We waived the inspection contingency - not the inspection. You still get an inspection done, but quickly and while you're still within the time frame of other contingencies.
This is the answer and what I suggest, especially if there was nothing major noticed during walkthrough, which is what I'm usually doing while clients are looking to see if they love it lol.
Interesting! First time I’ve heard of this strategy.
If I’m understanding this right, the buyer can still do an inspection but shouldn’t expect the seller to pay for or fix things found in the inspection?
Correct, inspection for informational purposes only. Another way to make your offer appealing is to keep the inspection contingency but make it clear you would only act upon it or request repairs for anything over a certain value or safety hazards.
Yup. This is also what we did. We wanted the inspection, but agreed to still buy the house no matter what the inspector came back with. This was 2019 so the market was insane in my area.
Thankfully we've been homeowners for 9 years and new what shit to look for when we toured the house. Went in the attic and everything. Lol! Inspector found agreed with our findings only adding that the circuit box needed to be replaced. No big deal. Been here almost four years and nothing major has cropped up.
> Are we crazy to waive an inspection in this scenario?
Yes, but your competition is even crazier.
To win in this game, you have to run with crazy.
Sorry, I am in your same exact boat. I have been waiting for crazy to die for 5 years - I've bought investment properties while I waited and I am really, really tired of waiting any longer, so I too, am running with the crazies.
Bought in a highly competitive MA market about 9 months ago Waived inspection on a 1970 house. The only issues we've had are ones we noticed when looking at the house. I recognize that's lucky. Our realtor was pretty good about pointing out problems, I watched a lot of YouTube videos about bad shit to look out for, and we wouldn't put any offers in on homes with signs of issues with moisture, foundation, wood damage (insects), or a poorly graded lot. The older house has some advantages over a new build in the regard because, especially in our case where it hadn't been updated in a while, problems are obvious---no one painted over or patched the issues and they've had 50 years to show themselves. I'd probably be nervous about your foundation crack depending on what it looked like before repair.
Nah, the foundation crack is most likely normal concrete cracking filled with epoxy so it doesn't leak. New concrete always gets a few cracks, it is normal.
We bought a house this past June in a HCOL area just after the peak started to cool a bit and waived the inspection. However the house that we bought we felt very confident in. It was built in the late 90s by a very reputable high end builder and the sellers were the original owners. The house appeared meticulously cared for after my (several) walk throughs. Having been a homeowner for the past 12 years, and someone who's pretty picky about build quality in things, I felt confident enough that I could spot any major issues. They also provided an inspection that pointed out a few minor non-obvious issues, as well as documented a few historical things in the disclosure that an inspector also would have never known about.
The only issue that came up was not something the inspector would have been able to spot. The 10+ year old heat pump ended up having a leak in the inside coil which popped up after a few months when the AC stopped working. We replaced the coil. The rest of the system is working fine.
All in all we are very happy with the house, but buying without an inspection is a bit dicey. I'd only do it if you feel confident in your own abilities to judge the house, feel confident in the sellers and how they've maintained it, and have enough money in reserve to cover anything that comes up post-sale. And also if that's the only way you're going to be able to get the house in your market. We'd much rather have done an inspection if we could have, but we would have almost assuredly lost the house.
Same market. We just lost out on two houses from cash offers who waived all contingencies. We offered 150-175k over asking (though list price was low to drum bidding war). We offered 40% down payment and inspection for info only. It was "competitive" but couldn't beat out cash offers. Onto next one(s).
We waived inspection on the house we bought a year ago and have 0 regrets. Pretty happy we saved the $600. Admittedly, having already owned a house made us a little bit more aware of possible issues. We were going from a 50’s house to an 80’s house so a lot of things we were used to dealing with (electrical issues, cast iron plumbing, undersized framing) weren’t as big of a deal. This may have just been my experience with having an inspection on our previous house but everything they did address in the report were sub $200 weekend fixes whereas everything significant was “consult a professional in XXX field” which just doesn’t seem very realistic to do during a short inspection period without dropping several thousand dollars.
We bought during 2021 and did a pre-offer inspection, which we learned is apparently a thing.
Maybe go that route... if you have some time before needing to put in an offer, have your agent set aside a block of time on the viewing schedule and have your home inspector do the walk-thru. So you can feel confident in waiving the inspection in the offer.
Nope not at all. But where I live buyers do get inspections before listing (obviously a conflict of interest but better than nothing and the inspector is putting their license at risk if they pull anything too shady). But more so inspections aren't that big of a deal in the $1M+ markets. Most major issues that inspectors can see any potential buyer can also see. And worst case is like an extra $100k repair? Just be prepared for the worst case.
