How Often Should I Inspect My New Home?

Lets start from scratch here, you just purchased a brand-new home and everything works fine in the house, but you're wondering when or how often you will need to inspect your home as part of your home maintenance program.

For a brand-new home, I would recommend inspecting your house on an annual basis or at least once a year, for the first five years of home ownership. Then I would recommend inspecting the home every six months, for the next 10 years, after that I would recommend inspecting the home at the least once every three months.

There's a good chance that you won't have any problems with your home, if everything is working properly and you haven't had any problems within the first months occupancy. If however, you have had problems within the first few months, there's a good chance that you will have more problems and these could be caused by product failures or improperly installed products.

Make sure that you check your new home warranties to make sure, what you will be responsible for and what the home builder will be responsible for and exactly how long these products will be warranted for.

If you inspect your home after five years and you haven't had any problems with the house, there's a good chance that you could continue inspecting your home on an annual basis. However, what would it hurt to inspect your home once every six months or twice a year?

If you can get your hands on a good home inspection checklist, you can make some extra copies and save them for future home inspections. Home inspection is part of home maintenance and if you're not interested in taking care of your home, it wouldn't be a bad idea to find a handyman or contractor in your area that could provide you with a basic home inspection, on a regular basis.