Recently at a Builder Realtor Alliance Committee meeting at the Columbus Board of Realtors, the topic was home inspections. Two professional home inspectors presented various topics to the builders and the Realtors present. One of the presenters made the comment, "Have you ever had a customer make the comment that they just don't build them like they used to? Well, thank goodness that they don't!"
There is one school of thought that goes something like this: older means better, craftsmen have given way to workers and quality has been diluted by cost. What our professional home inspector went on to say was that such is not the case. Although he had been inspecting homes for over 30 years and was the elder inspector, he was there to deliver the message that today's technology and methodology is far better than that of the past.
Today, in some model home somewhere in Central Ohio, a consumer will enter a builder model and view a plan that appeals to their taste. It will be a plan that the builder may have been building for over five years. They will ask questions about the home and about the materials used. The builder representative will talk about the materials used to build that home in today's market. Then, this same customer will go with their Realtor to compare what is available in the resale market. Low and behold, there it is - the same plan that was the builder's model. It looks the same. It feels the same. It's priced slightly below the comparable new home and the present homeowner's landscaping is more mature and they have added a deck to the home. So it's obviously a better value, right?
Although the used home looks exactly the same as the builder's model, let's examine what might be hidden from view just because the used home was built only a few years ago. The first thing, and one of the big items, is the furnace efficiency. Just a couple years ago, an 80% Efficient Furnace was considered a high-efficiency furnace. The customer doesn't know what to look for and assumes, albeit incorrectly, that the furnaces were equal. In the builder's model that furnace was a 92% Efficient Furnace. What that means to you, the consumer, is that for the entire life of that furnace, you will be paying higher heating bills with the used house.
Upon closer comparison, the used home had a 10 SEER Air Conditioning unit which was considered the standard in efficiency a few years prior บ้านมือสอง ราคาถูก but a 13 SEER unit is now the standard. What that means to you? Higher cooling bills for the life of the air conditioner in the used home.
Next there are the aluminum windows in the used home that was made by a company that has since gone out of business versus the more energy-efficient vinyl low-e double pane insulated windows now used by the builder. Visually, both windows look nearly the same.
Next, what's under the Vinyl Siding of the used home? Nothing. The builder sales representative made a point to draw attention to their company's use of Tyvek house wrap and its ability to prevent water from getting into exterior walls which could result in the growth of mold. The used house had no such house wrap. When it was built, house wrap was considered an option, a luxury, for those who felt it necessary and chose to pay extra for the option. Since then, the builder, tired of dealing with water infiltration problems and mold, on their own initiative, has made house wrap a standard feature to prevent thousands of dollars of warranty repairs and potential future law suits. The original purchaser of the used home didn't feel it necessary leaving the subsequent purchaser open to thousands of dollars in expense in the event that water infiltration and/or mold develops at some point in time.
From exterior doors, to sink faucets, to the way homes are backfilled during construction, to the use of basement waterproofing, even in just the last few years, the materials and methodologies have significantly improved. That home inspector was right, "Thank goodness they don't build them like they used to".
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