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Home Inspections For New Builds Requires Thorough Checklist Staff - Mortgage Lenders Plus.com

We’ve all heard the horror stories from friends who have moved into brand spanking new homes and two years later are still arguing with the contractor about things that weren’t done properly. These debates change their tenor as soon as the final check is written; contractors are anxious to move on. If you are investing in a new home, it might make some sense to consider home inspection services for your construction project, just as you would in buying an older home.

If the contractor is reliable, he should have nothing to hide. If you are buying a home that is under construction in a tract along with many other homes, the site foreman often won’t allow home inspection services on site. Developers have their own home inspection checklist that includes inspections while under construction, on completion, and about ten or eleven months after completion because the home has a one year warranty.

One of the things you might consider is insisting on inspection rights before you agree to purchase a new tract home. The home inspection checklist for a new build really has to do with the mistakes and oversights that are unavoidable when work is being done by an assortment of craftsmen with varying degrees of experience and who are often moved from one assignment to another before completing the task.

Home inspection services ought to move through a new home before the sheet rock goes up. It’s important to check the plumbing, electrical and HVAC ducts while it is all still exposed. The inspector is looking for errors in outlet placement and things like missing mounting brackets or electrical boxes not closed up properly.

Other areas of concern on a new build home inspection checklist might include beam and joist fastenings, determining that all the structural lumber is without cracks, and the roof workmanship – where little errors like misplaced flashing can cause a lot of damage during your first winter.

If you don’t know much about housing construction, it’s not unreasonable to ask your contractor if he’s comfortable with your use of a home inspection service during the course of construction. If the inspections don’t interfere with the work – or the contractor’s ego – it’s probably a worthwhile investment. It’s also an investment that may save both you and the contractor a lot of future grief and expenditures for either repairs or legal costs or both.

You can obtain a home inspection checklist from any professional appraiser or, for that matter, through your real estate broker. Give some thought to where the prospects for major errors might be; drainage around the house, for example. Talk to friends who have been through new builds or major remodels and get THEIR home inspection checklists based on the problems they had. You’re into this house up to here already; investing another few hundred bucks on home inspection services a half dozen times during the construction process might be one final fee well worth paying.