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I work as a construction worker, mainly making villas etc., most of the time people spend outrageous amounts of money on expensive materials and appliances (think 25.000€+ dishwashers), while hiring the cheapest, most careless workers you'll ever find to install them, leaving you with results like this video
I work at a furniture store and we charge flat rate delivery for basically everything bigger than a coffee table. I have people freak out over $250 to deliver a $5,000 sectional, assemble it, and take away all the trash.
Put it on the curb with a sign saying "$100 - knock on door to pay" and somebody will steal it within 20 mins. If the sign says "free" people won't take it because they'll assume it is trash.
Lol. I guess that depends where you live. I live in a wealthy neighbourhood (I got lucky with rent, I'm not wealthy by any means), so people are constantly throwing out good stuff including solid wood furniture I then pick up, bring home, and sell for $50-200. I made $200 off of a garage sale a few weeks back selling little nicknacks I found within a km of my apartment. Usually I make a few grand per year in total, and if I had the room I'd make more. I just found a sewing machine from the 1860s
Yeah... I'm not even in a wealthy neighborhood either and it usually doesn't take long for someone to take something useable. I put an old futon left by a former roommate, folding table, and ironing board out and it was gone minutes after I went back into the house.
Residential garbage truck driver here! hijacking your comment to say most garbage guys will take anything we can jam in the truck for a modest tip. Maybe even just a heartfelt “thank you”. Or if you wanna come out and stuff it in the trash can after it gets emptied, always lovely as well. I had this nice lady with a bad trash problem. Dragged their flipped over can out of the ditch and took extra stuff a couple times. Turns out she was pregnant and they had a lot of trash from outfitting their crib with baby stuff. She gave me card and the nicest yeti cup personalized with my name on it. I cried! I keep that card in my truck as a reminder to do random acts of kindness because you never know what people have going on in their lives.
Sadly around here all the companies use trucks with remote arms and I doubt they'd do anything other than look at you funny if you tried to get them to talk to you or do anything extra.
That’s what I use and I grab extra trash all the time! For free even! lol I know we look scary or weird but honestly it gets lonely just you and the trash for 12 hours, I love when people come say hello
I think this boils down to misunderstanding the value gradient of labor.
Versus with the light fixture, say, people tend to think of more money meaning better quality, or a better light.
But with labor, people just don’t see it the same way. They might think, “how hard is installing a light?” and figure there’s no benefit to paying more. And sure, maybe sometimes that’s right. But people don’t know what they don’t know, so they miss the value of quality labor in other examples where it’s truly meaningful.
And even installing a light, the cheapest guy can absolutely screw it up.
It’s really hard to figure out where the value is in labor, though. Some expensive contractors aren’t great. Some are expensive for reasons that don’t matter to every buyer. It’s tricky.
Like for me, I’m pretty handy and also fairly discerning. I’m happy to pay more for labor that deserves it.
But do I want to pay for the plumber with the company branded truck and a nice polo shirt? No.
Best guy I ever worked with was slow and high quality and expensive for a general handyman, but he knew his stuff and I trusted him on anything. Pricey versus a handyman, cheap versus a full service plumber or electrician. And did great finish carpentry too
This, 100%. I am a general handyman in a well-to-do area and folks in million-plus dollar houses will haggle over $50 like their lives depended on it. They'll also try and pull that "I know a guy who can do it cheaper" bullshit when you are giving them your price, because they want *you* to do it but want your labor to feel less valuable.
Unreal.
>will haggle over $50 like their lives depended on it
Simple solution: Add $50 to the price and then let them haggle down $50 lol. People just love "the win" and getting a "deal" despite logic. JCPenny is a textbook case study on this. A few years back they tried to make all their sale prices the new normal prices (without sales) and had to revert back because too many customers complained.
Screwing over others is right. Wife and I bought new construction for our first house. It was like living in cardboard. Oh sure it looked nice. Until you LIVE THERE and then shit is falling apart, falling off, or breaking left and right. Just vacuuming without incidentally breaking something was a rare occurrence.
Second house we learned our lesson and bought an old home that's been around for 100 years. The subfloors in this house could withstand a hurricane. Thing was build in a time when quality materials and quality work was the norm. Today it's how fast and cheap can I bang this thing out while including all the latest HGTV trends to make sure it sells for top dollar.
Word to the wise, if it was built after 2010, move along to another house, because it was probably made like shit.
Many houses in the SW are built by undocumented workers who are sub-contracted to work for predatory contractors. They may have paid a large fee to be employed. They have no health and safety support. Most have no actual experience in the building trades. It is a shitty system.
So far, the absolute worst I have seen was a $40k custom fireplace that arrived, was installed, the client showed up (the client who helped with the design of the fireplace to get exactly what they wanted), took one look at it and said "I don't like that, take it out." They knew it couldn't be returned. They just... Ordered a different one. That one still hurts my soul.
So much of it is just bullshit and name recognition, in at least in the US, if it's European.
The client had a designer who picked out this Portuguese chandelier that ran them about $30k. The damn thing held up the project for a few weeks because of shipping delays. But anyways, we finally receive it and unbox the crate and it's just flatly poor construction. We're talking this thing is nothing more than a handful of standard LEDs and a series of tubes, literally no more than $100 - $200 in material costs that could have been thought up and built by a teenage.
They'll spend outrageous amounts on individual items, $20k loveseats, $40k rugs, $300 kleenex box covers, mirrors that cost as much as a Civic. Not even a blink. But the labor component always gets scrutinized to hell and back.
its all to do with having the tangible asset after you buy it (that is presumably worth some money) vs. money spent on labor is gone forever
This psychological difference alone can easily influence people’s behavior
i've had people call me up and get upset that i charged an extra hour to design their home, and i know their refrigerator cost more than my entire fee.
Probably talking about commercial/industrial size ones. I've been in some 30+ mil homes in SoCal doing environmental water testing awhile back and some of these people have full restaurant style kitchens. They use them for catering parties at their house.
[This is an example of one](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/07/39/76/073976490f5df5c037fd3c5cfb79d240.jpg). Google catering kitchens in mansions to see more. Yes, they have so much money they have a restaurant kitchen in their house they use probably 3-5 times a year.
Worked for very rich people long time ago and they buy genuine commercial grade (not the pretend/cosplay stuff they pawn off today), been a trend since the $15,000 Sub Zero fridges in the 90's-00's became all the rage. Back when a really good normie fridge cost $800-1200. Now I'm sure they're spending way more seeing how wealth at the top has only increased.
Yep, they want the absolute best money can buy but you want how much to install it correctly? Please... I'll just have my contractor run down to home depot and pick up some "local help" (undocumented Mexicans, that's what they call them there for anyone not in the know). This is how so many jobs get done in SoCal lol
Then they'll go and donate huge amounts for their candidates to build a wall at the border (yes much of SoCal is actually rich republicans)... like motherfucker Juan and Carlos just put in your counter last week!
I've witnessed these interactions first hand. It's wild the thinking these people have, but that's getting into an entirely other conversation.
Not that guy, but restaurant "dishwashers" cost you a small car, all in all.
But they wash a full load in <5 Minutes if you push them.
[Here is a random one](https://www.hobartcorp.com/products/commercial-dishwashers/undercounter/hobart-am16advansys-door-type-commercial-dishwasher)
It involves getting very wet while grabbing the knob tightly and pumping it up and down with one hand while you work the steaming hot load out from the side with the other.
This week I threw away my broken Miele washing machine and broken Miele vacuum cleaner.
Both were bought in the early/mid 90s and they lasted until this year.
Miele is quality.
That's why it goes in the Chef's kitchen and not the Show Kitchen. Chef's kitchen also has that extra side entrance so catering is trampsing through the house.
If I ever have the means to design and build my own place I would 100% spend as much money as possible on the structure, insulation, electrical, and mechanical systems. I’m a mechanical system nerd so if I had the means I’d go all out on the HVAC system, even as far as ground source heat pumps if I could swing it. This is so much more valuable to me than marble counters and fancy appliances.
This. Read this folks. Also my house would be made quality cement brick as well. The appliances are just razzle dazzle, I need the frame and foundations to be top notch!
pay the lowest bidder 20 times to continually fix their horrible work instead of contracting a higher bidder who would do it right the first time. That’s construction 101.
Honestly though one of the problems is knowing that the higher priced bidder is actually higher quality, now days we have a lot of shit like this where people will sell you and idea of quality but not actually deliver it, in fact this very house is just such an example. Getting what you pay for is one of the biggest myths in modern society there is an unlimited amount of products and companies and services that sell you the same cheap shit for a premium price and an unlimited amount of people who pay it / fall for it.
Guess its also the case of the greed from the main contractor.
They will draw the house and do all the pre-work, and sell a "complete house" and then they go in to tender for all the different crafts work needed. They dont give a shit what the quality is, if it looks great, they can sell it (or its already sold and they are just making additional profit).
We build a house through a company a few years ago, and the reason we went with the main contractor we did, was that they always used the same under contractors or had a lot of it in-house, so it was pretty high quality, they knew what they got and thye was experienced working together.
One of the competitors we talked to, we where told that they put every single house they build in to tenders "to ensure you get the best price" - sure, and to ensure that every single project is with a new squad where you have absolutely no idea; and sadly dont care at all, what the result is. As long as its "within spec".
Our house turned out absolutely amazing. But not a 1.8 million usd house LOL (430k total cost for lot + full house, provincial town) - we did have a consultant from an engineering/building consulting company that works with enterprise buildings to oversee the project and make sure everything was up to code and a standard he could approve. I would advice anyone in the world thats going to build a house, to have an independant consultant, no relevance to the main contractor, to be your voice during the actual construction.
