Deflation seem good (stuff I buy is cheaper!) but the problem is psychological. Say deflation is 10% one year. Everything you buy goes down in cost which is good. However, if you're on salary, then from your employers perspective you are now 10% overpaid (assuming you were previously paid the market wage). In years with inflation, businesses can give raises across the board, but rarely would a business cut all their employees pay by 10%. It would be bad for morale. Instead they lay off 10% of the workforce. People aren't willing to accept pay cuts in times of deflation as easily as a yearly pay increase.
> It would be bad for morale [for a] business [to] cut all their employees pay by 10%.
Pff, is that the issue? That's easy peasy, price people's salaries in terms of purchasing power. Or in terms of baskets of goods. Wow this is such an easy problem to solve. I could go on and on. I'm not even joking. Just use an indirection. Isn't that how we solve all problems in programming? It's certainly my favorite tool.
> Never trust or take a recommendation for a home inspector or other service recommended by the agent.
I learned this first hand. I bought my first house in 2009, and used an inspector that my real estate agent recommended. The house was 25 years old at the time and he created a report full of minor issues, but no deal breakers.
I intended to live in that house for a long time, but had to sell it this spring. Got an offer in a month. All the minor things had been fixed and a I also made a lot of improvements. Then the buyers inspection found that a truss had been cut and removed in the attic by a bad HVAC guy. Ended up costing me > $1500 to have it assessed by a structural engineer and repaired, and almost caused the deal to fall through.
Once the missing truss was pointed out to me, it was very obvious, and should have been caught by an inspector on his first day. I'm positive he didn't point it out so as to not sink the deal and keep getting his referrals.
