Don’t
make your most costly purchase your most
costly mistake!
Before you buy a new home, call us.
We are
ICC Code Certified,
State Licensed, Experienced, Impartial and
Independent! With over 4,000 homes
inspected.
We
have one goal in mind, CONSUMER
PROTECTION! It
is our obligation and our responsibility to provide you
with as much information as possible about
your new
home, so that you can make a responsible
decision about your purchase.
We do
not advertise to or
solicit work from any real estate agencies,
or from any Builder!
90%
of all our work comes from past client
referrals; or from this website. We work only for you, the
Buyer!
We Inspect
'You'
Decide!
Call
Today! (281) 486-6887
Is it time to do
your new home warranty inspection?
If your new home is
just 10 or 11 months old it's time to do
your new home warranty inspection.
This may be your last chance to get repairs
made to your home without a long drawn
out, expensive process!
Don’t
make your most costly
investment your most costly mistake
because of a cheap home inspection!
You may think
home inspectors are all the same. That could
not be further from the truth. If you hire
an inspector for $200.00 or $350.00, you
will get what you pay for. Are you willing
to gamble your family's largest investment
on a cheap home inspection? You won't
save money! In the long run, it may
cost you more money! Most of these cheap
inspectors do the bare minimum home
inspections to protect the sale. Some of
these inspectors do 2 and 3; and sometimes
even 4 inspections a day! They don't have
the time to give you a quality inspection. In
some cases they don't have the knowledge. If
you are buying a new home or doing under
construction inspections and your
inspector is not ICC code certified
you are wasting your money.
Remember, at some point you will have to
re-sell this home. And you may end up
with major problems your 'cheap inspector'
didn't find; and you can't afford to repair!
But by then, it is too late! You have
already purchased the home, problems and
all! (Good luck getting your home
builder back to do repairs!)
At Inspection
Concepts we do one home inspection a
day. We have no vested interest, whether you
buy the home or not! Our job is toprotect you! And we inspect your
new home
the same way we would inspect it if we were
buying it for our family. We use our 30 years
of experience in the home building and
inspection business to protect and inform
you. We will not sugar-coat your
report to make it sound good to a realtor or
builder/seller. You need to know what you
are buying. It's a lot of money! Your
money! So if you try and save $150.00 on a
home inspection, it just may turn out to be
the most expensive $150.00 you ever saved!
We will provide you with 8"X10"
color photos; and all the information you
need to make an informed decision about your
purchase. With this information, you can
either negotiate or just walk away!
Or you could hire the cheap inspector and
end up paying and paying!
We Inspect 'You'
Decide!
Picture
of the Week!
Or
Lemon of the Week!
The
purpose of city home inspections is to promote
health; safety; and structural integrity. Our
pictures of the week are from new homes inspections
in the various cities that we inspect
in. Our pictures of the week are of
violations that were either over-looked or not
looked at all! All of these homes
have previously been inspected by city
inspectors, builder's private real estate
inspectors and/or windstorm engineers . How serious are these violations?
"We Inspect 'You' Decide"!
FROM
KATY TEXAS!
The
above photo shows the lack of supervision;
lack of craftsmanship; and lack of professionalism
by the builder and inspectors.
After an extensive study, the staff
of the Texas Sunset Commission has
recommended abolishing the Texas
Residential Construction Commission
(Read the rest of the story)
The
Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act
requires full disclosure by sellers.
If a seller intentionally withholds
material information, he could be
responsible for three times the
consumer's damages, plus court costs
and attorney's fees.
Building
tomorrows slums today!
And you don't
want to spend the money for a
'pre-drywall' inspection!
Nov. 2, 2006:
City of Houston building inspectors
are supposed to be hard at work to
protect you and your family. KPRC
Local 2 investigative reporter
Stephen Dean found inspectors at the
gym, taking extended lunches and at
home while they're supposed to be
making sure structures are safe.
(Read
the rest of the story)
More New Homes
Contain Life-Threatening Defects by
Broderick Perkins
15 percent of
all new homes sold -- 150,000 a year
-- had a serious defect. Is your new
home one of these?
