A Limited Service buyer client was purchasing a home in a Felida-area community — a cash purchase north of $1.2M. Limited Service means he toured homes on his own and I wasn't physically at the inspection. Here is what it doesn't mean: that anyone was winging the diligence.
The property sat on an unusual two-stage private sewer system. The first inspector couldn't even locate the cleanout — which, on most transactions, quietly becomes "no obstructions noted" and everyone moves on. That answer didn't satisfy me. A system unusual enough that a professional can't find the access point is a system you verify, not one you assume.
So I tracked down the original installer. Within 24 hours, he was on site — and found a belly in the line.
That finding, along with the rest of the inspection negotiation, produced roughly $7,000 in credits and seller-paid repairs on the issues that actually mattered. Separately, because this buyer's fee was a flat rate rather than a percentage, the cooperating commission the seller had offered wasn't consumed by my compensation — we redirected it, putting nearly $20,000 back on my client's side of the ledger at closing.
Behind the scenes, the same transaction included an HOA insurance gap analysis — including catching that the document the client thought answered his coverage question didn't, and what to request instead — and diligence on the community's shared-system liabilities.
The honest version of Limited Service is this: you give up my presence at showings. You do not give up my judgment, and the judgment is what found the problem in the ground.