condo inspection

If you're already in contract, which is what "closing soon" sounds like, it's too late to bother.

Your odds of getting a closing-table price adjustment in this seller's market are pretty damn low.

In general I feel inspectors are a waste of money anyway, but I can do my own inspection and I can afford to fix things--as in, anything in the condo.

When I've watched inspectors, they overlook the most basic things that will immediately cost the new resident money. Once a supposedly good inspector my customer hired overlooked the fact that the toilet needed new parts because he didn't even bother to flush it once. (The toilet worked, albeit poorly. That's all the contract requires).

What really matters is the due diligence of your attorneys, which was long ago if you're closing soon.

At this point its probably too late. Apts are sold "as is" in NYC. The only thing you could get credited for is if during the walkthrough some appliances are not working or windows are broken, electrical not working, drains clogged, etc. The contract probably reflects this.

It's good for piece of mind, but only if you can find a good inspector....usually they just check things very superficially.

Unless it's new construction and the building itself is inspected, it's not worth the money. You get nothing more than what you do during the "walk through" before closing.

I hired an inspector for a new condo and he pointed out MANY things that were very helpful in determining future costs for maintenance/repairs. Hew was right on the mark and the report was used to force the developer to foot the bill for these things when they tried to assess the new owners.

On the other hand, the buyer for my condo insisted on an inspection. The inspector was in and out within 15 minutes since there really was nothing to inspect. He turned on all the appliances and plumbing fixtures and looked at the circuit breaker box. All major appliances were new and had service contracts. The plumbing was "new" since we had renovated in the past 2 years. The renovations were still under the contractor's warranty. The floors were uncovered and in great shape. The windows needed to be replaced, but the Board had that already lined that up for the whole building and the contract indicated we would not pay for window replacements. This was no big deal because if anything was not working as of the "walk through", everything was completely covered at no cost to the buyer by warranties/service contracts we were turning over that were good for another 10 months after closing. He did NOT check the building itself and told the buyer his lawyer should have uncovered any of those problems during his due diligence.

At this point, maybe the inspector could be helpful during the "walk through" in case you don't know what to look for.

I think a good, detail-oriented broker would be just as functional as an inspector in these situations.