Atlanta businessman Gary Wingo, who is relocating to the Kansas City area, started house shopping right away.
He found an agreeable house design but not in an area he liked. Then, he found a plot of ground in Olathe’s Cedar Creek subdivision and set out for the first time to have a home built.
Next, he found an engineering firm to oversee and inspect construction.
“It’s peace of mind,” Wingo said. “Mistakes can happen, and it’s you, the homeowner, that gets stuck with them later.”
More people having homes built in the Kansas City area are starting to assume a similar attitude. About 2,000 large and small homebuilders work in the area, and attempts to regulate their activities at state and local levels–through licensing, bonding or other programs–have failed to effect major changes.
That fact, plus an average consumer’s lack of sophistication in the stressful, complex and financially engrossing undertaking, have put a premium on inspection and engineering companies that work with new-home buyers from the first step in the construction process. “People believe that someone is going to protect them in the transaction,” said Tom Langley, senior engineer for Civic Associates Inc. in Kansas City, Kan. “But the only people who can protect you are professionals who know the business. “It makes no more sense to move ahead on your own than it does to perform surgery on yourself.”
Cities make sure that homes conform to codes, but they lack the staff and time to oversee every aspect of homebuilding, especially during this time of torrid new-home growth, Langley said. Plus, he said, cities aren’t responsible for knowing and overseeing every detail of a building job.
Barney Schwabauer, an engineer with Norton and Schmidt Consulting Engineers in Kansas City, which is performing Wingo’s service, said private firms dig deeper than cities.
“There are some things the city is not going to catch,” he said. “They aren’t looking for the same things we are.”
But even inspectors can’t guarantee that they’ll catch everything. They only take responsibility for what they can see when they are inspecting a home.
The Certified Master Builder Corp., created by the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City a couple of years ago, seeks to solve problems between builders and homebuyers through arbitration, said Tim Underwood, executive vice president of the organization.
The program, which lists about 210 builders, requires its members to offer a one-year warranty on construction. But the program is designed to address problems during that first year after a homebuyer moves into a completed house, not during construction.
Inspectors and engineers are quick to defend many builders, but they say the current building boom taxes their time.
“The industry is market driven,” said Jeff Kelly, vice president of marketing for Custom Home Inspections in Liberty. “They’ve got so much going on right now that they can’t control every subcontractor.”
To hire a firm or team of professionals to oversee the building process typically costs between 1 percent and 2 percent of the home’s price and depends on the range of service a customer requests.
On the other hand, to repair a shoddily constructed foundation could cost $15,000 to $20,000. An improperly installed roof could cost more than $5,000 and up to as much as $14,000 for bigger homes. Plumbing problems, because repairs may require walls to come down, could cost up to $15,000.
For those reasons, inspection and engineering firms suggest that those wanting to have a house built hire a firm or team of professionals to inspect a home during several phases of construction.
For example, Custom Home makes five inspections during different stages of building, Kelly said. Generally the company checks during the foundation, framing, and electrical and plumbing work. It also makes an inspection just before construction is finished, then again after it is done.
Wingo said he would get four or five reports from Norton and Schmidt. Already he has received two.
One of the first steps, in finding a builder, often is left up to the consumer. Underwood suggests that a homebuyer gather all the information possible about a builder. However, Certified Master Builder and the Home Builders Association only confirm whether a builder is a member.
That leaves an exhaustive and inexact search process. But consumers should talk to other people that have used the builder, Underwood said. Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, a local grassroots organization pushing for change in the home building industry, recommends searching courthouse databases for lawsuits against builders.
Once a homebuyer finds a builder, Langley suggests hiring a representation team: an attorney to go over the contract with the builder, an engineer or another licensed professional to review the house plans, and an inspector to make periodic visits to the house. He also recommends hiring an architect to review the plans if the home is custom designed.
The contract with the builder also should spell out the tasks of the homebuyer’s representatives.
“If the builder resists these steps,” he said, “go find another builder.”
John Mehnert, an engineer formerly with the Federal Housing Administration, said people also should be aware of the local environmental factors that can wreak havoc on a home. Some elements in the area’s predominantly clay soil, for example, might expand and cause floors to swell, he said.
“If you aren’t careful, you can get into some real danger,” said Mehnert, who also served on a task force in Overland Park that eventually introduced changes to foundation codes. “You might want to hire a geotechnical engineer to evaluate the soil.”
Foundations and soil are just a few of the dozens of items of which homebuyers need to be aware. They also face structural concerns that center on elements such as load bearing walls, proper joist and beam spacing, and roof supports. Beyond that they must concern themselves with the quality of lumber, windows, floors, doors, and roofing and plumbing materials.
