That Home Loan Hub
Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
That Home Loan Hub
How To Read A Builders Report With Confidence
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A builder’s report can feel like a bunch of headlines until you know how to read the labels and what they imply for real risk, real money, and real next steps. We sit down with Evan to translate the common report terms into plain English, so you can stop guessing and start prioritising. If you’re buying a home, supporting a client, or simply trying to understand what you’re looking at before going unconditional, this is the practical guide we wish everyone had.
We unpack what a New Zealand pre-purchase building inspection report typically covers, from exterior claddings and roof spaces to subfloors, sites, and moisture readings. Evan explains the difference between cosmetic issues and minor maintenance, and why that distinction changes fast depending on the scale of the home, from an 80 square metre weatherboard to a 350 square metre two-storey property. We also dig into “action required”, the phrase banks and lawyers latch onto, and how it links to weathertightness risk and long-term deterioration if defects are left unattended.
We then get into judgement calls that matter: when something becomes a safety hazard, like a second-storey deck balustrade with timber decay, and when a report has to say “further investigation” because access or conditions prevent a complete view. Finally, we talk about the growing habit of throwing reports into AI, what it does well, and what it can miss without the right prompts, plus where electrical checks sit in a builder’s scope and why older wiring can trigger insurance requirements.
If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s house hunting, and leave a review so more Kiwis can buy with confidence. What part of a builder’s report do you find hardest to interpret?
Buy your first home in NZ Weekly Webinars
You thought it's not possible or the dream is too far away? Come to my webinar and I will show you, you are much closer to your dream, than you think you are!
Join Here - https://bit.ly/4m9SL72
All right, builder's report. Let's break it down, what it means, what does it look like, and what sort of words to pay attention to. I've got Evan back in the house. Hello, Evan.
SPEAKER_00Hi.
SPEAKER_01So Builders
What A Builders Report Covers
SPEAKER_01Reports.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so lots of headlines. Lots of lots of headlines. So our Builders Reports, they cover everything to do with a dwelling and property. Exterior, interior, roof, roof space, subfloor, and site, including moisture as well. When it comes to explaining what issues are or risks, risk areas or just general maintenance, when we write sections in the report, they're usually classified under different areas and different terms. So something may be a cosmetic issue, and that would that could typically be like minor cracking to the interior for wall linings, a little bit of paint deterioration.
Cosmetic Vs Maintenance Findings
SPEAKER_00We're not going to include that if there's no issue. So unless there's elevated moisture, potential elevated moisture detected in areas or significant cracking, then those are cosmetic issues. And we're there to talk about significant defects, maintenance. Those are the big issues that we want to kind of pull up in a report. When it comes to minor maintenance, so these are items that maybe paint deterioration to timber joinery. Now, it's not urgent. It's not it might not be significant. There's a difference between, you know, an 80-square meter weatherboard house with a little bit of paint deterioration compared to a 350 square metre house that's got two stories, that's going to cost a lot more to just do the general maintenance. That is a big significant difference. So kind of detailing what's minor maintenance and what's more action required. Action required banks and lawyers love that term. So when there is a big issue, and we can talk
Action Required And Safety Risks
SPEAKER_00about you know cracking to weatherboards, cracking to e fus cladding, any any potential water tight tightness issues, that's when it's action required and it needs to be done to maintain the the quality of the house. If you don't do it, it's gonna deteriorate and it's gonna get worse. And obviously, with banks doing the lending, they don't want to see a house deteriorate because that's their investment. So that kind of stuff is quite important. When it comes to it's very rare for like safety hazards, the the main one would be a second-story deck that has a balustrade that might have timber decay to the bottom connections. And you know, if it's starting to rot, is that balustrade gonna perform? It may be stable, but if that fails, or that connection, you know, up a top, up the top or whatever, if that fails, you're gonna fall and that becomes a safety hazard and a significant issue. So pulling those kind of things up in the report, even though they may be they may seem minor when it when it's impacting someone's safety, then it's it's a safety issue. And and that is also you can kind of classify action required or or safety hazard. Either one kind of works. It depends on you know what the type of fall is. If there's a lower roof and you can like kind of bounce down the roof as you fall, maybe it's action required, but you know, if it's a nine-meter drop, yeah, it's probably safety. You know, it it kind of depends on how you interpret it. And then further investigation, that's when we can't kind of pinpoint something. That's usually with elevated moisture, potential elevated moisture areas,
