diff --git a/commands/hugobuilder.go b/commands/hugobuilder.go
index 4c2d865c0..778d85ca9 100644
--- a/commands/hugobuilder.go
+++ b/commands/hugobuilder.go
@@ -663,7 +663,20 @@ func (c *hugoBuilder) handleEvents(watcher *watcher.Batcher,
 	var n int
 	for _, ev := range evs {
 		keep := true
-		if ev.Has(fsnotify.Create) || ev.Has(fsnotify.Write) {
+		// Write and rename operations are often followed by CHMOD.
+		// There may be valid use cases for rebuilding the site on CHMOD,
+		// but that will require more complex logic than this simple conditional.
+		// On OS X this seems to be related to Spotlight, see:
+		// https://github.com/go-fsnotify/fsnotify/issues/15
+		// A workaround is to put your site(s) on the Spotlight exception list,
+		// but that may be a little mysterious for most end users.
+		// So, for now, we skip reload on CHMOD.
+		// We do have to check for WRITE though. On slower laptops a Chmod
+		// could be aggregated with other important events, and we still want
+		// to rebuild on those
+		if ev.Op == fsnotify.Chmod {
+			keep = false
+		} else if ev.Has(fsnotify.Create) || ev.Has(fsnotify.Write) {
 			if _, err := os.Stat(ev.Name); err != nil {
 				keep = false
 			}
@@ -805,21 +818,6 @@ func (c *hugoBuilder) handleEvents(watcher *watcher.Batcher,
 			continue
 		}
 
-		// Write and rename operations are often followed by CHMOD.
-		// There may be valid use cases for rebuilding the site on CHMOD,
-		// but that will require more complex logic than this simple conditional.
-		// On OS X this seems to be related to Spotlight, see:
-		// https://github.com/go-fsnotify/fsnotify/issues/15
-		// A workaround is to put your site(s) on the Spotlight exception list,
-		// but that may be a little mysterious for most end users.
-		// So, for now, we skip reload on CHMOD.
-		// We do have to check for WRITE though. On slower laptops a Chmod
-		// could be aggregated with other important events, and we still want
-		// to rebuild on those
-		if ev.Op&(fsnotify.Chmod|fsnotify.Write|fsnotify.Create) == fsnotify.Chmod {
-			continue
-		}
-
 		walkAdder := func(path string, f hugofs.FileMetaInfo) error {
 			if f.IsDir() {
 				c.r.logger.Println("adding created directory to watchlist", path)