Musings from You and Me

New Construction, Home Inspection?

Many buyers do not realize how important it is to have a home inspection during the construction of a new home. They see no reason for it, since the County has been doing the building permit inspections, and many times the builder has a one year warranty on the house. Many buyers feel it will be a waste of their money. If anything happens, the builder will come and take care of it. No big deal to them.

I explain that in my experience, the deficiency lists on new construction homes are generally longer, than those on the resales homes. Many times, the items noted on the report, are things the average homeowner will never know are wrong. I have seen duct work in the attic not connected to the vent on reports, this means your heat or air conditioning will go into the attic space. No back fill under the deck or porch, which allows water to sit against the foundation wall, not able to drain away, causing a wet basement or crawl space. Roof issues are fairly common as well, where flashing at the fireplace, or valleys of 2 slopes coming together, causing frequent problem areas.

On a purchase involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, a few hundred dollars for the home inspection can save you tremendous inconvenience and offers great peace of mind. Some purchasers choose to not have the inspection done until they have been in the house for about 10 months. This way the final repair work to be completed by the builder will include all the deficiencies a home inspector will find when they go to sell the house. Instead of them getting stuck making those repairs at the time they want to sell. The builder completes them prior to the end of the one year warranty.

The worst case scenario did happen once. At the final walk through, the builders representative had filled the large jacuzzi in the Master Bedroom (prior to our arrival). Everything was gorgeous, hardwood floors throughout the first and second floors. The jacuzzi was switched on and the water began to jet properly. Everyone was happy.

The builders representative opened the plug and the water drained, while we looked at the children's rooms upstairs. Going back downstairs we discovered that water was pouring through the ceiling on the main floor onto those gorgeous wood floors. It then passed through the ceiling of the basement onto the tile floor down there. Yes, all 3 floors experienced the water damage!

The plumber had forgotten to connect the drain to the pipe. It's the details that get you every time. Fortunately, these purchasers were able to stay in the house they were living in, the extra 4 weeks it took the builder to get the repairs completed. Had there been an inspection this would have been discovered with minimal repairs necessary.

The inspectors that I use will on new construction go to the site 3-4 times, during the construction phase to ensure everything runs smoothly for the purchasers.

posted by FineVirginiaLiving.com @ 5:58 PM