Hiring the right builder to construct your home
You’ve dreamed, you’ve saved, you’ve schemed, and you’ve browsed through hundreds of home plans to bring all your ideas for a new home to fruition. Now it’s time to buckle down to business and find a builder you feel you can trust and work with comfortably.Where to start? Word of mouth is not only the best friend of businesses, it is also the best friend of potential buyers. Also, drive past new allotments, attend home tour events, and poke around during new construction real estate open houses. See what you like and don’t like. Be aware that just because a company is a big-name builder doesn’t necessarily mean that they have a high level of customer satisfaction. Remember that there is no builder that can make every single customer happy 100 percent of the time. After all, some customers are much tougher to deal with than others. Regardless of the size of the company, make sure to take time to ask questions of previous clients and find out if the builder was responsive to their needs and timely in addressing any concerns.
Builders usually fall into four major categories. First there are the big or volume builders. You usually must purchase a lot within a large planned community to go this route, so if you have an alternative location for your home, this isn’t going to work for you. Track or semi-custom builders usually have a set number of plans to choose from, although there are variations available within those plans. This allows them to more carefully calculate set costs. If you have personalized plans drawn up by an architect, you most likely are going to use the services of a custom home builder who provides a very individualized home building process. Your final option is to serve as your own general contractor, but this isn’t something to undertake lightly. The point of hiring a general contractor is knowing that you have an extremely knowledgeable professional on your side who is coordinating all aspects of construction and working very hard to avoid any costly mistakes. One major mistake on the part of a homeowner who self-contracts can cost far more than the price of hiring a professional in the first place.
Some questions to ask a potential builder:
• What experience do you have in the building industry? Number of years? Professional affiliations?
• Have you ever built homes under a different company name? When and why?
• Considering my chosen floor plan and square footage, what kind of construction timetable can I expect?
• Do you have any finished homes or homes under construction that I can look at?
• Are you personally involved in the building process, or does another individual oversee the process? How often will we be in contact as construction progresses?
• Are you legally covered by insurance and workers’ compensation? Does state licensing apply? Are you OSHA compliant with procedures?
• Do you use a regular group of subcontractors or employees who do consistently quality work?
• What about any change orders that differentiate from the agreed upon blueprints?
• How does the money flow? How are deposits and draws handled?
• What are the mutually agreed upon terms of completion, including customer satisfaction?
Remember that your builder works very hard to maintain a high quality business with ethical standards, but he (or she) still needs to make a profit, or they will be out of business in a hurry. Building a home is a give and take arrangement, and is unlikely to always flow smoothly. Know this from the start, and keep an open flow of communication between the builder and yourself. Be committed to working out differences in a fair and equitable way, and keep an open mind when it comes to options and limitations that may arise.
Work closely together and be flexible regardless of unexpected weather, changes in plans, or unanticipated difficulties, because these are the rule rather than the exception. A trusted builder knows that this is a huge personal investment on your part, and deeply respects that fact. After all, his goal is for you to be a satisfied customer who will refer others in the future.