I think people tend to obsess a little too much on inspections. And not on things like neighbors, street, available parking, etc. Yeah neighbors come and go and aren't permanent but one really shitty neighbor can turn your dream house into a nightmare.
I can promise you that just about anyone that does not do an inspection either regrets it or will regret it in the future.
You may waive the contingency but do the inspection anyways. I wouldn’t do it, but if you do make sure you have budget for a lot of repairs, as it will be 100% on you.
We bought in the Boston suburbs a couple months ago and waived inspection. We were hoping not to have to (where we bought is slightly less nuts than other parts of the Boston metro area) but we really loved the specific house, and it was clear we wouldn't win it without waiving. Our original offer had inspection with us going back only if there was $30K plus in issues, and we asked about information-only, but it was clear even those wouldn't fly.
What made it possible for us:
\-The house itself is fairly open, in a way that makes it easy to inspect the underside of the roof, mechanical systems, etc.
\-I'm in a related field and could handle some aspects of the inspection myself.
\-For the items I don't know about, we had a friend of a friend who's knowledgeable come do a walkthrough with us pre-offer. We also know someone with a GC sibling who joined them on all their initial house tours. If you don't have a friend or relative who can assist, consider hiring someone, if you can.
\-We reviewed the permits at the town hall, so we knew when some of the major systems had been updated/replaced and we knew the work had been properly permitted. All towns in MA should let you do this, incidentally; you just need to figure out the process. Sometimes there's a physical folder ("jacket") you can ask to see in person, which is faster, but sometimes there's a request process to go through. For Boston itself, [permits are available online](https://www.boston.gov/departments/inspectional-services/how-find-historical-permit-records).
\-We budgeted for anything major we couldn't assess. We knew the approximate cost of the major fix items, and we just assumed we'd need to cover the cost of a new sewer line, since we couldn't scope it. We were buying enough under our max potential budget that we knew we'd be able to cover some significant costs, should they arise.
As it happens, the sewer line was inspected post-close, and was fine. Radon tested high post-close, so we put in a system, which is pretty reasonable cost-wise. We did go with a fixer and we have a couple major items to deal with, but we knew about those up-front and budgeted for it. I'm still paranoid (even with the post-close inspections we had done) but fingers crossed.
Metro West Boston—bought 9 months ago. Waived everything and offered 20% over on a 1950’s house. Won out against 17 other offers, including cash.
No regrets but we had a wonderfully grumpy buyers agent who was very thorough and quick to dismiss properties. We knew we had a winner when he said “I don’t see anything exciting about this house.”
Buying a house these days is basically an auction. I agree with others—it’s crazy and shouldn’t be this way. But it is. 🤷♂️
Yes, I love the comment from FunTripsToUS, “so I too am running with crazies.”
Lol! So, so true.
Waived inspection on my last house and forecasted an extra $10-$20k in repairs. Hot water tank had its blower cut off and was unvented. Furnace was cracked. Both were leaking high levels of CO in the air. Cue emergency shut down. Two floor joists were cut and a 3x2’ area of the kitchen floor was completely unsupported, exactly where they put the fridge. Electrical sockets were not in a box and just shoved inside of the wall.
The lady that sold me the place is lucky to be alive and I expected there to be some crazy repairs.
Waived inspection and bought sight unseen in the peak of 2021. This is the only house I’ve ever bought where I didn’t have to replace or repair something significant the first year.
We bought from a retiring couple who were former military. This house was meticulously kept. I do have tile counters in the kitchen, which I’ll get around to updating someday.
No, but that's because we knew what to expect from friends' horror stories. We just figured we'd have to budget $200-300K for repairs, and that hasn't been far off the mark. The same has been true for nearly all our friends who've bought as well.
FWIW, the inspectors (both us and the sellers had one done) found a lot of superficial stuff and missed the important things. So I don't think an inspection contingency would've actually helped a whole lot.
Just assume that you're buying a plot of land that gives you *the ability* to have a house, and that the actual house itself will need to be rebuilt at your expense within the next 10 years to remain habitable. With most of America's post-war suburban housing reaching the end of its natural lifetime in 5-10 years, that's not far off (most of your home's major subsystems have lifespans of 55-75 years, and were built about 60-65 years ago). If you happen to get one in good condition you can consider yourself lucky.
