One of the most critical decisions you have to make when designing and building your home is choosing the right builder. Essentially, happiness and long-term comfort are among the things you want to achieve when building a home. Although you may not think so, selecting the right home builder plays a crucial role in achieving this objective.
With a multitude of building companies promising best results, free inclusion and fast delivery times it is a difficult space to navigate and can leave you confused. So, to help you decide, we’ve put together a few valuable tips to consider before choosing a home builder.
CREATE A SHORTLIST
Not all homes builders are equal so creating a short list is your ideal starting point. Apart from doing research yourself, asking for referrals from family or friends based on designs you like and experiences they’ve had is a good idea, you can often learn a lot just by asking questions and it can often force you to rethink some of your own ideas and expectations around the construction of a house.
CARVE DOWN YOUR LIST
After you’ve got your initial shortlist together its time to narrow it down. Each homebuilder has their own style and area of specialization. So ensure you consider a builder that can meet your requirements and fall in line with your budget requirements.
Apart from budget and style requirements ensure you trim the list down further by focussing on experience, licensing and warranty.
Generally, a builder who has built a lot of homes has refined his craft and should be able to do a better job than somebody with very little experience. As your potential short list candidate about the number of successful projects they have completed and if you can speak to some of the prior customer to get a review of their services.
Also, ensure you ask a builder about the licensing and insurance they hold and warranty period offered for the construction of your home. Ensuring you work with a licensed home builder and one who offers a substantial home warranty period will give you the peace of mind to enjoy your new home.
FOCUS ON QUALITY
If you are planning on designing and building a custom home focus on the quality of work. You should ask your potential builder to provide you with a tour of their past projects and references for past projects they have completed. This is also a good time to learn about the delivery timelines and get an understanding of if they have failed to meet any of these timelines in the past and why.
CONSIDER TRANSPARENCY
Transparency and communication are vital in the construction process. Whether you being quoted for a fixed or variable price project ensure you are comfortable with your builder and can ask them questions from the outset. There are can be a lot of hidden costs in the construction process hence it is crucial to work with a builder you are comfortable with and can build a relationship with so that there are any nasty surprises once construction begins.
COMPARE PRICES
Now that you are done with your shortlist you can ask each builder for a quote. Once you have prices make sure you examine all inclusions, exclusions and fixed prices vs. estimated so that you are comparing like for like.
At a minimum try to obtain at least 3 quotes and be on the lookout for any large discrepancy in pricing. If you have done your homework and filtered based on the criteria above, there shouldn’t be a large degree of variance in terms of the prices you have been quoted.