New Home? Don’t Skip This Step
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New Builds? Don’t Skip This Step
[00:00:00] Today, I thought I would continue my conversation with you in regards to home inspections. I know I talked about sellers having home inspections, buyers having home inspections, just the general. And now I'm gonna talk a little bit about buyers having home inspections on spec or new builds. Hi, Judith Barnett with JB Sells Homes and My Home Group Realty, where real estate is done with compassion and integrity.
Today I hope to give you some insights into why it's important for a buyer to have a home inspection, even if the home has never been lived in, it's a brand new home. So lemme talk about, new builts and spec homes. Some homes are more custom, which means that you bought it and you got to pick cabinets, [00:01:00] countertops, paint, lighting, fixtures, things like that, or it's completely custom, and that's a new build. And then you have what we consider spec homes in this industry, which are homes that the builder built. They're brand new, but they picked everything. The buyer is not gonna get an option to pick any of the fixtures, lighting, carpet, flooring, nothing.
It's all picked by the builder. And we call those spec homes, just so you kind of know our terminology a little bit. There you go. Insider information. So the reason that it's important to have a home inspection. On a new build or spec home is because builders aren't there supervising everything that the subcontractors are doing.
And there are subcontractors and you know, depending on how many builds they're doing at one time, meaning how many homes [00:02:00] are they working on at once? They could be 15, 20, 30 homes, and they have a subcontract client that is the person who does all the outlets. All the electrical and they come in and they, they do their piece and they move on to the next house, and they do their piece and they keep going.
And the same would be for plumbing, for painting, for putting in the trim, the cabinets, everything. So there's different subcontractors doing each one of those specific tasks. And because of that, and because the builder's not there, you know, watching everything they're doing, sometimes they're moving too fast and they miss things.
Let's just say they're human, like the rest of us, and they miss things. And so the point of having a home inspection on a new build is not looking for things to repair, replace, or remove, but it's looking for things that, it's what we call punch list. It's [00:03:00] things like that outlet isn't working, the lights aren't working.
There are, it is a brand new house, but as they were doing things moving in the cabinets, as they were walking in and out of the house, they scratched the paint and made a big D big ding in the wall. Now they've gotta paint the, you know, spot where there's a big ding in the wall and they got a spackle it, paint it and all that stuff.
Make it look new again. They've got to maybe restain and refinish some spots on the trim. I've had mirrors replaced because they broke a mirror on the way in and they still installed it. I'm like, oh my God, seriously? I'm sorry. I have to say this. A woman would never do that. A man would do that.
He's like, oh, that's okay. Most of the mirrors fine. I'm just kidding. That's just kind of my thing. I go, there's certain things that men notice and women notice. And I don't see a lot of women. Doing builds, not that there aren't any, but it's [00:04:00] not the main people that are out there doing builds. Just outlets not working, lights not working.
I had a property that, it was a new build and I, we found that these lights switches weren't working in the bedroom and bathroom and we're like, these light switches aren't working. And the, contractor. the general contractor was having a debate with me about it, and I says, no, I'm telling you these outlets, these switches are not working properly.
And he finally came to the house and was doing like the final walkthrough with us, and we were in the master bathroom, primary bathroom, and he's like doing the switches and he goes, these light switches aren't working. I said, that's what I've been telling you, they're not working. He goes, oh. Oh, I'll get that fixed now.
But he didn't believe it, even though the home inspection and me telling him is not working, he had to see it himself to believe that the light switches were not working in the bedroom. I've had, [00:05:00] a dishwasher installed, but the cord, the electrical cord from the dishwasher to the plugin was too short.
But they didn't take time to put in a new plugin, like a new cord to get to the outlet. That was a whole thing that my client spent forever chasing the builder to fix it. Now here's why. That was just, there is a tip to it. If you close on a house, and even though they tell you, oh, we have somebody who's assigned to all the new builds to deal with issues that are not quite right.
they still do not make you a priority getting a plumber to come back and deal with something. the worst experience I had with a new build was a property I actually bought. One of it was our first home and it was a townhouse and I was in Minnesota and it rained and it rained and rained and rained and [00:06:00] the water.
Backed up into the house, the drain, I don't know what happened, I can't remember exactly. We're talking many decades ago, but it flooded. Our lower level of our townhouse, like flooded it. The whole lower level was full of water. I'm like, oh my God. Well, the builder had to come back out and apparently the drain was clogged.
And so the water was not going out like it was supposed to from the drainage field. So instead of it draining out away from the homes, it was coming back into the houses. And so they had to come in and I think they could have done a better job. They just tried to dry the carpet. And that was the best we got.
But I had another builder who, for some reason I was on vacation. I had somebody filling in for me with my client, and the builder was like, no, we're not gonna let you do a home inspection until after we [00:07:00] close. And I was like, why would you not want my client to do a home inspection? What's the scoop there?
But I wasn't in the loop on it, so I couldn't advocate for my client and the person who was filling in for me obviously didn't and couldn't either. I wasn't comfortable doing it, I'm not sure. And so that was a situation where we did do the home inspection after they closed and they found all kinds of things not done.
