That's the way some people have described their new homes to us. "Oh no, it's been a very nice home" and other times we hear "This thing is like a bad dream that I can't wake up from". Chances are that you are somewhere in between. You have been pretty happy with your home, but it does have some areas that could be improved. Your one-year warranty is about to expire on your new home and you don't know if you should contact your builder over some "nit picking" things or not. What many folks don't realize is that these items that are "nit picking" can become major repairs down the road. Often they are only advanced warnings of things to come.

We bring to you the inspection knowledge of Residential Building Consultants who practice under the highest of standards - ASHI. Builders have told our clients that we are too nitpicky and tough on them. My clients have never had a complaint about that!

Your builder talked most of you out of an inspection when you purchased your new home.

"You don't need an inspection on this home, it's brand new" is what most consumers are told.

What's even worse is when the new home owners are told "Look here, we've had his inspection company already do inspections for us on this home, there is no need in you hiring your own inspector."

Of course they don't ever finish the complete truth. They may have had an inspection company come out and inspect your new home, but what they "forget" to tell you is that it was a minimal inspection at best. Right now, at this moment we have a filing cabinet full of reports on new homes that had major problems that were overlooked by the "builders inspector." Some of these people were fortunate and called their own inspector out and found these problems before they moved in. Others weren't quite as lucky and only found these major flaws and defects because they had a warranty inspection before their warranty ran out. Even though it's time consuming and inconvenient, they will most likely finally get their homes fixed. Others will only find out later down the road that they have major defects and flaws in their homes that could have been fixed easily during construction had they only knew! Now however, it is going to cost them quite a bit of their hard earned money to get their house right.

It doesn't have to be this way! Quality control is one of the cheapest forms of insurance you can buy...it's called a Professional Real Estate Inspector! Find one that has construction experience and one that works only for their clients and hire him or her to watch over your dream home while it is being constructed! When you hire a Professional it's some of the best money you can spend!

Most of us have seen at least one episode of the shows like "Dateline", "60 minutes" or "48 Hours" were a group of home owners had been taken advantage of by a builder. Did you ever ask yourself "How could they have let that happen?" It's easy. They didn't want to spend a few dollars more to hire an unbiased third party home inspector to watch over their homes while it was being built! And now your home is 1-year old. You know the warranty is about to expire. Maybe you haven't had any problems with your home. The builder assured you that you didn't need an inspection before you bought the home. He assured you that "their inspectors" were thorough and professional. Maybe they are right - maybe they are not.

The fact remains, almost every home that has had a 1-year home warranty inspection on has had problems that the builder needed to be called back out on to fix. Sure, some of these things were minor, while others were major problems waiting to pop up years down the road. Many of the costly repairs you hear about homeowners facing today do not just pop up over night. They seem like it, but it's actually a gradual process that may take years to be noticed, usually when it's too late.

Even on the homes where only minor diagnosed, the home owners have still been very happy to have had the inspection done because now they know for certain that they have a house that won't surprise them down the road.

If your builder assured you that you didn't need an inspection, and you went ahead and bought the home without the benefit of an independent inspection, then now is your opportunity to get the repairs made and peace of mind that you deserve Before your warranty runs out.