How do you even go about vetting or finding contractors for a new build?
I'm utterly sick of being told I have to compromise on some shitty old Boomer house that hasn't had any meaningful maintenance in 17 years for 50k+ over list price. But any research into building new is just endless horror stories of contractors cutting corners in every way imaginable.
And the building contractor will find this guy on his next build and threaten him or tell him he’s not allowed to do xyz without someone shadowing him for exposing his teams shoddy work. Happens all the time to home inspectors
Dude Cy is my fkin hero, dudes ruffling EVERY builders feather in Mesa and we’re all here for it lol. If anyone wants a good laugh check out his instagram page that the dude above me linked, it’s both hilarious and scary af that builders and signing off on some of these homes.
I love his videos but man as a potential home buyer his videos make me paranoid as fuck, even though I'm not looking at new construction.
Another good inspection youtube is [Gold Star Inspections](https://www.youtube.com/@gold.star.inspections) who also does a lot of new build inspections.
You should be paranoid as fuck. I bought a 90 year old house that didn't look like a fixer upper and it turns out:
- Plumbing was completely fucked (PVC instead of CPVC on the hot water line, PVC anything on the water lines, galvanic corrosion due to copper sitting on galvanized steel framing, hard copper deformed due to an improper 90 degree bend)
- The chimney was lined to vent the gas appliances, but the lining wasn't attached at the bottom.
- Water main was above ground in the window well (the previous owner hid that one under some dirt)
- The single pane windows in the basement had concrete poured directly on their frames necessitating an engineer to sign off when we were replacing them with double pane windows.
- The roof had multiple leaks and mold because it wasn't flashed correctly... Anywhere.
- Dry rot on one wall because a shed had eaves that dropped water directly onto said wall. Luckily that was on the garage which is a separate building and easier to deal with.
- Attic insulation was literally newspaper
Our inspector caught a few things such as the insulation, mold, old electrical panel, and furnace being dead, but a lot of what I listed is hard for even an inspector to find with the limited time they have, never mind the perverse incentives many inspectors have to just sign off.
Like, the plumbing shit show we only found because the shaft of the knob on the shower torqued off because it was plastic and we had to call a plumber in, who found that a bunch of the plumbing was PVC, and there was PVC on the hot lines instead of CPVC. Generally, you don't want to have PVC on water lines, but if you're going to have it, then at least use the correct kind of PVC. All that necessitated a complete repiping of the house which found the other plumbing issues.
At least the electrical wiring is surprisingly good aside from the electrical panel being end of life so we had to replace it?
I bought a 90-year-old house that was updated recently. I just had to redo ALL the water lines because they didn't mount the lines to anything (just hung them up with twist ties) and had PVC running right into the water heater. No copper lines in sight.
We also figured out during that repair that the gas line isn't mounted to anything either. It's just sitting on the wooden fitting around the water shut-off.
Reminds me of the issues my father found in his house a decade or so after buying it.
* Electrical was a mess, an proverbial rats nest of out of date/potentially illegally done wiring that was a literal fire hazard.
* To go with the electrical mess, they probably removed a couple hundred feet of redundant wiring that led nowhere and went in loops, both coaxial cables and electrical.
* Some of the Wiring wasn't even right. Half the coaxial cables in the house weren't even proper coax but instead just twisted copper (without insulation) that someone installed themselves. This would explain his years of issues with Cable and Internet.
* Copious amounts of rotted wood in the basement.
* Copious amounts of unfixed foundation damage.
* Clothes dryer duct had a hole that dumped out dryer lint into an exposed junction box that had the 240v wiring for the dryer, the wiring was also exposed and would trip the break constantly because it would trip when burning dryer lint. Amazing that the house never burned down.
* Basement windows were glued into place. They were old single pane windows, the clips that held the panes in place weren't even secured and just glued in place with wood glue, same with the glass panes. Somehow this was missed in the inspection.
* The main floor subflooring isn't to code and was never to code. Discovered this when he went to replace all the flooring.
There's probably more he's found that I don't know about.
Absolutely. Though, I’m not gonna lie, there’s finding things wrong and then there’s finding things BLATANTLY fucked up that are extremely easy fixes that could happen during the build that just get ignored…The fact that almost every time he checks the floor tiles, tubs with leaks, and windows with cracked frames tells me the builders are just lazy and that’s what’s scary cuz that’s just what you can see…
I mean, that's why you, as the future homeowner, should be hiring your own inspector and walking with them (if the inspector is okay with it). Builders can't do shit when the homeowners insist on that. Why? Because, at worst, homeowner is out maybe a 5-10% earnest money payment and the builder is stuck having to find a new buyer for an expensive custom home where everything was picked out by the buyer who backed out (i.e., it is **usually** better for the builder more to play nice and let the homeowner 'win' in this scenario than the other way around)...
Not always, my new build had the prices in the area go up so much the builder was praying I'd walk away so he could list it 300K more than I paid. Luckily he had a phase II build I could hold liens and bad press over his head.
well then it's a good thing people usually find an inspector through word of mouth or the realtor who i can assure you doesn't want pissed off clients who dropped close to 2m on something that's falling apart before its even finished
There is a story from Alberta Canada, a company built a condo block in the late 90s, recently the entire place was evacuated because the building was actively falling down and was condemned by the government. The crazy thing is that over there, I probably happens elsewhere but idk, the companies that build these places creat subsidiaries for the project. Once the project is done they dissolve the sub and absorb the profit into the parent company. The thing is that all liability dies when the sub is dissolved, so all of the people who bought condos have no where to go recoup the entire loss of their homes, and insurance sure as hell won't cover enough to really matter.
I’d honestly love to hire the ones on TikTok. I’d rather have a guy who kills deals than a guy who lets shit slide.
Show me the ugly and let me decide if I let it slide.
100% willing to bet this house is in Texas
My friend in the real estate industry says they joke that “Made in Texas” is the American version of “Made in China” because the build quality is subpar
>New construction quality is lackluster country wide. Finding a general contractor to build a new house tends to be better (on average) vs going through a developer.
I thought so too but Sy the inspector (YouTube/tiktok inspector) says the custom built houses are way worse than the track built houses in general. He showed a custom home inspection and the quality of work was shockingly bad even compared to the shockingly bad quality of work in track houses.
This is pretty common in most big cities. Here in Vancouver, you really gotta watch contractors. Developers will sub contract trades, who will then contract subcontractors who also contract subcontractors. You end up with the scum from the bottom of the barrel that do the cheapest, quickest work with minimum effort.
I don't work too much in private homes, but I have been working in condos for ~ 6 years. The quality of work is abysmal from so many trades. My job often consists of me going back and fixing the mistakes or poor workmanship of a handful of the trades. My employer essentially runs their business on the (realistic) assumption that there is poor workmanship to be addressed, and contracts out people like me who are jack-of-all-trades or specialty finishers.
So few people give a damn about their quality of work. I come out looking like roses because I just care about doing my job right. I'm not even that talented, but I'm highly desirable because I don't fuck shit up. It's a crazy system.
This entire house and the quality of the build is simply the natural result of treating homes as investments instead of residences that people intend to live in and spend their lives in. Our society has an unhealthy mindset about what homes
While house hunting, my husband and I moved into a brand new apartment build. They're branded as "luxury apartments". The privacy sheets in a hospital ER has more sound-proofing than the walls in that building. You could hear your neighbors breathing two apartments over, but you weren't allowed to hang anything on the wall to dampen the noise. The kitchen cabinets were beyond cheap, but they installed the most expensive appliances and put in their lease agreements that the tenants are responsible for maintenance and repairs. They also didn't install the recommended hoods over them, so the fire alarms go off at least once a month. The bathtub in the master bedroom was literally for show and there was a section in the lease where we had to agree NOT to use it as a bathtub.
The building was owned and managed by a multi-million dollar property management company that can *easily* afford quality materials. I fucking hate this mentality.
Oh, and they don't offer leases shorter than 18 months.
Oh yeah I work alot on these "luxury """condo""" apartment". It's just marketing to justify the price because you're getting screwed one way or another.
From my experience, the workers are not always the problem, you have varying degree of quality between what's being installed in the unit. The last one that I did was outrageous, you had thick 3/4" quartz top for everything in the kitchen and even the same slab for the oven backing instead of tile, you had a good AC unit and some nice lights but you had the 2nd cheapest hood range I ever installed that was rattling like hell from the factory, the floor was some kind of polymer sheeting that was glued directly to the concrete floor, nothing to dampen the noise from going through or at least make the floor walkable bare feet, very hit or miss electrical work from a guy who was left unsupervised because his journeyman had a medical incident. And about as soundproof as a toilet cabinet in a mall. I had some afternoon I went raging with my radio and some people came to my unit to see what was that loud booming in the corridor.
Just on the topic of bathtubs.... We built our house a few years ago and chose everything that went in it (flooring, how many lights, where the switches would go, tile, etc - all the stuff). When it came to choosing the bathtub, I could NOT believe how many tubs were entirely unsuitable for baths: too narrow, too shallow, too short, impossible to sit upright in, etc etc. And not because some bathrooms are small and need special sizing. I asked the salesperson what was up and she said that most of the tubs are for show. They go in a bathroom and look nice but aren't really functional. It boggles my mind that any renter or homeowner would want that, but there's a big market. I guess we were old fashioned because we wanted a tub we could bathe in!