When Further Investigation Matters
SPEAKER_00or there seems to be some deterioration and we can't get to a certain area. So potentially in internal gutters, maybe we can't get up to see it. And you know, even if we've got drones, maybe it's raining on the day, and so we can't actually fly our drone up, and we can't actually inspect that area. We want to make sure that like that does get inspected prior to you know going unconditional or settlement date or or whatever. And it doesn't matter who does the inspection, you can call us back, you can get a roofer or a you know builder, whoever it kind of pertains to, then yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. What I'm curious about is how how correct AI is sometimes. Like, because what I see is people get the builder's report, they don't
Using AI To Read Reports
SPEAKER_01really read it themselves fully to understand it, and then they just chuck it into AI and they go, Hey, AI, tell me, you know, what do I need to pay attention to? Have you done that yourself to see if it comes back with and how correct it is?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean AI is a great tool and it's a great summarizing tool. So on most reports, I'll chuck my report in to make sure that it kind of gets across my points because I'm I'm in the industry, I try and use just basic common plain language, plain language. But I can sometimes get in my own head when I'm writing it and I'll end up sounding more like a builder, more like the professional, and less like me trying to explain something just to, you know, my sister or who has no building experience whatsoever. So me putting it into AI to evaluate it, I guess, making sure that it's getting the point across.
SPEAKER_01Then Do you actually give it instructions? Please explain it like I would explain to my sister.
SPEAKER_00No, I mean that's that would be more for like if I was going to use AI to write answers. This is more towards like just reviewing.
SPEAKER_01I'm just boiling your leg.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Reviewing and and seeing if if I've kind of missed anything or if anything's not clear. Okay. It is a good tool, but like anything, you can't just not know how to use it and expect to get the results. Yeah. It's like, you know, you wouldn't trust you wouldn't trust a painter to build you a house. Yeah. Like wrong tool sets. So, you know, you've got to ask AI the right questions. And I'm no expert on AI, but uh it it definitely is useful in in some aspects.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah, I'm just curious because I see it more and more now where people put it through AI and then come back to us and they say, Oh, you know, we've picked this from the report or that from the report.
SPEAKER_00Real estate agents are doing it heaps, yeah. To kind of yeah, review our reports and come up and and see if there's anything.
SPEAKER_01Maximize the time.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay, interesting. Now, question I had for you earlier was you talk a lot about moisture readings. What about the electrical stuff? Like, do you actually also test electrical like PowerPoints and things like that
Electrical Clues And Insurance Flags
SPEAKER_01during your report?
SPEAKER_00No, unless unless it's a new build and I can factor in that time. If I test one PowerPoint, I should be testing every single PowerPoint. But what's to say that there aren't hidden PowerPoints behind dishwashers, behind ovens? I'm not a licensed electrician. I I do have a tester that I can plug in and it'll tell me if it's earth and if it's working correctly, and it'll blink a different color if it's you know something wrong. I just mainly check to make sure that the lights are working, I identify where the fuse board, meter board, if I can see where the earth cable is, the type of wiring involved. So if it's older style wiring, then it may there is a vulcanized Indian rubber cable. That's a safety hazard because it can light on fire. It's got like a fibrous sheath to it. So that that's not great when you know you talk about older houses that have scrim in the walls. So one thing can lead to another, and then all of a sudden your house burns down. So just identifying what type of wiring, and I'll leave the proper assessment up to a professional. If I feel like it needs to be assessed, then I'll I'll say, you know, get a get a sparky in to have a look at it.
SPEAKER_01Okay. That's good to know because again, like with some older houses with insurance, it's really hard for us to get insurance for the clients of the houses 1920s or older. And and I do find every now and then we'll come across a property that has been fully rewired, fully replumbed, repiled. Piled. Thank you. I was like, what was that word? Repiled. But the insurance still wants us to do, well, they want the client to go and get electrical certificates and things like that to make sure that it has all been fully ticked off because, as you say, like all it takes is really one spark and screen paper, off it goes. Good times. Yeah, awesome. Evan, thank you so much. That was really, really useful to go through the report. Sweet. Thank you. Bye. Thanks.
