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.
