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Avoid a stressful build and protect one of your biggest investments with this guide.
Includes questionnaire tool with over 100 inquiries to ask your potential home builders, because screening them properly is one of the hardest but most important jobs.
Introduction 4
Why Choosing the Right Home Builder is Critical 4
Goal and Design of this Guide 4
Decide Your Type of Home Build- Custom, Semi-Custom, or Tract (Production) 5
Key Characteristics of Home Build Types 5
Finding Costs of Home Build Types 5
How to Search for and Find Home Builders to Interview 6
How to Assemble Your List of Home Builder Candidates to be Interviewed 6
Easy, Common Ways to Find a Builder 6
More Effective Ways to Find a Builder 7
When It’s Difficult to Find Home Builders During the Search 8
Basics to Know Before Interviewing Builders 9
2 Types of Agreements Used in New Home Construction 9
A Real Estate Sale Agreement is Used When The Builder Owns the Land 9
A General Contractor Agreement is Used When You Own the Land 9
Working with Builder Representatives 9
The Design and Use of the Builder Questionnaire 10
How to Use the Questions 10
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions 10
Skills/Traits to Assess in a Builder 11
2 Builder Questionnaire Formats 11
Key Features of Questionnaire and Tips on Using it 11
Pre-Qualify Your Builder Candidates 12
The Home Builder Questionnaire- Questions with Explanations and Tips 13
General & Situational Questions for All Builders 13
Custom Builds- Insert These Questions 14
Homes with Preset Floor Plans and Options- Insert These Questions 14
If using a fixed price agreement ask this question 16
If using a cost-plus agreement ask this group of questions 16
Builders that Own the Lot/land- Additional Questions (often subdivision builders) 20
Builders as General Contractors, You Own the Land- Additional Questions 21
After the Interviews 23
Research Each Builder 23
Questions for the Builder’s Current, Past Clients 23
Choosing A Builder 24
How to Pick the Right Builder 24
Using a Less than Perfect Builder 24
Conclusion 24
Appendix 25
The Home Builder Questionnaire- Questions Only 25
Picking a quality home builder is the biggest, most important task in your home build. Why? You are choosing the company that is the life blood to your build. Therefore, this company will have the most influence and impact on your home build. And don’t forget, they will handle one of the biggest investments of your life.
The builder’s role includes having direct control of the build process and oversight of the quality. To produce a house efficiently and with quality standards, they must have a system in place to achieve this, from beginning to end. As a big part of the quality aspect, a good builder has quality subcontractors and has cultivated a strong working relationship with them.
Also, they need to have a certain set of skills and characteristics. These include being a great communicator, organizer, and problem solver, along with being trustworthy and honest.
There is an immense amount of work to build a quality home successfully, so don’t assume that picking any builder will do. Make the necessary effort to find the best builder that you can afford by interviewing and researching your list of builder prospects thoroughly. By doing so, you will set yourself up to avoid having one of the horror story home builds and, instead, have a rewarding one.
Our goal in developing this guide is to help you find the best, qualified builder so that your home build can be successful. No build ever goes perfectly, but having a good home builder will help you to have a satisfying experience and to get the home you want.
This guide is designed to assist you with the following key steps:
– Search for and find home builders to interview.
– Understand important basics before meeting with your builder.
– Interview builders through the use of our rigorous home builder questionnaire.
– Perform your due diligence on builders.
established in 1998