Builder's new home warranty- Did inspection find problems ?
 

For the many of you who have bought new home construction south of Rt 44-- - Did you hire someone to inspect your new home before the 1 year warranty period ended ? Were problems discovered that had to be fixed? Did you wait until the year was almost up ? We're planning to wait until at least 60 days before our closing anniversary. Will also try to hire someone who knows what to look at and where to look.

I would recommend you call Frank D'Angelo, 352-250-7818, and get on his inspection schedule, so he can do your inspection before the warranty expires. There are other inspectors, but he is one of the most popular and probably the best. He will find items to fix and the builder will take all of his comments seriously.

we had an inspector come about 3 months before the year was up...
everything was fixed rather quickly...some days we had multiple people showing up

I think that depends on your background. My husband inspected our house over the course of the year and we called warranty and had the issues resolved. He does have experience with building, electrical, plumbing etc so we decided he could do his own. If this is not your expertise then I would suggest hiring Frank.

Have your home inspected. This provides documentation by a third party as to the problems found.

Agree. We did our own years ago and nothing has surprised us since..

Do you do a home inspection before closing on a new built home?

You can, but you have one year to turn issues in..........so wait and see if other issues arise.

It's cheap money to have it inspected and they provide a nice binder with photos and they contact the warranty dept to line up correctives for you. For me they found cracks in ceiling (I wouldn't have noticed) and more surprising they found missing shingles and each stink pipe had the lead wrapped clear over the top of the pipe so the toilets struggled to get air to flush. I was never going to be on the roof to notice this. I asked the builder person who came out to fix all of the items, I said did they build my house on a Friday? He said nope they all have these same missing or incomplete items. - bottom line spend the $ and get it looked at prior to the 1 year new home warranty expires.

I agree. But, if your AC stops working, your power is off, your toilets are overflowing, and your roof is leaking, I wouldn't wait too long.

You can wait until the last 30-60 days for the inspection but you need to call and get that date confirmed with the inspector. When we did it, the first one I called was booked up for a couple months. Use an inspector rather than doing it yourself. You can always point out your concerns to him.

I agree Frank D’Angelo was great but call and get yourself on his schedule well ahead of time. He found a window needed to be replaced even down to nails missing on the roof. Certainly get the inspection , you won’t be sorry

I am purchasing a villa soon and need to have it inspected quickly. Would appreciate any recommendations

knew frank but he was busy & recommended tom comer who did a great job for us

Get it lined up well in advance. The inspectors are pretty booked.

Jessie at Integrious Home Services. He found a roof problem and we backed out of our offer.
352-344-3370

We just closed on August 26th. We hired an inspector prior to closing to make sure there were not major problems. We have had almost everything except painting issues fixed already. Part of our contract with him is that he will come back next July to make sure all items were properly fixed and to address any new issues that we may have. The cost was minimal and he found several things that we would not have seen. Well worth the money.

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We used Frank 6 years ago, just before our new home warranty expired (Yes get on his schedule EARLY, as he books a lot..). Fortunately we had very few items to fix - Builder did a great job. FRANK IS THE BEST! and a very small price to pay for peace of mind, better safe than sorry,
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You will have defects in my case they did not fix my defects inspector sent directly and they fixed only half. When they don’t fix things priority they close the work order then you have to call back to request same order again it’s being on a hamster wheel

Smart, should inspect prior to buying!

Agree on getting Frank.
Call him several months BEFORE your year..he’s popular.
You’ll want the inspection closer to than the 1 year date than too early.

Jeff Asbach, will locate # for you asap

Jeff Asbach Home Inspections, LLC
3223 Zipperer Way
the Villages, 32163

352-748-2008
Asbachhomes@aol.com

Used his service as quoted. What he missed was insufficient insulation over one room (guest rm) and shingle problem (eventual leak). Both cost to fix 500 to insulate properly I even noticed that when I went into the attic (he did same?) and 200 for the shingle leak which took time to show inside the living room ceiling. The guy who fixed it also found other issues with the shingles when up there like nails protruding which were fixed. The inspector did go up on the roof and walked it but didn't notice these?
Of course the original inspection report had minor issues that were fixed. One I complained about outside the report
Just saying.

Frank D'Angelo
 

Frank D'ANGELO

We’ve been having things fixed as soon as we find them. Had to have one problem reported a couple of times cause it wasn’t fixed the first time. A couple months before the end of the one year mark we plan to have the place inspected just to be sure we didn’t miss anything.

I had Frank D'Angelo do an inspection just shy of 1 month before my 1 year Builder's warranty was up. He discovered several small roof issues that I would never have known about as I would never have gotten up on my roof. Also, several other issues I would have never known about. He di
d the inspection, submitted the report to the Warranty Dept. and off we went with the influx of contractors showing up to repair things. And I didn't have to do anything. It was well worth the cost of the inspection. I can't speak for any of the other inspectors that work here, but I can tell you Frank D'Angelo was terrific. He is very busy and if you decide to use him, get on his schedule as soon as you can. You can book it out closer to your Warranty deadline but call him to make the appointment. You will not be sorry!

