When we were selling the old house, the realtor we worked with suggested we have a home inspection done beforehand to identify any problems with the house that might need fixing.
We did, and the home inspector (Robert Jones with Cardinal Home Inspections) found a few things that we were able to have taken care of when we were having the renovations done. Some of the problems he found had existed from when the house was built too.
We liked the work Robert did so much, that we also hired him to do inspections for the new house as well.
First we had him do a pre-slab inspection, to make sure everything was properly prepared for the slab. A few minor issues were pointed out which the builders easily took care of.
As construction progressed, we had another inspection done just before the drywall went up. Again, a few issues were pointed out that were easily taken care of by the builders.
At the final walk-through of the house today, we brought the home inspector back for another inspection. Again, a few relatively minor things were found and added to the punch list for the builder to fix before we go to closing next week. We’ll have him come back again next week before we go to the closing to have him check over the things he found today to make sure they were fixed properly.
While none of the items the home inspector found at each visit were difficult for the builder to fix at the time, some of them were things that would have been much more difficult to fix had they been found much later in the process, if they were even found at all. Those hidden problems might not have caused any issues down the road, or might have resulted in headaches later. However, since they were found and taken care of ,we don’t need to worry about them.
We were reasonably confident before that the builder would do a pretty good job with the house. Now, with the very thorough home inspections that were done, we can rest comfortably knowing that our new house is pretty solid, and that the probability of having construction related issues later on will be pretty low.
Having all the inspections done cost us some extra money, but considering how much we’re spending on the house, it was money well spent.
Now that we’ve been through all this, having home inspections done is something I highly recommend, whether you’re buying or selling, pre-existing or new construction.