The thing about a fourplex specifically is that one inspection is covering four kitchens, four bathrooms, shared mechanical systems, and a roof where one bad cap flashing can turn into a $14,000 problem across all four units. Riverside in particular has a lot of 1960s and 70s stock where the original galvanized supply lines are either already failing or a tenant complaint away from it. An inspector who actually goes in the crawlspace and checks water pressure at each unit is earning that $575 before he opens his laptop. The exhaust fan could have gone the other way too. If that attic had moisture damage from years of steam dumping in there, the decking replacement alone starts at $3,000 and the $190 reroute becomes a footnote. The cutoff question is really about what the inspector gives you that you cannot get otherwise, and on a multifamily that is mostly the stuff you cannot see without somebody spending two hours under the building. The $200 fixes are never the ones that crater a return. It is the one thing nobody looked at because everybody assumed somebody else had. Take a duplex in Fontana with a $490 inspection where the inspector finds a subpanel that was DIY'd in a way the fire marshal would have opinions about. A $2,200 seller credit at close is a realistic result there, and that credit does not exist for a buyer who tries to negotiate blind.
