Before you hire anyone
Thirteen questions to ask a custom home builder
Ask these of Randy and ask them of everyone else you are talking to. A few of them are uncomfortable, which is rather the point. The answers separate builders who work the way they describe from builders who describe it well.
Part 1
About who actually builds it
- Who will be on my site day to day, and who do I call when something is wrong?
- You are listening for one name rather than a department. If the answer is a project manager you have not met yet, ask to meet them, because that is the person you are really hiring.
- How many houses are you running at once?
- There is no correct number, but there is a number that is too high for the way they say they work. A builder promising to be on your site daily while running twenty jobs is promising something arithmetic will not allow.
- Which parts do your own crews do, and which are subcontracted?
- Almost every custom builder subcontracts most trades, and that is normal. What you want to know is whether the subs are people they use repeatedly or whoever bid lowest that month.
Part 2
About the number
- What is an allowance in this bid, and what is a real price?
- Allowances are placeholders for things not yet chosen. A bid stuffed with low allowances looks cheaper than one with real numbers and is not. Ask which lines are allowances and what they are based on.
- What is not included?
- Dirt work, septic, water, the power run, driveway, landscaping and window coverings are the usual omissions. On a rural lot those add up to a serious number, and leaving them out is how two bids for the same house end up thousands apart.
- How are change orders priced and approved?
- You want it in writing, priced before the work happens, and signed. The answer you do not want is that it gets sorted out at the end.
- How and when do you get paid?
- A normal custom build draws against progress. Be careful with anyone who wants a large sum up front before anything has been built.
Part 3
About the ground and the schedule
- Have you built on my soil, and what foundation are you proposing?
- On Blackland clay the honest answer involves a geotechnical report and an engineered slab. A conventional slab quoted without a soil report is the clearest warning sign there is.
- Am I inside city limits or in the county, and who permits it?
- They should know without checking. It changes the process and the timeline, and a builder who works here every week will answer immediately.
- What is the schedule, and what happens to it when it rains for three weeks?
- Which around here it does. You are looking for a realistic answer rather than an optimistic one, because an optimistic schedule is just a disappointment scheduled in advance.
Part 4
About what happens afterward
- What does your warranty cover, for how long, and what is excluded?
- Get it in writing before you sign anything, not after you move in.
- Can I have the numbers of your last three clients, not your favorite three?
- Any builder can produce three delighted references. The last three in a row is a different question, and how somebody reacts to being asked tells you nearly as much as the answer.
- Can I walk a house you finished and one you are building right now?
- A finished house shows you the standard. A house mid-build shows you how they work when nobody has tidied up for a visit.
Our answers
Randy will sit through all thirteen.
He builds about ten houses a year, he is the person on your site, and he will tell you when a production builder is the better fit for what you want. Losing a job that was never right costs him less than building for somebody who wanted something else.
See how he worksRandy walked the slab with me before the pour and explained every line on it. I’d never had a builder do that.
Mike C.O’Brien homeowner
Also worth reading
- Comparing two builder bidsFor when the quotes are already in front of you.
- Custom or production builderIncluding when to hire the other kind.
