I did a lot of looking into what questions to ask earlier this year. I tried to attach my question document but .docx isn't allowed. If you have an email you don't me sending to I would be happy to do so.

We have not yet broken ground, so take it fwiw, however we met with two builders (technically met with a rep for a third), and went through a couple dozen Parade homes and briefly chatted with some of the builders or their people there. I knew 15 minutes into our meeting with our builder that we would pick him. We just felt instantly comfortable talking to him. He seemed passionate about his work and was happy to answer any questions we had. He had experience and quite honestly - he and his project manager (whose house we got to see) are or did build in the same neighborhood we bought in. The project manager is kitty corner from our lot and they built many of the other houses on that street. That made me feel good about their integrity (don't **** where you eat, right?!) The other builder we met with seemed to do good work but there wasn't that "easiness" that we had with the first one. They also did over 50 homes a year vs 10-15 that ours does. I sensed that when something likely goes wrong at some point during the building, I would much rather be dealing with builder 1 than builder 2 (or any of the others we viewed the houses of). So my advice would be to modify that document to add/remove questions you think would be relevant, meet with several, definitely get references from other home builders and people who have built with whoever you are looking at (our realtor was able to get us the contact info of the person who will actually be our neighbor and had their house built by our builder - she was very honest and it helped us a lot!) .....and if you still aren't sure......go with your gut. It needs to be someone you feel comfortable talking to - especially if it's about something that is not going smoothly!

Goosie, that would be great if you could email me the list of questions you came up with! Thanks for your help, it is greatly appreciated.

To send me an email, click on my username, then on send me an email.

ah, still learning how things are set up here! I saved the document at work (took out my answers since you probably don't need my gibberish!) so I'll send you the clean copy tomorrow.

It is really important that either:
1.) The builder is a genuinely good person who will want to fix things when they go wrong because it is the right thing to do.

or

2.) The are obsessive about their own reputation and will fix things when they go wrong because they don't want their reputations sullied.

Ideally both. Also, I personally feel more comfortable with well-established boutique contractors than huge companies because you don't want to feel as though they won't worry about the occasional furious customer because they do enough volume that they don't need to care.

I didn't do a custom builder, but even though my house was spec, I bought it right when they laid the foundation. One thing I really like about the builder is that I'm allowed to visit the site any time I wish. I really like that transparency, and it allowed me to catch some errors early on, before they would have been a major problem to fix. I know most builders have certain inspection points, but I like the freedom to come any time and see what's going on at any point in the process (which thankfully is just about done now...closing at the end of the month). I also went by word of mouth, since the builder is very big in this area. I check online but give less weight to the internet because people are more likely to complain there than praise. In person gives a more balanced view. Good luck in your search!

Reputation ain't sh*t.

You want someone who is competent in the construction techniques and materials for your specific build.

I would highly recommend getting quotes from at least three different contractors. It wouldn't surprise me to see a 5% - 25% price difference. Have each of the three contractors provide three references, one from a customer they are currently working with, one from a customer they worked with a year ago, and one from a customer they worked for five years ago. The advantage of doing this is that you get a good feel for how they are to work with (current customer), how they respond to warranty work (one year customer), and the overall quality of work (five year customer). It takes more work on there end to produce these references, but remember, you are getting ready to invest a great deal of money into their product (your home) and YOU are their (potential) customer!