What is the Best Time of Year to Buy a House?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAdC5AqhoYI&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAdC5AqhoYI&feature=youtu.be
Why Inspect a New Home?
Common sense might whisper in your ear that inspecting a new home is
unnecessary. After all, it is brand spanking new. How much could be wrong with
it? This sort of thinking will be further reinforced by your builder’s sales force and
site superintendent. They will tell you how the city inspectors make sure that your
house is built according to the building code. Then they may also assure you that
they have even hired their own “independent” inspection firm to make certain that
all is properly constructed. Finally, the builder’s employees will sing the praises of
the 10-year warranty which your builder provides with your home. In the unlikely
event that something was missed, anything at all, it will be covered by this
ironclad warranty. Here I must strongly urge you to read every single word of
your warranty. You might be surprised at what all it does not cover. Also read
this: https://www.texasinspector.com/2015/08/what-if-a-car-came-with-a-2000-
mile-warrant/
What is wrong with the picture above? It seems so obvious. “It is the obvious
which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say ‘It’s as plain as the nose
on your face.’ But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless
someone holds a mirror up to you?” – Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
Let me supply that mirror for you. Here are the problems you need to see.
1. Almost without exception, new homes are constructed by mass production
building corporations doing business as “custom builders”. Their primary goal is
to make a profit for the shareholders, at whatever cost to the end user.
2. Your builder is a corporation, not a skilled craftsman. His employees in the
sales office and on the jobsite are sales people and construction managers, and
not experienced, knowledgeable tradesmen. The sales people are there to sell
you as much as they can, and the managers are there to manage both your
expectations and the real builders of your home – the subcontractors.
3. The independent trade subcontractors are the only people involved in the
construction of your home who have any significant amount of knowledge
regarding the process. Many, if not all, are immigrant workers who may or may
not be properly documented. All are trained on-the-job, as there are essentially
no trade schools for them to attend. Most of these workers are unaware of any
building code requirements other than those pointed out by the city inspectors.
The majority do not speak English and may not understand what is required of
them even then.
4. City inspectors are employed to bring in revenue in the form of building permits
and to protect the corporation which is the city. They are not responsible for
insuring that your home is built according to anything other than the bare
minimum standards set forth in the adopted building codes. The median wage for
this position is $53K. For this paltry sum they are expected to inspect sometimes
as many as 20 houses a day, minus an hour for lunch and drive time between
the sites. How much are they actually inspecting? You do the math.
5. Builders who claim to have their homes inspected by “independent” third-party
inspectors either do not fully understand the meaning of the term “independent”,
or they are convinced that you do not. If the builder hires an inspector, that
inspector is beholden to the builder and tacitly (or otherwise) agrees not to find
anything of significance in his inspection. If he wants to continue his relationship
with the builder, he must dance to the builder’s tune.
6. With all of the above in mind, perhaps you now can see why you might be wise
to hire a knowledgeable inspector to be on your side during the building process.
That sounds like it should be easy enough, but let’s dig a little deeper. Texas
state law says that the following types of persons are qualified to inspect new
homes during their construction:
1. a licensed engineer;
2. a registered architect;
3. a professional inspector licensed by the Texas Real Estate Commission;
4. a plumbing inspector employed by a municipality and licensed by the Texas
State Board of Plumbing Examiners;
5. a building inspector employed by a political subdivision; or
6. an individual certified as a residential combination inspector by the
International Code Council (the authors of the codes adopted in Texas).
One at a time, let us see who of these might be actually qualified for the job.
1. Even civil engineers who call themselves “structural engineers” are 99% of the
time unfamiliar with residential light frame construction. They are not
knowledgeable as to the codes involved. And, by the way, there is no such thing
as a licensed structural engineer in the state of Texas.
2. Architects are even less qualified than engineers. They are not even allowed
by law to design home foundations.
3. Texas Real Estate Commission property inspectors have no training or
licensing requirements that include knowledge of the building codes. In fact, code
inspections are specifically excluded in their standards of practice. The license
they have is merely a license to do business in the state, and nothing more.
4. Would you really want a municipal plumbing inspector to inspect anything else
in your home other than the plumbing?
5. City inspectors work for the city, as we have already discussed. They do not
have the training or even a clue how to best protect a home buyer.
6. A combination residential inspector certified by the International Code Council
comes closest to the mark. These individuals must pass harrowing exams in
residential building, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical inspections prior to
receiving a combination inspector’s certification. They really know the codes to
which your house is supposedly being built.
What is most disturbing about the above list of folks “qualified” to do new
construction inspections is what is missing. There is no mention whatsoever of
actual hands-on experience in residential construction. One simply cannot
adequately critique work that one is unable to actually perform. One cannot learn
to build a house merely conceptually and expect to understand its construction
intimately.
