closing house , must do's or know's (new home, construction, tile)

[relocatetoxxxx]

Hi all - I will be closing my house a new one and would like to know what are the things that fall into,

a) Dont forget to ask your builder this
b) It is good to ask the builder this
c) Beware of some of these during closing

I researched into the common must do's etc but would like to know the experts comments as well

thanks

[Hyena]

It's pretty much too late for anything that's really important.

That said:

1. Do your final walk through during the day. Make sure all doors and windows open/close smoothly and "swing" the proper direction, cabinets are aligned properly, floors and walls are even and level. Double check all light fixture placements and electrical outlets.

2. Hire an inspector. They won't get cosmetic stuff, but they could catch bigger issues.

3. Walk through the warranty claim process in depth.

[butterflies105]

Please hire inspector just for around $450 but it will save you thousands later.
If you do final walk, make sure they have everything, if not make them list down on the paper that they will have to fix it within certain day. For example, when I closed my house they installed the sod and they were all dead, I asked them to put down on the paper and they replaced it the next day.
There were several minor things like fixing the door knob, or cleaning, paint on the carpet ... they correct all these while I was at the closing office.

Congratulation on your new home and good luck with your closing process!

[Aquitaine]

We actually prefer to hire an inspector at the 11 month mark (before the end of the 1 year warranty) rather than before closing.

If you've been involved up until now, you've seen the house go up and had opportunities to catch mistakes (and they're there!). The closer you get to closing, the less likely the builder is to change anything. Not to say an inspector isn't still worth it now (particularly if you have any specific concerns) but once the builder sees the end in the site, they want it off their books and are going to resist anything that isn't a code violation or clearly busted.

[Meaux]

I agree with hiring the inspector right before the warranty ends; it is so great to get all of those existing conditions "on the books" before they become real issues, then you can make a case for many future problems to be repaired based on the fact that the situation existed during warranty. We had a number of large issues taken care of in our current home thanks to our inspector noticing things that really weren't even hitting our radar.

[Trainwreck20]

When my folks closed on a home some 20 years ago (a Newmark, I think), there was a requirement for a third-party inspection before closing. I am not sure what drove that requirement - the lender, the builder, both, or whatever, but he caught several things (including cosmetic) that HAD to be fixed before closing occurred. Just as an example, he identified a section of wall that was 'wavy' when you looked at it from the side. It was quite obvious once you looked at it right, but almost invisible standing in the middle of the room. Also had some counter tile that was poorly done, and a fire alarm that was accidentally wired into a wall switch (it ran on battery when the switch was off). None of these were structural issues, but were nice to discover and get fixed before move in.

[centralaustinite]

Just an FYI, the BEST time to have an inspector in is before the drywall goes up! That is when you can best see and fix problems.

[spchtx]

Do an inspection now and before warranty goes out. Our inspector found a fairly big electrical issue that we never would have known about until it was a problem.

I also have talked to a few people that have had flooding issues shortly after moving in due to something an inspector probably would have caught. One family had to replace flooring and parts of drywall in their entire house. Messed up a lot of furniture too.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by relocatetoxxxx

Hi all - I will be closing my house a new one and would like to know what are the things that fall into,

a) Dont forget to ask your builder this
b) It is good to ask the builder this
c) Beware of some of these during closing

I researched into the common must do's etc but would like to know the experts comments as well

thanks

Never trust the builder.

This is the wrong stage to be educating yourself. If you have an experienced new home Realtor, you would have guidance. If not, you essentially hired yourself as the expert, and you don't know what you don't know, which is a disadvantage to you and an advantage to the builder.

Assuming you did no phase inspections, better do one now before closing. I disagree with waiting until 11th month. Should have done one pre-sheetrock, and again at completion. An 11th month would be fine in addition to those, but you have no leverage at that point about things that could/should have been caught during construction.

Steve