Big mistake to forego home inspection

Dear Barry, We bought our first home during the frenzied real estate boom of 2004. It was a seller's market, so we agreed to an as-is purchase. Our real estate agent told us that a home inspection had already been done for a previous buyer who had backed out of the deal. To save money, she suggested that we forego hiring our own inspector. Because she is a personal friend, we trusted her and signed a form that waived our right to an inspection. This, as it turned out, was a big mistake. Shortly after moving in, we began to have recurrent plumbing leaks. When we contacted the seller, he admitted knowing about these problems but not disclosing them because he had repaired the pipes himself and didn't think they would leak again. We finally hired a plumber who opened the bathroom wall and found the seller's substandard repair work that will now cost $1,200 to fix. We also encountered air-conditioning problems, with a repair estimate of $3,800. When we called the seller about ...