Standing Out in Ohio Podcast
Listen and learn how some stand out from competition and gain market share. Information helpful to agents and buyers. Conversations with professionals and entrepreneurs regarding their stories and what makes their companies and themselves stand out and gain competitive advantages. Listen to stories from Ohio real estate agents and related businesses to help you know how to improve and who to consider using for yourself or friends. Created by the owners of a highly rated home inspection company in Ohio and the Winners of Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest https://homeinspectionsinohio.com/
Standing Out in Ohio Podcast
Navigating New Construction: What Every Buyer Should Know About Home Inspections
Most homebuyers assume newly constructed homes don't need professional inspections. After all, they're brand new and subject to county inspections, right? This dangerous misconception could cost you thousands down the road.
In this revealing discussion, we unpack why even fresh-from-the-builder homes need multiple professional inspections. County inspectors simply don't have the time to thoroughly examine each property—they're meeting minimum code requirements while juggling dozens of other sites. Meanwhile, we're finding issues in almost every new construction we inspect.
We outline the three critical inspection phases every new homebuyer should schedule: the pre-drywall inspection that reveals what will soon be hidden behind walls forever; the final walkthrough before closing; and the crucial 11-month warranty inspection that catches problems before your builder's warranty expires. We also discuss our upcoming foundation floor-level survey service that uses precision instruments to measure foundation levelness down to fractions of an inch—establishing a valuable baseline for your home's structural integrity.
The conversation also covers practical challenges with scheduling new construction inspections, including state law requirements for builder permission and the best timing to ensure project managers can provide necessary access. For anyone building or considering a new construction purchase, this episode provides essential knowledge that could save you from future heartache and expense. Don't wait until problems emerge—protect your investment from day one with proper inspection protocols.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Two-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast, where we discuss topics, upcoming events, news and predictions with real estate professionals and entrepreneurs. Listen and learn what makes their companies and themselves stand out and gain advantages over the competition and gain market share. Subscribe for the latest news and discussion on what it takes to stand out from the crowd. Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2:Habitation investigation is the way to go for a home inspection in Ohio. Trusted licensed home inspectors for your needs. From radon to mold to warranties for a great home inspection, you really can't go wrong.
Speaker 3:visit home inspections in ohiocom hey everybody, welcome to the standing out. How podcast this? Is jim, and with me, of course is Laura, the office goddess.
Speaker 4:Hello everyone.
Speaker 3:All right, so Laura.
Speaker 4:Jim.
Speaker 3:In doing inspections on new builds, some people they don't know. That's a thing which seems odd to us to not realize that you should get it inspected People don't know that new buildings, new construction should get inspected. Also, if it's commercial or residential, they all need to get inspected. Yes, county, city, village inspectors aren't spending as much time as they need to, or should, or should.
Speaker 3:They have a job and they've got a crap ton of stuff to things they're looking for right and and a certain number of things they need to get done each day or each week so they don't have the time to spend you know an hour and a half two hours at a free you know free drywall especially so we can see a lot more. But there's an issue sometimes with the new builds when people call on Fridays to schedule an inspection for the weekend.
Speaker 4:Or if they schedule online and they never respond back to us when we say we need information.
Speaker 3:So this is for anybody who is. Maybe you're having a new house built, you're an agent and your buyers are having a new house built for themselves, or what are the issues with scheduling for new construction?
Speaker 4:So state law we need to have written permission to go onto the property to do the inspection, which, in the case of a new build, means that someone from the building company, like the project manager or someone like that, has to give us approval to get in. So if you schedule online and you don't put their information in, or if you schedule Friday afternoon for something on the weekend, most project managers that I've met I've one in 20 some years that answered the phone on a Saturday One Okay, so they don't answer.
Speaker 3:There's no way to get a hold of them If we get a text message saying it's okay, it'll be unlocked. Is that cool?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's fine, and I've tried that I've tried texting, but if I'm not getting a response back from the project manager, maybe they should have a heads up. Or I've asked, when they schedule it, to send an email to client care and to the project manager so that they know it's going on and we can try and get it in writing an email form. Those are the like. It's a big one. Now, the only caveat to that, my understanding, is that if it's a custom build, the client actually owns that property.
Speaker 4:They just have a person coming in and building, like you and I did, but we own the land. We own the land. That's what a custom build is. So what we did was a custom land. We own the land. That's what a custom build is. So what we did was a custom build. We owned the land. We had one builder come in and build our house.
