New Build Inspections

This is perhaps one of the greatest myths of all and potentially the most costly. Two years ago, Consumer Reports' "Housewrecked," based on scores of interviews with home owners, builders, inspectors, industry representatives, government officials, and lawyers, reported that as many as 15 percent of all new homes sold -- 150,000 of them a year nationwide -- had a serious defect. This summer, indicating new home quality has worsened since then, Quality Built, a risk management services firm reported on data collected on 20,867 single-family and 11,128 multi-family homes by hands-on independent inspectors trained to identify high-risk construction defects. Quality found that 41 percent of the homes examined in 27 states, constructed by more than 900 different builders, revealed building envelope problems, a potential moisture intrusion and mold problem; 34 percent had framing and structural problems, including missing connections, a potentially deadly condition in rough weather or during earthquakes. New homes often are far from perfect. Unfortunately, builders often won't let you hire a private inspector to inspect the home, during the phases of a home's construction, at several times when inspectors say such an inspection would be most beneficial. Builders argue consumers have no rights to the property until they sign on the dotted line; that they (builders) could be liable if you or your inspector is injured on the job site and, in one argument that's holding less and less water -- municipal inspectors and builder-hired third-party inspectors are doing their job. Pacific Northwest Inspections Group works with builders to get beyond the construction zone gates with specialists trained in new home inspections to perform "in-progress" inspections. Once a home is built, many conditions can become hidden, insidious defects that won't show up until you need the home to perform at its best. For that reason, whenever possible, a buyer's representative should inspect a new home as it is being built, so any defects can be corrected before the home becomes the kind of house of cards Quality Built turned up far too often.