Do they still build new homes the way they used to? The people who check homes don’t believe that.
When they first start looking for a house, some first-time buyers might think that newly built homes need less upkeep because they have never been lived in.
But be careful, because several TikTok videos posted by home inspectors say that isn’t always true. The videos from all over the U.S. show the major problems that inspectors have found in newly built homes. They say that the videos show not only bad workmanship but also the real cost of building homes quickly over the last few years.
A home inspector who works in parts of North Carolina and South Carolina showed TikTok users problems like water leaking into the walls and floor of a house, nails sticking out of the frame, and more. The inspector says, “Let’s look at this house together and see what $1.5 million can get us these days.”
“I was amazed at the fifth-grade gingerbread house contest more than I am now,” he says. “That’s sad.”
When the same inspector posts other videos, they show flaws in brand-new homes that would make many people afraid to buy: There could be rotten wood inside a load-bearing wall, a bathtub that is too deep and “spins around like a top” because it’s not properly attached to the floor, or gutters that aren’t stable. “When I pay $500,000 for a new house, I don’t expect to see runs in the paint and bad seam jobs on the trim,” he says in one video.
There aren’t many existing homes on the market right now, so people are turning to newly built homes. This is happening at the same time that social media users are talking about problems. Many of the TikTok videos have been watched millions of times. They show the risks of buying these houses and how important it is to get a home inspection.
Some home buyers are skipping home inspections
Home inspectors look at homes for a different reason than building inspectors, who work for the government and make sure that homes meet local, state, and federal building codes. They check newly bought homes for safety and repair issues on behalf of people who buy homes and hire them. New homes are usually inspected by both the builder and a building inspector. However, some buyers choose to pay a licensed third-party home inspector to give the house a more thorough check.
As per the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a home inspection can cost anywhere from $300 to $500.
A home inspection has always been an important part of the buying process, and buyers often condition their offer on the house passing the inspection. But because the housing market is so competitive right now, some buyers are skipping the inspection to make their offer more appealing.
A market manager for the real estate company Redfin RDFN, +0.31% in Phoenix named Joe Hunt said he would never help a customer buy a newly built home without first having it inspected.
Hunt, who has worked in real estate for 25 years, said, “You’ll always find something, whether it’s brand new or 100 years old.” That’s why you get an inspection: to really know what you’re going to have to deal with in the future when taking care of this house.
Hunt said that the TikTok home inspectors’ findings in brand-new homes didn’t surprise him, but he did say that they might be the exceptions. “Some of the things that are making headlines because of these TikTok videos may not happen to everyone all the time,” Hunt said. “They may just happen more often with some builders.”
Too many people want to buy new homes.
The building industry is doing very well right now because more and more people want to buy new homes. Real estate listings for existing homes are scarce because many homeowners are stuck with very low mortgage rates and don’t want to sell now that rates are around 7%.
In the past two years, people who want to buy a home have instead turned to home builders, who have a lot of new single-family homes available. The supply of new homes has gone up because of the high demand for them: A Redfin study found that one-third of the single-family homes for sale in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2024 were brand new. That’s two times the level before the pandemic.
One-third of U.S. single-family homes for sale in the first quarter of 2024 were newly built — double the prepandemic level.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which made people want to buy homes more, contributed to the rush to build. The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates during the pandemic to keep the U.S. economy going. People who wanted to buy a home jumped at the rock-bottom mortgage rates and went on a buying spree. Builders had to build more homes to meet the demand.
As a result, “there was a marked drop from 2019 to 2020 in terms of quality construction,” Michael Cholewa, a home inspector who has worked in Portland, Oregon, since 2018, told MarketWatch in an interview. Builders were “just trying to build enough housing” because they had a lot of unfinished homes, and they couldn’t “keep up,” he said.
Cholewa sang about his “first look at a $1.8 million house” and how he found several problems with it in a video that had over 3.4 million views as of July 8. Two sets of floating stairs that he could move with one hand were among them. The house was in Oregon, but he didn’t say which builder had done the work.
