For $1,600, she could have avoided that nightmare. I bought a house recently and spent $1,600 for a private inspection. The list of items the inspector found was impressive. I went through the list and picked 5 items I wanted mitigated before I would buy the house. I left some items knowing the seller wouldn't fix them. But that was my decision to make. In the end, I knew all the potential problems.
People buying a home without this inspection are begging for problems.
Right, the information you get from the inspection will give you a lot of haggling power in the price negotiation. You should at the very least, be able to convince the seller to come off the price for the amount of the inspection, so thats basically free.
In CO the inspectors are actually licensed and certified too. That is not the same for every state. Just know you get what you pay for ;)
It's the largest investment you will make. You can skip the inspection it's probably be okay.