3. I have bought a building lot, how do I find a competent local builder to build my luxury custom home at a fair price?
Finding a good builder is critical to your project success - you will be spending a lot of time within the results of his work! Not all builders have experience building custom homes and it can be a painful experience for you to watch them learn on your project. Find out what style and variety of houses they have built, and look for experience building custom homes similar in style to your plans.
There are several ways to find the optimum local custom home builder for your project. If you are new to an area, consult a local realtor. An experienced local realtor will know all the local builders - their weak points and strong points. Additionally, the local building department issues permits to builders who have homes under construction.
If there are newly built custom homes on adjacent building lots, your future neighbors can be a useful source of information -ask which builders built their homes, and if they are happy with their building experience, and the results so far.
Contact at least 3 recommended builders, ask them if you can visit 2 or 3 homes they have built over the past several years. Talk to the owners of those existing homes and find out how well their homes have lasted as time has progressed. Did the builder deal with inevitable small problems quickly and efficiently under the terms of the warrantee? What are the terms of the warrantee?
Ask your realtor to recommend a good local attorney. The attorney can run a judgement search to find out if the builder is being sued by anyone. You should also ask your insurance agent to review the builder's coverage for adequacy.
You should comfortable with the personality and track record of your selected builder. You will be working very closely with them for many months - if you do not feel comfortable keep looking at other builders until you do.
Once you have selected your custom home builder, get everything in writing up front so that there are no hidden surprises later. Make sure the quoted price to build your custom home includes everything that you expected. Hidden "extras" that you thought were included can increase the cost of your custom home by many thousands of dollars. Most custom home owners in WNY have a well built home that they are very satisfied with. Good advice from an experienced local realtor, diligence, and caution will enable you to build your custom dream home and avoid the few builders who only know how to produce"lemons". |