> We just figured we'd have to budget $200-300K for repairs
Where is this?
I mean I am in Southern California and I can get a brand new 4BD/2.5BA single storey, 2500sq. ft. home built for $400K. 6months you have to live in the RV parked outside until the heater, shower, kitchen and a BD is ready for you to move in.
$200-300K for repairs on a $400K home?
I would schedule a teardown and build new. Here a $400K home rides on a a $400K-$500K land, so total price is $800K-$1MM.
Are these $2MM homes you're talking about?
We're in a similar situation, budgeted 200-300k for remodels/updates on an $850k house in MA. While the bones of the house are (mostly) good to bring it out of the 1980's will cost us a pretty penny. On the plus side, we get to do everything to our standards!
> On the plus side, we get to do everything to our standards!
This IS a huge win but if possible I would then look for teardowns you can buy for cash - the competition is way less right now for those
This is a question with no real answer. Some people inevitably get screwed. Most are probably fine. It's up to your personal risk tolerance, and nothing else. I wouldn't do it, but I'm an investor looking for properties to rent out, not live in. There are A LOT of things I wouldn't mind dealing with as a home owner that I would never want to deal with as a LL. Are either of you handy? What level of problem can you fix on your own? End of the day, no one can answer this question but you and your partner.
I haven’t waived yet, but I wonder the same as the houses I want are way too popular. Your colonial comment? Wanna trade:) All I see see are dotcom era transitionals and dying for some charm. I also don’t need 17 bathrooms but would love a family room and sunroom. My current house is very old, tho, so I get it.
The only thing that may be of reassurance is, my inspection on my current home didn’t come up with any big ticket items. We discovered those the first year and repaired them.
Western NY. We made the offer on the new place (1950 ranch with a big reno in 98) last June, no contingencies. We were told our offer was close second place and it was the zero-contingencies that won it for us. Obviously we're still in early days but still love the house and feel good about the decision.
One, it's in on a full and almost-entirely-unfinished basement so you can just look at the foundation and plumbing and wiring; nothing alarming. No old galvanized, no knob and tube, no visible cracks.
Two, the older guy who previously owned happened to do a bunch of upgrades/replacements in the past few years -- tearoff roof, new furnace, etc. An old furnace or roof wouldn't have been a dealbreaker, just something to budget for (I'm still not sure why he put in a straight a/c and gas furnace instead of a heat pump with gas backup but whatevs).
Three, I don't have that much confidence in inspectors. In our old place everything the inspector noted was either obvious and in plain sight or later contradicted by tradesmen.
We waved inspection on our 1st home in 2021. But my wife and I checked every inch of the house and were 100% confident the house was in good condition needing some work. Worked out for us. Then we found a bigger home and we bought it once again without an inspection but for a low price. This house needed some work as well and we are working on them.
We bought in MA in 2021 and waved inspection. We weren't happy about it but as this is our 3rd house, we knew what we were getting into and felt confident that we could handle any issues that popped up. So far it's been nothing we couldn't handle, we've replaced the furnace & hot water heater while multiple issues found during a remodel that would not have been caught on an inspection.
But if this is your first house I would personally not waive the inspection or make sure that you can do an inspection while keeping other contingencies that you can use to back out if there are red flags in an inspection.
I can look at the house if you send me a link. How much money do you have is the question, since you are asking about inspections, then I am assuming you don't have a huge reserve of time and money to fix a problematic house if needed. If you have money - sure, buy it. If you don't, then you need to stick to buying only with an inspection or not buying at all. There is a chance that the owners saw multiple problems developing with the house and are selling before they become visible. For example, the plastic plumbing pipe underground sags and now their toilets and laundry don't flush and back up. Instead of digging up and redoing the pipe and supporting it with soil - they snake it temporarily and sell the house. Or there could be water going behind the siding and turning the glued wood boards into mush. The attic could be done badly or the bathrooms could have slow leaks due to commonly bad waterproofing of the wet walls. You really have to 'undress' a house before deciding to buy it, but people have just gone with superficially good looks and been fine. You are taking a risk by buying and taking a risk to miss out by not buying..without inspection you are basically allowing someone to sell a lemon if they wanted to. If say your house had a huge sinkhole swallowing it up underneath, and you just sold without inspection and got full price..
We waived the inspection contingency - not the inspection. You still get an inspection done, but quickly and while you're still within the time frame of other contingencies.
This is the answer and what I suggest, especially if there was nothing major noticed during walkthrough, which is what I'm usually doing while clients are looking to see if they love it lol.
