New Home Inspections (Charlotte: sales, mortgage, lender)

[bundydad]

Having a new home built in the Charlotte area and the builder request that I meet with them at different stages, such as foundation and dry wall inspection. Can anyone tell me how they dealt with these inspections. Thank you for your responses.

[bundydad]

A little help, please.

[Lend27]

Normally your mortgage lender will do a periodic inspection according to the payment schedule.
If you don't have any expertise or knowledge of the construction process you can hire a local house inspector to accompany you and give you some advice.



Len

[cakeprincess]

Yes, basically what they want from us is that they want to make sure they're doing their job right. All you have to do is to walk thru in your new house and see if that's agreeable with you.

Foundation inspection is to make sure the foundation is pour exactly to the model type of your choice. Drywall is the same way. Also they want to make sure where to put the right phone and cable line.

One time, for our new home, the builders poured the foundation on our lot that we made the deposit on and we later found out that they poured it wrong (different model, not our choice), so they gave us a different, better lot. It caused few months delay. The price is the same because it's their error, not our's.

This is very common for builders to have buyer walk-thru with them through the home building progress.

[bundydad]

Thanks To All For Your Time In Responding

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by bundydad

Having a new home built in the Charlotte area and the builder request that I meet with them at different stages, such as foundation and dry wall inspection. Can anyone tell me how they dealt with these inspections. Thank you for your responses.

Talking to a few people that are also building, and coupling it with my experience (my home will be finished at the end of August), it's all about getting you to check off at every major stage. It's a good thing IMO. I've brought a friend or family member during the pre-drywall and the electrical walk throughs. Most builders want to know if you have any problems, and they can get that information incrementally through these milestones. It's as much for them as it is for you. At the end they typically going to ask you for all 10s (or whatver the highest metric is) for something like JDPowers- at least that's what my builder told me. I think that's fair and told him I'd be more than happy to give a high rating as long as I am completely happy.

[a1m1700]

Originally Posted by bundydad

Having a new home built in the Charlotte area and the builder request that I meet with them at different stages, such as foundation and dry wall inspection. Can anyone tell me how they dealt with these inspections. Thank you for your responses.

First they call you regarding the placement of the house. Then they call you at pre-drywall they'll walk the house with you so you can see if the electrical options you selected are all in the right places. That's a good time to ask them if you want a switch moved or diningroom light is not centered properly or etc. Have a picture in your mind of furniture placement, check to see where your TV cable is and have it moved if need be. These things are usually discussed at contract but sometimes it different when you walk the house. Keep an eye out for AC vents are not next to your ceiling fans.
Take a camera with you and take a pictures of every wall every celing this way if something happens down the road you know what's behind the wall. If a leak occurs you'll know exactly where the pipe is. If you are gonna hang pictures you'll know not to drill in certain areas.

Remember your eye is better than a level you will be able to see crooked things that need to be fixed or moved. This is the time to make sure if you have a water softener it's in the location you want it to be, switch in the garage etc. They may get annoyed but too bad they'll move it.

Your next inspection is your final walk and if you don't know what you are looking at, hire a home inspector, it's worth it. Some Home inspectors will go with you from frame stage up. 300-400 may be worth piece of mind. Always go with your inspector 2 eyes are better than 1.

Good Luck and congrats on your purchase!!

[mmdj43]

Originally Posted by bundydad

Having a new home built in the Charlotte area and the builder request that I meet with them at different stages, such as foundation and dry wall inspection. Can anyone tell me how they dealt with these inspections. Thank you for your responses.

Moving from Long Island as well to the Charlotte area and our home will be ready next month. There are walk-thrus scheduled during different phases of the construction. This is important because I can't tell you how much we had to have things added/changed even though we laid out what we wanted. It's best to catch things early so that it can be fixed before the drywall, paint and finishing touches are complete. Every weekend that my husband is there, he makes a list of things he noticed and then we send the email to the builder. It's been a great situation because we're learning about things as we're going, and we're getting assurance from the builder as he responds to our questions/concerns. If you are not staying in the area while the house is being constructed, ask the sales manager for the builder to have pictures taken and emailed to you. We did that before my husband brought down our camera and it helped because it gave us an idea of what the house looked liked during each phase of the construction.

[a1m1700]

Originally Posted by mmdj43

Moving from Long Island as well to the Charlotte area and our home will be ready next month. There are walk-thrus scheduled during different phases of the construction. This is important because I can't tell you how much we had to have things added/changed even though we laid out what we wanted. It's best to catch things early so that it can be fixed before the drywall, paint and finishing touches are complete. Every weekend that my husband is there, he makes a list of things he noticed and then we send the email to the builder. It's been a great situation because we're learning about things as we're going, and we're getting assurance from the builder as he responds to our questions/concerns. If you are not staying in the area while the house is being constructed, ask the sales manager for the builder to have pictures taken and emailed to you. We did that before my husband brought down our camera and it helped because it gave us an idea of what the house looked liked during each phase of the construction.

Our builder takes pictures at each phase and you can watch it on the internet.

[wendyjane]

I would recommend getting separate inspectors for each stage...we just purchased an existing home in the Charlotte area and our agent suggested separate structural, electrical, HVAC and plumbing inspections -- there were 4 different guys (3 came out together as a group) and the reports were extremely detailed, each person commenting on their own area of expertise.

The cost was only about $150 more than getting just one home inspector -- and well worth every cent. They found all kinds of things that one person may mot be able to find, since most inspectors aren't experts in every area. And reinspections (if needed) are less than half the cost of the original inspection.

A good general contractor may also be an option to bring along for a new construction home, since they will know what things should look like at different points in the construction process. Just because it is new construction, don't assume everything is done correctly or up to code -- it could be a very costly assumption. And although you have a warranty, builders only will repair what they agree is a problem, and they get to decide how they want to fix it...which may not be the best way. I have lived through this nightmare with an awful builder (not in Charlotte) so hopefully you will not have that problem! (And upon advice from others did have an inspection for the new construction house with a regular home inspector who found absolutely nothing. Of course this depends on the quality of your home inspector -- not always easy to evaluate.)