Putting on the Finishing Touches

Your new house really starts to feel like a home when the walls are finished. The only things left to do are install all cabinets, appliances, flooring, lighting, and plumbing fixtures. These tend to go in fairly quickly, meaning you are at most one month away from closing.

At this time, or a month before, the mortgage company will be contacting you about locking in your interest rate. Some will even let you float it down once before you close, just in case rates go down. Our initial rate went down 1/8 of a point, so we floated down to the new rate.

The initial walk-through could be two weeks out from closing. At this time you will want to walk through the home with a fine-toothed comb. And when I mean fine-tooth, I mean microscopic. Yes, it could take you three hours to do, but don’t even let the tiniest nick pass you by. This is after all, YOUR new home. Here are a few things to look for:

  • open all cabinet doors making sure they are not warped, cracked, broken, hung wrong, etc
  • make sure the wall paint is not showing through any of the primer
  • look for nicks in the walls, broken light fixtures, etc
  • open every window and make sure they work properly and latch securely

Don’t be afraid to ask for an item to be fixed. The builder should want you to be completely satisfied and not have a problem fulfilling your request. On our home, for example, they had installed the exterior door hardware a month before closing. So every contractor had used these to gain access, and thus worn the finish off the handles. We asked these to be replaced, and the builder said ok.

Right before closing, you will have a final walk through to make sure all items have been fixed, and also learn how all your mechanical systems work. It is time consuming, but you won’t care once you call it your own!

Read previous posts from the series below:

Part 7, Framing the House and Adding the Guts

Part 6, Finally, Construction!

Part 5, Digging the Foundation

Part 4, Staking the Lot

Part 3, Shopping Day

Part 2, Picking the Lot, and Part 2.1,

Part 1, Picking the Builder

**If you want to learn more about the luxury side of real estate in Minneapolis, check out my other blog.

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4 Comments

  1. North Georgia Real Estate For Sale February 29, 2008 at 12:58 pm - Reply

    Great post and your right to take your time and go thru home and make a punch list of everything because better to have it done before you move in.

    The paint is a good thing to check and you might not think to but will notice once you move in.

  2. daytona beach fl remax March 4, 2008 at 6:28 am - Reply

    Making a list as you inspect the home is a great idea. You must be completly satisfied with the job and every thing should be corrected. When we moved into one home they had the front door hung backwards so anyone could of popped the pins and went on in. It’s things like this that take a closer look.

  3. Jennifer Kirby March 4, 2008 at 8:14 am - Reply

    GA – We have already noticed some minor things we missed through our walkthrough, like scratches on the hard wood floors. but there is relatively little that can be done to fix it.

  4. Jennifer Kirby March 4, 2008 at 8:16 am - Reply

    Doug – don’t you just wonder what the installer was thinking when they put the door on wrong? One of my clients built new down in Florida and when we did our walkthrough, the microwave was white, while the rest of the appliances were black, as everything should have been. Now how does someone just miss a white microwave?

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