Home Inspections and New Construction

It’s a common belief among home buyers that they can save a few dollars by not having their brand-new home inspected. This is a common misconception. It’s a wise move to have a professional inspection before buying any home, including new construction. It just makes sense to learn as much as you can about the quality of any home, whether it’s brand-new or 100 years old. A professional home inspection can substantially increase peace of mind during the potentially emotional and stressful buying process.

Building a new home is a tremendously complex endeavor. It involves many people, usually split up into sub-contractor groups, each working on different parts and systems of the house, and having attentions split among different projects. Even for the best builders, it’s nearly impossible to complete this process without missing something. Maybe it’s a plumbing fixture that didn’t get tested for leaks, maybe it’s an electrical box that isn’t working, or any one of dozens of minor problems that can easily be overlooked in such a major undertaking.

More than once, we have inspected brand-new homes with no attic insulation, which would have resulted in unnecessarily high heating and cooling costs for the homeowners. In another case, both of the standing showers had been installed with no shower pans. Water literally ran down the exterior walls when the showers were tested. Since this was on the outside of the home, it might have been months or years before the problem was discovered.

A professional home inspection will find such issues while it is still early enough for you to bring them to the builder’s attention. In our experience, builders are more than willing to correct such problems, and in most cases will do so even after move-in day, but we have found that you have more leverage if these issues are addressed before closing.

There’s an additional safety net for such issues, even if the new home was not professionally inspected before closing. For the first year of home ownership, the builder is still responsible for most defects, through their one-year builder’s warranty.

Our experience tells us that without a trained eye looking for problems, most major construction flaws go unnoticed for 3-5 years. By this time, correcting these flaws could cost many thousands of dollars to remedy, and the builder is no longer responsible. It is unfortunate that most of these flaws go unnoticed until it is too late and extensive damage has occurred.

We recommend a professional home inspection at least one month prior to the expiration of the builder’s warranty, so that any defects can be repaired, and homeowners have peace of mind, knowing their home is safe and sound.