No one is likely to find all the defects right away. If the home has passed the permit inspections, it should be safe to move in, and living in it for a while will reveal things that a home inspector might not find. In addition, a home inspector is normally looking for defects, not marginal standards of workmanship, or cosmetic issues. Hold off on paying for an inspection. Keep a little notebook of things that bother you and meet with the builder before the year is up. You may even find that you are your own best inspector and that there is no need to pay for the services of a home inspector. If nothing shows up in the first 10-12 months, it might be that there is nothing much wrong.

I do not know the terms of your warranty, but....

If I wanted to do an inspection myself, I would be ok with that because I would know how to use “things”.

There are probably home inspection check lists available on the internet. One would use/turn on/off every thing...water, heat, lights, appliances, don’t forget out doors too, doors, locks, windows, everything, crawl under, climb over, use cell phone camera.

A home inspector in my area charges $750 to go through a check list, probably takes 3-4 hours. A home inspection is expected when buying or selling a house, and might also include water/insect evaluations.

I think your inspector is right, I do not know if it is standard....

Thanks guys appreciate it!!

Some of this also depends on your relationship with your builder. We had a weird leak above our window that we didn't have until a year later. It ended up being an improperly caulked window. But our builder had roof guys as well as window people out until we found the source. No cost to us as he knew this wasn't something that just happened but was part of the build process.

If I was not confident of my own ability to inspect all the key parts of the construction, it would be a very good idea to hire my own inspector before closing, since at that point the builder still has financial incentive to complete the punch list and close on the house.. However, many new home owners are also so anxious to finally get into the house that it might be hard to stand your ground and hold off closing until certain inspection issues are completed. For example, if your contract specified certain effiency ratings for your HVAC, water heater, insulation thickness and type, roofing materials, etc., and your inspector found one that did not meet the rating, would you want to delay closing until its resolved?

Bruce

A whole house inspection, or a typical "resale" inspection can be helpful. Very common if the home is a custom sold as a spec home, but rare for contract build-to-suit.

Most resale inspectors have adopted templates, some of which may exceed 50 pages BEFORE issues are inserted, so they tend to alarm clients 100% of the time. If this happens, sit down with the contractor and ask for detailed responses (vs "no big deal"). Not all inspectors (or contractors) understand 100% of codes, finish details, etc.

If you are buying a spec home, closing after completion, that isn't from a builder you recognize, I highly recommend a detailed inspection, as well as checking for a licensed contractor of record on the permit and in a written addendum from the seller. It has become very common in California for spec homes to be built as "owner builder" as there is a lot of grey area enforcing that law.

Great advice from Jeffrey R. Grenz. Home inspector fees must be proportional to the number of pages in their report. I don't find them particularly useful except for raising more questions than answers. Their typical recommendation on anything in question is to "hire a licensed professional to evaluate. What's the point of a home inspector, then?

Totally depends on what your home warranty is. We have been in our home for 1.5 years now. We did a walk through for deficiencies before we moved in and several more since as things have come up. After one year we had a huge second round of deficiencies that only became apparent throughout the first year. None were super dramatic but none were visible at move in. We are having painting and concrete work done in June that still fall under deficiencies. Our build was far from perfect but I will say that our builder is making sure we feel the project is well done in the end.

Not standard, but if you have a strong interest in it by all means go ahead.

It seems to me OP is looking for peace of mind.

I agree with the observation that all home inspector reports I've seen lately have pages and pages of boilerplate. I think this is for three reasons: 1) many things are pretty common from house to house; 2) it makes it easier to produce a superficially impressive document by pulling up standardized sections that are available in their report software; and 3) a lot of the language relates to enumerating all the things they didn't do or can't know (like take off the electrical panel cover to inspect the wiring, or inspect plumbing in the walls, or provide assurances that there are no insect infestations anywhere, etc.). I get this...they don't have X-ray vision, they don't want to take things apart, and they can't see hidden defects. The problem is that people think that a home inspector will ferret out most/all of a home's problems, when in fact many inspections are more limited than people realize. This is further underlined by the many disclaimers in most reports, and by a statement in most contracts that the maximum liability of the inspector is the cost of the inspection. I've had both good inspectors and those who knew less than I did...so I always approach these reports with a level of skepticism

@kudzu9,

Well said!

I had a home inspection on my (mostly untouched) 1940 home when I bought it in 2012. There were so many areas where I was told to "hire a professional" to get a real evaluation that I doubt I got much of anything out of the inspection. However, at least the guy knew he wasn't really qualiifed to inspect the original 1940 boiler and radiator heating system that had been converted from coal to oil. :)

Bruce

FWIW, I've never had a home inspection which I would call useful. All the homes were in good condition and no problems were found.

However, I once had a guy come inspect my deck and he was horrified by what he saw. Note to self, don't take the lowest bid. ;-)