The Importance of Inspections with New Construction in Waldorf, MD

August 6th, 2010 // filed under: Buying a Home, Home Inspection, New Construction, Southern Maryland, Waldorf

I recently attended a walk-through in Southern Maryland (Waldorf, to be exact) on new construction for a first time home-buyer.  Typically, people do not feel a need to pay for an inspection when they’re buying a new home.  The thought is that if the home is “new”, then there shouldn’t be a need for the extra expense.

My buyer wanted the assurance that comes with having a professional home inspector go through the property, and it turned into a very wise investment.

So what made it worth hiring a home inspector?

  • For starters, the threshold at the front door was water damaged.  The builder rep offered to have it painted and sealed, but the inspector stated that due to the water damage, it needed to be replaced.  Suddenly the idea of hiring an inspector started to make sense…
  • Next, the furnace filter access was blocked by wiring, and was in accessible.  Our inspector, Kevin Curry from Amerispec, caught the issue and stated that the wiring needed to be moved.  Imagine buying a home and finding out a year after-wards that you can’t change the filter!
  • Third, there was insufficient insulation in the furnace, and there were drafts being created.  This is the sort of issue that only a home inspector would be able to catch, but the work completed by the builder was insufficient.
  • In addition, the rear sliding door wouldn’t lock, the carpet was cut too short on the sides of the staircase, the kitchen needed a final coat of paint, and there was trim work that was cut too short.

You would think that builders would be a bit more mindful, but the bottom line is that if you as a buyer are paying for new construction, you should not be willing to accept anything less than perfect.

There were issues at the inspection that needed to be addressed, and the builder is perfectly willing to correct them, but without an inspector, there was no way to catch all of the issues at the walk-through.  It’s proof that it really pays to have a Realtor and Inspector on your side when buying new construction!

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posted by Jonathan Benya // 2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Buying a Home, Home Inspection, New Construction, Southern Maryland, Waldorf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  2. Dan said at August 16th, 2010 at 2:37 am

    The examples are perfect to explain your points. In the walk-through of a construction many fails to notice the major and minor issues. It’s mandatory that we should have a Realtor and an Inspector when buying new construction. This is really an awakening for the new buyers.

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