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Old 02-15-2010, 02:30 PM
 
32 posts, read 101,620 times
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Our builder has given us a walk through date next week and the closing date two days after that. We have walked through and found some chips on cabinets and hard to see paint blemishes. We are planning on hiring an Inspector to walk through with us.

My question: Is it possible the builder can fix these blemishes we find + the bigger ones the Inspector finds in 1 day? I have a feeling the builder wants to close 2 days after the walk through no matter what.

Anything you recommend/suggest that I should be aware of during these final days of closing?
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Old 02-15-2010, 02:34 PM
 
Location: Houston, TX (Bellaire)
4,900 posts, read 13,662,468 times
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Usually they will ask you to close and lie that all issues are done then they will come back and fix them within a week or two. This is common and typically works out but can bite you in the butt if the builder is not trustworthy. You will certainly want a professional inspector to look through the property before you close on it, he will find things you probably never thought to look for. Paint is the least of your worries, as a home owner your going to be doing touch up paint every year for the rest of your life now (or have a crappy looking house).
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Old 02-15-2010, 06:17 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,508,076 times
Reputation: 10614
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevedawg85 View Post
Our builder has given us a walk through date next week and the closing date two days after that. We have walked through and found some chips on cabinets and hard to see paint blemishes. We are planning on hiring an Inspector to walk through with us.

My question: Is it possible the builder can fix these blemishes we find + the bigger ones the Inspector finds in 1 day? I have a feeling the builder wants to close 2 days after the walk through no matter what.

Anything you recommend/suggest that I should be aware of during these final days of closing?
I would like to know who your builder is. If it is one of the larger builders or any small reputable builder, you get a walk through with the builder's customer service rep. before the closing. You make a punch list and the CSR makes notes of what you find that you want fixed. They sign this and with that comes a promise to fix it within a given time. Usually immediately.

Nearly every builder I know and those who I don't know (and I know almost all of them) also provide a 6 month and a 12 month walk through as part of buying their homes. These later walk throughs mostly are for house settling that does not normally happen in your first several months living there.

Spending $400 on your own home inspector is a waste of your money. If it makes you sleep better then go for it. If something goes wrong later and it is within the first year and your builder goes belly up like most of them are doing today, you should still be able to be covered under HOW or some other consumer affairs office who collects insurance from these builders.

I feel certain your builder participates the proper way builders do business and has no intent to cheat you. Perhaps they just have a terrible way of explaining the process to their customers.
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Old 02-15-2010, 07:14 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
240 posts, read 804,081 times
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I am also in the process of buying a home. I had an inspector complete an inspection on my future house last week. He used to work for a builder and knows about short cuts that certain builders take (that is why I chose him). He arrived at my future home after inspecting a new one and I heard all about how a builder had forgotten to put insulation above a bathroom in a new home. I highly encourage you to hire your own inspector. I would rather be out 350 bucks and have good peace of mind than find out later that something was wrong after closing. I know that some builders are honest and want to do the right thing but there is always room for human error. That is just my 2 cents.
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Old 02-15-2010, 09:59 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,508,076 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thila View Post
I am also in the process of buying a home. I had an inspector complete an inspection on my future house last week. He used to work for a builder and knows about short cuts that certain builders take (that is why I chose him). He arrived at my future home after inspecting a new one and I heard all about how a builder had forgotten to put insulation above a bathroom in a new home. I highly encourage you to hire your own inspector. I would rather be out 350 bucks and have good peace of mind than find out later that something was wrong after closing. I know that some builders are honest and want to do the right thing but there is always room for human error. That is just my 2 cents.
Come on......the builder forgot to put in some insulation? So did the city building inspector forget to go to the home to do an inspection too? There is a specific insulation inspection. If there was some missing I can assure you the inspector would put a nice bright red FAILED INSPECTION sticker on the front window. No builder wants that to be seen nor do they want the hassle of paying the super to hang around waiting for the inspector a second time while the drywall crews sit around waiting and every other trade that comes in after is delayed too.

Believe me, I don't usually side with the builders, I know who the bad ones are as well as the good. But good or bad, there is a check and balance system where a second party (building inspectors, all with fat heads) will come and look. And trust me, when they see something wrong, they like nothing better then to act like they are Gods who yield great powers by the flick of the pen. They will fail you in one eye blink. It's job security for them.

