Good inspectors will notice telltale signs of serious problems, but I agree
that if a problem was recently covered up it will be difficult to detect.

On a side note, I saw a consumer show on TV that hired 3 competent
professional inspectors and had them go through the same house separately.
All 3 reports were significantly different, problems were picked-up by some,
but not others, some known but hidden problems were not detected. Then they
had the 3 inspectors meet to try to reach an agreement. It was fun to watch
the discussions, there were some very different opinions about what was
major/minor depending on the specific experience of each inspector. Each had
some good useful advice.

In conclusion, I think that any inspection will have some hit and misses,
and that in the end it's up to the buyer to be confident enough to take the
risk or pass on the property.

"Dave Mitton" wrote in message
...
"J. Cameron Davis" wrote:

I'm in the process of purchasing a home, and I need to have it inspected.
What should I be sure the inspector checks so that the in inspection is
very
thorough? Thanks.


snip

But people that expect inspectors to be omniscent super-men with x-ray
vision,
are not being realistic. A couple hour home inspection will only
identify
issues that can be found by visual inspection and minor probing. They
will not
find hidden problems, or predict un-obvious future failures.

Dave.