So then, it seems that the ideal person to inspect your new home during its
construction would be:
1. Experienced in residential construction.
2. Licensed by the Texas Real Estate Commission
3. Certified by the ICC as a Combination Residential Inspector (R-5)
Persons with all of these qualifications are few and far between. Aaron Miller of
Texas Inspector is one of those few.
1. Former builder and remodeler (1975 – 1997). Registered Builder, No. 16229,
with the Texas Residential Construction Commission. (2003 – 2009 when
commission was abolished by the Texas Sunset Act)
2. Licensed Professional Inspector No. 4336, by the Texas Real Estate
Commission since 1997.
3. Certified Residential Combination Inspector R-5, No. 5082671, International
Code Council, since 2000.
Now that you can plainly see your nose, exercise your common sense by hiring
the right person to oversee the construction of your new home.
See other qualifications here: https://www.texasinspector.com/about-us/aaronscertifications/
See another article on your builder’s warranty:
https://www.texasinspector.com/2014/08/texas-home-builder-warranties/
Even the Realtors agree that having a pre-drywall inspection on a new home is the prudent thing to do.
This is an excellent white paper describing the need to separate electrical current from the radiant barriers on roof and wall sheathing.
Builder Magazine has apparently either let their editor go, or he/she is on some really good meds. It is otherwise practically infeasible that this much common sense and unvarnished truth should issue forth from the pages of this builder friendly publication. If this was intentionally printed, well then bravo and kudos to both Builder Magazine, its editor, and author Sam Rashkin! Now, if only the home builders will listen and act accordingly.
http://www.builderonline.com/builder-100/strategy/performance-anxiety_o
Just in case it was a slip on their part, and they remove it, I will also include a link to a .pdf file of the article.
Buider Magazine Warranty Article
Some important advice for choosing the method for cleaning your air conditioner condenser coils:
I just ran across this excellent blog post from an independent insurance adjuster in Missouri. Excellent insight from an outsider. Obviously, the practices I have spoken of here before are widespread. Many thanks to Jim Bushart.
Against Football: A Reluctant Manifesto, Steve Almond
The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rolf Dobelli
Don’t Fall for the Infrared Camera Hype
Many of you have heard of infrared (IR) cameras and the supposed unbelievable feats they can perform, but most have not taken the time to uncover the real truth about them. In 2010 a Canadian television celebrity, d.b.a. Mike Holmes, declared himself to be the leading authority of the home inspection industry in North America and beyond. Due to his popularity he launched a television series promoting this fallacy and his new Canadian home inspection company. In an effort to make himself stand out in the crowd of real home inspectors he chose to promote infrared cameras as a major, if not the only important, home inspection tool. Along with support consisting of pseudo-scientific hype derived from movies and forensic science television programs that focus on entertainment with little concern for facts, he proceeded to promote something different to the viewing public. Overall, it proved to be an extremely effective and profitable business strategy, which, in this case, resulted in a successful TV series for him. This, in turn, created a dramatic increase in sales for the manufacturers of infrared imagery equipment. Like him or not, Holmes is a showboat of a salesman. Yes, Mike, his sponsors and the infrared camera industry in general profited greatly from this media circus. And, all at the expense of the home-buying viewing audience and the real home inspectors who protect them.
Infrared cameras are diagnostic tools that have many applications, most of which have nothing to do with inspecting houses. They also have many limitations. They cannot see inside of or through walls, or anything else. They can’t see water. They can’t see mold. They can’t see termites. In fact, all they can see is the infrared energy or temperature of a surface. In order for infrared cameras to provide any useful information they require a very controlled set of conditions and operating environment, which are almost never available during the course of a home inspection.
Inexperienced and unscrupulous inspectors attempt to convince prospective clients that merely owning an infrared camera makes one a superior inspector. The fact is that a pricey camera does not make up for lack of education, training, certification, and experience. Owning a copy of Black’s Law Dictionary does not make one an attorney. Owning a stethoscope does not make you a doctor.
Ever since Mike Holmes’ broadcasted his first ‘Holmes Inspection’ program, home inspectors across North America have been lining up to buy the cheapest infrared cameras on the market so that they can tout infrared services as part of their inspection process. They have even given the use of the cameras a high-tech name – thermography, and the operators are called thermographers. Sounds impressive, huh? To return to the earlier analogy, owning a copy of Black’s Law Dictionary does not make one a lexicographer.
A home inspection consists of what is primarily a visual inspection and is best performed by an individual who possesses a broad base of knowledge of all the systems and components in a home through hands-on experience as a home builder and certification as a residential inspector through the code-authoring agency, the International Code Council. The inspection is visual in nature, since inspectors are not typically authorized to perform destructive forensic investigations of builders’ or sellers’ homes. Most inspector standards of practice which are promulgated by state licensing agencies and professional inspector organizations specify that visual inspections take place without the use of “special tools”.