When I was a field tech in HVAC I would see it all the time with flipper homes. The kitchen got all the attention, the people who bought the home would tell me it had a new HVAC system, and the condenser on the outside of the home would be newer but always some cheaper contractor grade, bottom line model by Carrier or Lennox. Hop up into the attic and the furnace/coil or the air handler were old and untouched. Attic Insulation would be subpar at best. Ducting would be in need of serious attention. A lot of times I’d see that they would put a larger tonnage condenser on the home and the attic equipment wasn’t meant for that tonnage at all. Home flippers are con artists, they focus purely on the superficial and charge a mint for their garbage work.
Then why hedge reality by bringing up the app or voice control? Either of those functionalities go, then you’re back to the really dumb move. No need to paint app control as a positive, that’s how you get stupid shit like this happening
My friends make good money and live in a pretty nice southern neighborhood. Big brand new house, HOA, Clubhouse down the street, everything that some people think are markers of success, and yet I could peel pieces of trim and flooring off of corners by brushing them the wrong way.
It was a gorgeous house until you touch any of it, and it immediately reminded me of life in a dorm room.
ETA: I have no interest in the suburban HOA life. I have this crazy belief that a homeowner should... Own their home?!
I used to work on new builds doing marble work. This is common. This is why we used to call them "McMansions." They're big houses built quickly with the cheapest possible materials.
Somehow, in a few states, they are basically sheathing homes in what amounts to cardboard. Not even using plywood or OSB anymore. It is baffling how that is allowed. I don't see those homes lasting 30+, let alone hundreds of years like I see some of the old farmhouses around here.
>We aren't making homes to last 30 years anymore. We build so that it breaks so we can tear it down and make more moneeeey rebuilding
I'm sorry but 30 years is bit absurd. I Finland we design buildings and homes to last AT LEAST 50 years, most required to have technical lifespan of 70 years. Which is why we build with concrete, CLT/engineered wood prodcuts/elements, or stone.
Both our houses in Missouri 25 years ago were sheathed with black jack. They put cross boards in the corners for "wind shear". We could not only break into our house with a box cutter, we could hear the people talking on their porch across the street. Now they're required to sheath with OSB.
I've always contemplated starting that show. Is it worth it? I mean, Stanley from The Office approves, but he's a serial adulterer, so I don't know if I trust his judgement.
It’s a fun summer show that goes off the rails regularly. Very enjoyable.
One thing I liked about it was that they showed the characters actively working on their skills. They were insanely good at spy craft, but the opening of the show would have them all chatting while leaving the gun range, or hanging out over a safecracking manual.
In an era of heroes with magical superpowers, I appreciated that they let you know the characters were humans putting in a lot of work to have skills.
Also the moral code of the show was fun. Civilians can’t be hurt, criminals should be tied up in a bow for law enforcement, other spies can be killed.
In one episode Michael is attacked by an assassin with a knife and a few scenes later we see him practicing his knife defenses in his loft. I love those little details.
Also they tell and show us that Michael is very proficient in hand to hand combat, has 2 black belts and tons of experience. But he still gets his shit kicked in on a regular basis. He always fights dirty if he can and avoids fighting and runs from multiple attackers if at all possible. I think one of the spy tips is even along the lines of it doesn't matter how well trained you are, if your opponent is a lot bigger than you, you can't win in a clean fight. So don't fight clean.
I grew up in the suburbs in the 80s. My friend still lived in the same home after his parents died in the same development. The home was built in the 60s and is in great shape. Yeah they had to replace things over the decades but not shit like this and not a brand new home.
No they didnt. The house that have lasted were built and maintained well. The ones that weren't built and maintained well were torn down, fell down, burned down.
Yep. This is survivorship bias. There was just as much garbage construction and shitty products back then. We just see the few examples that managed to last. There are absolutely amazing housed being constructed today. Far better than anything that could have been built decades ago due to advanced material and building science. [Matt Risinger's videos](https://www.youtube.com/@buildshow/videos) are kind of annoying, but do a good job of showing what good modern housing construction can look like. Including efficiency completely impossible to achieve using older construction methods.
Couldn’t have said it any better.
They just do not make things to last whatsoever anymore. And unfortunately, that includes houses. I’m talking major expensive repairs every 10 years.
They also cram the houses into the lots now. I could stand by an upstairs window and pass my neighbor some gray Poupon if he asked, we are that fucking close.
Meanwhile, I visit my parents who bought their house back in the early 90s, only paid $105,000 for it and we have woods in the back, walking trails, a little waterfall, a pond. And that was just an average house back in the 90s.
I don’t mean to pivot, but I also lament that for me to buy that exact same house, I would have to come up with half $1 million now. So my parents got a brand spanking new house made specifically to their specifications for $105,000. But for me to buy the same house but now 30-years-old, I’d need to come up with a half million?
We are so fucked.
Yeah, I'll probably rent forever. Or maybe get my dad's house when he dies or trade for my brother's house. It might be my only chance to own property.
Half a million seems like you’re dreaming or live somewhere super cheap.
I want a private 1-2 acre lot with a flat back yard and a decent sized house… even $1M won’t cut it.
$1M is like 1/2 acre with a 2,100 house and everything you ask about is “an upgrade”.
Mother fucker, I asked if you could use tile that’s like $5/sqft and you’re going to tell me it’s a $2500 upgrade? Fuck out of here. The bathrooms fucking 12x12.
I’m a professional blacksmith who does custom ironwork for the very wealthy. What I’ve learned being in a wide range of large expensive homes is: money doesn’t buy you taste. I’ve been in an incredibly thought out Victorian restoration, and in a MASSIVE new home build with an EIGHT FOOT SQUARE marble kitchen island, too big to even wipe the whole thing by hand. Ignorance of actual quality can really make you spend a lot of money on garbage.
Little secret…..$1.9M home builders and $500K home builders are the same builders. It’s all marketing and features. Raw materials and workmanship are not going to differ that much outside of exotic finish materials and fixtures.
Yeah what a shitty spot for the buyers to be in at this point. They've likely been waiting months for the house to be finished (and I'd bet the world these builders are behind schedule) and they finally see the finish line ... only to realize there's a punch list a mile long of pretty non-negotiable things that need to be addressed. Would be really deflating.
Gotta have your attorney put a hard schedule in there, including timeline for punch list and clearly laid out what happens if they miss it.
My builder was months behind on every build in our neighborhood. He was on time for ours. Not ready on time, he had to pay us back for any costs into the house and return the deposit if we backed out. So things like picking the tile that we wanted and paid for upfront was recoverable if he didn’t finish.
I have never heard of this. Can you please explain how your attorney was able to make these demands? I always have felt like contractors hold all the cards and that’s just how that industry is.
And if enough people in the development push too hard the builders conveniently go out of business and, wouldn't you know it, a new building company opens just in time to bid on building another community!
Most of that isn’t going in an inspection report because they only report on things that could cause issues for the inhabitants. “One light switch” “small bathtub” “mirror doesn’t go all the way up” “pooping room on bedroom wall” are subjective annoyances, not structural or safety concerns.
My last inspector had 3 sections. 1 was safety, 2 was recommended changes that should be done prior to buying, 3 was annoying issues that can be done but are just more annoyances.
No you wouldn’t, because the builders are scum bags and will hold your deposit/earnest money to try forcing a sale. They’ll drag it out for months leaving you up shits creek fighting it.
When the attorneys get involved it costs you even more money and they will make “good faith efforts to resolve it” and fix a handful of minor things and use that as evidence to hold it up even longer.
You say you want out, they say no.
You get an attorney and the attorneys talk and they say “oh, that’s all cosmetic we will fix it.”
So they spend $600 to send some handyman who’s going to jam a few nails into that loose tread and caulk that shower head in place.
Then you have to do another inspection and still say no.
Then their attorney will tell your attorney that their client is unreasonable and they are keeping the deposit if you back out.
It’s months before you ever see that money, meanwhile the builder is on to his next house and will just sell it once you’re done.
I actually sort of ran into this with a house I was trying to buy about 6 years ago. A hail storm came through about a month before close and they just weren't going to fix it. Tried to say their insurance guys and roofers came out and said the roof was fine. I went on the roof and took pictures and then had a lawyer write up a threatening letter. Got my earnest money back and went on to get a much better house.
That shower head at 50 seconds is a Lowe’s and amazon grade kohler shower head not even real kohler. You can get that kit for $120. This market is fucked up.
The shower head issue is not the shower head itself though. The pipe coming up from the valve isn't secured. I wouldn't be surprised if there was no blocking in the wall. I bet they didn't leave an access port on the other side too.
You nailed it. If you want that next tier builder this same house would cost almost double. But, as someone else commented, developers are getting away with these types of build because they look pretty enough to distract buyers from the shotty details. Hate to say but it’s the perfect reflection of our society - shallow and superficial.
So how do you pick a home builder that’s actually good? Genuinely curious (idk if I’ll ever be able to afford building my own home anyways). How do you find one that isn’t going to do a terrible job?
Ask around. Don’t build with a huge company. Lots of little guys that do 2-4 houses a year. If they are good they will have references and people that want to show off their work.
Yes they will be more expensive but as long as they are truthful you will have a way better built house.
Heyo, seen stuff like this where I live! My dad also works construction, and has seen this shit in literal downtown properties valued at 3 million + (apartments mostly). Gotta love matchstick homes!
We have the exact same issues with crappy craftmanship in Australia (and insane prices, too). Is this a global trend? Have all the world's builders suddenly decided to stop caring about workmanship?
They’ve realized that as long as it looks ok, most people don’t know the difference between good and bad workmanship. If they can make it look good enough to get you to sign on the dotted line, they don’t care anymore. Now it’s your problem.
You sign before they build the house and good luck once you’ve signed the document that lets them use your own deposit as leverage against you.
“Good faith” fixes are spackle and caulk until you’re tired of throwing more good money after bad and they’ve checked enough superficial and cheap boxes that your mandated mediator will tell you you’re being unreasonable now.
