America's Largest Homebuilders Shift the Cost of Shoddy Construction to Buyers
50 comments
·September 13, 2025_fat_santa
I don't usually recommend Instagram accounts but I've been following CyFy Home Inspections[1][2] for quite some time now and you get a real first hand glimpse at what this sort of shoddy construction looks like.
Waterluvian
The thing that absolutely blows my mind when watching his content is how a lot of American homes are made out of a wood frame, foam, chicken wire, and plaster.
I would have thought that regions that don’t have winter weather would just cheap out on insulation, but they cheap out on the whole thing.
It got me thinking that the mere existence of winter weather kind of sets a minimum standard of quality.
rayiner
I love these home inspection clips on Tik Tok!
hollerith
>I don't usually recommend Instagram accounts
He has a lot of content on Youtube, too,
recursivedoubts
The quality of everything has gone to pot and, of course, that fact does not show up in the inflation numbers in any meaningful way.
I purchased a dresser from Restoration Hardware back in 2001 as a recent grad and it's quality is unbelievable by todays standards: dovetail joinery, excellent wood, etc. Now I go and look at furniture and I'd have to spend (what I consider to be, lol) a car's worth of money for anything close to it.
throw0101a
Theoretically new homes should have warranties, at least in some jurisdictions; e.g., Ontario, Canada:
* https://www.tarion.com/homeowners/the-new-home-warranty
Of course big(ger) builders have legal departments that can stonewall you and cause all sorts of delay. Further, depending on what the problem is, it may basically be 'unfixable' short of tearing down the house and re-designing/building it taking actual building science into account.
An example for the latter case, a homeowner couple spent six years fighting the builder before finally settling (the day before the trial began) and taking a buy out. A video with the building science consultant (Corbett Lunsford) they hired to debug the issue:
quickthrowman
The builders the article is talking about do offer warranties, both of them.
Having a warranty is one thing, exercising is can be an entirely different challenge. There’s typically a one-year workmanship warranty and then longer warranties on HVAC/plumbing and structural/foundation. Materials and equipment in the home will have varying warranty periods on the item in question.
Here is a recent Lennar warranty brochure: https://photos.harstatic.com/384985574/supplement/pdf-4.pdf?...
throw0101a
> Having a warranty is one thing, exercising is can be an entirely different challenge.
Which is the point of the second half of my comment and the link to an interview with folks that had this exact problem. (Also why I started with the word "theoretically", as how actual legal coverage works in practice can be different.)
quickthrowman
I was attempting to move the discussion from a theoretical one to a concrete one by looking at an actual warranty document from one of the builders named in the article, it’s not hard to google “Lennar warranty” and paste a link to it so we’re discussing an actual tangible warranty instead of theorizing about hypotheticals.
bob1029
I've learned that no home is perfect but some of these are a total nightmare. I've been through a number of homes over the years in the Texas market. Anything built after 2012 or so drops off like a rock in quality.
I intentionally bought one with minor foundation and drainage issues because the trade off was that everything else is perfect. You can fix landscaping, concrete, insulation, plumbing, etc. with incremental expenses. You cannot fix your location. That requires starting all over again each time.
Waterluvian
It’s funny, foundation and drainage was the very top of the list of what I avoided because those issues are very expensive to remedy and will slowly destroy your home. Oh and roof issues, too.
Drainage is especially difficult to fix if the topography is to blame. You can’t move your home out of a low spot or off a floodplain.
Havoc
In the UK it's been prevailing wisdom to not buy new for a while already.
Developers know people are desperate at the moment and they shoot for quality standards commensurate with that.
back2dafucha
The only thing builders have to do to block your home warranty claim is lie. This has happened to me with a new house.
There is a reason lying is popular. Its easy.
erikerikson
And cheap
jt2190
> ... [M]any avoidable defects are caused by business practices that focus on building and selling quickly, with minimal concern for repeat business or quality control, according to Robert Knowles, president and founder of the National Association of Homeowners and a licensed professional engineer who said he has inspected thousands of new builds.
> “There is no bonus for building the house to code, for quality,” Knowles said, to his knowledge. “There’s only bonuses for speed … and volume.” Knowles estimated 100% of all new builds probably have multiple code violations.
This leaves the home buyer having to very quickly assess the quality of the structure and account for this in their offer price. It feels like there's a business in here somewhere... Perhaps do a video call with a home inspector while you attend an open house?
_aavaa_
> There is no bonus for building the house to code
Why in the world should there be a bonus for following the law.
If you want to talk incentives this is one where a stick should be used.
ddavis
I don’t think the person quoted is implying that it should be that way, merely pointing out a discovery that builders have made: they _can_ get a symbolic bonus. One can skip building to code… do a quick and bad job and move on to the next job, saving cost and moving onto the next paying job more quickly. That “bonus” doesn’t exist if you build to code (and of course it shouldn’t exist, but neither should the bonus that does exist, your stick should prevent it).
bearjaws
It's easier to watch tiktoks of home inspections than to offer this as a service.
Just two hours of doom scrolling you will learn all the cut corners.
You won't be able to evaluate foundation or walls via a call anyway.
phkahler
And we have a Pulte running the FHFA.
Mountain_Skies
Lots of corner cutting, sometimes literally. I'd stay away from anything with a complex roof. If it's trying to look like an entire village compressed into a single building, it's unlikely they got all the various creases and drainage paths correct.
happytoexplain
I'd rather avoid bad builders, if possible, though that's not entirely feasible until we change something.
quickthrowman
The customer is the only one left to squeeze, Lennar and others have already squeezed every penny they can out of their subs and suppliers.
I sell construction work mostly as a subcontractor, and I can definitely tell which of my customers rely on squeezing their subs to maximize their margins (JCI, Siemens, Honeywell and other global multinationals) and those that would like us both to make decent money (pretty much everyone else that doesn’t have a market cap in the billions, excluding some GCs I’ll not name) and while the big boys have a lot of work, doing projects with the latter companies is a lot more enjoyable.
Chris2048
> Many turn to legal action as a last resort, only to find they’ve waived their right to go to court
do people not consult a lawyer before they buy a home? Also, are the credentials of the builders not checked?
bearjaws
National Association of Realtors convinced everyone their realtor has their best interests and fiduciary responsibility.
Of course, this is 100% BS. Probably half of realtors lie or turn a blind eye so you will close. 99% of purchasers will never sue their realtor.
What is wild to me is, having a lawyer do your closing is only $500 but having an agent is ~$10k on average.
I bought my first home without a realtor and have no regrets.
When the builders treat you horribly for asking if you can have an inspector come in and then put a bunch of rules for what the inspectors can do, massive red flag.
I was interested in a Lenar community before I knew how bad they were and everything from their advisors mouth made my (new to it) real estate agent and I feel icky. They said you can inspect but can only report issues if visible from six feet away, can’t open drawers, can only test one outlet, no roof or basement access. I passed on them and a year later some of the houses flooded because of Lenars negligence when to modified a riverbank.