How many times have we heard that old adage? And, most of us have been guilty doing this a time or two, I know I have. But how about when I comes to having a new home inspected? Many folks tend to forgo this phase of the home buying process because they trust that the municipal codes department has done its job and and has 'inspected the property' several times prior to issuing the CO (Certificate of Occupancy). Just because a property has been issued a CO doesn't mean that it is problem free.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to inspect a 4 year old property in the Franklin, TN area. From the outside, the property looked great, and I thought "Piece of Cake". Shouldn't find too much wrong here. Boy was I wrong!
The more I inspected, the more I found. Most were piddley nickel/dime items that could have been easily repaired had the property undergone an inspection at the time of initial sale. However; there were several major construction flaws that were revealed. These repairs will now cost the seller several thousand dollars to repair. Not exactly what they had in mind in this tough economy. Can they go back on the builder? Hard to say, as it has been 4 years and provided too that the builder is still in business. As we all know, this downturn in the economy has taken out a lot of folks in the real estate business. 
Needless to say that the seller was not a "Happy Camper". They wanted to save money and decided to forgo the inspection as they bought into the lie, that this (property) "has been inspected by codes, so there will not be any problems". I have yet to see a "Codes" inspector go into the crawl space where most construction deficiencies are found! So, when purchasing a new construction property, don't be Pennywise and Pound Foolish. The cost of having an inspection on new construction is minimal as to compared to what you may have to spend down the road. Let's face it, the builder paid the subs to do the job, right? Have the repairs done on their nickel, not yours...
Y'all have a great day... ;-)
If you or someone you know is purchasing a home in Brentwood, Franklin, Nashville, Spring Hill or Thompson's Station in the Davidson or Williamson county area of Middle Tennessee and would like more information about getting a home inspection, give us a call at 615.661.0297. You can visit us online at www.completehomeinspectionsonline.com - Check out our monthly newletter
Your building consultants for life...
