New home + home inspector

yaliu07 said:
I am going to buy a new home.  Should I still hire a home inspector?

Thanks
The TI consensus is yes.

You would think you wouldn't need one because it's a NEW home, but from some posts on here regarding 3rd party inspections of new builds, they have found a significant number of problems.

If you're spending that much money, the cost of 3rd party inspector is worth it.
 
You probably should.  I just recently hired an inspector for pre drywall inspection (Steve Latatorre based on recommendations from several TI members).  He found like 40+ issues  , mostly minor like missing nail plates, gaps not sealed properly, loose nails, wiring tube too close to the chimney tube etc.  The builder (KB Homes) was kind enough to address most of the issues (and explaining the one they don't on why) before putting the drywall up.    I would probably would not have catch any of those myself..   

I did also learned a lot actually from talking to Steve while doing the rounds (He can actually be too chatty and gives too much information sometimes, but nevertheless its a good learning experience that you won't learn from the walk-through with the builder's supervisor unless you ask them).

 
GH said:
You probably should.  I just recently hired an inspector for pre drywall inspection (Steve Latatorre based on recommendations from several TI members).  He found like 40+ issues  , mostly minor like missing nail plates, gaps not sealed properly, loose nails, wiring tube too close to the chimney tube etc.  The builder (KB Homes) was kind enough to address most of the issues (and explaining the one they don't on why) before putting the drywall up.    I would probably would not have catch any of those myself..   

I did also learned a lot actually from talking to Steve while doing the rounds (He can actually be too chatty and gives too much information sometimes, but nevertheless its a good learning experience that you won't learn from the walk-through with the builder's supervisor unless you ask them).

That's cool KB allowed a HI.  I want to bring along a HI for my pre-drywall inspection but my builder won't allow it. Their reasoning is that they build a quality product that the HI usually won't find any issues so they'll nitpick to make it seem like the buyer is getting their money worth.

 
My Ridiculously Long That's Wat She Said Yellowneck USERName said:
That's cool KB allowed a HI.  I want to bring along a HI for my pre-drywall inspection but my builder won't allow it. Their reasoning is that they build a quality product that the HI usually won't find any issues so they'll nitpick to make it seem like the buyer is getting their money worth.
I find this ridiculous.

Who's the one spending hundreds of thousands of dollars here?

That's a like public company saying they don't need a 3rd party auditor because they don't make mistakes.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
My Ridiculously Long That's Wat She Said Yellowneck USERName said:
That's cool KB allowed a HI.  I want to bring along a HI for my pre-drywall inspection but my builder won't allow it. Their reasoning is that they build a quality product that the HI usually won't find any issues so they'll nitpick to make it seem like the buyer is getting their money worth.
I find this ridiculous.

Who's the one spending hundreds of thousands of dollars here?

That's a like public company saying they don't need a 3rd party auditor because they don't make mistakes.

i work at a public company - and we dont make mistakes.
 
Based on what the inspector said, Most builds will be up to standard/code, but the city inspector would not really go into details on the minor things.  For example, the missing nail plates on the wall frame where the wiring passes through.  Most of these would pass through city inspections, but down the road, if you unknowingly try to hang something on the wall and nail on that spot, you can potentially hit the wiring which would cause a huge problem.  These takes them like a minute to fix so no big deal really for the builder.

Actually, before the inspection, Steve keeps on reminding me to stall the walkthrough as long as possible so that he can have all the time he needs to look through everything.  But we were lucky that our supervisor is nice and he allowed him to continue as long as he want even though we are done with the walkthough.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
qwerty said:
i work at a public company - and we dont make mistakes.
Now this puts your whole claim of bat size into jeopardy.

Liar liar 3rd leg on fire!!!

fine - I dont make mistakes. dont make me post a pic of the BAT here man.
 
IP was very adamant about not allowing inspectors.  I wonder if Steve would go along with saying he's just your friend who knows a lot about houses.



Irvinecommuter said:
Yes but if TIC is building your house...he's basically only allowed to come out during the final walkthrough.
 
bones said:
broda said:
IP was very adamant about not allowing inspectors.  I wonder if Steve would go along with saying he's just your friend who knows a lot about houses.



Irvinecommuter said:
Yes but if TIC is building your house...he's basically only allowed to come out during the final walkthrough.

Nope. He wants permission from the builder. Won't do it without.

Also the IP already knows him pretty well.  They will recognized him right away. 
 
GH said:
You probably should.  I just recently hired an inspector for pre drywall inspection (Steve Latatorre based on recommendations from several TI members).  He found like 40+ issues  , mostly minor like missing nail plates, gaps not sealed properly, loose nails, wiring tube too close to the chimney tube etc.  The builder (KB Homes) was kind enough to address most of the issues (and explaining the one they don't on why) before putting the drywall up.    I would probably would not have catch any of those myself..   

I did also learned a lot actually from talking to Steve while doing the rounds (He can actually be too chatty and gives too much information sometimes, but nevertheless its a good learning experience that you won't learn from the walk-through with the builder's supervisor unless you ask them).

GH, do you plan on having Steve do the final walkthrough inspection also?  How much does he charge? 
 
Meggie said:
GH, do you plan on having Steve do the final walkthrough inspection also?  How much does he charge? 

Most likely yes.  HE said the rate depends on a lot of factor.  I'll PM you how much I paid (don't think I should put it in a public post).  It includes a detailed report of his findings complete with pictures of all the issues he found and explanation of the issue (some also has website links to prove his case on why it is an issue).
 
Thanks all for your help.

You are right.  Steve can TALK.  I send him an email ask how much is the inspection.  He wrote me a LONG LONG LONG email back.  I copy and paste into MS words and his email is 3 pages, 1214 words, 5942 characters (no spaces), 7188 characters (with spaces), 14 paragraphs, 85 lines...
 
yaliu07 said:
Thanks all for your help.

You are right.  Steve can TALK.  I send him an email ask how much is the inspection.  He wrote me a LONG LONG LONG email back.  I copy and paste into MS words and his email is 3 pages, 1214 words, 5942 characters (no spaces), 7188 characters (with spaces), 14 paragraphs, 85 lines...

hahaha .. wait until you talk to him on the phone.  The first time I talked to him on the phone, he was convincing me why the need for inspector and all and all his license and experience.  I am already convinced beforehand based on the recommendation here on TI but I did ask a few questions on the mechanics, rates and all.  We were on the phone for maybe 10 minutes already (I probably only talked only for like a minute), I told him I'll contact him once I get the schedule, he was like .. you need to ask more questions so that you know what to do and make sure the inspector is experienced etc etc and he went on for like another 3-4 minutes before I really had to cut him off because I have to go ..  :)
 
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