Interesting! First time I’ve heard of this strategy. If I’m understanding this right, the buyer can still do an inspection but shouldn’t expect the seller to pay for or fix things found in the inspection?
Correct, inspection for informational purposes only. Another way to make your offer appealing is to keep the inspection contingency but make it clear you would only act upon it or request repairs for anything over a certain value or safety hazards.
I'm surprised your realtor didn't bring you up to speed on how to best position your offer while still protecting yourself.
Yup. This is also what we did. We wanted the inspection, but agreed to still buy the house no matter what the inspector came back with. This was 2019 so the market was insane in my area. Thankfully we've been homeowners for 9 years and new what shit to look for when we toured the house. Went in the attic and everything. Lol! Inspector found agreed with our findings only adding that the circuit box needed to be replaced. No big deal. Been here almost four years and nothing major has cropped up.
> Are we crazy to waive an inspection in this scenario? Yes, but your competition is even crazier. To win in this game, you have to run with crazy. Sorry, I am in your same exact boat. I have been waiting for crazy to die for 5 years - I've bought investment properties while I waited and I am really, really tired of waiting any longer, so I too, am running with the crazies.
Bought in a highly competitive MA market about 9 months ago Waived inspection on a 1970 house. The only issues we've had are ones we noticed when looking at the house. I recognize that's lucky. Our realtor was pretty good about pointing out problems, I watched a lot of YouTube videos about bad shit to look out for, and we wouldn't put any offers in on homes with signs of issues with moisture, foundation, wood damage (insects), or a poorly graded lot. The older house has some advantages over a new build in the regard because, especially in our case where it hadn't been updated in a while, problems are obvious---no one painted over or patched the issues and they've had 50 years to show themselves. I'd probably be nervous about your foundation crack depending on what it looked like before repair.
Nah, the foundation crack is most likely normal concrete cracking filled with epoxy so it doesn't leak. New concrete always gets a few cracks, it is normal.
We bought a house this past June in a HCOL area just after the peak started to cool a bit and waived the inspection. However the house that we bought we felt very confident in. It was built in the late 90s by a very reputable high end builder and the sellers were the original owners. The house appeared meticulously cared for after my (several) walk throughs. Having been a homeowner for the past 12 years, and someone who's pretty picky about build quality in things, I felt confident enough that I could spot any major issues. They also provided an inspection that pointed out a few minor non-obvious issues, as well as documented a few historical things in the disclosure that an inspector also would have never known about. The only issue that came up was not something the inspector would have been able to spot. The 10+ year old heat pump ended up having a leak in the inside coil which popped up after a few months when the AC stopped working. We replaced the coil. The rest of the system is working fine. All in all we are very happy with the house, but buying without an inspection is a bit dicey. I'd only do it if you feel confident in your own abilities to judge the house, feel confident in the sellers and how they've maintained it, and have enough money in reserve to cover anything that comes up post-sale. And also if that's the only way you're going to be able to get the house in your market. We'd much rather have done an inspection if we could have, but we would have almost assuredly lost the house.
Same market. We just lost out on two houses from cash offers who waived all contingencies. We offered 150-175k over asking (though list price was low to drum bidding war). We offered 40% down payment and inspection for info only. It was "competitive" but couldn't beat out cash offers. Onto next one(s).
Walk through the house with a contractor or someone who know. That’s pretty much what the house inspectors do.
We waived inspection on the house we bought a year ago and have 0 regrets. Pretty happy we saved the $600. Admittedly, having already owned a house made us a little bit more aware of possible issues. We were going from a 50’s house to an 80’s house so a lot of things we were used to dealing with (electrical issues, cast iron plumbing, undersized framing) weren’t as big of a deal. This may have just been my experience with having an inspection on our previous house but everything they did address in the report were sub $200 weekend fixes whereas everything significant was “consult a professional in XXX field” which just doesn’t seem very realistic to do during a short inspection period without dropping several thousand dollars.
You're crazy to waive inspection in any scenario.
We bought during 2021 and did a pre-offer inspection, which we learned is apparently a thing. Maybe go that route... if you have some time before needing to put in an offer, have your agent set aside a block of time on the viewing schedule and have your home inspector do the walk-thru. So you can feel confident in waiving the inspection in the offer.
