For some, it's fake reality TV ... but this IS reality.  Life in the construction lane is rarely free of drama of one sort or another.  Holmes Inspection, like Holmes on Homes before it, is an educational program ... focusing this time on the coverups of previous home vendors and the misses of the buyer's home inspectors.  HoH focused more specifically on the shoddy workmanship to the fraudulent behaviour of contractors.

If you want to sit through hours of video textbook examples of how inspectors screw up and essentially how to become an inspector yourself, then it's gonna be particularly boring and poor TV.  Remember this is not aimed at the trades, but making the buyer more educated on the kinds of problems that inspectors can miss or fail to stress adequately.

There are trustworthy contractors, tradesmen and inspectors out there ...  because there are LOTS of contractors, tradesmen and inspectors out there!    The chance of them all being ripoff artists, or incompetent is pretty small.  The bottom line is to get referrals, get multiple quotes.

Heck, I'm not an inspector, but would have done a far better job myself than our inspector did ... but we were 2000 miles away so got caught.  This place needs some serious work still, nearly 10 years after we bought it that we identified within a couple days of moving in!  That said, someone else I know had an inspection done, and it was accurate and comprehensive and they've not had a problem with what was found and not found.

Bottom line, it's a craps shoot ... but help stack the odds in your favour ... get referrals, take references.  Ask as many people as you can about the inspectors you're looking at.

Can a flip be profitable and earnest?  In general, most cannot in Canada, unless you can negotiate a terrific purchase deal.  The popularity of the flip started of course south of the border where you can buy foreclosures and run down properties for a song ... basically enough that the mortgage company can get their money out of the place.  In Canada, the banks try to sell for as close to market value as the property will bear.  That means there's not a lot of room for doing other than a cosmetic lick and promise on a flip.  Make it "look" good on a very tight budget.  That's going to result in covering up significant defects ... or ignoring them.

The produced in Canada flip program showed how close that the two flippers came to blowing it all in their attempts to flip and do it as close to right as they could.  The problem was they then ended up at the top end of the price ranges just to break even!

I would be very suspicious of any house that was obviously a flip in Canada.

I would have liked to have seen what the house looked like before the flip. But I can see why the buyers where blinded cause it is a wonderful looking home

well out of all the episodes of Holmes on homes and Holmes inspection I have yet to see a house as bad as the one I got DUPPED into buying! But Elliot Lake is full of them!

I think my first clue that the home inspector in this house was no good would be that he didn't turn on the water and he thought they could paint over a water damaged ceiling and fix the issue... I think right there I'd get a new home inspector..

My family did several flips and what made it good, is that they lived in ithe house for 18 months so that the profit would be taxed deductable.

So, please let's not conclude that everyone is 'bad'.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE WONDERING HOW MUCH THIS JOB COST.  I HAVE AN INSIDE WITH MIKE.

JOB COST $75,000

OWNERS PAID $6,000

SO FOR PEOPLE WHO WERE ASKING IN THE BLOG CHAT LAST NIGHT - THERE IS YOUR ANSWER!!!

100% LEGIT!