Seventeen Reasons to have New Construction Homes Inspected
December 7, 2007
Via Dave Brownell, Second Opinion Home Inspections.
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Brought to you by Dave Brownell of Second Opinion Home Inspections, Tucson Home Inspector Extraordinaire. Thanks Dave!
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The overview, as Kelley sees it:
or Download Tucson Market Stats for July 2008 here (MP3)
You can also read the written overview, on that Tucson Market Stats link at the top of the page. Or, you can subscribe to my Tucson Market Reports podcast here, just FYI.
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13 Responses to “Seventeen Reasons to have New Construction Homes Inspected”
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Wow. I think the builder should get appropriate credit/publicity for the quality of their work.
Your guy sure looks to be thorough. The inspection I got on the last house I purchased (inspector recommended by my agent BTW) barely skimmed the surface by comparison. When I asked the inspector why the attic results section was marked “n/a - no access”, he said that it was because there was no access to the attic. When I showed him the large, obvious attic access hatch, he said that he did not inspect any areas of the house that required climbing a ladder (I kid you not). The roof was inspected from ground level. I’ll not be taking a referral from my agent for an inspector next time, but it looks like you have a good one there.
Thanks for sharing.
R, Jon
Scary stuff isn’t it.
Jon - I’m sorry you had a bad home inspector! Like any profession, there are good and there are bad. It takes a little trial and error to find a fabulous inspector - and then you hold on to them like gold!
Athol - with the number of trades that are in and out of the house in a relatively short time period, it’s amazing what mistakes can slip through unnoticed. There are builders that whine about the buyer’s inspector, but it saves everyone time and money further down the line, builder included.
Kelley - Excellent! Even the better builders miss “stuff” as they try to quickly move to the next phase or the next project. Most reputable builders (at least in SD) will actually honor their warranties well beyond the one year mark. As you correctly point out, it is important to have any new home professionally inspected within the first year, usually in month 10 or 11 after the purchase. Again, very enlightening and a service to your clients.
This is a great post. I’ve told people time and again to get an inspection on their new built home. Some decline. Some say we have a year to do it because of the warranty. I say do you want to live in a house with potential problems that could get worse? I linked on my blog to yours and suggested that anyone buying in souther AZ get a hold of you. Thanks for the post.
Great post, Kelley - the best post of its kind I’ve ever seen! I will be writing an introduction to it on my own blog & linking to you.
This is the kind of information I’ve tried to describe to many clients, but I’ve never had the pictures to share (being worth 1,000 words and all that!) I have them now, and I’m not afraid to use them…
[...] 2– 17 Reasons To Have New Construction Homes Inspected by House Chick BLog [...]
Kelley:
Belated kudos for a terrific article. In this case, your photos tell stories that should awaken most new homebuyers from their deepest sleep.
Thank you!
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[...] Seventeen Reasons to have New Construction Homes Inspected [...]
[...] Koehler wrote about this very same topic (Seventeen reasons to have new construction homes inspected), and posted some astonishing pictures along with it. This is a must read for anyone thinking about [...]
I just had my home built and moved in two weeks ago. Now I am wondering if we made a mistake by not having a home inspector come through. The one thing I never got to see was the attic insullation and if it was blown in at the correct level. I guess I will need to call an inspector in the next few months, before our 9 month walkthrough with the builder.