We discovered 3 days beforehand that our home builder deemed our new house "finished" 2 weeks before closing. House Call Home Inspection was the only inspection firm in the area that had any availability. I gave 2 stars because we were able to obtain an inspection on short notice, the office staff were friendly, the inspection was performed on the correct day, and an inspection report was provided in a timely manner. We were not able to attend the inspection due to work commitments. When we called to schedule an inspection, everyone seemed to be nonplussed that we wanted a new-build home to be inspected. That response should have been a red flag; new homes are just as likely as older homes to have actionable structural, functional, and quality issues. We thought the inspector's report was cursory at best, and it was clear, after we moved in, that he hadn't inspected many typical items. We have lived in our new home for a few months, and we have discovered multiple items that a general home inspection should have caught. This is not our first home buying experience, and our previous general home inspectors were far more thorough. The inspector never turned on our gas stove to confirm the gas hookup was working (it does not appear that anyone turned on our stove before we moved in). He did not notice that our dryer vent hookup in the laundry room was essentially a large hole with a pipe sticking out (we could not hook up the dryer until the builder came and fixed it after move-in), even though it was clearly visible, with no impediments, at the time of inspection. In fact, he included a picture of it in the report but didn't flag it as a problem. He failed to identify that the builder had installed a BATHROOM VENT WITH A SCREEN INSTEAD OF A DRYER VENT on the exterior of the house, but he did walk around the exterior and even took a picture of that area. He did not check all the light switches; the dining room light was very obviously hooked up incorrectly. He did not notice that a key part of our front door deadbolt lock was missing. He did not notice a major ventilation system issue, which was clearly visible, in the basement. None of the upstairs bathroom sinks will hold water due to missing drain parts and faulty installation, and he didn't seem to notice. He didn't notice that our pantry--which was empty at the time--had malfunctioning brackets and we couldn't use some of the shelves, although he did take a picture of the pantry. Yes, except for the dryer vent issue, most of these issues are minor, but we've never had an inspector miss so many items, including obvious items THAT WERE PHOTOGRAPHED.
