New means unproven, not perfect. The house has never held water pressure, never carried a summer cooling load, never been rained on with the windows shut. Every trade that touched it was human, working fast, in a hot month. That is not cynicism about builders. It is the reason the inspection industry has a three phase protocol for new construction, and why I put it in every builder timeline I manage.
Phase one: pre-pour
Before concrete covers everything forever, an inspector checks the foundation preparation: the plumbing rough-in, the moisture barrier, the cable or rebar placement, the forms. This visit lasts an hour and protects the one system in the house that cannot be reasonably repaired later. On Montgomery County clay soils, the foundation is not the place to trust and verify after the fact.
Phase two: pre-drywall
The single most valuable inspection of the build. With the frame open, everything is visible: framing corrections, wiring, plumbing, HVAC duct runs, window flashing, and the small shortcuts that vanish behind sheetrock the following week. Items found now cost the builder a subcontractor call-back. The same items found after closing cost you a drywall repair on top of the fix.
Phase three: final, before you close
A full inspection of the completed home, the same scope as a resale inspection, done before your final walk-through so the punch list reaches the builder while they still want your signature. Builders address punch lists far faster before closing than after. The order of operations is the leverage.
This phase belongs inside the larger builder negotiation covered in builder buydowns, because inspection findings and incentive conversations often land on the same desk.
The eleventh month
Most builder warranties run one year. At month eleven, a follow-up inspection catches what a year of settling, seasons, and daily life revealed, while the repairs are still the builder's responsibility. Put it on the calendar the day you close. Almost nobody does, and almost everybody who does finds something.