Hire a contractor -- not a home inspector -- to examine any house you're thinking about buying.

You just can't count on them to tell you what's wrong with a home because of the three dirty little secrets about the home inspection business:

Dirty Little Secret 1. Most home inspectors depend on real estate agents to recommend them to their clients. And any inspector who wrecks a deal by pointing out problems with a home won't get recommended again.

Dirty Little Secret 2. Even when confronted with a problem so obvious that it can't be ignored, home inspectors routinely decline to estimate how much it will cost to fix.

Dirty Little Secret 3. The standard contract says you can't hold the home inspector responsible for anything they miss or get wrong. In other words, they don't stand behind anything they tell you.

So just how valuable is the typical home inspector's report? Not very.

For about the same amount of money, you can hire a licensed general contractor to provide a far more realistic assessment of a home's condition and how much you can expect to spend on repairs or improvements you'd like to make.

Line one up while you're looking and have him (or her) ready to step in before you finalize any deal.

If the contractor isn't sure about something, he can always call in a plumber or electrician he works with to give their expert opinion. (Something else you'll never see a home inspector do.)

Getting this kind of advice is absolutely essential if you're buying a foreclosure or short sale that may have been vandalized or neglected and in need of repairs that might run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Click here to find more advice on how to buy a foreclosure.

Or go here to determine how much house you can afford.