(Read the rest of the story)
Rick Casey -
Builder Contributions to AG Abbott,
Tough Grandma & TRCC
Houston
Chronicle's Rick Casey - Proposal: A
$1 million recusal rule
Take the
case of Attorney General Greg
Abbott. Last Dec. 15 he received
$100,000 in campaign contributions
from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry
and his wife...
Perry and his allies in the
homebuilding industry worked hard to
obtain the commission as a partial
shield against lawsuits...
Still, it hardly inspires confidence
for the attorney general to accept a
hundred grand from an interested
party on the eve of entertaining a
request to rule on an issue of
considerable interest to that party.
In addition, five days after sending
his request to Abbott, Swinford
received his first contribution from
Perry, for $2,000. Six weeks later
he would receive another $10,000...
But the notion that the attorney
general can take $100,000 from
someone with a direct interest in
his ruling is outrageous. And it's
actually worse. Since 2001, Abbott
has received $1.1 million from Mr.
and Mrs. Perry...
(Read the rest of the story)
Agency has many
ties to builders
By ANDREA JARES STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF
WRITER
Consumer groups see the Texas
Residential Construction Commission
as a puppet of the Texas Association
of Builders. The TAB says its
interest is simply participation in
government, taking advantage of
opportunities available to any
citizen.
(Read the rest of the story)
Your agent may
recommend a home inspector because
he does a good job -- or because he
keeps his mouth shut about problems
that could torpedo the sale. (Read
the rest of the story)
Top Builder Defect Data for
Construction Industry Revealed
The new findings come from data
captured during the construction
data collection process by Quality
Built field inspectors on 31,995
completed homes and condominiums
across 27 U.S. states for the
12-month period ending Oct. 1, 2005.
Quality
Built's findings show single-family
homes averaged $5,398 in corrected
defects per home in 2005.
Single-family housing:
1. Building paper and housewrap
(i.e., building envelope)
installation flaws.
2. Improper framing around windows
and doors.
3. Missing structural straps and
connectors (e.g., hold-downs).
Builders leave
Better Business Bureau
Homeowners losing one option to
resolve issues
Some builders
are dropping their membership in the
Better Business Bureau of
Metropolitan Houston because they
don't want to use the alternative
dispute resolution process, a
process they agreed to as terms of
their membership. (Read
the rest of the story)
Insurers
Keep A Secret History Of Your Home
A huge
database not only tracks claims, it
also looks for risks such as toxic
mold. That's why homeowners with
even minor water damage are being
canceled -- and are sometimes unable
to sell.
by Liz Pullam Weston,
MSN Money
(Read
the rest of the story)
Home
Buyer Beware
Patricia Kilday Hart
How a new
state agency of the builders, by the
builders, and for the builders makes
it harder for you to sue, yes, your
builder.
IN THE GOOD
OLD DAYS, if you scrimped and saved
and bought your dream home in Texas,
you could sleep easy at night
knowing that the roof over your head
was protected by a common-sense
legal doctrine. Known as an implied
warranty of habitability, in
layman’s terms it meant that—whether
or not anything was put in
writing—the courts would hold the
builder to a guarantee that your
home was fit to live in and
constructed with care. If your
foundation sagged or your windows
leaked or your roof caved in, you
could demand that the builder fix
the defect and take him to court if
he didn’t. (Read
the rest of the story)
Houston-area foreclosures rise
Sunday, 28
August 2005
Disturbing wake-up call in American
dream
FOR thousands of Houstonians, the
American dream of owning a home has
become a financial nightmare. In
2004, lenders foreclosed on 8,300
homes in Harris, Montgomery and Fort
Bend counties — more than double the
number five years before... More
homeowners are also getting right to
the brink of foreclosure. The number
of homes posted for foreclosure — a
warning that the bank can foreclose
in 21 days — totaled 19,866 in
Harris County last year, the highest
since 1989.
Read more...
