Flip House Fail Finds From The Home Inspector

Not all flipped houses are created equal. You have some amazing, TV-worthy flips done by experts that will blow your mind. And then you have the ones done by folks who watch a lot of TV, think they can make some money flipping houses, and blow your mind in the wrong way.

As we’ve mentioned before, you don’t have to have any special kind of license to flip houses, and you’re not required to use licensed contractors, either. So when you’re buying a recently flipped house, it’s important to work with a home inspector to make sure you’re buying the first kind of flip house, and not a flip house fail.

Here are some home inspection flip house fail finds:

Plumbing Fail

Let’s not even talk about the accordion style drain, which isn’t supposed to be there. When the guy installing the plumbing and the guy installing the cabinet don’t have the same plan, you run into problems.

HVAC Fail

When nobody has even lived in the house yet, and you have a storage box lid collecting drip pan leaks, you have issues.

Roof Fail

Quick, unprofessional fixes like this one are par for the course in bad flip jobs, in which people are doing work they’re not qualified to do. Prop it up until the house sells and let someone else worry about it when it fails down the road.

We’re not saying don’t buy the house of your dreams because it was flipped. But just like any house, you should do your due diligence and learn as much as you can about it before you buy, so you can plan for current and future expenses that will go along with it — and that’s what your home inspector is there for.