A buyer client on a scoped engagement was purchasing a home in a Felida-area community — a cash purchase north of $1.2M. The narrower scope meant 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 his fee was fixed in writing rather than tied to the cooperating commission the seller had offered, that commission 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 a narrower engagement 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.
