New Construction Inspections

One of the most common myths related to new home construction is that new homes don’t need to be inspected.  I personally know several people that have purchased new homes and didn’t have them inspected because they were ‘new’.   I’ve seen far too many problems on new construction homes to think that they’re not worth first inspecting, regardless of the builder.

One common myth that builders will sometimes tell buyers is that the home has already been inspected many times by the city as part of the permit process, so the buyer is wasting their money hiring a private inspector.  While there may have been many brief inspections performed by the city along the way, things still get missed every day.  Did you know that unless a ladder is provided at the site for the city inspector, they won’t even get up on the roof to inspect it?  It’s actually common practice for roofers to leave a few photos for the building inspector to look at to sign off on the roof.  The photos below show a hole in the roof of a new construction townhouse that I recently evaluated, and the builder was a reputable, well known builder that you’ve definitely heard of.  The builder had actually tried to talk the client out of getting a home inspection.

Another myth is that because a home is new, there won’t be problems.  While new homes don’t have the same types of problems as old homes (such as components reaching the end of their life expectancy), they can still have serious issues, typically related to improper building and installation methods.  These are the types of issues that an average homeowner will know much less about; it’s easy to look at cracks in a foundation or rust in a furnace and know there’s an issue, but it’s impossible to identify installation defects without knowledge of building, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical codes.  While a private inspection is certainly not a code compliance inspection, an excellent home inspector will be aware of code requirements , and will be looking for any problems.

Below are a few photos of problems I’ve found at new construction homes, or homes that were relatively new.  Remember, these were built by big, reputable builders.

This window was on a second story, and I suspect it had been dropped before being installed.

The two photos below show a whole house fan that was supposed to be exhausting to the exterior; the bottom photo shows the wall that the fan should be exhausting to.  Obviously, the person installing the siding went a little too fast.

 

These photos show where a roofer was going too fast - they forgot to install the damper for the bath fan exhaust, so there was just a hole in the roof.

 

This photo shows the heat duct and the exhaust opening for the HRV, located right next to each other in a basement bathroom (one supplies air, one sucks air out).

I can't tell you how many plumbing vents I've seen with knockout plugs still in place. These are supposed to be removed after the final plumbing inspection, but it's commonly forgotten about.  This means that the plumbing fixtures are not vented.

Many, many, many air conditioners get installed with the wrong size circuit breakers.  Note the text on the label for the AC that reads in all caps "MAX FUSE OR MAX CKT. BKR. - 20"  The 30 amp breaker is what fed the AC unit.

I could go on and on with these photos, but hopefully I've made my point; new homes need home inspections too!

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Minneapolis Home Inspections

Appraisals vs Home Inspections

When I tell people what I do for a living, a common response I get is “So you’re, like, an appraiser, right?"

No.  I’m not.

While home inspectors and appraisers both look at houses, must be independent, objective, and impartial, our jobs are quite different.

The primary purpose of a home inspection is to educate the buyer about their new home, so they can make an informed decision on the purchase.  The primary purpose of an appraisal is to protect the lender’s assets; this is done by determining the value of a home.  The value of a home will be highly dependant upon what other properties in the area are worth, and whether the subject home is in overall better or worse condition than the comparison homes (referred to as ‘comps’) .

A home inspector’s client is the buyer, whereas the appraiser’s client is the lender.  A home buyer is responsible for finding an excellent home inspector, who has only the client’s interests in mind.  The home inspector gets paid whether the home is sold or not.  As a side note, a home inspector should never allow their inspection fee to get rolled in to the closing costs; this means that the home inspector now has a financial interest in the home being sold to the buyer!  As for appraisals, the bank will typically decide who does the appraisal, and the buyer has very little to do with it.

Home inspections are almost always performed with the buyer.  Some home inspectors (such as myself) want the buyer to attend the entire inspection, while others ask the client to show up at the end.  For appraisals, it’s a little more mysterious.  The buyer doesn’t attend the appraisal, they may not be told when the appraisal will happen, and they aren’t given a copy of the appraisal – not to say they can’t get a copy, but remember, the lender is the client; not the buyer.

The bulk of the work for a home inspection is performed at the subject home, while an appraiser will spend a relatively small portion of their time at the property.  A home inspector spends several hours at a home doing the inspection, and must also generate a report, which may be produced on site, or might be produced later from their home or office (or even a restaurant…).  An appraiser’s work consists of much more research about all the other properties in the area, and the report must include detailed information about other comps.  On average, the on-site portion of an appraisal can be done within 30 minutes.

In short, a home inspector determines the condition of the home, whereas an appraiser develops an opinion of value for a home.

RELATED POST:  FHA Loans Require Appraisals, Not Inspections

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections – Email – Home Inspector in Saint Paul