A4HB Homebuyer's Blog

We consistently recommend a video scoping of the main sewer line going out of the house to make sure it is draining properly and a test of the radon (radioactive gas) levels in the home. We also heavily push for a meth screening. In the state of Colorado a house can be considered a meth lab if someone has smoked in the house only a few times. To clean the house of meth it can be $20k-100k. That is a bill that you do not want to get stuck with! If the home is on a well and septic system,

Have the home professionally inspected just as you would with a resale home (see Home Inspectors). Most people do not have new homes professionally inspected, relying on the builder’s construction supervisor and the city or county inspector to assure them that their home is done right. This is a mistake. Even  with the best builders, professional inspectors routinely find significant construction defects. We’ve found new homes where a bathtub drain was not connected, where heating ducts were not connected, where ceiling insulation had not been installed, where soffits and siding were not installed, and where floor joists had been sawed

The most obvious part of the property evaluation conducted after contracting on a property is the physical inspection. You need to know whether the home’s structural, roofing, plumbing, heating and electrical systems are working, not to mention the doors, windows, and appliances. The standard Colorado purchase contract contains a clause in Section 10 that gives the buyer the right to have the property inspected and to either terminate the contract or ask for repairs if anything is unsatisfactory. As indicated elsewhere (see Risk and Pitfalls), there are a host of other issues that may need to be addressed to evaluate