Number one question: Can you give me the name of someone who wasn't happy with your services?

We also asked - Please give us an example of an issue that occurred during a build and how was it resolved. One builder said he never had any issues (he also said all his references would give him great reviews), the other gave us a great example on how they were able to switch gears, work on another part of the house while the issue was being resolved. We went with the second builder.

Great questions and I'd have gone with the second builder too.

I toured many of our builder's homes and looked carefully. I toured his homes in all stages of completion and he has allowed me to continue to see his houses as they're being built.

Additionally we went several times to one of his small developments and as we saw people, we asked about working with him. Both the good and the bad. Then our question was, when it went south, was it quickly fixed and without stress? The answer was always yes.

We also went to lots of Parade of Homes to look. You'd be surprised even in homes that are meant to showcase the best of builders, how poorly some things are in the homes.

I am a big believer in good communication and fast response times. True story, going back bout 7 months ago I inquired on one my local fishing forums about builders. One builder happened to respond and he ended up sending me his cell. Told me anything I need, ask away and never tried to really seem to be "pushing" his company on me or wanting to bid our house. I have been texting this guy back and forth for months now. I don't care if it is 6 in the morning on Sunday when I ask a question. I get an answer in 10 minutes. I did meet with him. He and his dad own the company and have 30 plus years of commercial construction experience. Last year they started into residential and built a spec ina very nice community. I looked at probsbly 100 pics of the build and very well done. I would almost rather go with someone like him than some of these other guys who have the "I am a great builder" mentality and it takes them 2 weeks to respond to an email question.

Just be careful because commercial is a whole other animal. And building a spec house is not the same as working closely with a homeowner.

Here's the thing...the builders know what their references are going to say. My approach was to ask people who worked for subs in the building industry: if you were going to build a house, who would you go to?

Great idea Andy Dude. :)

cpartist

Just
be careful because commercial is a whole other animal. And building a
spec house is not the same as working closely with a homeowner.

Thanks CP and I said ALMOST lol. In this case, they've done a LOT of home improvement work, renovations etc etc. Andy, absolutely agreed and I want to speak to their subs and will definitely tell them I want sub references, banking references etc. The lender in our case for our VA construction loan as a part of the loan process also vetts the builder. That is a requirement of the approval process.

I'm often an outlier with regards to the advice here, but I'm going to share my actual experience for whatever it's worth.

We live in a custom built home now, and have for over 15 years. It was designed by me and prepared and improved by a local draftsman. He was a young man with great insight and attention to detail and I liked developing the plan with him. He said he was interested in transitioning to design-build, had worked on some residential builds, and would be interested in building the home. I liked him and trusted him. I said, okay! I checked no references and did no homework on him. He was awesome. The contract was cost-plus, he shared every detail, communicated well, had high standards during the build, and came in on time and actually slightly under budget. We love the house to this day.

This year we had a small vacation house built. Designed by DH and me and prepared by a local drafter. Sadly, the builder we used previously had passed away, so we had to find someone new. Of course, I now had this forum, so I diligently researched, compiled a list of questions, etc. etc. Met with first builders who built small homes. The answered all questions, provided multi-page sheet of references including their suppliers, etc. etc. But it didn't feel right. Some friends recommended a local builder who has been building for four decades. We met with him. We liked him. He understood what we wanted. It was a go. We have enjoyed working with him and are nearing the finish line.

Bottom line from my experience, trust your instincts. But, as they say on the internet, "your mileage may vary!"

I would ask the references how well the builder stuck to his payment schedule. The biggest red flag is a builder who ask for his draw early, or even gets antsy when a payment stage is near completion. I don't want him to rush through any particular stage just so he can collect another 10%. And were there any budget surprises? They should let you know how much (or a good estimate) any 'while you're at it' things costs before they actually do them. And, generally speaking, a well managed budget is a well managed project.

To me, questions like 'how did you handle an obstacle' are gimmicky interview questions which reveal nothing other than whether he's a good interviewee.

Also, I prefer to stay away from guys who do a lot of spec building. 1st, he's always going to favor his projects because time=money, so why spend his when he can spend yours? More importantly, its a whole different animal when you have to deal with a customer's opinions and temperament than being able to make all the decisions on your own.

Thank you free, all excellent points and duly noted.

Asking subs is a great idea! We didn't do that, but we did meet with a handful of builders and narrowed from there to get bids. We got a LOT of insight once we got bids. There was one contractor that was working towards our ideal budget instead of the plan, so he nixed brick on part of the house for his estimate. We didn't go with him. I couldn't help but wonder where else he would try to save money. Instead, we went with the guy who came in higher but worked to include everything on our plan. We've been super happy with him. Halfway through the build and no issues.

Greetings Pensacola PI from another Pensacola resident. We too are just starting the process of building our next home.....have the design done, have checked out a few builders in the area and getting ready to sign on the dotted line. We really liked the I.P. area when we were searching for a lot to build on. Looking forward to following your process.

Thank, met with a builder today. And another tomorrow and the one Wed and one next week and then we wait it out for bids. Mortgage process started and hoping to start by Jan. Builder today told us 10-12 months which is about what we figured or close.

You can tell a lot about a builder by just driving around and looking at some of the construction sites.....I also called up the county website to see who is pulling permits too.

I reached out to quite a few folks asking for custom builder suggestions and got a long list. Using a little ingenuity and public data, within an hour that list was narrowed to 5. Out of which we will bid with 3, maybe 4. Our first requirement was no tract home builders which helped a good bit then we went from there. In our case, the guys we knew who would not even look at a house under 1 million were eliminated.