Any home inspection tips?

[y4m]

We are doing one tomorrow. It's new construction, and all under warranty. This inspection is with our independent inspector, and then we'll do another next week with our builder.

[mollybrown]

For your builder walk through, be sure to review all of your construction notes/drawings and bring them with you. The things that we missed were little details like overhead light fixtures being in the wrong place, electrical outlets being in the wrong place, etc. In hindsight, we would have been looking at the drawings as we were in each room.

[vanillacourage]

Get a $1 nightlight and walk around plugging it into each outlet to make sure they all work.

Do final measurement for area rugs, drapes, etc.

[Deleted]

Open and close all the windows. Check the lock/latch on any sliding doors.

[womet]

Our house wasn't new when we bought it, and I brought a pad of paper and a pen to take notes/sketch things out as we walked through the house.

[hannamaren]

Jan 31, 2013 21:10:01 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

Get a $1 nightlight and walk around plugging it into each outlet to make sure they all work.

Do final measurement for area rugs, drapes, etc.

What a good idea! 

[RoxMonster]

Ask for the inspector to email you his findings. He will (should) go over them verbally with you, but ours also offered to email us a copy so we had it. There were some other small things written down that he hadn't verbally mentioned.

[Ashley&Scott]

Take notes, ask questions, walk around with the inspector. A good inspector will explain what he's looking for, what he sees & give tips along the way. Ask for a copy of the report.

[KaraOrNot]

Take lots of notes. Our inspector gave us a lot of advice about things we would have not known (e.g. type of air filters to buy, suggestions on improving insulation, etc). We also brought a tape measure and measured everything so we could get an idea of furniture placement and what to buy.

[hbomdiggity]

our inspector was practically worthless. everything was had a caviat of hiring someone else, ie plumbing - looks updated, recommend hiring plumber for verification. ummm, so is it ok?

we decided that next time we'll just hire an electrician, plumber, hvac separately.

[IIOY]

Make sure all gutters and flashings are good on the exterior, to help prevent water issues. Also, if you have an attic or anywhere that the inspector might be able to see how your windows were done, have them inspected carefully to ensure that they were installed correctly, the Tyvek was properly wrapped and stapled, etc.. This issue has cropped up in our neighborhood, which is all new construction, and apparently is a common new construction problem these days.