Why it lands late, every time
A general home inspector is doing their job correctly when they defer the chimney. Their scope is visual and system-wide; a flue interior is neither visible nor within it. So the report says 'recommend evaluation by a qualified chimney professional', the buyer's agent reads it as a red flag, and a specialist gets called during the contingency window instead of before it. Nothing has gone wrong at that point except sequencing, and sequencing is the one variable a listing agent fully controls.
What the specialist report establishes
Three things a general inspection cannot: whether the flue liner is intact along its full length, whether there is damage from a previous chimney fire, and which flue serves which appliance in a multi-flue stack. On older Burlington and Winooski housing the third of those is unresolved surprisingly often, because heating systems changed several times and nobody documented it. A camera scan answers all three with images, so an underwriter will accept it and a written opinion alone.
Sequencing it so it never touches the date
Book it in the pre-listing window alongside the seller's other preparation. If it comes back clean, that report is an asset you attach to the disclosure package and the chimney never comes up again. If it comes back with findings, you have the whole marketing period to get quotes, decide between repairing and disclosing, and set the price with the information, not against it. The seller keeps control of both the contractor and the calendar, which is worth more than the cost of the inspection.
When the report has already landed mid-deal
The useful move is to narrow the question fast instead of argue about it. A camera scan converts 'the chimney may need work' into a specific, quotable scope, and a specific scope is negotiable in a way that an open-ended risk is not. Buyers rarely walk over a defined repair with a number attached; they walk over an unknown with a general inspector's caution in front of it. Get the scan booked, get the images. The conversation changes character within about forty-eight hours.