Do You Need a Home Inspection on New Construction?

If you're buying a brand-new house and somebody tells you that you don't need a home inspection because it already passed inspection, those are two completely different things.

Yes, your new home has gone through inspections during construction. I still want you to hire your own independent home inspector before you close. If you're buying new construction anywhere in South Alabama, this is one place I really don't want you cutting corners, because brand-new does not mean perfect. It just means nobody has lived there yet.

A house isn't built on an assembly line

Buyers sometimes picture a new house almost like a new car: it comes off an assembly line, somebody checks it, everything is new, so everything should work exactly the way it's supposed to. But a house is a massive construction project. Different crews work on different parts of the house at different times, each one working around what another trade already finished. Materials show up, schedules move, weather happens, and people are working on several houses at once.

Everybody involved is human, and things get missed. That doesn't automatically mean the builder did a bad job. If you're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on that structure, having another qualified set of eyes look at it before you own it makes complete sense to me.

"But the house already passed inspection"

Good. I want it to. The inspections required during construction are important, and we want every required approval the house is supposed to receive. But those inspections are part of the construction and permitting process. Your independent inspector is hired by you, to evaluate the home for you. So when somebody tells me the house already passed inspection, my response is simple: great, now let's do ours.

The walkthrough isn't your inspection

The builder walkthrough is very important. We're looking at the finished house, making sure things have been completed, looking for damage and noting items that need to be corrected before you close. But I'm not climbing through the attic pretending to be your home inspector, and I don't want another agent doing that either. The inspector has a job. Your agent has a job. The builder has a job. I want the right person doing each of them.

A pre-drywall inspection, if you can get one

If we're involved early enough in the construction process, there may be an opportunity I really like: an inspection before the drywall goes up. Not every buyer gets this chance. Sometimes you're buying a house that's already halfway finished or a completed spec home, and different builders have different procedures. But if the timing and the builder's process allow it, a pre-drywall inspection can be incredibly useful because so much of the house is still visible. An inspector may be able to see framing, plumbing, electrical and mechanical work that won't be visible later. Once those walls are closed, they're closed.

The one I don't want you skipping

The inspection I really don't want you skipping is the independent inspection near completion, before closing. And yes, the inspector is going to find things. That's normal. You're paying the inspector to find things.

I don't want you to receive a report with 30 items on it and immediately think the builder built your house completely wrong. Some items may be minor. Some may be cosmetic. Some may genuinely need to be addressed. The value of a good inspector isn't just finding things. It's helping us understand what the findings actually mean.

What happens after the report

People love saying "get an inspection," but nobody explains what happens next. Once we receive the report, your agent helps you work through it. We separate legitimate construction, safety or functional concerns from items better handled as normal punch-list items. Then we follow that builder's process for submitting inspection findings and getting things addressed, and that process varies from builder to builder.

You shouldn't be standing there with your first home inspection report trying to figure out what matters, who gets the report and what happens next. The inspector gives us information. Your agent helps you use it within the transaction.

Who you hire matters

Alabama home inspectors are licensed, and some have completed additional training specific to new construction. That training isn't the only thing I care about, though. I want someone who is good, experienced with new construction and thorough enough to inspect the parts of the house you aren't looking at when you walk through the front door. Buyers are naturally looking at the kitchen, the flooring and that big shower, and imagining where the furniture goes. The inspector needs to be evaluating the actual house.

I also want someone who communicates well. A good inspector should tell you the difference between something that needs attention and something relatively minor. You're paying for useful information, not a report that makes every item sound like the house is about to collapse.

What I take seriously in South Alabama

Water is one of them. We can get an incredible amount of rain in a short period of time, so when an inspector talks about grading, drainage, roofing or water going somewhere it doesn't belong, I'm listening. Our heat and humidity matter too. The HVAC, the attic and the roof aren't nearly as fun to look at as a new backsplash, but once you own the house, they matter a lot more.

"The house is under warranty"

Maybe it is. But a warranty doesn't discover the problem for you. You still have to know the problem exists. And a lot of Alabama buyers don't realize that Alabama doesn't require every home builder to provide a written home warranty. Many builders do, but the coverage you have is the coverage your builder's warranty provides. If your home comes with one, understand it and use it: know how claims are submitted and when each type of coverage expires.

If you have meaningful coverage during the first year, I like the idea of considering another inspection before that warranty period ends. By then the house has lived a little. It's been through a South Alabama summer and heavy rain, you've used the plumbing every day, run the HVAC and opened and closed the doors and windows. If something is going to reveal itself, I'd much rather you discover it while you may still have the applicable coverage. That's not a substitute for the inspection before closing, though.

This isn't about being adversarial

We're not hiring an inspector because we've decided the builder is our enemy. Good builders understand construction is complicated and things get missed. The goal isn't to start a fight. It's to identify legitimate issues, document them, work through the builder's process and get you to closing with a better understanding of the house you're buying. That's due diligence. You don't have to become a construction expert overnight; that's why you hire the professionals. If you're buying a D.R. Horton home in Bear Run, here's the inspection plan I'd follow there.

New construction inspection checklist

• Hire your own independent, licensed inspector with new construction experience
• Ask whether the builder allows a pre-drywall inspection
• Schedule the inspection near completion, before closing
• Keep the builder walkthrough and the inspection separate
• Work through the report with your agent and follow the builder's process
• Read the warranty: what's covered, how to file and when it ends
• Consider another inspection before the first-year coverage ends

New doesn't mean bad, and it doesn't mean we expect to uncover something catastrophic. But new also doesn't mean perfect, and "it's probably fine" isn't a due diligence strategy.