this is a great topic!

drawing from experience, it is a good practice for buyers to inspect the house personally, preferrably with the construction drawings approved by the architect(s) in hand the whole time. problems highlighted by aaron in this topic are mostly superficial, although it does make ur house look "cheaper" than what u've spent.

however, it is my experience that contractors sometimes could make such a huge error, for example, missing a floor beam! before applying for CF, usually architects will do a thorough inspection of each and every house in the development. but inspecting 500 houses in a week can be tiring, and even architects can miss such errors.

and do take extra care on "cracks". there are several types of cracks, most commonly are plaster cracks, which is virtually small matter and can just be patched with fillas and painted over. other cracks can be structural, which something u must pay attention to. it's very hard to differentiate even for the experienced.

of course! i dont see why people shouldnt. well i did when i bought my house.