TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Getting the keys to your new home can be a great feeling, but the real estate market can bring that all crashing down. 

There are a few things that new and future homeowners can do if a waived home inspection is the cause.

"I think to a point there's a little bit of humanity lost is how I feel when I start thinking about this," said Corey Wekenmann, whose bright blue house was the mark of a brighter future for his girlfriend and three kids. "This is the second house that I put eyes on, and I fell in love with the old woodwork."

But that quickly gave way to a grueling homebuying process.

"I've been paying attention to what's going on. Houses are getting snatched up. I knew I couldn't afford to get into one of those $30,000 to $500,000 bidding wars," he said. "I, despite advice, went a little under asking price. They said they were willing to accept if I would waive the inspection, at which point [the realtor] told me that's pretty common in this market."

It's all too common and the horror stories mount daily. It doesn't make Corey and others any less frustrated.

"A realtor, a lawyer, they all benefit. They don't have to live here. They don't have to go through the struggles of everyday life and having a lower quality of life," he said. "When you thought you were getting something a little better than it is."

So more and more homeowners have been retroactively getting those inspections.

"Well, when I saw the house, I started looking around the house and I did notice there's cracks in the foundation. So that's a worry to me because that usually will allow water inside the basement," said Jaime Jakubczak, who has helped assess the damage after the purchase.

Officially retired, but very active with the Western New York Alliance of Home Inspectors, Jaime has helped diagnose issues from flooding in the garage and basement, leaks, a lack of the home being brought up to today's code standards, a $20,000 breaker overhaul and more.

"A lot of people that want to sell their homes, they don't want to deal with a home inspection. They don't want to deal with problems that they might have with their home. They possibly have lived there for years," he noted. "'It's fine for me. It's fine for the buyer,' but most of these home buyers are already at the top of their dollar where their financial situations."

Incurring costs that are symptomatic of the housing market and waived inspections — if it happens, what can you do?

"It depends on the individual and what their financial situation is," said Jaime. "I would like to see all of them be able to go to court and getting taken care of because this is really a consumer protection issue. It is really difficult because it is expensive to hire an attorney, unfortunately."

There's not much else besides extensive research into local programs to help cope with the burden. Jaime says there needs to be real change in the entire market.

"To continue to say, 'OK, if I cannot have a home inspection, then I'm going to the next house until I can get one.' If there's more consensus of that and homes are still in the market for longer periods of time," he urged. "I think it's going to educate both the agents, the selling agent and the home seller."

For Corey, it's more than $170,000 in on a house that, thanks to grants, he'll spend no less than 10 years working to make feel like home.

"Throughout the process, I've reached out to lawyers, [but] haven't gotten any calls back. I've reached out to social services, which is something I've never done before and I've been in contact with the realtor and she offered to refer me to contractors that I couldn't even afford," Corey said. "I've been tapped out."