An example where spending a little money now can save lots later

The road to closing the purchase on the house was a little bumpy, but it closed on time and I am now a first-time house owner.

The advice that a good house inspector is worth a little extra money was definitely true in my case. During my initial inspection he noted that the sellers, concentrating on building the new house next door, removed my sewer access. This really annoyed my house inspector because it's not legal. After several calls between the real estate agents and sellers, I was told they were planning on putting a brand new sewer line in for me as part of the build for the new neighboring house. To make up for our trouble, the sellers offered to insulate my attic and accepted almost everything on my 10 item contingency (to do before closing) list. I was happy with that.

For the re-inspection, I decided to have the house inspector come back because I didn't have the experience to tell whether some of the items on my contingency list were done properly. One of them was the sewer. My real estate agent didn't think it was necessary for me to pay the extra $50 for a sewer scope (where they feed a camera into the pipes to see the inside) since the sellers were putting in a brand new line. The inspector recommended otherwise. I took the inspector's advice, and it turned out to be $50 very well spent.

While scoping the new sewer line, the inspector found a break between the new PVC sewer pipes and a foot long section of old clay pipe (Video of the sewer-scope with the breakage at approximately 2 minutes). Basically, my sewer was not connected to the city's sewer line and was seeping into the ground. My inspector tracked this seepage to between the sidewalk and foundation of the neighboring new construction.

One call from my agent and the seller's real estate agent was out to the house immediately to see the problem for himself. He said it would be fixed ASAP. If I hadn't paid the $50 for the sewer scope, it could have cost me $10,000 or more to fix this problem and the neighbors would have literally been in deep doo doo.

The sewer connection was fixed the next day and the sewer contractor proved it to me by doing a sewer scope while I watched. I saw all new PVC piping to the street and no obvious breaks in the line. The sewer contractor said that the 'breakage' was caused by soil shifting when the new foundation was placed on top of the pipe and the new connection now has more tolerance and shouldn't fail if the soil shifts.

Since there is a one year warranty on the sewer work, my real estate agent suggested that I talk with the new neighbors and have another sewer scope within a year after the house is built and soil has settled a bit. It's a good suggestion that I'll be sure to do.

My first big house-owner lesson: spending a little money and time now can save you money and grief later.

P.S. My home inspector was Hartman Home Inspections. He's a little more expensive, but his work paid for itself 20x over.