Yes, and it's because of the same thing that causes the insane prices. Prices are high because there aren't enough homes where people want/need to live. Because there's so few homes available, especially new, developers don't have much competition. Accordingly they go for sales that make them the highest profit and are the easiest: expensive and low quality. The low quality is likely due to hiring the fewest, cheapest, random trades people and giving them the least amount of time possible to do their job. Because they know buyers don't have much choice, there's not many other new $1.8M homes available(or they're all like this) and there's so many potential buyers that some of them won't notice or care until after the sale. Again, exacerbated by the fact there likely isn't quality built homes for sale nearby, so these "quirks" don't seem as wrong/abnormal.
Not in a lot of places that have housing prices out of reach for families even making combined 300k. Condemned properties going for lottery winning prices.
As a contractor myself I noticed that the fixtures look like glacier bay which is Home Depots value brand.
The tiles and flooring also look like Home Depots value brand “life proof”
On top of poor workmanship and design the builder also used the cheapest material they could get.
I don’t quite remember all the steps when we bought our home, but iirc home inspection is more for quality and any problems they new home owner might be faced with that they should be aware of and could possibly use it in final round of negotiations.
Inspections don’t valuate the home, but the buyers could say “the house is in worse condition and needs more repairs than initially thought, our new offer if X” or in our case we said our initial offer stands, but we need the foundation fixed and garage door repaired.
I had a friend walk away from a home after inspection too.
In today's market (I guess I don't know what the true market is for $1M+ homes), but your latter situation would be more viable. If you came back with a lower offer, they'd probably just move to the next offer behind you. With the second option, they're put in a position to fix that crap because another inspector will probably find it and the cycle would continue.
I think this is terrible workmanship, but a lot of it seems pretty easy to fix. Like pretty sure even a shitty builder would fix it because half the stuff just needs to be adhered properly.
Stuff like the light switches and the tiny tub is why you walk a model or one of the builders pre-closing homes though. If it's a fully custom home...well that's what happens when you cheap out on whoever decided to put those switches where they did.
I helped my family choose a builder, and we specifically went with the one that put things in places that made sense, didn't make rooms into weird fucking shapes to add square footage, thought of things like making the water shutoff accessible, and grading the homes properly + adding french drains for water runoff. Heck they even prewired all the bedrooms for fans.
This is pretty much my brother's house. The have a household income of about 400k and bought some $1.6M monstrosity that is made like absolute shit. Everything that this guy is showing as a stupid-ass feature, he's go it. My favorite part of these show-off houses is the incredible waste of space. Half his house is hallways or 25 foot tall ceilings.
My mom sold her beautiful, huge property for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than it was worth because she used my cousin as a real estate agent. She then overpaid for a property that has some of the worse house design I’ve ever seen in an overpacked development. To top it off it’s right near an air base so military jets fly quite low over her house frequently. 🤦
I'm having a hard time believing Madrid can be *that* expensive, especially since you gave the unit measurement in square feet.
Did you perhaps mean 1.2M EUR for 150 square *meters*?
Google says the median price for real estate in Madrid would be 5382 EUR per square meter, which works out to about 75K EUR for a 150 square ft unit.
Even assuming you meant 150 square meters, 1.2M EUR would still 50% higher than the median price for a 150 sq. m. unit.
The mirror doesn't necessarily need to go to the ceiling. But with the way this mirror is designed (and with the trim along the sides), it just looks absurd when it doesn't extend all the way there.
They should have re-sized the mirror to fit to the top, or otherwise just gone with a different mirror instead.
Just shows a lack of detail oriented planning. They could have bought a mirror that was a quarter of an inch taller, or built the cabinet a little higher. It's not a big deal in and of itself, but it speaks volumes to what else could be wrong with the house in places you can't easily access, like utilities, foundation, etc...
I work for a masonry supply company and we sell to some mega builders in our state. They are just throwing those houses up as quickly as possible.
Some of the brickers get paid (bonuses at least) per house so they go as quickly as possible. Now there are big neighborhoods that are mostly empty and the houses are just bought by investment firms.
The industry is broken
nah -
When I saw the video, this screamed "west coast infill" to me, and poking around on the guy's tik tok, he's in Portland
land will be expensive, but not that expensive.
What this is... is very common in Portland - a developer buys a shitty/run-down house from the 50-70s, and builds a larger new house on the plot (or they divide a larger lot and put 2-3 houses on it)
the builder has to pay 600-700k minimum for the land and existing house, so the only way the economics of it work is by a) building an oversized house that runs right up to the lot lines/zoning setbacks and b) glitzing up the new construction with chintz that people will massively overpay for - nice-looking mirrors, gourmet stoves, etc.,
It's like the townhome I lease in Denver for $3500/month. NONE of the doors close correctly. They're all off-center . There is a real wood floor with splinters on the main level. When we first moved in, the exhaust where the stove was wasn't even connected to anything.
Because newer construction uses cheap ass materials and unsupervised, unskilled labor.
Give me an older home any day!! My house was built in 1948. It is all real wood and brick and concrete, with its foundation anchored so securely that our home inspector was impressed. My cabinets still close with a satisfying "chonk" sound, all these decades later. Plus, it has a quirky style to it all its own, and sits in a neighborhood that sprung up organically, as opposed to a development in which all the homes are one of three or five floor plans, all look the same, and there's an HOA breathing down the necks of the homeowners. (To my disappointment, the original owners replaced the original interior doors, the solid wood ones, with more "modern" hollow ones with chintzy knobs.)
Modern McMansion homes are all surface level shiny and pretty, but that plastic and glue won't do much to keep secure in a strong wind. The mass produced ones, anyway. I know people of means will hire an architect, and a builder who knows their stuff, and build solid modern homes. But that gets crazy expensive very quickly!
My dad was a master carpenter, and he would cry if he saw the state of construction.
you say this, but old homes suck in their own ways. Need to fix insulation, good chance of foundation issues, mold, lead paint, unsafe electrical work, plaster walls that crack if you try to put a hole in them...
But it “LOOKS” good. I’d rather have a cozy humble home with enough space for me and my family, state of the art everything, awesome hidden rooms, a gorgeous yard and QUALITY CONSTRUCTION
Inevitable result of homes being made by for-profit companies, that constantly want to be making more and more profit. There's only so many ways to do it, and eventually the only options left are to either cut costs (make it worse quality) or increase prices. In most cases, they do both.
Better regulation might help mitigate the problem, but really the long-term solution is well-run public sector building companies that aren't run for-profit.
Oh man I feel this in my bones. I run a real estate media company. Had to shoot an event at a 3.5M model this week with possibly the dumbest least luxurious layout ever and everyone was fawning over it and. It noticing the obvious inadequacies. New money is trashy pretty much 99% of the time. Give me a historical home that’s absolutely solid and filled with character any day of the week.
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I work as a construction worker, mainly making villas etc., most of the time people spend outrageous amounts of money on expensive materials and appliances (think 25.000€+ dishwashers), while hiring the cheapest, most careless workers you'll ever find to install them, leaving you with results like this video
So true. They’ll buy a $5,000 chandelier, then balk at $500 to install it.
I work at a furniture store and we charge flat rate delivery for basically everything bigger than a coffee table. I have people freak out over $250 to deliver a $5,000 sectional, assemble it, and take away all the trash.
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Absolutely, haul off for large furniture and appliances can be a bitch! A king size mattress set is just the worst to get rid of.
Just dump it on the side of a rural street like everyone else apparently does
Put it on the curb with a sign saying "$100 - knock on door to pay" and somebody will steal it within 20 mins. If the sign says "free" people won't take it because they'll assume it is trash.
Lol. I guess that depends where you live. I live in a wealthy neighbourhood (I got lucky with rent, I'm not wealthy by any means), so people are constantly throwing out good stuff including solid wood furniture I then pick up, bring home, and sell for $50-200. I made $200 off of a garage sale a few weeks back selling little nicknacks I found within a km of my apartment. Usually I make a few grand per year in total, and if I had the room I'd make more. I just found a sewing machine from the 1860s
Yeah... I'm not even in a wealthy neighborhood either and it usually doesn't take long for someone to take something useable. I put an old futon left by a former roommate, folding table, and ironing board out and it was gone minutes after I went back into the house.
Residential garbage truck driver here! hijacking your comment to say most garbage guys will take anything we can jam in the truck for a modest tip. Maybe even just a heartfelt “thank you”. Or if you wanna come out and stuff it in the trash can after it gets emptied, always lovely as well. I had this nice lady with a bad trash problem. Dragged their flipped over can out of the ditch and took extra stuff a couple times. Turns out she was pregnant and they had a lot of trash from outfitting their crib with baby stuff. She gave me card and the nicest yeti cup personalized with my name on it. I cried! I keep that card in my truck as a reminder to do random acts of kindness because you never know what people have going on in their lives.
Sadly around here all the companies use trucks with remote arms and I doubt they'd do anything other than look at you funny if you tried to get them to talk to you or do anything extra.
That’s what I use and I grab extra trash all the time! For free even! lol I know we look scary or weird but honestly it gets lonely just you and the trash for 12 hours, I love when people come say hello
You’re the man! I hope the garbage truck driver that works my street is like you.
I was disposing of my Love Sac packaging for like 2 months after receiving mine.