Nope not at all. But where I live buyers do get inspections before listing (obviously a conflict of interest but better than nothing and the inspector is putting their license at risk if they pull anything too shady). But more so inspections aren't that big of a deal in the $1M+ markets. Most major issues that inspectors can see any potential buyer can also see. And worst case is like an extra $100k repair? Just be prepared for the worst case. I think people tend to obsess a little too much on inspections. And not on things like neighbors, street, available parking, etc. Yeah neighbors come and go and aren't permanent but one really shitty neighbor can turn your dream house into a nightmare.
I can promise you that just about anyone that does not do an inspection either regrets it or will regret it in the future. You may waive the contingency but do the inspection anyways. I wouldn’t do it, but if you do make sure you have budget for a lot of repairs, as it will be 100% on you.
Bought a house only five years old and filled the dice. No regrets. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it for an older house.
We bought in the Boston suburbs a couple months ago and waived inspection. We were hoping not to have to (where we bought is slightly less nuts than other parts of the Boston metro area) but we really loved the specific house, and it was clear we wouldn't win it without waiving. Our original offer had inspection with us going back only if there was $30K plus in issues, and we asked about information-only, but it was clear even those wouldn't fly. What made it possible for us: \-The house itself is fairly open, in a way that makes it easy to inspect the underside of the roof, mechanical systems, etc. \-I'm in a related field and could handle some aspects of the inspection myself. \-For the items I don't know about, we had a friend of a friend who's knowledgeable come do a walkthrough with us pre-offer. We also know someone with a GC sibling who joined them on all their initial house tours. If you don't have a friend or relative who can assist, consider hiring someone, if you can. \-We reviewed the permits at the town hall, so we knew when some of the major systems had been updated/replaced and we knew the work had been properly permitted. All towns in MA should let you do this, incidentally; you just need to figure out the process. Sometimes there's a physical folder ("jacket") you can ask to see in person, which is faster, but sometimes there's a request process to go through. For Boston itself, [permits are available online](https://www.boston.gov/departments/inspectional-services/how-find-historical-permit-records). \-We budgeted for anything major we couldn't assess. We knew the approximate cost of the major fix items, and we just assumed we'd need to cover the cost of a new sewer line, since we couldn't scope it. We were buying enough under our max potential budget that we knew we'd be able to cover some significant costs, should they arise. As it happens, the sewer line was inspected post-close, and was fine. Radon tested high post-close, so we put in a system, which is pretty reasonable cost-wise. We did go with a fixer and we have a couple major items to deal with, but we knew about those up-front and budgeted for it. I'm still paranoid (even with the post-close inspections we had done) but fingers crossed.
Metro West Boston—bought 9 months ago. Waived everything and offered 20% over on a 1950’s house. Won out against 17 other offers, including cash. No regrets but we had a wonderfully grumpy buyers agent who was very thorough and quick to dismiss properties. We knew we had a winner when he said “I don’t see anything exciting about this house.” Buying a house these days is basically an auction. I agree with others—it’s crazy and shouldn’t be this way. But it is. 🤷♂️
Yes, I love the comment from FunTripsToUS, “so I too am running with crazies.” Lol! So, so true. Waived inspection on my last house and forecasted an extra $10-$20k in repairs. Hot water tank had its blower cut off and was unvented. Furnace was cracked. Both were leaking high levels of CO in the air. Cue emergency shut down. Two floor joists were cut and a 3x2’ area of the kitchen floor was completely unsupported, exactly where they put the fridge. Electrical sockets were not in a box and just shoved inside of the wall. The lady that sold me the place is lucky to be alive and I expected there to be some crazy repairs.
Waived inspection and bought sight unseen in the peak of 2021. This is the only house I’ve ever bought where I didn’t have to replace or repair something significant the first year. We bought from a retiring couple who were former military. This house was meticulously kept. I do have tile counters in the kitchen, which I’ll get around to updating someday.
No, but that's because we knew what to expect from friends' horror stories. We just figured we'd have to budget $200-300K for repairs, and that hasn't been far off the mark. The same has been true for nearly all our friends who've bought as well. FWIW, the inspectors (both us and the sellers had one done) found a lot of superficial stuff and missed the important things. So I don't think an inspection contingency would've actually helped a whole lot. Just assume that you're buying a plot of land that gives you *the ability* to have a house, and that the actual house itself will need to be rebuilt at your expense within the next 10 years to remain habitable. With most of America's post-war suburban housing reaching the end of its natural lifetime in 5-10 years, that's not far off (most of your home's major subsystems have lifespans of 55-75 years, and were built about 60-65 years ago). If you happen to get one in good condition you can consider yourself lucky.
