[notfarnow]

As some of you know, I recently started as a real estate agent. It's been great so far, busy with some really good clients. It's actually a really strong market here, with price up marginally over last year.

Anyway, last week I was driving home at suppertime when one of my clients called. Wanted to put an offer in on a house. ~260k, 1 year old, nice area, 1 acre lot. We write it up, and within a couple hours we had an accepted offer, pending water test, inspection etc.

So, two days later we do the inspection on this 1 year old home. I was fortunate to be able to tag along. They found:
-No strongbacks running perpendicular to the engineered floor joists, making the floors bouncy
-the hardwood floors were run parallel to the joists, not necessary a big deal, but couplde with the above issue, the flooring was drooping and you could actually feel each joist if you're in your sock feet.
-the carrying beam in the basement had 4' cut out of it to accommodate a staircase, and the jack posts at either side of the cut were set on the concrete floor, NOT on pads
-the garage floor had cracks... not just cosmetic, it was heaving. If we put a level on them you could see where one part was actually lifting away. No rebar

The seller offered to have the items rectified (epoxy squirted in the garage floor cracks... oh sure!), but my clients backed out altogether. Who wants a 1 year old home that wasn't built to code, and who wants to guess what's hidden behind the drywall?

Anyway, I always find it funny when people say they don't want the hassle of an older house. With my ~140 year old wobbly house, I bought it crooked with a heaved garage floor and bouncy floors... but I paid an appropriate price for it. I feel bad for someone who pays for the "peace of mind" of a brand-spanking new home, but ends up with a disaster like that.

So there you have it. Lots of people skip the inspection on new homes. Spooky!