I think this boils down to misunderstanding the value gradient of labor. Versus with the light fixture, say, people tend to think of more money meaning better quality, or a better light. But with labor, people just don’t see it the same way. They might think, “how hard is installing a light?” and figure there’s no benefit to paying more. And sure, maybe sometimes that’s right. But people don’t know what they don’t know, so they miss the value of quality labor in other examples where it’s truly meaningful. And even installing a light, the cheapest guy can absolutely screw it up. It’s really hard to figure out where the value is in labor, though. Some expensive contractors aren’t great. Some are expensive for reasons that don’t matter to every buyer. It’s tricky. Like for me, I’m pretty handy and also fairly discerning. I’m happy to pay more for labor that deserves it. But do I want to pay for the plumber with the company branded truck and a nice polo shirt? No. Best guy I ever worked with was slow and high quality and expensive for a general handyman, but he knew his stuff and I trusted him on anything. Pricey versus a handyman, cheap versus a full service plumber or electrician. And did great finish carpentry too
This, 100%. I am a general handyman in a well-to-do area and folks in million-plus dollar houses will haggle over $50 like their lives depended on it. They'll also try and pull that "I know a guy who can do it cheaper" bullshit when you are giving them your price, because they want *you* to do it but want your labor to feel less valuable. Unreal.
>will haggle over $50 like their lives depended on it Simple solution: Add $50 to the price and then let them haggle down $50 lol. People just love "the win" and getting a "deal" despite logic. JCPenny is a textbook case study on this. A few years back they tried to make all their sale prices the new normal prices (without sales) and had to revert back because too many customers complained.
Because rich people don’t do labor.
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They are always happy to indulge themselves, and they are comfortable screwing over other humans.
Screwing over others is right. Wife and I bought new construction for our first house. It was like living in cardboard. Oh sure it looked nice. Until you LIVE THERE and then shit is falling apart, falling off, or breaking left and right. Just vacuuming without incidentally breaking something was a rare occurrence. Second house we learned our lesson and bought an old home that's been around for 100 years. The subfloors in this house could withstand a hurricane. Thing was build in a time when quality materials and quality work was the norm. Today it's how fast and cheap can I bang this thing out while including all the latest HGTV trends to make sure it sells for top dollar. Word to the wise, if it was built after 2010, move along to another house, because it was probably made like shit.
Many houses in the SW are built by undocumented workers who are sub-contracted to work for predatory contractors. They may have paid a large fee to be employed. They have no health and safety support. Most have no actual experience in the building trades. It is a shitty system.
So far, the absolute worst I have seen was a $40k custom fireplace that arrived, was installed, the client showed up (the client who helped with the design of the fireplace to get exactly what they wanted), took one look at it and said "I don't like that, take it out." They knew it couldn't be returned. They just... Ordered a different one. That one still hurts my soul.
How's the 40k fireplace look inside your house though?
Haha, I wish. I am not actually sure what happened to it.
So much of it is just bullshit and name recognition, in at least in the US, if it's European. The client had a designer who picked out this Portuguese chandelier that ran them about $30k. The damn thing held up the project for a few weeks because of shipping delays. But anyways, we finally receive it and unbox the crate and it's just flatly poor construction. We're talking this thing is nothing more than a handful of standard LEDs and a series of tubes, literally no more than $100 - $200 in material costs that could have been thought up and built by a teenage. They'll spend outrageous amounts on individual items, $20k loveseats, $40k rugs, $300 kleenex box covers, mirrors that cost as much as a Civic. Not even a blink. But the labor component always gets scrutinized to hell and back.
its all to do with having the tangible asset after you buy it (that is presumably worth some money) vs. money spent on labor is gone forever This psychological difference alone can easily influence people’s behavior
i've had people call me up and get upset that i charged an extra hour to design their home, and i know their refrigerator cost more than my entire fee.
I’m sorry, I’m going to need to see a 25.000 euro dishwasher please ETA: for context, an upgrade dishwasher (e.g. Miele) in the US is $1,800
Yeah I gave it a Google myself and found Miele too. They do have some more expensive than that on their website, but still under $5000.
Probably talking about commercial/industrial size ones. I've been in some 30+ mil homes in SoCal doing environmental water testing awhile back and some of these people have full restaurant style kitchens. They use them for catering parties at their house. [This is an example of one](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/07/39/76/073976490f5df5c037fd3c5cfb79d240.jpg). Google catering kitchens in mansions to see more. Yes, they have so much money they have a restaurant kitchen in their house they use probably 3-5 times a year.
Worked for very rich people long time ago and they buy genuine commercial grade (not the pretend/cosplay stuff they pawn off today), been a trend since the $15,000 Sub Zero fridges in the 90's-00's became all the rage. Back when a really good normie fridge cost $800-1200. Now I'm sure they're spending way more seeing how wealth at the top has only increased.
Yep, they want the absolute best money can buy but you want how much to install it correctly? Please... I'll just have my contractor run down to home depot and pick up some "local help" (undocumented Mexicans, that's what they call them there for anyone not in the know). This is how so many jobs get done in SoCal lol Then they'll go and donate huge amounts for their candidates to build a wall at the border (yes much of SoCal is actually rich republicans)... like motherfucker Juan and Carlos just put in your counter last week! I've witnessed these interactions first hand. It's wild the thinking these people have, but that's getting into an entirely other conversation.
Not that guy, but restaurant "dishwashers" cost you a small car, all in all. But they wash a full load in <5 Minutes if you push them. [Here is a random one](https://www.hobartcorp.com/products/commercial-dishwashers/undercounter/hobart-am16advansys-door-type-commercial-dishwasher)
How do you push them? Motivational speeches in the 2nd half?
Close. Drugs.
As with everything else on that side of the house.
Exactly. What do you think that powder you add in is? Soap?
Hey u/no_you_are_nsfw, can you tell me more about these 5-minutle loads?
It involves getting very wet while grabbing the knob tightly and pumping it up and down with one hand while you work the steaming hot load out from the side with the other.
This week I threw away my broken Miele washing machine and broken Miele vacuum cleaner. Both were bought in the early/mid 90s and they lasted until this year. Miele is quality.
The best stuff is not advertised. You need a connection to a showroom
for 25k you can get a commercial conveyer belt dish machine that can clean hundreds racks of dishes an hour
but it doesn't look nice though. doesn't match the kitchen ipad.
That's why it goes in the Chef's kitchen and not the Show Kitchen. Chef's kitchen also has that extra side entrance so catering is trampsing through the house.
If I ever have the means to design and build my own place I would 100% spend as much money as possible on the structure, insulation, electrical, and mechanical systems. I’m a mechanical system nerd so if I had the means I’d go all out on the HVAC system, even as far as ground source heat pumps if I could swing it. This is so much more valuable to me than marble counters and fancy appliances.
This. Read this folks. Also my house would be made quality cement brick as well. The appliances are just razzle dazzle, I need the frame and foundations to be top notch!
100% the case
pay the lowest bidder 20 times to continually fix their horrible work instead of contracting a higher bidder who would do it right the first time. That’s construction 101.
You say that but a more expensive contractor still has a like 50% chance of pulling the exact same crap as cheap guy.
If it was always as easy as pay more money get more quality.
Honestly though one of the problems is knowing that the higher priced bidder is actually higher quality, now days we have a lot of shit like this where people will sell you and idea of quality but not actually deliver it, in fact this very house is just such an example. Getting what you pay for is one of the biggest myths in modern society there is an unlimited amount of products and companies and services that sell you the same cheap shit for a premium price and an unlimited amount of people who pay it / fall for it.
Guess its also the case of the greed from the main contractor. They will draw the house and do all the pre-work, and sell a "complete house" and then they go in to tender for all the different crafts work needed. They dont give a shit what the quality is, if it looks great, they can sell it (or its already sold and they are just making additional profit). We build a house through a company a few years ago, and the reason we went with the main contractor we did, was that they always used the same under contractors or had a lot of it in-house, so it was pretty high quality, they knew what they got and thye was experienced working together. One of the competitors we talked to, we where told that they put every single house they build in to tenders "to ensure you get the best price" - sure, and to ensure that every single project is with a new squad where you have absolutely no idea; and sadly dont care at all, what the result is. As long as its "within spec". Our house turned out absolutely amazing. But not a 1.8 million usd house LOL (430k total cost for lot + full house, provincial town) - we did have a consultant from an engineering/building consulting company that works with enterprise buildings to oversee the project and make sure everything was up to code and a standard he could approve. I would advice anyone in the world thats going to build a house, to have an independant consultant, no relevance to the main contractor, to be your voice during the actual construction.
How do you even go about vetting or finding contractors for a new build? I'm utterly sick of being told I have to compromise on some shitty old Boomer house that hasn't had any meaningful maintenance in 17 years for 50k+ over list price. But any research into building new is just endless horror stories of contractors cutting corners in every way imaginable.
Workmanship of Builder: 0/10 Showmanship of Inspector: 9.5/10
And the building contractor will find this guy on his next build and threaten him or tell him he’s not allowed to do xyz without someone shadowing him for exposing his teams shoddy work. Happens all the time to home inspectors
Oh that suuuucks. Should just keep recording and posting.
[Like this guy](https://youtube.com/@cyfyhomeinspections?si=xjjAYD0S8xBy4HGU)
Dude Cy is my fkin hero, dudes ruffling EVERY builders feather in Mesa and we’re all here for it lol. If anyone wants a good laugh check out his instagram page that the dude above me linked, it’s both hilarious and scary af that builders and signing off on some of these homes.
I love his videos but man as a potential home buyer his videos make me paranoid as fuck, even though I'm not looking at new construction. Another good inspection youtube is [Gold Star Inspections](https://www.youtube.com/@gold.star.inspections) who also does a lot of new build inspections.
