear friend reading this:
Bring an inspector to your projects.

Even if you were there
Even if your contractor was there
Even if you've already done 20 purchases like this
Even if there's nothing new he can tell you

I truly and honestly believe
that all I have as a real estate investor
is to buy properly.

That's the only thing I have 100% control over.
The acquisition.
The only decision that's 100% mine.

Good luck!
Invest!
Wisely, of course.