Anything else and they have too much of an incentive to produce an inspection report that will result in a quickly closed sale.
It's a bit extreme outright dismiss an inspector just because they are recommended by your own agent (there is no reason whatsoever to even ask the selling agent for such advice). After all, you've hired them for their expertise and advice, and they see and know a lot more home inspectors than you. Of course, look at the recommended inspectors and do your own homework, like anything else. But if you can't trust your agent to recommend an inspection I question why you are working with them in the first place.
The recommending agent is a marketing arm for the inspector; if the wrong deal falls apart because of the inspection, the inspector knows the agent isn't going to get their commission, whether or not that means they'll recommend them with as much fervor the next time can be largely dependent on how badly the agent needed the money that time.
But, by hiring without an agent referral; the inspector has no incentive to approve a house that shouldn't be approved; you're not going to be the new marketing arm. Indeed, absent a relationship with an agent, the inspector has an interest in inspecting as many properties for you as possible, and therefore finding as many deal breakers as possible.
She recommends that you always ask your agent for a home inspector recommendation.
"We pick the best home inspectors by the ones that performed the best in previous deals. We don't get $1 for recommendations. We wouldn't want to incase there was ever a problem down the road. Getting a high quality home inspector is much harder than it looks.".
Shadow-flipping, assignments, double dealing have become the norm here.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vancouver+real+estate+corrup...
I appreciate your point. But by the same token, you are extending a reality that might be in Vancouver to all of real estate markets.
This is one of the issue that I think makes Real Estate so complexed is that it's super easy to group it together as if 200 cities are one market.
I wouldn't even know if you could group large areas together (like all agents in.... 'The South" "The west coast" "The East Coast"...do it this way.)