Home Inspection for a New Townhome
 

I was wondering if it was necessary to get a home inspector to go through a brand new town home? Some people say yes and some people say no. The builder that is developing the place we have bought is Vesta Properties and they seem to have a very good track record. What are you guys thoughts? I'm a first time home buyer and would gladly like some opinions on this.

You can for your piece of mind, but don't expect the developer to take the inspector's list of deficiencies seriously if they allow you to have an inspector on site to come over the building. Developers generally don't even like to come back to fix issues noted by owners. Also, the developer's reputation is only as good as the contractors they use.

If you bought a presale, get the most out of your 2-5-10 warranty and get any labour or material defects taken care of within the 2yrs (ideally at the tale end of the 2yrs).

Thanks for the advice. That's what my realtor said as well in regards to them not caring what the home inspector will say.

I did when I bought a new home and honestly if I bought another new home I probably wouldn't waste my money. You'll find stuff as you go on your own just compile your list and submit it after a while like suggest above.

All new construction needs to pass strict municipal inspections for electrical, plumbing, sprinkler, framing, insulation, structural, and whatever else i missed, before the building can get 'occupancy' status from the city. You should be in pretty safe hands when buying new, and honestly you shouldnt 'need' a home inspector.
But make sure when you do your 'walkthrough, you're pretty much just looking for cosmetic deficiencies, ie paint chips, crooked receptacles, etc...

Time for the professional to weigh in on buying from a developer, these home owner responses are..

Developers don't hire the best sub-contractors, they hire the least expensive to maximize profits, and unlike custom home building subs work with very little oversight from the foreman and the inspectors are not picky. The quality of structural work in a development will be a fraction of that found in any custom home, even if the cosmetics are decent. The work will be barely pass inspections and many things that would normally be flagged by inspectors are simply ignored. It's worthwhile to have a home inspector look over the work that a home owner is not qualified to assess.

Here's a funny story..
I was sent to a development in Morgan Creek with my crew to insulate two show homes, the homes were being built by a top developer and had a starting price of $800k. The developer didn't call us back to that development for six months, which is very unusual, I had a surprise waiting for me when I eventually returned. The developer hired us to make the show homes perfect, but for the remaining homes they used a cheap company who uses lower quality materials and unskilled labour. The cheap company was falling behind and holding up progress, so we were brought in to catch things up. The quality of the cheap companies work was unprofessional, improperly installed and would never have passed inspection on a custom home site, but it already had passed inspection on this job site. I redid half the cheap contractors work, because my ethics would not allow me to leave a job in that state.

Just because it's new or from a good developer doesn't mean everything will be right, a few hundred dollars is a small price to pay to protect an investment the size of a home.

This thinking is very naive. I used to think likewise until I'm currently in the process of building a custom home. The municipal inspections you refer to, they're usually the barebone minimum requirements. Basically the city wants to make sure the house isn't going to collapse and is built according to building code, but the actual workmanship and the materials they can careless. But yes you were right on the home inspection though, because by that point, you're just looking mainly for cosmetic items but if you want to see the quality of the sub-trades there are always signs you could look for such as: is the floor even, if you have tiles, are the grouts even and straight, if the tiles are flat with no bulging spots. You can also try to see if the walls are straight and plumb, are the door frames square. Other things I can think of off the top of my head is, what kind of doors they used, fibreglass, hollow wood core, solid wood core, whether or not the cables and wires are bundled up and labelled properly, these should all give you an indicator of how good the sub-trade worksmanship is

That partially depends on the inspector, ultimately they can't fail you for poor quality work if it meets code requirements, but if an inspector chooses they can be very picky and some are on every site. Easy going inspectors will do a quick walk through and then go "yup, looks decent, pass". Others will analyze every inch of work "see the insulation in the back left corner of the attic, your 1/2 an inch to low, completely respray the attic and re-schedule". I loved having the tough inspectors, because no matter how hard they tried to find faults they couldn't. Generally, the higher the property values in an area are the tougher the inspections are, and custom homes always have the better inspectors. Having a good general contractor is the most important aspect of building a custom home, because they'll ensure the subs aren't using cheap material.

Adding to what I said in my prior post on the subject, housing developments are big business, and just like any big business they get cut some slack by government. Municipalities want the tax revenue that developing land brings in, and if their inspectors hold up projects and cause developers to lose money they'll do business in other cities. Obviously, cities won't allow that to happen. Knowledgeable people knew leaky condos would leak when they were being built, but structuring code the way government did catered to developers. The next common issue will be mold in basements, anyone building a custom home on this site, do yourself a favour and discuss insulating basement walls with spray foam or rigid board with your contractor.

Then again, you guys are comparing a custom home vs developers. You do get what you pay. If I were to build my own custom home, I'd most likely would carefully pick my subcontractor, and make sure they go above and beyond with workmanship and materials. When you buy a new townhome, it's not like you can get much choice. Either you buy it or you dont. I've dealt with plenty of electrical inspectors that will fail you for even slightly untidy work.

Seriously what is a 'home inspector' these days anyway? some guy that took a 6 week night course at a community college?

I compared and contrasted custom home building versus developments, because that's the simplest way to high light the abysmal quality of work that occurs on many development sites.

You have the choice of buying it or not buying it, if an inspection reveals the work is garbage, then that might be enough to convince you not to buy it.

If I were hiring a home inspector, I would specifically ask for credentials beyond a two week community college course that teaches them to read inspection dates on furnaces. The only person I would hire is someone with significant experience in the construction industry prior to entering the home inspection field. If I couldn't find someone who fits that description, I would look for a GC with a small business willing to spend a few hours checking out a place for me.

That is true. The general populace does not care about the quality of the overall build or are willing to learn. On a spec/presale build, most buyers only care about finishings: granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, laminate flooring and how cheaply can they get it for. How else would these kinds of places sell where the master bedroom is 9'x9'?
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developers who use different contractors for a savings aren't any developer our company would work with..

We've built custom homes in the past as well as many other projects including multi-families, detached multi's etc. and we use the same trades almost everywhere we go, they may not be that end-all-be-all of quality, but the people we use are better than some trades i've seen working in 15+ million dollar homes in west van

Building custom homes or not doesnt have much bearing on who you hire if your a shady company to start.