I say bull$hit as well, I called my Mother who sold Real Estate for 30 years in Anne Arundle and she said never once did she pull a tax assessment for the reason of seeing if someone pulled a permit or not.
Ohmygeez, I agree with you!
This was our situation. When the house was inspected, we found out that the HVAC was failing, so we had to replace it to the tune of 8000 ( which is weird because we always got those letters from Smeco saying we were doing better than our neighbors.) Then, we found out that there had been a chimney fire at some point (but house didn't burn down; whatever). That cost us another 1000 with insurance. It doesn't really matter. Selling/buying a house is not easy; especially, when we sold our house in St. Leonard (there were 52 houses for sale at the time). We consider ourselves lucky. Our house in Calvert was cedar siding, and built in 1982. I have to say there were some things that the inspector missed, but I won't say.
Also, the house we bought in Olney built 1970 (it was a flip) has shown signs of short cuts, and bad workmanship (as in cosmetic) all those little details that you don't see when looking at a house. But, we can fix it. I love the subway tile that Hub just put in the kitchen.
Add: We moved to be near our first grandchild and one on the way. You can't take it with you; it is whatever. We're good, and Daisy has the biggest back yard in the neighborhood. Go, Daisy!.