It is to be expected really. I mean, from a homebuilder’s perspective, he has just worked his guts out for a few months building your new home and at the last minute, someone shows up with a magnifying glass trying to find reasons why the homebuilder should come back and redo work that has been completed. It creates friction with the customer. It is ALWAYS a last minute scramble to address the punch list. It is expensive… AND EVERYONE WANTS TO CLOSE YESTERDAY!!! Try to imagine a co-worker going to your boss and telling him about everything that you have done wrong on a recent project… then imagine paying them to do so. Then imagine everyone staring over your shoulders as you try to correct the problems… telling you to hurry up and finish it all. How would you feel?

 

In reality, home inspectors are very important when buying a home… both to the customer and to the homebuilder. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most important is the simple fact that it is easier to address problems earlier than later, especially before a customer moves into a home. Objectively speaking, it only makes sense that both a customer AND a homebuilder should want a home inspector to help them both identify problems that have been overlooked so that the issues can be resolved right then and there and BEFORE the China cabinet is in the way and before there are kids running around and the chaos that oftentimes follows a home purchase and move. I know from experience that it can be ten times more difficult to fix even a small problem once a customer is occupying a home. The scheduling is more difficult. The customer is inconvenienced. The repairs usually cost more because there is more clean-up required. It is just an all-around BAD idea to not address problems before a customer moves into a home… and rest assured that you, as a customer, will find latent defects. You will just find them later when it is more difficult to fix.

 

I would offer you a marketing spiel right now explaining how our company not only hires our own third-party home inspector to inspect each of our homes… we also hire an engineer to inspect each home we build and we have created our own web-based in-process quality control system that our staff uses to inspect each of our homes from day one through completion (it is over 1,000 items long at this point). Like I said, I would offer you that marketing spiel, but I will spare you (wink).

 

Seriously though… we came to realize something a few years ago that it seems the homebuilding industry has missed (and other industries for that matter). The concept is simple… inspect as you go and reduce your post-completion re-work (has anyone ever read the business book The Goal?). What is amazing to me is that no matter how many inspections our staff performs and no matter how many deficiencies our home inspectors and engineers find afterwards, we have NEVER had a customer’s home inspector hand us a report that does not have at least five legitimate concerns or deficiencies (I am counting even a paint touch-up). They always find something that everyone else has overlooked. I think it is in part because they are a fresh pair of eyes.

 

Granted, we have come across a few home inspectors that have added items to their lists that simply were not deficiencies (most such items were resolved by simply explaining why the work was done the way it was). We even walked away from a $400,000 sale one time where the home inspector demanded that we install a roofing product that we have never used that is only installed to guard against deep-freezes that Tennessee never sees (not sure what he was smoking). However, apart from a few such rare instances, the home inspectors we have worked with have done a fantastic job helping us to identify ways in which our homes could be better.

 

Let’s face it, no home is perfect. There are tens of thousands of pieces that come together to create a home… it is unrealistic to think that there is not something (even if very minor) that could be done better. Any builder who says he (or she) builds a perfect home is either naïve or less than forthright. The key is to strive for perfection but admit fault and address the issues quickly and efficiently. That is the approach our company has taken. We know that our homes are not perfect. We do believe they are as close to perfection as can be expected, but no, they are not perfect… and that is where the home inspectors are needed. They help us find the imperfections that we have overlooked somehow… and then we address them.

 

My advice to ANY homebuyer is to hire a home inspector. It will be some of the best money you will have spent in the transaction and depending on your builder, it could save you a LOT of money and heartache down the road. The going rate (at least around Knoxville, Tennessee) for a home inspection is about $350 or so (this can vary depending on the size of the home). The next important key to remember is that your builder is likely to be defensive and not an altogether jovial fellow when he first reviews the report. You may want to just remind him that you are a reasonable person and that you simply want to help him address any issues while it is easy to do so (before you move in).

 

What has been your experience? This is a good blog topic because many builders really do not like home inspectors but home inspectors are a VERY important part of any transaction.

 

Jordan Mollenhour