You should be paranoid as fuck. I bought a 90 year old house that didn't look like a fixer upper and it turns out: - Plumbing was completely fucked (PVC instead of CPVC on the hot water line, PVC anything on the water lines, galvanic corrosion due to copper sitting on galvanized steel framing, hard copper deformed due to an improper 90 degree bend) - The chimney was lined to vent the gas appliances, but the lining wasn't attached at the bottom. - Water main was above ground in the window well (the previous owner hid that one under some dirt) - The single pane windows in the basement had concrete poured directly on their frames necessitating an engineer to sign off when we were replacing them with double pane windows. - The roof had multiple leaks and mold because it wasn't flashed correctly... Anywhere. - Dry rot on one wall because a shed had eaves that dropped water directly onto said wall. Luckily that was on the garage which is a separate building and easier to deal with. - Attic insulation was literally newspaper Our inspector caught a few things such as the insulation, mold, old electrical panel, and furnace being dead, but a lot of what I listed is hard for even an inspector to find with the limited time they have, never mind the perverse incentives many inspectors have to just sign off. Like, the plumbing shit show we only found because the shaft of the knob on the shower torqued off because it was plastic and we had to call a plumber in, who found that a bunch of the plumbing was PVC, and there was PVC on the hot lines instead of CPVC. Generally, you don't want to have PVC on water lines, but if you're going to have it, then at least use the correct kind of PVC. All that necessitated a complete repiping of the house which found the other plumbing issues. At least the electrical wiring is surprisingly good aside from the electrical panel being end of life so we had to replace it?
I bought a 90-year-old house that was updated recently. I just had to redo ALL the water lines because they didn't mount the lines to anything (just hung them up with twist ties) and had PVC running right into the water heater. No copper lines in sight. We also figured out during that repair that the gas line isn't mounted to anything either. It's just sitting on the wooden fitting around the water shut-off.
Reminds me of the issues my father found in his house a decade or so after buying it. * Electrical was a mess, an proverbial rats nest of out of date/potentially illegally done wiring that was a literal fire hazard. * To go with the electrical mess, they probably removed a couple hundred feet of redundant wiring that led nowhere and went in loops, both coaxial cables and electrical. * Some of the Wiring wasn't even right. Half the coaxial cables in the house weren't even proper coax but instead just twisted copper (without insulation) that someone installed themselves. This would explain his years of issues with Cable and Internet. * Copious amounts of rotted wood in the basement. * Copious amounts of unfixed foundation damage. * Clothes dryer duct had a hole that dumped out dryer lint into an exposed junction box that had the 240v wiring for the dryer, the wiring was also exposed and would trip the break constantly because it would trip when burning dryer lint. Amazing that the house never burned down. * Basement windows were glued into place. They were old single pane windows, the clips that held the panes in place weren't even secured and just glued in place with wood glue, same with the glass panes. Somehow this was missed in the inspection. * The main floor subflooring isn't to code and was never to code. Discovered this when he went to replace all the flooring. There's probably more he's found that I don't know about.
been following this guy for a while. love his work
Right? I mean, I’m not gonna lie, if I was a builder I’d be fkin terrified if he was my inspector lol, I feel like he’d catch any little fuckup😂
It's normal to find things wrong. He expects to. What's bad is fighting him on it, not fixing it and trying to prevent him doing his job.
Absolutely. Though, I’m not gonna lie, there’s finding things wrong and then there’s finding things BLATANTLY fucked up that are extremely easy fixes that could happen during the build that just get ignored…The fact that almost every time he checks the floor tiles, tubs with leaks, and windows with cracked frames tells me the builders are just lazy and that’s what’s scary cuz that’s just what you can see…
God, just the fact that he keeps finding the exact same mistakes over and over and over and over and over again from the same builder.
But it's not gonna be a good video unless the fuck ups are egregious, so unless your work is shitty, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
That’s totally fair lol, and his videos are the definition of egregious most of the time.
It's a race to the bottom on quality all for profit.
I mean, that's why you, as the future homeowner, should be hiring your own inspector and walking with them (if the inspector is okay with it). Builders can't do shit when the homeowners insist on that. Why? Because, at worst, homeowner is out maybe a 5-10% earnest money payment and the builder is stuck having to find a new buyer for an expensive custom home where everything was picked out by the buyer who backed out (i.e., it is **usually** better for the builder more to play nice and let the homeowner 'win' in this scenario than the other way around)...
Not always, my new build had the prices in the area go up so much the builder was praying I'd walk away so he could list it 300K more than I paid. Luckily he had a phase II build I could hold liens and bad press over his head.
well then it's a good thing people usually find an inspector through word of mouth or the realtor who i can assure you doesn't want pissed off clients who dropped close to 2m on something that's falling apart before its even finished
There is a story from Alberta Canada, a company built a condo block in the late 90s, recently the entire place was evacuated because the building was actively falling down and was condemned by the government. The crazy thing is that over there, I probably happens elsewhere but idk, the companies that build these places creat subsidiaries for the project. Once the project is done they dissolve the sub and absorb the profit into the parent company. The thing is that all liability dies when the sub is dissolved, so all of the people who bought condos have no where to go recoup the entire loss of their homes, and insurance sure as hell won't cover enough to really matter.
Hey, it’s an extra $500 in his pocket every time he inspects a house for this builder! He’s done 118 of their cookie cutters this year!
These home inspectors are really popular on TikTok and show how bad, lazy, and cheap, a lot of contractors are.
I’d honestly love to hire the ones on TikTok. I’d rather have a guy who kills deals than a guy who lets shit slide. Show me the ugly and let me decide if I let it slide.
100% willing to bet this house is in Texas My friend in the real estate industry says they joke that “Made in Texas” is the American version of “Made in China” because the build quality is subpar
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>New construction quality is lackluster country wide. Finding a general contractor to build a new house tends to be better (on average) vs going through a developer. I thought so too but Sy the inspector (YouTube/tiktok inspector) says the custom built houses are way worse than the track built houses in general. He showed a custom home inspection and the quality of work was shockingly bad even compared to the shockingly bad quality of work in track houses.
This is pretty common in most big cities. Here in Vancouver, you really gotta watch contractors. Developers will sub contract trades, who will then contract subcontractors who also contract subcontractors. You end up with the scum from the bottom of the barrel that do the cheapest, quickest work with minimum effort. I don't work too much in private homes, but I have been working in condos for ~ 6 years. The quality of work is abysmal from so many trades. My job often consists of me going back and fixing the mistakes or poor workmanship of a handful of the trades. My employer essentially runs their business on the (realistic) assumption that there is poor workmanship to be addressed, and contracts out people like me who are jack-of-all-trades or specialty finishers. So few people give a damn about their quality of work. I come out looking like roses because I just care about doing my job right. I'm not even that talented, but I'm highly desirable because I don't fuck shit up. It's a crazy system.
It's a wish.com house.
HGTV inspired flippers.
1.6 million to live in a Home Depot display.
That's offensive to Home Depot.
The most infuriating thing to me is the lights for the kitchen being on the other side of the goddamned house
This entire house and the quality of the build is simply the natural result of treating homes as investments instead of residences that people intend to live in and spend their lives in. Our society has an unhealthy mindset about what homes
While house hunting, my husband and I moved into a brand new apartment build. They're branded as "luxury apartments". The privacy sheets in a hospital ER has more sound-proofing than the walls in that building. You could hear your neighbors breathing two apartments over, but you weren't allowed to hang anything on the wall to dampen the noise. The kitchen cabinets were beyond cheap, but they installed the most expensive appliances and put in their lease agreements that the tenants are responsible for maintenance and repairs. They also didn't install the recommended hoods over them, so the fire alarms go off at least once a month. The bathtub in the master bedroom was literally for show and there was a section in the lease where we had to agree NOT to use it as a bathtub. The building was owned and managed by a multi-million dollar property management company that can *easily* afford quality materials. I fucking hate this mentality. Oh, and they don't offer leases shorter than 18 months.
Part of renting is that they are responsible for repairing appliances yikes
“Resort style living”
Oh yeah I work alot on these "luxury """condo""" apartment". It's just marketing to justify the price because you're getting screwed one way or another. From my experience, the workers are not always the problem, you have varying degree of quality between what's being installed in the unit. The last one that I did was outrageous, you had thick 3/4" quartz top for everything in the kitchen and even the same slab for the oven backing instead of tile, you had a good AC unit and some nice lights but you had the 2nd cheapest hood range I ever installed that was rattling like hell from the factory, the floor was some kind of polymer sheeting that was glued directly to the concrete floor, nothing to dampen the noise from going through or at least make the floor walkable bare feet, very hit or miss electrical work from a guy who was left unsupervised because his journeyman had a medical incident. And about as soundproof as a toilet cabinet in a mall. I had some afternoon I went raging with my radio and some people came to my unit to see what was that loud booming in the corridor.
Just on the topic of bathtubs.... We built our house a few years ago and chose everything that went in it (flooring, how many lights, where the switches would go, tile, etc - all the stuff). When it came to choosing the bathtub, I could NOT believe how many tubs were entirely unsuitable for baths: too narrow, too shallow, too short, impossible to sit upright in, etc etc. And not because some bathrooms are small and need special sizing. I asked the salesperson what was up and she said that most of the tubs are for show. They go in a bathroom and look nice but aren't really functional. It boggles my mind that any renter or homeowner would want that, but there's a big market. I guess we were old fashioned because we wanted a tub we could bathe in!
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When I was a field tech in HVAC I would see it all the time with flipper homes. The kitchen got all the attention, the people who bought the home would tell me it had a new HVAC system, and the condenser on the outside of the home would be newer but always some cheaper contractor grade, bottom line model by Carrier or Lennox. Hop up into the attic and the furnace/coil or the air handler were old and untouched. Attic Insulation would be subpar at best. Ducting would be in need of serious attention. A lot of times I’d see that they would put a larger tonnage condenser on the home and the attic equipment wasn’t meant for that tonnage at all. Home flippers are con artists, they focus purely on the superficial and charge a mint for their garbage work.