And so my client spent a year chasing the builder to, excuse me, try to get them to come back and fix these things. Like the exterior lights weren't working. And just replacing a mirror and just little things. And so it's really a punch list for the general contractor to go back to his subcontractors and say, you need to fix this.
Or to have the person that they hire to do the [00:08:00] detail work to come back in and do those detail works, fix the scratches, fix the, holes in the wall, removing things, making sure that the flooring is. Where it's supposed to be. It looks right. It's not dirty. That all the appliances are working, all the outlets are working, all of the ceiling lights are working.
That's, that's really what that punch list is for. And not all of my clients take that recommendation. They trust the builder is going to do their job, but again, the reality is. I've sold enough new builds and spec homes to know that they're human. They miss things, their subcontractors miss things, and if we don't catch it before close of escrow, it becomes a lot harder to get that builder to come back and fix little things because they've moved [00:09:00] on.
We all know how it is when we have a small repair. It's so hard to find even a handyman who'll come back and do a little thing. Just come back and do this little thing for me. I don't know how I can't do it, whether I physically can't do it, I don't have the time, whatever. It's so hard to get somebody to come and do a small job, and so that is no different when we're talking about builders and subcontractors and little things that, just to tie it all up in a nice pretty bow for the buyer so that they have a house that they can, they don't have to worry about that.
Everything's working fine. Now, the other thing to remember is that with a new build and or spec home here in Arizona, there's typically a three year builder warranty. However, if the house has been sitting on the market for a while, and I actually sold one of these, this year, [00:10:00] and the house had been on the market since 2022.
And now it's 2025. By the time that house sold to my client, the builder warranty was gone. Now the things that were still warrantied now, when I say builder warranty, we're talking construction, things that they would be responsible to come back and fix. Light outlets, that kind of thing. Light fixtures that were like not working properly.
They would be responsible. Well, that warranty was over. It had been too long from when the house was finished to when it was finally sold, and I confirmed all this. I called and said, does the builder warranty, is that from the time it's sold or from the time it's finished? The, the clock is ticking and the clock starts ticking when the house gets its certificate of occupancy.
So [00:11:00] those three years went by. Yeah, the house set for three years market. they priced it way too high to begin with. Anyway. In that case, one of the things that I do, because the roof is still covered, the appliances are still covered. The water heater, the electrical, all that hvac, all the big ticket items are covered.
It's the little things, you know, like you're not gonna get the builder to come back typically. And patch a wall and that type of thing. So that could be something maybe covered by a home warranty, like outlets, light fixtures that aren't working. Not the light fixture itself, but like the connection. Sorry.
So having a home inspection on a new build and or spec home just helps you to have some peace of mind so that when you move into your home, you're not having to chase the builder or the subcontractors or the general contractor to get little things taken care of. And I don't know about you, but I [00:12:00] get really frustrated when I thought I was buying something that's brand new and there's issues with it.
It's just. It sort of takes all the joy out of it. It just becomes a frustration. And like I said, I've only had one builder who refused for whatever reason. I, again, I wasn't there when this all went down. I was told about it. No, you cannot do a home inspection before you close on the house. I've never had that.
So again, not all my clients take my recommendation, but I do strongly recommend it and I usually have these examples so it helps them to understand why, that it's important because once you're in your house, you really wanna focus on unpacking, getting settled, kind of. You know, moving's disruptive enough, let alone being in a house that you don't know.
I'm sorry. So say for instance, this dishwasher example, [00:13:00] so you're like, oh my God, we're gonna wash all the dishes in the dishwasher before we put 'em on the cupboard. And you get your dishwasher loaded and you put the soap in and you push the button and it doesn't work. You are like, what's wrong? Why is this not working?
Oh my God, it's broken. And you pull it out, you look at and you go, oh. The cords, it's not plugged in, you know, and then you're like, well, we'll plug it in. Well, it doesn't reach well. Now what, you know, who's responsible for fixing that? Who's responsible for getting a new cord that actually goes from the dishwasher to the, you know, outlet under the sink?
You know? So yeah, they could go get a, you know, extension cord and do all that, but the reality is. It's a new home. Everything should be working, and that is the last thing you wanna be thinking about as you're unpacking and gosh, your stuff falling, dishwasher, and you're like, it's not working. Now what am I gonna do?[00:14:00]
Moving is exhausting enough. Finding out that, you know, the lights don't work, dishwasher doesn't work, the mirror is broken. There's dings all over in the woodwork. You name it, just weird stuff. The light switches don't work. I turn it on and the lights don't come. Hot in the bathroom. Those are things that you just need not to have on your plate when you're moving.
It's already stressful enough. Say for instance, if you had children, it's even more stressful, multi-generational families. You've got all these moving parts. The last thing you want is to have to worry in a new home that things aren't working. And so that, that's my so to speak. Call on that. I just recommend that even on new builds that you have a home inspection, it becomes a punch list for the builder to fix little things, and you can then move in and have peace of mind if you like.
What I said, and you're interested in learning more about, [00:15:00] buying, selling, taking care of homes, understanding loans, understanding all things real estate. Please like and subscribe below and please leave comments, DM me. Please let me know what you think or what you may have questions on that I can specifically, make a video on and answer for you and, or have a video just answering questions.
All right. Have a blessed day.
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