New Construction Inspection

Once at the site, the buyer asked me to point out any and all defects in the brick as well as any other things on the exterior that caught my eye. Within the course of ten minutes I discovered 15 defects and I had only looked at the front of the home and one side! The realtor  and the buyer grew more and more despondent. The realtor saw a commission check dissolving into thin air and the buyer saw the house of his dreams crumble with each word I spoke.

Finally, in a distinct and angry voice the buyer said to me, "How can all of these defects get past the building inspector? How can builders  get away with this type of sub-standard workmanship?" It took me twenty minutes to answer just those two questions. The buyer couldn't believe that there was soil that actually tilted back towards the home. He couldn't believe that the top of the foundation was covered with dirt and mulch in various locations. The lack of flashings under door and window sills and above them as well astounded the buyer.

The first thing I told the buyer was that not all builders build this way. In every city and town there are some dedicated people who treat building as a vocation and a craft. They take immense pride in their work and will not tolerate much less than perfection. I then discussed the economic pressures of building market homes. A builder that constructs twenty houses a year and discovers a way to shave $10,000 in expenses from each one takes $200K directly to the bottom line or his bank account. Never forget Glenn Frey's lyric from Smuggler's Blues, "The lure of easy money has a very strong appeal."