Typically when you purchase a home, you have an inspection contingency built into your purchase and sale agreement which allows you to tie a property up for a specified number of days in order to fully inspect the home at your expense and to your satisfaction for the most part. If you're a buyer in Seattle and many other parts of the country, you are well aware of the low inventory and challenge of securing a home among multiple buyers on the same property. I never recommend anyone outright waive an inspection on such a large investment and with potentially costly unknown issues. However, some are taking the risk in order to position themselves better to a seller when competing with other buyers. So the next best thing is to hire and inspector (if time allows and seller grants written permission) to inspect the property in advance of submitting an offer to find out if there are any show stoppers or, at the very least, establish what it is you'll be taking on if you have to accept the property "as is" in order to get it. If the property checks out OK, you can submit an purchase contract that is not subject to inspection which is much stronger in the eyes of a seller when other offers will likely include this contingency. The seller is then assured that you won't either back out nor request repairs or a price adjustment after an inspection is completed. The other significant benefit to the seller is if a potential buyer does elect to back out of a purchase because of something they didn't like on the inspection report, the property would come back on the market with the stigma of having failed to sell. There are potential disclosure isses on the part of the seller as well.
It's an expensive proposition if you are talking about making offers on several homes before actually landing one. Home inspections cost anywhere from $300-$500+ depending on the scope (no pun intended) and the company completing the inspection. All of this in effort to have one less "subject to" when you're one of many interested buyers. Some home buyers are perfectly comfortable checking over a home themselves if they know what to look for. Others have resources like family members or friends who are contractors that can lessen the cost factor if there are needed repairs. When to pull the trigger on a pre-inspection is going to depend on the pulse of your market and your comfort level in shelling out the dollars when you might not be the winning bidder. An experienced real estate professional who has handeled many of these situations, and knows the market well, can guide you through this process.
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