On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 12:29:50 PM UTC-4, sf wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Oct 2015 03:51:59 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton
> > wrote:
>
> > When we bought this house, we didn't even get an outside inspector. We
> > did our own, and neither the bank nor the insurance company had a problem
> > with that.
>
> When buying/selling a home In California, home inspections are done
> (and paid for) by buyers seeking to protect themselves against
> expensive surprises. The state only wants to know the purchase price
> because the new owners property tax will be based on it.

We did that for our first two houses, but for the third, we decided
to save ourselves a few hundred dollars and did our own, except that
we had a friend who's a stonemason or bricklayer (can't remember
which) come and look at the exterior, especially the chimney.
Husband is competent to inspect all of the mechanical systems
and general condition.

Cindy Hamilton