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 Lennar 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 Lennars negligence when to modified a riverbank.
The trick for the builder is that THEY are the owner until final paper sign - so anything above final pre purchase inspection is not something they have to allow.
Which is why you don’t use them, or go in expecting shiny crap.
The inspections. Actually, I think it would be legal to do so, but if the builder sells the home and they don't disclose problems with the house they'd likely be opening themselves up to a civil suit, and having a contract which severely restricts the kind of inspection you do would be strong evidence that they knew, or should have known, that something was fucked up. Lennar certainly has a team of lawyers that know more about this than I do...but a lot of this sort of thing depends on legal action costing more than it's worth...and one or two odd cases they do get might just be settled out of court and chalked up as an operating expense.
I was interested in a Lennar 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 Lennars negligence when to modified a riverbank.