One of the most common mistakes that many first time home buyers make is to skip the new construction home inspection. Buying a newly built home provides exhilarating and adventurous new options that may not be available to you when purchasing an existing home. With this, also comes with additional challenges.
You may think that you will not need a new construction home inspection. But having an inspection is not just for finding defects, it also gives you an opportunity to learn about your property. As with any residential real estate transaction, it's important to know the current state and all defects that may exist before you signed the dotted line.
New Home Problems vs Older Homes:
Home inspections for older homes consist of recommendations, life expectancies for various systems, and components, and minor imperfections.The most common issues that are flagged in conducting an inspection for older homes will fall into four categories:
- Major defects. An example of this would be a structural failure;
- Things that lead to major defects, such as a small roof-flashing leak, for example;
- Things that may hinder your ability to finance, legally occupy, or insure the home;
- Safety hazards, such as an exposed, live buss bar at the electrical panel.
With older structures, you are more likely to see common problems pertaining to structural failure, things that lead up to major defects such as a small roof-flashing leak or safety hazards.
New Construction home inspections are less likely to have some of the common issues that exist with older structures. However, with newly built homes you need to unearth any evidence of poor workmanship or failure to follow the floorplans, leaky plumbing, bad wiring, drainage problems near or around the foundation.
- Joist weakened by improperly installed ductwork
- Improperly installed appliances
- Poor seals around vents, roof structures
- Warped floors
- Leaky plumbing
All homes regardless new or existing homes have unapparent defects, despite the quality of construction or the integrity of the builder. Considering the complexity of building something
as large as a house, its possible to have a few errors along the way at various stages of the process.
Furthermore, there could be problems with the home that are not necessarily code violations and
that can yield to serious issues and consequences for new homeowners.
Hiring an independent home inspector gives you a peace of mind and allows you to take full advantage of your builder warranty. Considering that jurisdictional inspections are minimal in nature and not concerned with workmanship as long as all the systems and components in your new home meet minimum code requirements. The only way to know, if there are problems with the home is to have a New Construction Inspection conducted by an experienced, Certified NACHI Home Inspector.
The cost of hiring an experienced NACHI certified Inspector is insignificant in comparison to the costly mistake that may transpire by not getting a new construction inspection on your newly built home. Get a peace of mind, check out our services and contact S&J Home Inspections to schedule a home inspection today.
RBI: #2627
Comments
Post a Comment