The types of tools that are most often useful to inspectors and usually considered to be the most important are ladders, flashlights, electrical meters and testers, screwdrivers, moisture meters, binoculars, etc. While their usefulness is extremely limited in almost all types of home inspections, infrared cameras can be helpful on certain occasions if the cameras are of the best quality, the atmospheric and lighting conditions are just right, and the camera operator is highly trained in its use. Therein lies the rub.
The cameras that most inspectors buy are at the bottom end of the technology and comparatively cheap (<$500). They have very low resolution (about like a June bug’s vision) and an extremely narrow scope of field with limited accuracy. The idea that a home inspector can use these to scan an entire house is preposterous. The technology does present an opportunity for a home owner or home buyer to evaluate a dwelling from the standpoint of thermal bridges (missing or poorly detailed insulation), air leakage (poorly detailed air barrier), and even some moisture issues (rain leaks, plumbing leaks, & condensation in the walls). However a significant and accurate result can only be accomplished by using professional equipment (in the $45K+ range), utilizing an inspector who has the required training to operate the camera (in the $5k + range), understands the building science that indicates where and how to look, and has the overall experience and field training to interpret what the camera is indicating. In other words, you can buy a high-tech camera, but the system works only if the camera is pointed in the right place. Even then, the pictures are not self-explanatory. They need to be interpreted, and the human risk of interpretation is often a bigger obstacle than the technical task of picture taking.
Furthermore, in order to stay current with their skills, an infrared inspector has to use the technology at least weekly (preferably daily) and must continually update the required education and equipment over time. We are now into a minimum of a $50K investment just to get into the game. And then one would need to quit the home inspection profession in order to become a full-time thermographer. You cannot do both.
In order to perform quality Infrared inspections you must have the right equipment and right training behind you, and then you must perform the inspection under controlled conditions at the right time of the day. This usually means at night, when home inspections do not take place.
The infrared camera services that most home inspectors are advertising are really just a marketing gimmick, as opposed to providing the client any real level of additional security against liability. The services usually represent negligence at best (providing a service they are not trained to perform) and sometimes even fraud at the worst.
While Texas Inspector owns and uses an infrared camera from time to time when it proves to be practicable, he strongly urges anyone desiring a whole-house scan to hire a full-time professional, licensed HERS energy rating contractor. Do not fall victim to those that claim to provide infrared or IR inspections as part of their home inspection services. Look for these red flags that an inspection company does not have the proper training to perform an IR Inspection:
They advertise that they will be providing IR services during a relatively brief 3 hour or less home inspection.
They advise that they will be performing the IR portion of the inspection during daylight hours (Before sunrise or after sunset is required for accurate readings).
They advise that they will be performing the IR scans when the temperature differential between the exterior and interior of the building is not and cannot be made to be >20° F.
They advise that it will be easy to identify water related issues on the interior or exterior of the home. (This is just so much BS).
They advise that they can ascertain leaks in stucco exteriors. (Not true).
They advise they will only do an interior or exterior scan of the home (not both as is required for accurate interpretation).
Most professional thermographers will take any scans of the exterior of the home prior to sun-up or after sunset. The whole purpose of using an IR camera is to look for temperature differences (indicated by the infrared light that radiates from an object) between various building components and trying to determine if they make sense. Once the sun is out, much of the ‘evidence’ is obliterated as the surfaces heat up under the rays of the sun. This will also very quickly affect the readings on the inside face of exterior walls and so even interior scans are often done before the sun has reached the particular wall(s) of concern.
Even a seasoned professional infrared inspector, with top of the line equipment, will advise that finding moisture issues is one of the hardest tasks to perform with an infrared camera. In order to perform this task properly, the technician usually has to artificially cause a significant temperature change to the structure of concern (often also accompanied by artificially lowering the air’s humidity in the region). This investigation takes a very thorough knowledge of building science (something the vast majority of home inspectors simply do not have) and much preparation. Even with all of this, useful results are not guaranteed.
A skilled thermographer will scan both the interior and exterior of a dwelling to allow a comparison between the two surfaces and seek to develop a hypothesis of what is occurring within the building structure at that particular location. Do you suppose that a home inspector would ever inspect just the exterior or interior of a home and advise that a given building envelope was OK based on only seeing only half of it?
To recap, an infrared camera is not a magic wand. It can also not impart to its operator magical skills or powers. It can be just another useful tool in the toolbox of a professional inspector. It should never be a reason to hire a home inspector.
Update 12/27/19: Not much has changed regarding this article other than the fact that the low-end cameras now available are many and cheap. One can even purchase an IR camera attachment for Android and Cult (Apple) Phones for under $200. June bugs squinting. Additionally, “inspectors” are now hawking IR cameras attached to their drones. Don’t get me started on the drone scam. That’s for an upcoming article.
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