Rare is the home buyer who forfeits the home inspection. When purchasing a home built five to fifty years ago, having the home inspected is common sense.
A typical sales agreement allows for a home inspection up to 14 days from the day you sign on the dotted line. Your inspection window may be shorter depending on your agreement with the seller.
The prudent buyer takes advantage of this opportunity to hire a professional to inspect the home for visible defects like plumbing leaks, faulty wiring, worn out HVAC units, and more. You should want to know what you are buying.
(For a more complete list of what we inspect visit our Buyer’s Home Inspection page.)
Purchasing a home without a home inspection is like buying a 20-year-old car from a stranger, sight unseen, and without a test drive. Who does that, right? The smart move is to take it to a mechanic and let him/her look it over.
But what if the home is brand new, never lived in, straight from the builder with fresh paint and all? That’s a different story, right? Can you give me an example of why I need an inspection on new construction?
Case Study
As I write this article, we are working with a family who hired a contractor to build their 7,300+ square foot dream home in a very desirable area near Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The home is almost ready for occupancy and the final walk-through is tomorrow. She called us yesterday (Wednesday), and the desperation in her voice was disheartening.
“How quickly can you do a home inspection? We are scheduled to do our walk-through on Friday and we are finding so many problems with our house that we need a home inspection to see if there are more problems we don’t know about!”
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
We get calls all the time from new homeowners telling us that they purchased their new construction home, moved in, and now they are finding major problems. Since they didn’t have the house inspected before they bought it, they need us to inspect it afterwards so they can appeal to the builder to make needed repairs.
In hindsight, to a person, these homeowners agree that having a new construction home inspection before moving in would have been the wise thing to do.
Working with a contractor to make known repairs before moving in, rather than trying to get one to come back after you have taken possession, is a much better negotiating position.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some very good contractors out there building very good homes. A relative recently purchased a new construction home and a buyer’s inspection confirmed the home was well-built with no major issues. It was worth the inspection price to have the peace of mind.
However, not all new construction is alike. We encourage buyers to have new construction homes inspected by a professional home inspection service before the final walk-though and definitely before closing.
What Kinds of Problems Do We Find on New Construction Homes?
Since we are recommending a new construction home inspection, you may be interested in knowing what kind of problems we find during theses inspections.
Tommy Kirby, owner of 1st Choice Home Inspections of Knoxville and Nashville, said, “We find many of the same issues with new construction homes as we do with older homes, with a few exceptions. Faulty wiring, leaky plumbing, improperly installed shingles, grading not to code, crawlspace moisture intrusion, and gutters improperly installed are just a few of the problems we find.”
He added, “What we don’t normally find in new homes are problems with brand new HVAC units, appliances, and such. Although there can be problems with these as well.”
Tommy said that he inspected a new construction home in his own neighborhood and discovered a structural issue with the house. The repair cost was about $14,000.00.
Since the buyer had the home inspected before they finalized everything, they were able to get the builder to make the repairs and pay for the fix before they moved in.
Do you really need a new construction home inspection? Yes! Yes! Yes!
We will be happy to schedule a new construction home inspection for you. Just give us a call at (865) 938-7575. Alternatively, you may use our online scheduling tool. It only takes a few minutes, and you will be glad you did.
