Inspections

What it is

Inspections on a flip come in two kinds. First, the city or county inspector who shows up at each phase of permitted work to verify it meets code. Second, the buyer’s inspector during the sale — hired by the person buying your finished house to find problems and use them to negotiate.

The city side runs in a fixed sequence. You get the rough electrical, rough plumbing, rough HVAC — all those MEP rough-ins done. Then you get the rough building inspection done. Okay, and then after that, generally an insulation inspection. Then the final. MEP rough happens before framing gets closed up because plumbers routinely find things, and the inspector wants to see clean penetrations before anything gets buried. Skip the sequence and you’re redoing work.

The buyer side is different. A buyer’s home inspector is a generalist with a checklist, not a code authority. They produce a report the buyer’s agent turns into a concession request during the contingency period.

Why it matters

City inspections are free quality control. Somebody who isn’t on your payroll, and who has nothing to gain from overlooking sloppy work, tells you whether the job is actually done. For a solo flipper managing 10-20 subs, that external authority is worth real money.

Here’s the other thing: once the permit is pulled and you’re into the job, things come up. The electrical inspector comes in and says, okay, you added a circuit, let me go back and look at the panel. Panel’s outdated. Now you need new breakers, a separate ground bar, and it turns out the weather head doesn’t go high enough. The plumber does a rough inspection and they make you do a water test — fill all the drain lines, find every leak. A couple thousand dollar job of moving stuff around in a bathroom can easily turn into $15,000. See it happen all the time. That’s why you’ve got to see around those corners before you buy the house, not after the permit’s pulled.

On the buyer side, inspection is a battlefield, not a formality. The report will find things. It always does. The question is which fights you take.

How it shows up

One thing I’ve used: when an inspector writes you up for something the equipment doesn’t actually require, document the evidence. If an inspector wanted a 30A breaker on an air handler and the manufacturer tag on the unit said 15A max — a photo of that tag ended the debate. The inspector is an authority, but the manufacturer’s spec plate is the higher authority in the code hierarchy. That works on HVAC, panels, appliances, any piece of equipment with a spec plate.

Pay schedule ties to inspections too. MEP splits at rough and trim-out — HVAC skews heavier at rough because the equipment itself is most of the cost. The signed card from the city is the only proof that phase is done. Paying on the contractor’s word instead of the inspector’s signature is how easy money becomes expensive money.

On the buyer’s inspection, pick the fights that are real — where the inspector is clearly wrong (code citation, manufacturer spec, something you disclosed up front). Give in on small cosmetic calls to preserve credibility for the structural and MEP fights that actually cost money.

Related

permitting, code enforcement, the gauntlet, pay schedule, quick six, change orders