[Rick Lee]

FWIW, when I bought my first house, I didn't know any better and used the inspector my realtor lined up. BIG MISTAKE. That cost me a good $5k and huge headaches later. Inspector and realtor were in cahoots and the inspector made no mention at all of the time-bomb polybutalene pipes, for which there was (at that time) still a large class action settlement comp. fund available. I should have known about that, but didn't learn of it until I had my first pipe burst. By then the deadline had passed and I was SOL. After the second burst turned my living room into a swamp (while I was overseas), I bit the bullet and ante'ed up to have the whole place repiped. Would have been a lot cheaper to find my own home inspector and pass on the house when he told me about the pipes. And those pipes are the first thing I look for even when just visting someone's basement or utility room now.