If you’re buying a new house in DFW, brace yourself. Builders around here have discovered a new hobby: telling you exactly when your final inspection is allowed to happen, as if they own your calendar, your inspector’s calendar, and possibly your soul.
You’ll get a nice, cheerful email that says something like, “Your inspection may only occur on Saturday between 10 and 5.”
Translation: We picked the one time your inspector can’t come, and we’re hoping you won’t notice.
Let’s be clear:
This isn’t coordination.
This isn’t convenience.
This is control—and not the kind that builds highquality homes.
It’s amazing how these builders, who couldn’t coordinate a roofline if their lives depended on it, suddenly become Olympiclevel schedulers the moment a thirdparty inspector gets involved. They pick one day, one time, one microscopic window, and then act shocked—shocked!—that your inspector isn’t sitting in their truck waiting to leap into action at the builder’s command.
Here’s what’s actually going on: restricting your inspection window limits what gets found, what gets photographed, and what gets fixed. And trust me, the list of things they don’t want found is longer than a Dallas summer.
After 50 years in this business and more than 13,000 houses inspected, I can confidently tell you this:
Builders don’t pull this stunt when everything is built correctly. They pull it when they want you out, closed, and quiet.
Your inspector is not their employee. Your inspector does not answer to their superintendent. Your inspector is the only person on that jobsite who is there solely for you. The builder has absolutely zero authority—let me repeat that—zero authority to tell you when your inspection “may” occur. You paid for the house. You hire the inspector. You set the schedule. Period.
Whenever a builder tries to limit access, that’s your signal to raise an eyebrow—high. It’s the homeowner equivalent of a mechanic saying, “No, you can’t look under the hood, but trust me, it’s fine.” Every time I see a builder impose one of these absurd singletimeslot policies, I start mentally counting the defects we’re going to find the moment we actually get inside.
And if they tell you, “This is just our policy,” let me translate:
“It’s our policy to make your life harder and our liability smaller.”
Here’s the truth: If they build it right, they don’t care when your inspector shows up. If they build it wrong—well, suddenly the only time available is this Saturday from 10:03 to 10:07.
Don’t fall for it.
You are absolutely entitled to have your own inspection performed at a reasonable time that works for you and your inspector. And if your builder tries to strongarm you into a single inspection slot, that’s the moment to politely inform them that your inspector’s schedule—not theirs—controls when the inspection happens. Trust me, they back down faster than a loose shingle in a March windstorm.
So when you get that “one-time-only inspection window” email, recognize it for what it is: a neon sign that says, “We’d really prefer it if no one looked too closely at this house.”
My advice?
Let your inspector look even closer.
You get one inspection. One shot. One chance to find every hidden defect in your new home before closing.
That’s what many DFW builders now tell buyers. “Sure, you can have an inspection — but just one, right before you close.”
Sounds like a fair deal until you realize that’s the equivalent of being told you can’t open the hood on your brand-new car until after you’ve signed the paperwork and driven it off the lot.
This practice isn’t about efficiency, liability, or “safety.” It’s about control — and keeping you from discovering what they covered up before you take possession.
The Dirty Little Secret
When a builder limits you to one inspection, it’s not because they’re organized. It’s because they know what you’d find if you had access sooner.
By the time that final walk-through rolls around, drywall is up, trim is installed, and the paint is dry. What’s hiding behind it all?
• Foundation cables that were never tensioned.
• Flashing that never made it behind the siding.
• Crushed ductwork.
• Electrical boxes buried in insulation.
• Drain lines running uphill.
But hey — those countertops look great, right?
Why Builders Love the “One-Inspection-Only” Rule
Because once the house is finished, you can’t prove what’s wrong.
Limiting inspections keeps the builder’s shortcuts invisible. It prevents a qualified, independent inspector from catching framing errors, waterproofing failures, or missing structural hardware when those things are still accessible — and cheap to correct.
Then, when you finally find problems after you move in, the builder smiles and points you to the “warranty department.” Translation: good luck.
“It’s Our Policy.”
Builders love to dress this up with phrases like “insurance restrictions,” “liability reasons,” or “company policy.”
Let’s call that what it is: b-u-l-l-s-h-i-t.
Those same builders have no problem letting cable installers, pest-control techs, or painters wander through the jobsite. But a state-licensed inspector with a camera and a codebook? Absolutely not.
Because that inspector might document something that can’t be explained away later.
You’re the Customer — Act Like It
You’re about to spend more money than most people make in a decade. You have every right to inspect that house as many times as necessary to know what you’re buying.
If a builder refuses, that tells you everything you need to know about the quality of their product and their confidence in it.
Before you sign:
• Get inspection access written into the contract. Pre-pour, framing, and final should be the bare minimum.
• Hire your own inspector, not the builder’s “recommended” one.
• Walk away from any builder who tells you when and how you can protect your own investment.
Bottom Line
A builder who limits inspections isn’t protecting you — they’re protecting themselves.
If their work meets code, passes muster, and stands up to industry standards, they shouldn’t care who looks at it or when.
So when a builder says you can only have one inspection, tell them:
“Then you only get one chance to sell me a house — because I’m walking.”
Good builders welcome oversight. Bad ones hide behind drywall and contract clauses. Know which kind you’re dealing with before you hand over the check.
Ready to See What’s Really Behind the Walls?
Schedule your phased new-construction inspection today with Texas Inspector — the most trusted name in independent residential inspections across Dallas–Fort Worth.
