Bought my foreclosure last year and one of the items on the list was to replace the retaining wall on the end of the pool.  

Before our meeting I had a premonition to add up his line items.  

They left...and they took the front doors, light fixtures, and other items with them at the cost of about $20,000.The point is, not everything in life ends up on a credit report.

Ironic that he can hit me with inflated costs for those items when he's at fault for pushing them up.

I don't discount his value, but I do think that a plumbing-only inspection is in order next time around.Anything that can be rationalized and the owner knows will/can come back to bite them are great items to support your case.

One of the things in my life, when I’ve utilized it, that’s helped me a great deal, is keeping a journal with me at all times.The value is tremendous.It seems like such a small thing, but I encourage you to try it for one week.My recommendation is you buy a notebook that has 5 sections.The first section you’ll use to write down thoughts as they come to you.The second section will be to write down things you have to do; your to-do list.The third section will be to add entries to your calendar.These are things you know you need to be doing on a certain date, but may not be able to, at the current moment in time, be able to access your calendar.The fourth section will be any type of items you want to purchase.This could be a shopping list, all the way up to the house you passed on your last driving for dollars tour of your farm area.The fifth section will be a contacts section.You’ll add to this throughout the day of people you meet.I always keep paper clips in my vehicle so I can add business cards to this section.When you arrive home (at whatever time of day is appropriate), simply transpose all of the information appropriately into whatever electronic format is appropriate for you.By the time you do your daily planning at night (for the next day’s activities), this notebook should be clean and ready to go.Keep rockin’.

You'll see 65% of the after-repaired value as a common starting point...and then items that require fixing have to be subtracted from that number.  

The items detailed were insignificant, but the inspector definitely didn't help paint things in a positive light. 

From what I understand you need to budget capex to handle large ticket items that will fail eventually and unexpected expenditures (roof, furnace, AC).  

These line items are investor/company/financing specific and don't really speak to the operations of the property or help in determination of the current value.