Dave,
Neither one of us is going to change the other's stance here. I am
simply trying to educate you as to how most home inspectors operate.
Yes, some do a poor job or are unethical but you don't do justice to
the rest of us by painting the entire profession with such a broad
brush.

" This one did not. What's the point of hiring an inspector if they
can
only recommend hiring another inspector?"

Home inspectors are generalists. We cannot be an expert on everything
in a house. We do not do destructive testing (e.g., cutting holes in
walls, disassembling furnaces, etc.). We inspect what we can see but
have to defer to an expert when something is beyond the scope of our
inspection. I confess that I am not an expert on furnaces and heat
exchangers but I inspect what I can see. Since I can usually see only
15% or less of the heat exchanger I typically recommend that the
client bring in a furnace technician to adequately inspect the heat
exchanger. I could do this if it would make you happy - I could bring
in the furnace technician (and all the other experts that may be
needed) and increase my fee accordingly.

"No- She probably assumed the inspector would inspect this. It was
their
first home purchase."

You know what they say about "assume". Did your friend not read the
contract she signed? My contract clearly spells out what is included
and what is not included in the inspection.

"Since I was not there, probably not. But how damn hard is it to pull
the
cover off the brine tank?
But then again, the inspector would probably just have recommended
that she
hire a plumber to inspect this."

Again, I suspect that the contract stated that specialty items like
this would not be inspected so she should have known. Forgive me but
did she attend the inspection and if so why did she not ask about the
water softener when the inspector did not inspect it? And if she did
not attend the inspection why not?

"Probably not. She probably assumed that the $300+ bucks she had to
pay the
inspector he would have actually inspected something."

So the inspector inspected NOTHING? Give me a break.

"Apparently these inspectors have it pretty cushy. They get $300+
bucks for
basically not doing anything and having no accountability to the
homeowner.
In my friends case, they would have been better off saving the money
they
paid this guy and applying it to the cost of the repairs that the
"inspector" missed."

So we don't do anything? Yeah, right. And $300+ bucks got her nothing?
I am curious, what percentage of the total price of the house was
that? 0.1%? 0.06%? How does the inspector's fee compare to the
commission paid to the Realtors? I bet that was closer to 6% or 7%, 60
to 100 times the amount paid to the inspector. But don't get me
started.