Inspection for a new construction?

[TammyAlphabet]

If I am buying a new home, should I get a home inspection? I have never bought a new home and was just wondering....

 

[sajetto]

Absolutely Make sure you get that inspection. You never know what could be wrong structurally. The last inspector we hired to look at our home said that he sees more issues with new homes than older homes these days. Good luck on your home purchase

 

[goofyforlife]

actually if the home is in the process of being built, you should request a couple inspections....

1. Before the Drywall goes up - so that they can check wiring and plumbing and such.

2. Final walk through

and I think there's a third occasion between 1 & 2 but I can't remember what point that is. (Can someone help me?)

 

[AllyandJack]

Definitely. The mortgage company might even require it. I wanted my house inspected, but was shocked when the mortgage company demanded a pest inspection. Pests haven't had a chance to infest, but I had to shell out the money for the inspection. They found and sprayed for carpenter ants.

Good luck and enjoy your new home!

 

[offwegotoneverland]

actually if the home is in the process of being built, you should request a couple inspections....

1. Before the Drywall goes up - so that they can check wiring and plumbing and such.

2. Final walk through

and I think there's a third occasion between 1 & 2 but I can't remember what point that is. (Can someone help me?)

A home inspection can take a few forms....those above sound like building inspectors...a home inspector is not for the permits but is working for you (normally an engineer) who will discuss future maintance etc with you.

We had one on our new home and it told us a lot of stuff about the hot water tank put in, quality of windows etc (all good in our case) but none of that would have anthing to do with "code" issues.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

Some home inspectors will engage in inspections during construction as described above. A multitude of problems can be hidden behind drywall and concrete. From discussions with the RHI we have used the construction inspection costs only minimallly more than a regular home inspection and takes place over the entire length of the home construction.

 

[golfgal]

YES!!!!!!!!!

Ok, this is an extreme story but a friend built a beautiful new house that at the time was about a $650,000 house (I saw that it is now for sale for $1.2 million). About a month after they moved in the windows on the back of the house wouldn't open, there were BIG cracks in the stucco, basically the back of the house was falling off the front. After many, many "discussions" with the builder they finally had an engineer come out and inspect the house. They had over 30 code violations, one being they ran the electrical wires through the HEAT DUCTS, not in the walls (my friend was moving in from out of state and wasn't there during most of the construction process). It turns out that the county inspector was getting kick backs from some of the builders to "pass" houses built on the cheep. They were also supposed to have 18" footings and had 2" footings and that is why the back of the house was falling off. This was a MAJOR court battle for our friends that took 5 years to resolve. Get an inspection by someone YOU hire.

 

[PrincessTori]

I would highly recommend it. When we bought our brand new home 3 years ago we hired an independant inspector and he found a major code violation that the county inspector didnt find. The County inspector went on to argue there was nothing wrong over the phone, until he got there and it was quite obvious that the builders had filled in 6 feet of dirt against a supporting basment wood wall. One unknown leak could have caused major suport problems. The builder had cheaped out on a third of one side of the basement by doing wood framing instead of poured concrete all the way on that side. That in itself wouldn't have been a problem, but they had put fill dirt then 6 feet up that wall. The county inspector pulled the occupency certificate and it took the builder 2 more weeks to dig it out and fix proper drainage around that side of the house so there were no chance of water getting to that side. We now have a nice storage area for our lawn mower.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

WOW!~~I am so glad I asked. I didn't even think about most of these issues. i will be sure to write that into the contract that we require a clean inspection. Thanks!!

 

[RoyalCanadian]

Make it a "satisfactory inspection conducted by a home inspector of the buyer's choosing" -- or something like that. Construction company pre-delivery inspections can be notoriously lacking -- however, they could use that "clean inspection" as satisfying the contract.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Well noted!! I got the contract that the realtor prepared for me to sign today. And I am not happy with it. There are several problem areas. One page has a paper for me to sign waiving my right to get an inspection, with the option to waive the right checked by my realtor!

I don't have a good feeling about this and my husband and I have decided to pass on this property and keep looking.

Tammy

 

[sajetto]

I don't have a good feeling about this and my husband and I have decided to pass on this property and keep looking.

Tammy

Wow, that is seriously fishy. I'm glad that you caught it and are moving on. I'm sure there are much better properties out there.

 

[barkley]

we just had a full home inspection done by the buyers of our home and i have to say that if we were planning on buying in the area i would have jumped on using the inspector they found. he spent no less than 3 1/2 hours checking out/documenting and photographing every aspect of our home-his final report was over 60 pages wrong. while he only found 2 cracked roof tiles the documentation will provide the buyers with an excellent manual to their "new" home. they can use it as a reference to where utilities are located and the like. i would think it could also come in handy if they had an issue down the road for which they wanted to submit a homeowner's insurance claim (it would be hard to argue that an issue was pre-existing based on the quality of this report)-it was well worth the $500 or so they spent for it.

we were surprised that the buyers of our previous home (close to 40 years old but in decent shape) waived having an inspection (we even had our realtor question theirs to ensure they were aware of the ramifications). we would never buy new or used without one. we even opted with our prior home to hire a chiminy sweep to come out and inspect (and clean if necessary) the fireplace-it was maybe $30 at the time but it ensured the safety of operating it.

pest inspections are a standard part of a contract in our parts (and the sellers pay for it)-most of the mortgage companies require it. most real estate contracts around here also call for negotion of repairs to be completed prior to transfer, or an option to re-negotiate the selling price if there are issues that impact purchase price (like a major item that is aging to the point of needing repair).

another thing you can negotiate for in an offer is a home warranty contract-we've had one on both our houses (one at sellers cost, one we bought because it was new construction)-it covers appliances, electrical, plumbing and the like. ours runs around $400 per years and has a $50 service call fee. it may seem steep, but our a/c unit went out on our prior home-over $1500 in repairs more than made up for a few years of premiums.