A Tale of Two Homes

It never ceases to amaze me at the differences of the homes I inspect and how much difference they can be from one builder to the other and even from the same builder in different subdivisions.

For example. Monday I inspected a 4100 sf custom home in The Woodlands. This home had all the bells and whistles. It was very beautiful and nicely laid out. However, once I got below all the cosmetics of the home, she was a tad bit ugly. You know what they say, "Beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes all the way to the bone."

Well, this home had some ugly and it went all the way to the bones!

I could not believe the amateurish work performed on this home. We found numerous water leaks, poorly installed appliances, a backyard that sloped toward the patio and numerous other problems. It took two of us about 4 hours to go over this home. It would have taken me 5 or 6 hours by myself.

On Tuesday, our inspection was of a 4600 sf spec home. Now this is a "high end" builder. However, I had inspected this home from the frame up (and did many battles with the builder) so I figured the Final Inspection would be problematic also.

I'm happy to report that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I did have help from my Clients though. They took my Framing and Pre-Sheetrock reports and had a conference with the Site Superintendent and Regional manager and asked them if this was "normal quality" for XXXX Homes. They agreed it wasn't and so I believe a little extra attention to detail was used to finish out this home.

The inspection took two of us about 2 1/2 hours. The biggest thing we could find was that the downstairs AC was not working like it should.

What a day a difference makes!

I've seen huge differences in the quality of work from the same builder in the same neighborhoods. Even of homes side by side.

Why?

Because the builder uses different subs. Sub A gets this home and Sub B gets that home. It's amazing to see how each home will get built. You'll certainly be able to see which framing sub knew and cared about what they were doing.

The question of "Who builds the best home" can not be honestly answered. I don't know, I'll have to look at your home to see if it's one of the better built ones!

Until next time,

Donald