My builder says...

"...don't waste my money because they have their own inspectors and the city passed it already."

The builders do hire their own inspectors and, just like the city inspectors, they are slammed with work performing dozens of inspections in a day. I do two a day, maximum. In the few minutes they are looking over your home, they may call out a few things, pass/fail it, and move on. Don't get me wrong, they do valuable work, but the other inspectors just can't spend the hours on site and produce the detailed photo reports that your own hired 3rd party inspector can. Remember, all new homes with cracked foundations, framing deflections, blocked drains and electrical problems was passed by the builder and the city.