Speaker 3:I think I've heard the word custom used, even though the builder owns the land. The house is designed specifically for those people. It's a special design.
Speaker 4:I don't know if there's a separate way to word that design.
Speaker 3:I don't know if there's a separate way to work that.
Speaker 4:But my understanding was that if it is a custom build where the client slash soon-to-be homebuyer owns the land, we don't need anything from the builder.
Speaker 3:But typically builders, large builders. They own the land and they divide it up, build a house and each little section of the land. They divide the land and then, and they're they divide it up, build a house in each little section of land, they divide off and they sell them that way. So we need they're the owners, they are the owners, so we need homeowners and sellers, we need their permission to go on, okay right and that's.
Speaker 4:That's pretty much it. So there's there's timing with that. Or, if you're going to schedule, talk to them and go, hey, can we do it at this date in this time? Maybe even get approval from them during the week before you schedule and then forward that email to us and let's get it scheduled. But we need to have something in writing or we can't do it. I actually had to cancel one this weekend because we've tried for four days to get ahold of the client. We had no clue who the builder was, no clue who to call or talk to and no permission to get onto the property, so I canceled it.
Speaker 4:And he still never contacted us back.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, something it could be scammy or something weird going on there. But we've had builders um say, yeah, you can come inspect the house but don't go on the roof, right? I, I understand they own that and they don't. They don't want the, the liability around. Somebody going on the property with you know, who knows it could be a liability for somebody trips, falls. I've been, I've been a new new builds pre-drywall where the ladder they weren't really ready for the pre-drywall but there's no stairs. The base there's a ladder you'd have to climb oh heck, no, and it's wet down there.
Speaker 3:Typically not always, but often it is wet down the base but it's like like, oh, this is like this hazardous. I would not want a if I was the builder, I would not want a home. My client, my client, coming there trying to climb down these wet ladder rungs down in the basement.
Speaker 4:So I understand what they, the builders, need to give us permission to be there and sometimes sometimes I've even needed to provide that we have workman's comp insurance and that we have general liability or they won't let us on.
Speaker 3:It's been a while since we, or when was the last time you had to do that?
Speaker 4:Oh past month.
Speaker 3:See, this is what happens when Jim doesn't work in the office. I don't know, but we have systems. Yeah, and they're all taken care of, and we have things right, which is why things don't run smoothly and we can take care of more clients than most home inspectors are able to do, and we are able to have openings within 48 hours typically. Yes, we definitely try so all right. So new builds let's go over this. We typically do three inspections for new builds.
Speaker 3:Yes, we've been asked about doing a foundation inspection for a long time, but typically we have always done the pre-drive wall, the final walkthrough inspection, about a week before they close and then about 11 months into the first year warranty, about 11 months into that first year we'll come in and do a full house inspection.
Speaker 3:So they know what's changed. If anything and there always has been some changes something needs done so they can give that list to the builder and go hey, this is. Can you take care of this during the one year warranty? There's another inspection that I really haven't quite figured out.
Speaker 4:You've started.
Speaker 3:I know how to do it and I haven't had the tool for a long started. I know how to do it. I had the tool for a long time. I was never. I guess I was busy with other projects. I need to develop the formatting to do it. I got the SOP.
Speaker 4:Oh, you've got the.
Speaker 3:SOP. I got the SOP on how to do it.
Speaker 4:Oh, okay, I'll figure it out, it's just not written on paper.
Speaker 3:What it is, it's a floor-level survey. So what you do on a house, let's say a new build I think new build is probably the best, easiest way to do. It is when somebody is having their house built. When they pour that slab in the basement, do a survey on it to say how level it is. Or is it level enough within tolerances that are typical Right, because the basement, if that's off, everything else is going to be off. Maybe you can make some adjustments as you go up, but if it's way off, that's going to be a problem. So the foundation inspection would be like the new part. What's that?
Speaker 4:The new part of our yeah which I would go.
Speaker 3:I'm assuming basement it's going to be the slab as well. I got this tool that measures Like how level it is to like two pieces of paper.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it's even that, but it's a crazy, infinite amount. It will tell you okay, this is off by one quarter inch over 20 feet. I mean, I can measure that and that's well within the tolerances. So, and what we'll do, and I need to write all this stuff down, write the sequence and the report template is what I need to get before adding, because I don't know, because you'll do it on a house, about every 10 feet On a slab, you will do a measurement, you will set your reference point, which is they call it datum, but you set your reference point and then 10 feet squares like a matrix, like a x and y graph. You're gonna measure that levelness and then compare it to that first, that first one, and hopefully everything is only off by a certain amount. Okay, how much can be off depends on the distance from that original point and the size of it, it, I would assume, yes yes, so I needed the format for that, but that's coming.