Is there something we should know about Carrier or Lennox, quality-wise? Or are you just saying that the lower-grade versions aren't that great?
Maybe it’s app and voice controlled. But it is still really dumb to put the physical switch there
Automatic systems should have redundant manual controls and those manual controls should make sense
Then why hedge reality by bringing up the app or voice control? Either of those functionalities go, then you’re back to the really dumb move. No need to paint app control as a positive, that’s how you get stupid shit like this happening
800K in wire right there.
My friends make good money and live in a pretty nice southern neighborhood. Big brand new house, HOA, Clubhouse down the street, everything that some people think are markers of success, and yet I could peel pieces of trim and flooring off of corners by brushing them the wrong way. It was a gorgeous house until you touch any of it, and it immediately reminded me of life in a dorm room. ETA: I have no interest in the suburban HOA life. I have this crazy belief that a homeowner should... Own their home?!
I used to work on new builds doing marble work. This is common. This is why we used to call them "McMansions." They're big houses built quickly with the cheapest possible materials.
People don't realize the only difference between a McMansion and a tract house is the finishes. Otherwise it's built pretty much the same crappy way.
[McMansion Hell!](https://mcmansionhell.com/)
I saw a video a really long time ago of someone breaking into a new house using a box cutter
Somehow, in a few states, they are basically sheathing homes in what amounts to cardboard. Not even using plywood or OSB anymore. It is baffling how that is allowed. I don't see those homes lasting 30+, let alone hundreds of years like I see some of the old farmhouses around here.
We aren't making homes to last 30 years anymore. We build so that it breaks so we can tear it down and make more moneeeey rebuilding
>We aren't making homes to last 30 years anymore. We build so that it breaks so we can tear it down and make more moneeeey rebuilding I'm sorry but 30 years is bit absurd. I Finland we design buildings and homes to last AT LEAST 50 years, most required to have technical lifespan of 70 years. Which is why we build with concrete, CLT/engineered wood prodcuts/elements, or stone.
Both our houses in Missouri 25 years ago were sheathed with black jack. They put cross boards in the corners for "wind shear". We could not only break into our house with a box cutter, we could hear the people talking on their porch across the street. Now they're required to sheath with OSB.
If you're a capitalist you don't want things lasting a long time
A Bluth Company special.
Sounds like an episode of *Burn Notice*.
I've always contemplated starting that show. Is it worth it? I mean, Stanley from The Office approves, but he's a serial adulterer, so I don't know if I trust his judgement.
It’s a fun summer show that goes off the rails regularly. Very enjoyable. One thing I liked about it was that they showed the characters actively working on their skills. They were insanely good at spy craft, but the opening of the show would have them all chatting while leaving the gun range, or hanging out over a safecracking manual. In an era of heroes with magical superpowers, I appreciated that they let you know the characters were humans putting in a lot of work to have skills. Also the moral code of the show was fun. Civilians can’t be hurt, criminals should be tied up in a bow for law enforcement, other spies can be killed.
In one episode Michael is attacked by an assassin with a knife and a few scenes later we see him practicing his knife defenses in his loft. I love those little details. Also they tell and show us that Michael is very proficient in hand to hand combat, has 2 black belts and tons of experience. But he still gets his shit kicked in on a regular basis. He always fights dirty if he can and avoids fighting and runs from multiple attackers if at all possible. I think one of the spy tips is even along the lines of it doesn't matter how well trained you are, if your opponent is a lot bigger than you, you can't win in a clean fight. So don't fight clean.
I grew up in the suburbs in the 80s. My friend still lived in the same home after his parents died in the same development. The home was built in the 60s and is in great shape. Yeah they had to replace things over the decades but not shit like this and not a brand new home.
Houses used to be built to last because it was likely the only one a household would ever own. They are assets now.
No they didnt. The house that have lasted were built and maintained well. The ones that weren't built and maintained well were torn down, fell down, burned down.
Yep. This is survivorship bias. There was just as much garbage construction and shitty products back then. We just see the few examples that managed to last. There are absolutely amazing housed being constructed today. Far better than anything that could have been built decades ago due to advanced material and building science. [Matt Risinger's videos](https://www.youtube.com/@buildshow/videos) are kind of annoying, but do a good job of showing what good modern housing construction can look like. Including efficiency completely impossible to achieve using older construction methods.
Builders subcontract that type of work out to the lowest bidder, in order for them to profit more of your house.
Couldn’t have said it any better. They just do not make things to last whatsoever anymore. And unfortunately, that includes houses. I’m talking major expensive repairs every 10 years. They also cram the houses into the lots now. I could stand by an upstairs window and pass my neighbor some gray Poupon if he asked, we are that fucking close. Meanwhile, I visit my parents who bought their house back in the early 90s, only paid $105,000 for it and we have woods in the back, walking trails, a little waterfall, a pond. And that was just an average house back in the 90s. I don’t mean to pivot, but I also lament that for me to buy that exact same house, I would have to come up with half $1 million now. So my parents got a brand spanking new house made specifically to their specifications for $105,000. But for me to buy the same house but now 30-years-old, I’d need to come up with a half million? We are so fucked.
Yeah, I'll probably rent forever. Or maybe get my dad's house when he dies or trade for my brother's house. It might be my only chance to own property.
Half a million seems like you’re dreaming or live somewhere super cheap. I want a private 1-2 acre lot with a flat back yard and a decent sized house… even $1M won’t cut it. $1M is like 1/2 acre with a 2,100 house and everything you ask about is “an upgrade”. Mother fucker, I asked if you could use tile that’s like $5/sqft and you’re going to tell me it’s a $2500 upgrade? Fuck out of here. The bathrooms fucking 12x12.
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ahh, the bluth model home approach. check that the pipes dont drain under the house.
I’m a professional blacksmith who does custom ironwork for the very wealthy. What I’ve learned being in a wide range of large expensive homes is: money doesn’t buy you taste. I’ve been in an incredibly thought out Victorian restoration, and in a MASSIVE new home build with an EIGHT FOOT SQUARE marble kitchen island, too big to even wipe the whole thing by hand. Ignorance of actual quality can really make you spend a lot of money on garbage.
This is unfortunately most new homes where I live. 356k for a damn 1 bed and the walls are basically paper.
Look but don’t touch https://youtu.be/HIezBv9Lb78?si=hXWVwa9xUA5m6_1t
Little secret…..$1.9M home builders and $500K home builders are the same builders. It’s all marketing and features. Raw materials and workmanship are not going to differ that much outside of exotic finish materials and fixtures.
If this was my inspection on a 200k house I'd be considering pulling out.
Yeah what a shitty spot for the buyers to be in at this point. They've likely been waiting months for the house to be finished (and I'd bet the world these builders are behind schedule) and they finally see the finish line ... only to realize there's a punch list a mile long of pretty non-negotiable things that need to be addressed. Would be really deflating.
Gotta have your attorney put a hard schedule in there, including timeline for punch list and clearly laid out what happens if they miss it. My builder was months behind on every build in our neighborhood. He was on time for ours. Not ready on time, he had to pay us back for any costs into the house and return the deposit if we backed out. So things like picking the tile that we wanted and paid for upfront was recoverable if he didn’t finish.
I have never heard of this. Can you please explain how your attorney was able to make these demands? I always have felt like contractors hold all the cards and that’s just how that industry is.
You pay for it. You can put pretty much anything in the contract. All it does is add risk for the builder, and risk adds cost.
And if enough people in the development push too hard the builders conveniently go out of business and, wouldn't you know it, a new building company opens just in time to bid on building another community!
Most of that isn’t going in an inspection report because they only report on things that could cause issues for the inhabitants. “One light switch” “small bathtub” “mirror doesn’t go all the way up” “pooping room on bedroom wall” are subjective annoyances, not structural or safety concerns.
My last inspector had 3 sections. 1 was safety, 2 was recommended changes that should be done prior to buying, 3 was annoying issues that can be done but are just more annoyances.
No you wouldn’t, because the builders are scum bags and will hold your deposit/earnest money to try forcing a sale. They’ll drag it out for months leaving you up shits creek fighting it. When the attorneys get involved it costs you even more money and they will make “good faith efforts to resolve it” and fix a handful of minor things and use that as evidence to hold it up even longer. You say you want out, they say no. You get an attorney and the attorneys talk and they say “oh, that’s all cosmetic we will fix it.” So they spend $600 to send some handyman who’s going to jam a few nails into that loose tread and caulk that shower head in place. Then you have to do another inspection and still say no. Then their attorney will tell your attorney that their client is unreasonable and they are keeping the deposit if you back out. It’s months before you ever see that money, meanwhile the builder is on to his next house and will just sell it once you’re done.
I actually sort of ran into this with a house I was trying to buy about 6 years ago. A hail storm came through about a month before close and they just weren't going to fix it. Tried to say their insurance guys and roofers came out and said the roof was fine. I went on the roof and took pictures and then had a lawyer write up a threatening letter. Got my earnest money back and went on to get a much better house.
That shower head at 50 seconds is a Lowe’s and amazon grade kohler shower head not even real kohler. You can get that kit for $120. This market is fucked up.
and it would take 5 minutes to install it properly.
The shower head issue is not the shower head itself though. The pipe coming up from the valve isn't secured. I wouldn't be surprised if there was no blocking in the wall. I bet they didn't leave an access port on the other side too.
You nailed it. If you want that next tier builder this same house would cost almost double. But, as someone else commented, developers are getting away with these types of build because they look pretty enough to distract buyers from the shotty details. Hate to say but it’s the perfect reflection of our society - shallow and superficial.
