‘Horror stories’ like these are common throughout the entire building market. I don’t deny that things like this happen, and I sympathize with anyone who has to go through the headache of a badly built house. However, most of the time when I come across a story like this, I constantly ask myself, “how often did these people visit their property while it was being built?” “Once, twice, never?” It’s not a guarantee of anything, but I think that alot of these things can be avoided if the buyer takes a little time and goes to look at their home as it’s being built and make sure that they don’t miss anything, and if they do, document it, photograph it, and report it to the home seller immediately. That kind of info arms you for later if they try to make you close on the house when problems exist.
My first house was built about 3 years ago, and I was out there looking at it and taking pics two to three times a week from the time they cleared the land till they put up the last brick. There was one issue that concerned me and I reported it and it got fixed the next day. I haven’t had a single problem with the house since moving in.