Don’t get Caught Out like 90% of New Home Buyers
If you’ve bought a new home, congratulations. However, it may have defects you’re not aware of. These defects can remain hidden for some time, and they might not be obvious to the naked eye or to someone simply walking into your home. However, these defects shouldn’t be ruled out and can manifest themselves now or later. You should keep an eye out for these types of defects, because left unchecked, they can ruin your home whether it’s new or well used. It’s not just about poorly placed windows or bad spackling, either.
CASE 1:
A family man trusts the wrong homebuilder, a family friend, and buys the new home his wife fell in love with. After six years, well past the deadline for any guarantees, the home has had no problems. Then the council builds a bypass, and the next rain reveals the flaws: poor drainage causes a flood in the poorly sealed lower level, not of water but of gooey mud, a metre high. A drainage culvert to the side of the house collapses in the washout, and parts of the lawn also become treacherous to walk over or mow. At the bottom of the sloping yard, what was once lush grass becomes a marsh, ruining the established vegetable garden.
In fact, the home has bad drainage and a poorly sealed lower level. These two defects are catastrophic, to the point where this house, originally priced at $250,000, dropped by about a third in value after the cleanup. Some of the problems have since been addressed, but there has been subsequent flooding over the last decade. The former functioning lower level is simply now average storage, which has cut the home’s living space in half. Many family heirlooms and memories were also destroyed in the floods, and these are irreplaceable treasures that are simply gone.
The Second Case:
A man buys a home, handyman’s special. He knows a bit about home structure, having worked several summers in construction, and he likes building and renovating. The flaws he sees – a roof cant indicating some leak problems, paint (of course), and broken bricks around the bottom of the home look like things he can work with. After signing his contract, he finds the real problem with the home: a cracked foundation caused by poor settling. The south end of the home is settling more than the north end, and though jacks have helped hide the problem and level out the floors, there is no repairing it himself. To fix the problem will cost him more than he paid for this unique fixer-upper opportunity.
Problems like these, and others, may hide in the home you’re considering. This can be true whether it’s new or old. Even if you think you know about homes and your best friend is the builder, it’s a possibility that the home you’re considering has serious building flaws.
As many as 90% of homes have flaws that are serious enough to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in repairs over the long run. A smaller percentage of these homes have flaws so severe that the only real option is to tear down and rebuild.
Before you purchase a home, always hire a building inspector. These professionals have worked for decades in construction, and have seen it all. They also know where to go to check credentials on land quality, future zoning issues, and the home’s history. Building inspectors know who to trust and who to avoid as well, and know what corners the shadier contractors cut – corners that might surprise you.
Before you buy your home, hire an independent building inspector to inspect it for you (and don’t go through your realtor, either). This will be easily the best money you spend in the process to get your new home.
Author: Mr Darren K Thompson has worked in Sydney termite control and he has seen lots of horror stories when people don’t tend to pest control Sydney.