A friend of mine bought a home there and the water bill was very high for the reclaimed water 75k + gallons with watering only 2 days a week for 30 minutes people were called out a few times and blamed it on sprinkler heads which they charged to fix the water bill still increasing this time with the sprinkler system turned off they sent someone else they said nothing wrong puddling of water was only because of heavy rains. then finally they sent someone else out there this person found the leak just under the slab of the side porch the builder installed during construction believe it or not they said it was because of the person mowing the grass CHARGE $350.00 and said landscaping only warrantied for 60 days after the sale. How is this considered landscaping? the warranty department does not stand up to the 1 year warranty

I moved in above 466a and I walked around the house every month and found a dozen items that needed attention. Made the call in and two days later it was fixed. Then had someone in at the last month to inspect and he found a dozen more. He wrote them up and made the call. Great.

New home inspection
 

There are a few items that you should be aware of that must be handled quickly, it may be 30 days. A general list is cosmetic and outside property/grass/etc. but pay attention to the paperwork given to you to cover everything. The other stuff can be handled along the way to the 1 year mark.
We used Frank D'Angelo, 352-250-7818 but as mentioned at least get on his schedule early before the anniversary. He provided a full written report of both warranty items, which he submitted to the warranty department for us, and a report indicating things he found that we should keep an eye on or do something with that were not covered by the TV warranty.

Frank D’Angelo did our warranty inspection on our house in Marsh Bend. He did find one window that needs to be replace due to coopering.

Home Inspections in general
 

Not a new home - but refurbished by a "flipper" - unfortunately, within a month or less we had to spend over $1,000 on the A/C and had to replace the sprinkler box in the garage (another $250). Building inspection was $390. Moving into a new home is expensive enough without this type of extra expense! We're not "happy campers"...

It's interesting to hear that the inspector found missing nails on the roof. There are no exposed nails on the roof; they are all covered up by shingles that are sealed down. Did he pry up shingles to look for missing nails? Doing so would cause the seal to break between the shingle and the one below it and that could cause water leaks. Also bending the shingle up to look at the nails could cause the shingle to crease and eventually leak or break.

Biggest problem is insulation not being at the required depth.

Hi. Just to clarify, you are correct. We do NOT lift up and break the seal on any roof shingle. That being said, we look for and often find EXPOSED nails where they were shot in the incorrect areas of a shingle and were not covered up by the next higher row of shingles. We also find under-driven nails that result in that shingle sticking up and not sealing. In addition, we have found incorrect vent hoods, lead flashing that is not folded into the vent pipes, Missing shingles, missing ridge vents, saucer vents that are not bolted down, even H clips that we installed improperly and sticking out of the shingle resulting in a leak. On dutch hip homes we also sometimes find granular loss due to workers standing on a hot roof painting the gable. We sometimes find missing kick-outs.

I just wanted to correct that we do not lift up shingles and break the seal to find missing nails. A few years back we were finding multiple homes in one neighborhood that had defective shingles. The Villages replaced all the shingles on those homes.

The Villages builds a good home, but they do build them quickly and we typically find many issues that the Warranty department fixes. The Villages warranty department does a better job in my opinion than some other builders in other developments. While we ethically work solely for our client and NOT for The Villages, we DO get along with the warranty department, who consider us somewhat as the last quality control for them.

Hope that helps! Frank D.

Great post Frank. You should copy it over to the free roof thread for the people who say their roofer did an awesome job because it looks nice. I do not believe that good roofers need to go door to door to solicit business.

Can you share how much an inspection costs? Thank-you..

Sure.....You will find prices all over the place. We are in the middle of the pack. The typical home in The Villages is about $325 right now. It is dependent on the size of the home and there is a small up-charge for items that take us longer to inspect properly, like Pools, Spas, outdoor kitchens, etc.

The better question to ask is what you get for that price. There are guys out there who charge as little as $200. There is actually a page on our website saying, ("Beware of the $200 inspection...)

Most folks in The Villages are enjoying this lifestyle because they made wise decisions throughout their lives, and know that basically "You get what you pay for". Our prices are actually well below the average home inspection price.

We always have two inspectors at your home at the same time....always my two sons, or if one of them needs off, myself and one of my sons. At a typical inspection we are both at your home for at least two hours, then we work on your report at our office for another hour or so to get the report just right, and we always send it to you AND the Villages warranty department the SAME DAY as the inspection.

The warranty department has told us we are the number one Warranty inspection company in The Villages, and do over 600 per year. We like to think that we are #1 not because we are the cheapest...(because we never will be), but because we are passionate at what we do and try our very best to keep our clients happy. We do much more than some of our competitors, and if we find even one issue more than the "quick and cheap" Inspectors, that pays the difference.

Remember, this is the last chance to get things fixed without opening your wallet. You paid a lot for this lifestyle....why would anyone skimp now?

Anyway, sorry for the long post....just trying to answer your question. In closing, please know that we care more about quality than quantity. We are never in a hurry. Because of that we are often booked solid at least 4-6 weeks in advance. We currently have a few warranty inspections booked out as far as nine months from now, so when folks call early they have more scheduling choices than if one waits until the last minute. I often get calls from folks saying, "My warranty ends this week...can you come tomorrow?" We do not advise waiting that long.

Thank you for the time. Please feel free to either call us at 352-250-7818 or go to our website, HOME | dangeloinspections

Respectfully, Frank D'Angelo, ACI

Very interesting thanks for your post

In one house i bought a year later i discovered that two outlets had no power. TV had an electrician at my house the next day. I never thought to check every outlet when we moved in.