While working as a Public Insurance Adjuster I would often get phone calls from young single mothers hoping I could help them get money for repairs to their homes. Unfortunately, when I would arrive I would find that they were improperly insured but most often the damages they had weren't insurable damages but major defects to the property. What made this even worse is these young mothers usually had just purchased their homes within the past year or two through some kind of "First Time Homeowners" program, and those that did get inspections, the inspection was performed by a contractor friend of the seller who usually was an investor flipping the property.
I visited one house and from the dining room could see that the kitchen floor had a major slope towards the outside of the house. The homeowner told me she doesn't go in the kitchen because it felt like it was about to fall off the rest of the house. Another house had one strip of paneling on the wall, not one wall with paneling, just one strip of paneling. When I looked behind the panel I could see straight outside. Then there was the house I visited one August, it hadn't rained for days. The minute I walked into the house I could smell the mold. When I went into the basement the walls were soaked, the floors were damp, the joist and subfloors were wet, we could barely breathe while down there and she had an elementary school aged son. This house had electrical issues and her porch roof was beginning to collapse from wood rot. (which is why she called me) I gave her some suggestions but couldn't really help her. She had only been in the house for 6 months. With tears in her eyes she says "I hate this house".
Oh boy, I wished I was Oprah and could knock the house down and just build her a new one. But, I'm not Oprah and can't buy people new homes. So becoming a Home Inspector was the next best thing.
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