Water torture;
Small leak in my plumbing unleashes
a torrent of home-owning
complications. (Read
the rest of the story)
(MarketWatch)
-- KB Home has reached a $2 million
settlement with the Federal Trade
Commission pending approval by the
Department of Justice over mandatory
arbitration clauses in home
warranties, a company spokeswoman
said Tuesday.
(Read
the rest of the story)
Over the past
decade, the combined effects of
new building techniques,
trouble-prone materials and
shoddy construction have made
modern homes vulnerable to moisture
damage. (Read
the rest of the story)
Are You Ready for Hurricane Season?
Remember, the 2005 Hurricane
Season begins on June 1, 2005. Will
you be ready? (For
help click here)
Home Builder Hall of Shame
Black
Heart Award
Anyone with $125, a social
security number and absolutely
no knowledge of how to construct
a house is eligible to be a
builder in Texas. People
need a license to catch a fish
and drive a car but not to be a
builder in Texas and I can vouch
for that.
You see I am now an official
registered builder in The Great
State of Texas, doing business
as “Cheetum
Custom Homes.
My degree in physical
therapy certainly does not
qualify me to build homes
however; building
qualifications are
irrelevant in Texas. (read
the rest of the story)
Barry Stone
column::
Beware of builder who insists buyer
sign a repair waiver Any
builder who would deny a home
buyer's right to a professional home
inspection prior to purchase or who
would refuse to make repairs subject
to that inspection is blatantly
unethical, and dealings with such
persons should be avoided whenever
possible.
Texas
State Affairs Hearing - TRCC Flawed
State Affairs House
Committee to regulate homebuilders
Broadcasts of Live
Coverage State Affairs
hearing on HB3404 –
4/18/05 Advance
to 4:52.
Of the 502 complaints officially
filed with TRCC over the past 15
months – 206 filed for SIRP the
dispute resolution however, only 137
were eligible. 365 could not use
TRCC if they wanted to. Based on
these figures clearly, TRCC is a
$2.5 Million state agency that
selectively serves a very small
portion of the home buying public
stuck with defective homes.Read
more...
Feds probe real estate agentsNEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Did you
pay your real estate broker too
much? The U.S. Department of Justice
may be set to turn Tulsa, Okla. into
a test-case for ending the
stranglehold 6 percent commissions
have over the real estate brokerage
business.
John R.
Cobarruvias: Strike a blow against
forced arbitration
On May
7, the citizens of Frisco have an
opportunity to correct this unfair
situation and demand full disclosure
from the home building industry
Read more
Chandler
Creek - Another KB Community Gone BAD?
(Click
here)
KB Home Foreclosure
Rate More Than Double Other Builders
Read more
Rate
your Houston and surrounding Area Home
Builders (Click
here)
No property
TAX relief for Texans here is why!
36 RINOS:
THE LIST
Imagine
this. You just purchased your dream
house in a brand new, sizzling hot
subdivision. What could be better --
you've accomplished the American
dream
(Read more)
IS
YOUR HOME A HEALTH HAZARD?
By
Chris Berdik Globe Correspondent
Back in 1980,
Peggy Wolff's home slowly
started poisoning her. Soon
after moving into the newly
constructed house in Leverett,
Wolff, now 59, began to have
short-term memory loss and
severe problems with her
digestion. In a scenario that
sounds like a horror-movie plot,
the house, built to be airtight
and energy efficient, had become
a closed system of air
contaminated by mold and
chemicals emitted by
particleboard furniture, paint,
carpets, and insulation.
(Click
here for the rest of the story)
Roof warranty's; Do
you have one on your new home? Did your
builder or roof installer void your roof
warranty?
Read the real facts!
Read HADD's new news
letter on the homebuilding industry
and the lack of consumer protection in
Texas.
(Click here) (PDF)
If you are a
home buying consumer, you should join
HADD to stay on top of the industry news
in the fight for consumer protection in
Texas.