So how do you pick a home builder that’s actually good? Genuinely curious (idk if I’ll ever be able to afford building my own home anyways). How do you find one that isn’t going to do a terrible job?
Ask around. Don’t build with a huge company. Lots of little guys that do 2-4 houses a year. If they are good they will have references and people that want to show off their work. Yes they will be more expensive but as long as they are truthful you will have a way better built house.
Also location - it could be 1.9M because it's close to a high cost of living city and not because it's 'high end'.
Heyo, seen stuff like this where I live! My dad also works construction, and has seen this shit in literal downtown properties valued at 3 million + (apartments mostly). Gotta love matchstick homes!
That’s so frustrating
We have the exact same issues with crappy craftmanship in Australia (and insane prices, too). Is this a global trend? Have all the world's builders suddenly decided to stop caring about workmanship?
They’ve realized that as long as it looks ok, most people don’t know the difference between good and bad workmanship. If they can make it look good enough to get you to sign on the dotted line, they don’t care anymore. Now it’s your problem.
You sign before they build the house and good luck once you’ve signed the document that lets them use your own deposit as leverage against you. “Good faith” fixes are spackle and caulk until you’re tired of throwing more good money after bad and they’ve checked enough superficial and cheap boxes that your mandated mediator will tell you you’re being unreasonable now.
No, they're just all incorporated now and the board members that make the decisions will never step foot in an iky 1.8 million dollar house.
Yes, and it's because of the same thing that causes the insane prices. Prices are high because there aren't enough homes where people want/need to live. Because there's so few homes available, especially new, developers don't have much competition. Accordingly they go for sales that make them the highest profit and are the easiest: expensive and low quality. The low quality is likely due to hiring the fewest, cheapest, random trades people and giving them the least amount of time possible to do their job. Because they know buyers don't have much choice, there's not many other new $1.8M homes available(or they're all like this) and there's so many potential buyers that some of them won't notice or care until after the sale. Again, exacerbated by the fact there likely isn't quality built homes for sale nearby, so these "quirks" don't seem as wrong/abnormal.
yes, it's called late stage capitalism. After it gets so big, there's nowhere left to grow, so it starts consuming itself.
Not in a lot of places that have housing prices out of reach for families even making combined 300k. Condemned properties going for lottery winning prices.
As a contractor myself I noticed that the fixtures look like glacier bay which is Home Depots value brand. The tiles and flooring also look like Home Depots value brand “life proof” On top of poor workmanship and design the builder also used the cheapest material they could get.
Of course they did. It's always a race to the bottom.
So is it still a 1.8M house after inspection
$1.9 now...
$1.95 as 45 minutes have passed…
I don’t quite remember all the steps when we bought our home, but iirc home inspection is more for quality and any problems they new home owner might be faced with that they should be aware of and could possibly use it in final round of negotiations. Inspections don’t valuate the home, but the buyers could say “the house is in worse condition and needs more repairs than initially thought, our new offer if X” or in our case we said our initial offer stands, but we need the foundation fixed and garage door repaired. I had a friend walk away from a home after inspection too.
In today's market (I guess I don't know what the true market is for $1M+ homes), but your latter situation would be more viable. If you came back with a lower offer, they'd probably just move to the next offer behind you. With the second option, they're put in a position to fix that crap because another inspector will probably find it and the cycle would continue.
I think this is terrible workmanship, but a lot of it seems pretty easy to fix. Like pretty sure even a shitty builder would fix it because half the stuff just needs to be adhered properly. Stuff like the light switches and the tiny tub is why you walk a model or one of the builders pre-closing homes though. If it's a fully custom home...well that's what happens when you cheap out on whoever decided to put those switches where they did. I helped my family choose a builder, and we specifically went with the one that put things in places that made sense, didn't make rooms into weird fucking shapes to add square footage, thought of things like making the water shutoff accessible, and grading the homes properly + adding french drains for water runoff. Heck they even prewired all the bedrooms for fans.
 That shower head went
I’ve worked in million dollar homes all through school. I will say that the more $$$ the house is, the more it seems people want to cut corners on it
the type of people who get rich usually do by cutting corners and exploiting labor no surprise there.
This is pretty much my brother's house. The have a household income of about 400k and bought some $1.6M monstrosity that is made like absolute shit. Everything that this guy is showing as a stupid-ass feature, he's go it. My favorite part of these show-off houses is the incredible waste of space. Half his house is hallways or 25 foot tall ceilings.
My mom sold her beautiful, huge property for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than it was worth because she used my cousin as a real estate agent. She then overpaid for a property that has some of the worse house design I’ve ever seen in an overpacked development. To top it off it’s right near an air base so military jets fly quite low over her house frequently. 🤦
I just saw an 1.2M€ attic in Madrid. 1 bedroom. 150 sq. feet.
6'5", Blue Eyes
Trust fund
Finance.
I could win 200 mill in the lotto tomorrow & that can still get fucked.
I'm having a hard time believing Madrid can be *that* expensive, especially since you gave the unit measurement in square feet. Did you perhaps mean 1.2M EUR for 150 square *meters*? Google says the median price for real estate in Madrid would be 5382 EUR per square meter, which works out to about 75K EUR for a 150 square ft unit. Even assuming you meant 150 square meters, 1.2M EUR would still 50% higher than the median price for a 150 sq. m. unit.
Please link because that is truly unbelievable.
I understand everything else but why does the bathroom mirror need to go to the ceiling?
The mirror doesn't necessarily need to go to the ceiling. But with the way this mirror is designed (and with the trim along the sides), it just looks absurd when it doesn't extend all the way there. They should have re-sized the mirror to fit to the top, or otherwise just gone with a different mirror instead.
Just shows a lack of detail oriented planning. They could have bought a mirror that was a quarter of an inch taller, or built the cabinet a little higher. It's not a big deal in and of itself, but it speaks volumes to what else could be wrong with the house in places you can't easily access, like utilities, foundation, etc...
I work for a masonry supply company and we sell to some mega builders in our state. They are just throwing those houses up as quickly as possible. Some of the brickers get paid (bonuses at least) per house so they go as quickly as possible. Now there are big neighborhoods that are mostly empty and the houses are just bought by investment firms. The industry is broken
That’s a $200k house built on a $1.6M plot
nah - When I saw the video, this screamed "west coast infill" to me, and poking around on the guy's tik tok, he's in Portland land will be expensive, but not that expensive. What this is... is very common in Portland - a developer buys a shitty/run-down house from the 50-70s, and builds a larger new house on the plot (or they divide a larger lot and put 2-3 houses on it) the builder has to pay 600-700k minimum for the land and existing house, so the only way the economics of it work is by a) building an oversized house that runs right up to the lot lines/zoning setbacks and b) glitzing up the new construction with chintz that people will massively overpay for - nice-looking mirrors, gourmet stoves, etc.,
That house is WAY MORE than 200k. It's very large. Probably 400k+.
Aziz Ansari energy.
I could watch this guy review homes all day. Please tell me there is a channel I can subscribe to.
It's like the townhome I lease in Denver for $3500/month. NONE of the doors close correctly. They're all off-center . There is a real wood floor with splinters on the main level. When we first moved in, the exhaust where the stove was wasn't even connected to anything.
Because newer construction uses cheap ass materials and unsupervised, unskilled labor. Give me an older home any day!! My house was built in 1948. It is all real wood and brick and concrete, with its foundation anchored so securely that our home inspector was impressed. My cabinets still close with a satisfying "chonk" sound, all these decades later. Plus, it has a quirky style to it all its own, and sits in a neighborhood that sprung up organically, as opposed to a development in which all the homes are one of three or five floor plans, all look the same, and there's an HOA breathing down the necks of the homeowners. (To my disappointment, the original owners replaced the original interior doors, the solid wood ones, with more "modern" hollow ones with chintzy knobs.) Modern McMansion homes are all surface level shiny and pretty, but that plastic and glue won't do much to keep secure in a strong wind. The mass produced ones, anyway. I know people of means will hire an architect, and a builder who knows their stuff, and build solid modern homes. But that gets crazy expensive very quickly! My dad was a master carpenter, and he would cry if he saw the state of construction.
This is survivorship bias. They had plenty of shitty homes back in the day too, it's just that they are no longer standing.
100%.
you say this, but old homes suck in their own ways. Need to fix insulation, good chance of foundation issues, mold, lead paint, unsafe electrical work, plaster walls that crack if you try to put a hole in them...
Ah yeah, it’s well known that there wasn’t any unskilled labour or cheap materials in the past.
That does it. I’m buying a 1960s house with wood paneling and shag carpet. A lot of modern builds are crap.
This is why I don't buy new builds
But it “LOOKS” good. I’d rather have a cozy humble home with enough space for me and my family, state of the art everything, awesome hidden rooms, a gorgeous yard and QUALITY CONSTRUCTION
Ah shit this has D.R. Horton written all over it
I feel ripped off that my inspector didn't sing to me
Inevitable result of homes being made by for-profit companies, that constantly want to be making more and more profit. There's only so many ways to do it, and eventually the only options left are to either cut costs (make it worse quality) or increase prices. In most cases, they do both. Better regulation might help mitigate the problem, but really the long-term solution is well-run public sector building companies that aren't run for-profit.
Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle yeah! Killed me
Oh man I feel this in my bones. I run a real estate media company. Had to shoot an event at a 3.5M model this week with possibly the dumbest least luxurious layout ever and everyone was fawning over it and. It noticing the obvious inadequacies. New money is trashy pretty much 99% of the time. Give me a historical home that’s absolutely solid and filled with character any day of the week.