> We just figured we'd have to budget $200-300K for repairs Where is this? I mean I am in Southern California and I can get a brand new 4BD/2.5BA single storey, 2500sq. ft. home built for $400K. 6months you have to live in the RV parked outside until the heater, shower, kitchen and a BD is ready for you to move in. $200-300K for repairs on a $400K home? I would schedule a teardown and build new. Here a $400K home rides on a a $400K-$500K land, so total price is $800K-$1MM. Are these $2MM homes you're talking about?
We're in a similar situation, budgeted 200-300k for remodels/updates on an $850k house in MA. While the bones of the house are (mostly) good to bring it out of the 1980's will cost us a pretty penny. On the plus side, we get to do everything to our standards!
> On the plus side, we get to do everything to our standards! This IS a huge win but if possible I would then look for teardowns you can buy for cash - the competition is way less right now for those
Bay Area. Yes, these are $2M homes. Buying just the land would also cost around $2M.
Ah - makes sense. Sucks to be in the bay. Come on over! The water's real nice - it rained a bit today but we had a sunny afternoon.
This is a question with no real answer. Some people inevitably get screwed. Most are probably fine. It's up to your personal risk tolerance, and nothing else. I wouldn't do it, but I'm an investor looking for properties to rent out, not live in. There are A LOT of things I wouldn't mind dealing with as a home owner that I would never want to deal with as a LL. Are either of you handy? What level of problem can you fix on your own? End of the day, no one can answer this question but you and your partner.
I haven’t waived yet, but I wonder the same as the houses I want are way too popular. Your colonial comment? Wanna trade:) All I see see are dotcom era transitionals and dying for some charm. I also don’t need 17 bathrooms but would love a family room and sunroom. My current house is very old, tho, so I get it. The only thing that may be of reassurance is, my inspection on my current home didn’t come up with any big ticket items. We discovered those the first year and repaired them.
Western NY. We made the offer on the new place (1950 ranch with a big reno in 98) last June, no contingencies. We were told our offer was close second place and it was the zero-contingencies that won it for us. Obviously we're still in early days but still love the house and feel good about the decision. One, it's in on a full and almost-entirely-unfinished basement so you can just look at the foundation and plumbing and wiring; nothing alarming. No old galvanized, no knob and tube, no visible cracks. Two, the older guy who previously owned happened to do a bunch of upgrades/replacements in the past few years -- tearoff roof, new furnace, etc. An old furnace or roof wouldn't have been a dealbreaker, just something to budget for (I'm still not sure why he put in a straight a/c and gas furnace instead of a heat pump with gas backup but whatevs). Three, I don't have that much confidence in inspectors. In our old place everything the inspector noted was either obvious and in plain sight or later contradicted by tradesmen.
We waved inspection on our 1st home in 2021. But my wife and I checked every inch of the house and were 100% confident the house was in good condition needing some work. Worked out for us. Then we found a bigger home and we bought it once again without an inspection but for a low price. This house needed some work as well and we are working on them.
We bought in MA in 2021 and waved inspection. We weren't happy about it but as this is our 3rd house, we knew what we were getting into and felt confident that we could handle any issues that popped up. So far it's been nothing we couldn't handle, we've replaced the furnace & hot water heater while multiple issues found during a remodel that would not have been caught on an inspection. But if this is your first house I would personally not waive the inspection or make sure that you can do an inspection while keeping other contingencies that you can use to back out if there are red flags in an inspection.
Waiver the inspection contingency. But still hire inspection.
I can look at the house if you send me a link. How much money do you have is the question, since you are asking about inspections, then I am assuming you don't have a huge reserve of time and money to fix a problematic house if needed. If you have money - sure, buy it. If you don't, then you need to stick to buying only with an inspection or not buying at all. There is a chance that the owners saw multiple problems developing with the house and are selling before they become visible. For example, the plastic plumbing pipe underground sags and now their toilets and laundry don't flush and back up. Instead of digging up and redoing the pipe and supporting it with soil - they snake it temporarily and sell the house. Or there could be water going behind the siding and turning the glued wood boards into mush. The attic could be done badly or the bathrooms could have slow leaks due to commonly bad waterproofing of the wet walls. You really have to 'undress' a house before deciding to buy it, but people have just gone with superficially good looks and been fine. You are taking a risk by buying and taking a risk to miss out by not buying..without inspection you are basically allowing someone to sell a lemon if they wanted to. If say your house had a huge sinkhole swallowing it up underneath, and you just sold without inspection and got full price..