Home Inspection - Why You Need One

[Caoineag]

Sorry, I still do not think that a new home needs to be inspected if built by a quality builder. We have building inspectors who will NOT pass a home if it does not pass inspction!

Ahhh but Ima, how do you know your builder is a quality builder? I will tell you now that none of the big building companies do quality work and so their stuff should always be inspected. Very few people who get new home construction actually use a person they know, most use big companies whose results are less than standard.

[Cylenchar]

Sorry, I still do not think that a new home needs to be inspected if built by a quality builder. We have building inspectors who will NOT pass a home if it does not pass inspction!

Ima, how do you know if it was built well without an inspection? Or if the builder used quality parts? I know a lot of builders use contractors, who in turn use temporary employees, and some are not careful about checking references. South of Denver, in one of the more expensive area, we have a new subdivision (~10 yrs old) where everyone is having to replace the windows because they were not installed properly or just shoddy construction. Granted, a home inspection might not have caught it. But it might have, and I'm betting many people did not get it done because they were buying a $300K+ house and where not willing to spend $400 on the inspection because the house in 'new'.

[fe2o3ez]

Inspection Before Warranty Expires

Sorry, I still do not think that a new home needs to be inspected if built by a quality builder. We have building inspectors who will NOT pass a home if it does not pass inspction!

Just a comment on getting inspections for a newly-built home: We built our house last year and did indeed have an inspector, but primarily because we had spoken to several homeowners who had various issues with their worksmanship. The inspector found a couple items, but nothing major. Probably just enough to justify his $450.

However, what I want to add is that we just reached our 1-year anniversary and had a different inspector walk through (different set of eyes) to ensure that we had all issues on our 1-year warranty checklist that we sent the builder. This second inspection found some more substantial issues and will prove to be worth the additional money. I think we paid this one $350, but that was a discounted rate through connections.

I know many of our neighbors have mentioned that they wish they'd had someone review the house prior to the warranty end. Think of it as a vehicle that was coming out of warranty -- would you not run it through a thorough inspection?

[Ima saver]

Well, most of our buyers do not get inspectors when they buy from us. However, my husband has been a licensed builder for 25 years and he does NOT use subcontractors. He is on site on the job every day and does almost all of the work by himself exept putting on the shingles. He frames the house, does the plumbing and electrical, all the trim, all the painting, hardwood floors, lays the tile, builds the cabinets, etc. He has one part time helper that he has had for over 20 years. If something goes wrong, he goes back and fixes it! (Usually there is nothing to do) We build every house as if it is being built for us. Even the real estate agents tell their customers not to bother getting a ---------- ------------ house inspected (insert my husband's name).

[Cylenchar]

Ima,

We have two very different bases of experience here: You know your husband, who sounds like a stickler for detail and making sure it's done right.

I worked for a home builder who had 10,000(No, that's not a typo, I said Ten Thousand) different window designs that they used. When you have that much variation you cannot tell me everything is the same level of quality.

[Ima saver]

Cylen, I agree with you. My husband is a perfectionist. That is why he does not want anyone to work with him. He wants it done right, the first time.
Where I live, until they began inspection and licensing a year ago, everyone here was a builder. They did not even know how to hold a hammer. Our grading guy built several spec houses. So did all the realtors. Now they are all sitting on them.
Not too many of the builder's got licensed. My husband was only number 399 in the entire state of Georgia.

[snafu]

ISaver, the clients who buy from your DH are fortunate and I wish contractors here worked to his standard. For 15 yrs. we lived across the street from a city inspector. One of the guys to verifies a house meets code before it can be sold. He would leave for work at 7 am ea. morning and return home before 8 a.m. That is he signed in, picked up his 'call' sheet and returned home. Between 3-4 p.m. he would leave again, presumably meet the foreman from the various builders at a convenient spot and sign off sheets to release homes to be sold. One day I stopped at a nearby cafe to meet a friend and there was our neighbor, having a cold drink and slowly guys came in, see him, have a cold beer as they busily signed papers.

I wanted to call City licensing but I didn't have a picture , couldn't prove anything and DH insisted I do nothing...except hire a house inspector and make it conditional on any offer to buy a house.

Point is, it's all based on personal experience.

[parklandgroupoh]

It is really sad to find out that there are many inspectors out there who do not care enough to do a quality job. This ends up being a great financial loss for all that are involved except for the inspector of course. I learned this a long time ago from this great lady, she is a Columbus real estate agent and has gotten me out of a rut more times that I can count.