Speaker 3:Yes, we've had quite a few people who asked we do the foundation inspection and really there's nothing. I mean there are things I can look at, but it's not. I don't like doing them Because.
Speaker 3:I'm looking like yeah, it's deep enough. The walls look thick enough. The footer I don't know. That's an engineer. It tells you how thick and how wide the footers need to be, but it looks normal. I don't see anything unusual. I can do that easily. But with this, the floor level, this is actual good measurements. I go hey this is level, as it should be. The floor slopes slightly toward the drain or the drain is going to be. That's okay.
Speaker 4:Well, and two, if they have that from when it was built, you can always come back out. You know, like the 11-month warranty and okay. Has it moved any?
Speaker 3:Correct.
Speaker 4:Yes, I can add that and if it has, then okay, what needs to be done?
Speaker 3:and that's another thought is it could be done. Basement is usually the best place to do it makes sense could be done on the first floor, but then you got floor coverings because your carpet is going to be thicker than your laminate. So you really can't go to measurements that way, unless you put it on laminate.
Speaker 4:So you really can't go to measurements that way you could on laminate, just not with the If the whole first floor is the exact same material, then you can't Like our houses.
Speaker 3:They're in a slab. You can easily do it here, right, and they're all the same floor throughout. So anyway, that's coming, but, yeah, scheduling for a new build. Give us time and give the information earlier in the week so we have time to get hold of a project manager or reschedule for Thursday, Friday, for the weekend. Hey, call us Thursday morning or Friday morning.
Speaker 4:Make sure Friday morning give us time to get hold of that project manager, or let the project manager know that you're going to be doing this and get it in writing from them beforehand that that it's going to be okay, that you know, like anytime this weekend is okay, or you're good on saturday, or you know, and then call us and schedule anything like that. We're, we're flexible, like genuinely, but we need to be able to have it in writing that we can be there yep, and typically when we get there, it's it's all unlocked.
Speaker 3:This is for the pre-drywall. This is pre-drywall. It's all unlocked. This is pre-drywall. It's all unlocked. Sometimes you find a walkthrough it's all unlocked Right, because they know we're coming, and then the project manager at the end of that day will go back and lock everything up. So early in the day is bad.
Speaker 4:So I know the project manager is not going to wait until 7 o'clock in the evening to uh, they're not going to. They're not. They're not wanting that and I don't blame them. I don't either. That's the end of a long day, so that's, that's the scoop. So make sure, if you or your client is contacting us or you know for a new build, we need that project manager information. We need an email, we need something from somebody saying that we can get in and there's not a problem yep, oh, and I was also thinking that.
Speaker 3:The floor level thing. If somebody has a house, well it doesn't matter. House on a slab, I could always come back and measure every now and see if it's moving right, because every house has cracks. Right, our house has cracks. I'm not like.
Speaker 4:I don't like it I don't either, but I'm looking like I would.
Speaker 3:That's a normal crack, I know, and it's like all right. Everyone's perfection for the new house and I get it I get it?
Speaker 3:we did, but we could the house has some crap and some they're concerned about. If we take measurements, we can come back and do measurements later on, like a year from yeah, later on about the same time a year ago. It's pretty much right in the same. It moves a little bit. It could be moisture levels, Because if you have expansive soils the clay is going to move a little bit and you're keeping out of that stuff, or if you have like huge rainfall and then all of a sudden it freezes up against the foundation.
Speaker 3:That could be a problem.
Speaker 4:You know, this is a good way to kind of like have a baseline for where your house is at.
Speaker 3:And it'll tell you down the road If your house moves because too much water was around your house and froze. That's a maintenance issue.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yep, and actually we'll be talking about that in another podcast.
Speaker 4:Yes, we will Anyway thank you everybody, Bye-bye and actually we'll be talking about that in another podcast yes, we will.
Speaker 1:Anyway, thank you everybody. Bye-bye, Bye. You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify or Google Podcasts to get new, fresh episodes. For more, please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, or visit the website of the best Ohio home inspection company at homeinspectionsinohiocom or jimtroffcom. That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H. And click on podcast. Until next time, learn and go do stuff.