Is A Home Inspection Necessary On New Construction?

Is a Home inspection necessary on new construction? I admit I have been an advocate that with all the inspections that builders have to go through with the towns and counties that the checks and balances have always been there. So, I was not necessarily a proponent of a home inspection on new construction; until NOW. Builders are building homes at a rapid pace and struggling to keep up with the demand for homes to the point they are spread thin in staffing. There seems to be an underlying thinking that it cannot sustain the level we are at so they do not want to hire more staff and then lay them off in a few months. But is the lack of help and the quality of the inspections hurting the home owner buying the house? I recently have sold five new construction homes. Three of them closed recently and all three had a home inspection done on them. This was more peace of mind for them than anything else. The results of two of those inspections made me re think my thinking of home inspections on new construction. One came in relatively clean with a bad light socket and a door jamb that needed an adjustment (no real big deal and easy fixes). The other two left me appalled that the builder did not notice the issues and that they made it through the inspection process. One home had an exhaust pipe that was supposed to go out through the roof and someone forgot to cut a hole in the roof and extend the pipe. The only way the inspector caught it was he noticed a pipe hole missing on the roof and used his camera to zoom in on the area in the attic to see that the pipe had been cut off a few inches before the roof. The bad part was this was would have led to carbon monoxide to enter the house. With this being a young family with two kids and a third on the way this is not something they wanted to deal with. To make matters worse the house had missing insulation on a few of the cavities in the wall and some electrical issues..... The other house was not even complete the day we were supposed to close and got extended another three days. Going to the house on the day we were supposed to close there still was issues with the house in regards to the stove had no power the gas line was not hooked up, the garbage disposal did not work, the exhaust fan in the master bathroom was not connected, and a slew of other minor issues with paint and trim work. This was all after the home inspector found so many issues with the house it actually covered two pages of items that needed to be addressed a week prior to closing. A lot of the things were items we would not have noticed and some we might have caught. One house I might have said it was an exception to the rule but two in a week and a third I am closing on this month and am running into issued with now make me think that these builders are spread so thin that they are making mistakes trying to get done as fast as they can to stay with the demand. Thus now I am strongly advising EVERY new home buyer to have an inspection done on the house prior to closing........ Dave diCecco Realtor/Broker Helen Adams Realty Cell: 704-519-7895 ddicecco@helenadamsrealty.com www.davedicecco.com