The heat pump in another Oregon house was shown by Cholewa. It was on a deck in the backyard that didn’t have any stairs leading down to the grass. In the video, Cholewa says, “Couldn’t think of a better place to put the f—ing unit for the heat pump here.” “Where are the steps, too?”
As the number of homes built has gone up, has the quality gone down?
Without a doubt, it’s hard to say if the quality of homes built in recent years has gotten worse. There is no national database that keeps track of how well new homes are built. Even so, the inspectors’ videos are getting a lot of attention at a time when home prices are at all-time highs. The median price of a previously owned home in May was $419,300, while the median price of a brand-new home was $417,400. These numbers come from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Association of Realtors.
Also, there isn’t a national database where people who want to buy a house can look up complaints about builders. Some big-name home builders, like D.R. Horton DHI, +2.64%, have been sued, which has made people more aware of how well new homes are built. However, home inspectors’ reports usually never get looked at again because the homeowners throw them away.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development wouldn’t say anything about this story. When asked for a comment, D.R. Horton did not answer right away.
“All the bad work I’ve seen just blows my mind.”
Home inspectors on TikTok say that the information they give in their videos has helped people who want to buy a house. They also say that this is especially important because, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors, 22% of home buyers skipped home inspections just to get an edge in bidding wars in May 2024.
Concerned home inspectors can now use social media to teach people about their jobs and promote their businesses at the same time.
“I finally looked through my “luxury” apartment and can now see what they did wrong.” I gasped when I saw that every piece of tape was a scratch! a user wrote in a comment on an Arizona-based home inspector’s TikTok video that he finds flaws in what he claims is a brand-new million-dollar home, such as broken and chipped shower tiles and scratched kitchen cabinets.
‘I don’t expect to see runs in my paint and shoddy seam jobs on my trim when I’m paying half a million dollars for a new house.’
Since 2017, Zirlott has been a home inspector for his own business, Due South Home Inspection. “I’m just blown away by all the bad work I’ve seen,” he said. “It looks like no one follows any rules, codes, best practices, or standards.”
With the help of a thermal camera, Zirlott found water in one of the bedroom closets at a new house. He told the builder that in the hot and humid summer months, that water could turn into mold in just a few days. The builder tried to say that there wasn’t any water, but Zirlott wouldn’t give up. Zirlott says that the builder spent at least $20,000 to fix the problem in the end.
Cholewa said that bad work in new homes could be caused by construction workers who aren’t very experienced or who are under a lot of pressure to finish homes on time. For example, “guys will paint houses when it rains in the winter,” he said. Yes, it does matter what time of year it is; once the siding is up, it’s time to paint. They’re moving as quickly as they can.
Cholewa said that at one new home he looked at, the builders were in such a hurry to get it done that they nailed the floor joists in place instead of gluing the edges to a sheet of the subfloor and then fastening them in… He said that the people who would eventually live there would hear their floor popping or squeaking when they walked on it.
Cholewa told them, “They’re saving money.” “They can move on to the next house faster if they can get everything in faster.”
It was said by the National Association of Home Builders that they couldn’t say if the quality of building homes has changed over time and that they don’t talk about specific builders. The trade group NAHB said in a statement, “On the other hand, they believe it is important to have a well-written contract and warranty.” “Also, there is no substitute for constant, clear communication between the buyer and the builder while the house is being built.”
What home buyers should know about home inspections
It was suggested by Zirlott that people who want to buy a new home might want to hire a third-party home inspector who can look at the home without bias.
Hunt from Redfin agreed. He said it was helpful to look at homes with a neutral third party who is trained to find problems, like a real estate agent or a home inspector.
Cholewa also says that buyers shouldn’t put too much weight on how a home looks, like how it’s decorated. He told them to instead look at less exciting things, like structural problems with the house’s foundation and other parts of its structure.
If home buyers know which company is working on their potential new home, they can also look up complaints about contractors online, if that’s possible where they live.
The Federal Trade Commission says that most new homes also come with a builder warranty that covers things like the concrete floors, plumbing, and electrical work. Builders can either pay for the repairs or fight the claims.
