The backed up supply chain is wreaking havoc on Builders trying to complete their New Construction homes on time in the Omaha and surrounding areas. I just conducted a New Construction Inspection in Gretna, NE last week days before closing and the garage doors hadn’t been installed yet. The Builder receive a call towards the end of the inspection from the Garage Door Contractor stating the doors had just arrived and that he would be installing them the day before closing. A month ago, I performed another inspection in Bellevue, NE where the Builder stated they had just installed their last garage door in stock and going forward they would be forced to sell homes without the doors and return later to install them once they arrived. A different Builder in Elkhorn, NE has been delaying closings until the garage doors arrive and are installed.
It’s not just garage doors that are delaying the builds. It’s almost every product that goes into building the home. Appliances are so backed up that some Builders are scrambling to find anything that will finish the kitchen even if it means upgrading them at no extra cost. Other Builders are having the new Homeowner order their own appliances months in advance to avoid delays and the added headaches. Glass shower doors are extremely difficult to get so Builders are having to find alternative ways of completing the shower surrounds. Unless you have a warehouse full of windows, custom ordering windows is taking months and months to arrive. If a window breaks or the measurements were wrong when they arrive, Builders are left scrambling to find any or are forced to wait even longer for the next shipment. Steel is backed up over 1 year. That’s delaying Commercial Construction immensely!
New Construction has shifted focus from trying to build a quality product in a reasonable time at a set price with happy customers to having skyrocketing material costs, shortage of workers, shortage of supplies, having to pay sub-contractors extra trip charges to return multiple times when supplies do finally arrive, dealing with desperate customers, and all while demand for their New Construction is growing because the existing residential market has been at 50% inventory for 2 years in a row now. I have been inspecting for almost 20 years and I never imagined I’d be inspecting a brand new home without garage doors!