The
Texas Residential Construction Commission
provides Texas Homeowners and the
residential construction industry an
opportunity to resolve differences through a
neutral dispute resolution process and
ongoing education.
The above
statement was taken from the
TRCC website. What it does not say is
that they the (TRCC) has little enforcement
power. It cannot make a builder do repairs.
However the TRCC can
revoke the builder's registration, assessing
a fee capped at $5,000 per violation and/or
ask the state attorney general
to file an injunction against a builder that
violates the commission rules. I think this
would have to be a very extreme case and
would only come after a court or arbitration
ruling.
The TRCC has
posted their final draft of their Limited
Statutory Warranty and Building and
Performance Standards (effective June 1,
2005) (Click
here to view them)
Houston TX.
January 24, 2005 The Texas Residential
Construction Commission
(TRCC), created by the Texas Legislature in
2003, has released yet another report on the
abuse of arbitration in the home building
industry. This report, although thorough
continues to lack the necessary
recommendations to correct the blatant abuse
of arbitration.
The
abuse of arbitration, in the Texas
homebuilding industry, and the American
Arbitration Association has been the subject
of four studies by the Texas House, Senate,
and the TRCC. Each has raised serious
questions about the extreme cost to the
consumer and the heavy bias in favor of the
building industry. Contrary to popular
belief, arbitration in the home building
industry has been found to be extremely
expensive and grossly unfair to the
consumer.
Houston home
inspections, Home inspections
"The
report fails to recognize a simple,
inexpensive, solution to the abuse of
arbitration in the new home building
industry." states the Texas President of
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings,
John Cobarruvias.
"Instead of regulating the American
Arbitration Association, our rights to the
Constitution which guarantees a civil trial
should be preserved, and arbitration should
remain a true alternative and optional. This
would avoid the bureaucracy of regulation
and preserve the secrecy of the arbitration
process."
The
arbitration report can be found at: (Click
here)
Sickened
By Fraud, A Real Estate Appraiser Turns In
His Pencil by Blanche Evans
(Read
the rest of the story)
We said in
the beginning when Governor Rick Perry
signed into law (June 20, 2003) the Texas
Residential Construction Commission (TRCC)
that it was a big joke! The commission has
no enforcement power. Well, the first case
has been tested. See our New Construction
page for the rest of the story. (click
here)
Arbitration clauses: a rights giveaway
By
Amy B. Crane • Bankrate.com
Under binding
arbitration, a consumer can be forced to pay
thousands of dollars upfront to pursue a
complaint, travel thousands of miles to a
location of the company's choosing for the
hearing, argue their case before an
arbitrator who depends on the company for
for the hearing, future business and
surrender such basic legal weapons as the
right to discovery and the right to appeal a
decision. (Read
the full story)
Warranty or not, his
builder, Ryland, sent Goldstein this
response to his water woes: " ... The water
intrusion was not caused by a defect in
construction. ... We suggest you contact
your homeowner's insurance carrier."
(Read
the rest of the story)
Rent-a-cops for henhouse?
The ordinance would allow
homebuilders to hire private-sector
inspectors instead of subjecting their
foundations, heating/air conditioning,
electrical systems and so on to city
inspectors! (Read
the rest of the story)
"Problems with your new
home?"
New
Construction, Under Construction, Warranty
and Resale Inspections, Litigation
Consultant & Expert Witness
We Inspect
'You' Decide!
(281)
486-6887
We
proudly serve the communities around
Houston, Clear Lake, NASA, Seabrook, Kemah,
Friendswood, League City, Pearland,
Pasadena, Deer Park , LaPorte, Sugar Land,
Katy, Cypress and Humble.
Buying
a home? You need us!
mistake
because of a cheap home inspection!
Roof warranty's; Do
you have one on your new home? Did your
builder or roof installer void your roof
warranty? 
We
proudly serve the communities around
Houston, Clear Lake, NASA, Seabrook, Kemah,
Friendswood, League City, Pearland,
Pasadena, Deer Park , LaPorte, Sugar Land,
Katy, Cypress and Humble.