Many of my clients ask about buying a flip or a New Build.  

After all, these homes often LOOK perfect, so I totally understand the allure! 

The #1 challenge with flips and new construction homes is that they are not "battle tested."  

For my mold sensitive clients, we need to really evaluate a home's performance. 

Do the showers leak?  Do windows leak?  How does the roof perform?  How does the kitchen sink perform?  How was the HVAC installed?  Were toilet wax rings installed correctly? 

These type of problems generally take a bit of time to reveal themselves.  When we do inspections on a flip or a brand new build, the inspections often come back quite clean.  Same with running an ERMI--you'll usually get a very good ERMI.  However, that really doesn't tell the full story. 

My strong preference is for my clients to buy homes at least 1 year old.  This gives the home enough time to be "lived in" so that issues have some time to come to the surface.

Buying a flip or a new build is NOT a rule out.  It just requires a client to have a real commitment to finding/fixing issues as they arise, and an understanding that not all issues will be found during the initial inspection period.