There’s no question that there are distinct advantages to having a custom home built, as compared to buying someone else’s home. With that being said, just as there are vast differences between pre-built homes, there are a lot of differences between custom built homes, too, and the key to getting the one you want is choosing the right custom home builders. Virginia home buyers can make this process easier by learning to ask the right questions.
General Questions
You would never buy anything without knowing how much it costs, and so it goes with a custom home—one of your first questions should be how much it will cost. Similarly, another early question will be how long the building process will take. Beyond that, there are some basic things you should learn about your builder for your safety, such as whether they are insured and if they have all the proper licenses and permits needed to do the work.
Most custom home builders offer a warranty of some kind, so you should ask about that as well. It is also sometimes helpful to know if a builder is a member of the local home builder’s association or any other professional organizations.
Experience Questions
Experience counts when it comes to home building, so it’s important to ask how long a custom home builder has been in business. More specifically, it’s important to ask how long the builder has been building custom homes in the Virginia area. If your home has special features or building challenges, it’s also a good idea to ask how much experience the builders have in dealing with circumstances like that, and how much experience they have in building houses similar to yours in size.
In addition to the question and answer process, it is extremely valuable to be able to tour a home similar to yours that your builders have already built, if possible.
Referral Questions
Any builder should be able to offer references from previous customers. If the builder gives you a list of customers to choose from, it’s best to choose the ones who have the most in common with you, such as location, house size, or style of house built. In general, it’s good to ask former customers if their job was finished on time and on budget, and how they felt about the quality of the workmanship. It’s also good to ask if there were any specific problems and how they were resolved.
Of course, the most important question to ask a former customer is whether or not they would recommend or hire the builder again.