The days of booming construction when there was not enough building inspectors and they were doing what we called drive by inspections are long gone. They did not have enough time to look at every house so they parked in front of it and wrote a green sticker and left. Today new home construction is at a complete stand still and those inspectors will spend time in that one home looking for every little thing.
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Old 02-16-2010, 12:10 AM
 
32 posts, read 101,620 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by desertsun41 View Post
I would like to know who your builder is. .....

Nearly every builder I know and those who I don't know (and I know almost all of them) also provide a 6 month and a 12 month walk through as part of buying their homes. These later walk throughs mostly are for house settling that does not normally happen in your first several months living there.
The builder is Lake Ridge Builders. I have heard a few horror stories about them, so that's why I'm leaning heavily towards an inspector.

Is the "we promise to come back and fix it" a legal contract signed by us and the builder? I will also ask about the 6 & 12 month walk-through
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Old 02-16-2010, 07:41 AM
 
Location: Spring, TX
460 posts, read 2,418,787 times
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Your ONLY leverage with the builder is walking away from closing. I don't care who the builder is, what they've done in the past, or what great things your mother said about them. No builder, no company, is guaranteed to succeed in these difficult times for the housing industry. If you choose to trust the builder, if your worldview is that people on the other side of the table will treat you like you might treat them, then more power to you. Personally I verify everything. We just closed on a dirt build house from a highly regarded builder that we've been personally walking through every two days since last Oct. Nevertheless we still had an inspector walk through it with us a week before closing. And I have no reason to question or suspect this builder's financial stability or competence or integrity. I even became friends with the construction manager and will have him over for dinner. You on the other hand have "heard a few horror stories" about your builder and you're still unsure whether you need an inspector? I can't believe we're having this conversation.

The problem with this equation is something almost everyone misunderstands about risk: the upside risk is small, but the downside risk is huge. The value of the inspection isn't to make the house more valuable, it's to help protect you against the Black Swan, the "fat tail" that causes your house to be the poster child for "things I wished I'd caught before closing".

Good luck.
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Old 02-16-2010, 08:16 AM
 
Location: Fulshear
1,326 posts, read 3,431,190 times
Reputation: 1184
Quote:
Originally Posted by stevedawg85 View Post
The builder is Lake Ridge Builders. I have heard a few horror stories about them, so that's why I'm leaning heavily towards an inspector.

Is the "we promise to come back and fix it" a legal contract signed by us and the builder? I will also ask about the 6 & 12 month walk-through
My brother-in-law has a home built by Lake Ridge builders.
He's been living in the home for over 6 months now.
I would try to get any and all issues fixed BEFORE closing.
From what I have seen, they are not the most detailed of builders and are kind of slow to make repairs after closing and through warranty.
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Old 02-16-2010, 08:47 AM
 
Location: Richmond
27 posts, read 53,789 times
Reputation: 18
I inspect Houston area homes for a living and I do it full time. I have seen everything from termites destroying the wood flooring in a never-been-lived-in home, to structural deficiencies, to sanitary sewer stacks not extended through roofs to the exterior (hmm, what's that smell?), to roof leaks and carbon monoxide leaks.

Workers have a bad habit of washing out grout buckets into drains. The grout hardens and clogs the drains. We find this quite regularly and believe me, it's much better to have the builder rip out tubs and cut into slabs when you are not living there yet. Many of my clients have had their builder reimburse my inspection fee and re-inspection fee because of the defects that we find.

Most people are shy about running through a home and running the water, operating all of the mechanical equipment, checking all the windows, doors, looking in the attic etc... That's why they have a Professional do it.

I inspected a home for a single lady at the one year builders warranty mark and found the ENTIRE attic had not been insulated (she wondered why her utility bill had been so high for the year). Builder was out there that day insulating the attic and writing a check.

That being said, there are many good builders in the Houston area, I see some great homes and I would definitely consider using those builders to build my own home but unless you know a lot about homes you should have it inspected by a Texas licensed professional inspector.

www.texasinspectors.net
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Old 02-16-2010, 10:51 AM
 
1,290 posts, read 5,415,719 times
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I don't know about other people's experiences, but our builder had us put together an additional punch list after we moved in. Sent out the painter a couple times to touch up stuff when were already in the house a month or two, even touched up scuffs and scratches caused by our movers.
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