Twelve questions to ask a builder before you sign anything

You are about to hand someone a large amount of money and a year of your life. Most people interviewing builders ask two questions — how much and how long — and both answers are estimates. These twelve tell you more.

1. Can I see the last three houses you finished?

Not the three best. The last three. Any builder can assemble a portfolio of highlights; what you want to know is what the ordinary output looks like. Walk them if you can, and look at the parts nobody stages: the attic, the electrical panel, the caulk lines, the trim in the closets.

2. Can I call those three owners?

And when you do, do not ask whether they were happy. Ask what went wrong, how long it took to get fixed, and whether the builder called them first or waited to be caught. Every job has a problem. What matters is the pattern of how problems get handled.

3. Who is on my site every day, and what is their name?

There is a difference between a builder who walks the house every morning and a builder who visits on Thursdays. Ask specifically who supervises, how often they are physically there, and who you call when something looks wrong at four on a Friday.

4. Are your crews your own or subcontracted, and how long have you used them?

Almost every residential builder subcontracts most trades — that is normal and not a red flag. The real question is tenure. A framing crew that has worked with the same builder for six years builds a better house than the cheapest crew available that month, because they know what will get rejected.

5. Show me the allowance schedule, line by line.

This is the single most revealing question on the list. Allowances are the placeholder budgets for things you have not picked yet — tile, plumbing fixtures, lighting, appliances, cabinets, flooring, landscaping.

Set generously, they produce an accurate contract price. Set thin, they produce an attractive contract price and a series of unpleasant conversations later. Ask for the numbers and then go look at what those numbers actually buy. If the tile allowance will not buy tile you would put in your house, the bid is not really the bid.

6. How are change orders priced and approved?

Changes happen on every build. What you want to know is the process: does it get written down before the work happens, is the cost fixed or time-and-materials, what markup applies, and does anything proceed without your signature?

The answer you want is that nothing gets built until you have seen a number and approved it in writing. The answer you do not want is a shrug and "we'll settle up at the end."

7. What is the draw schedule?

Money should follow completed work, not lead it. Ask how many draws there are, what milestone triggers each one, who inspects before a draw is released, and how lien waivers from subcontractors are collected.

That last part matters more than it sounds. Lien waivers are how you confirm the people who did the work actually got paid, and it protects you from a subcontractor filing against your house over a dispute you were not part of.

8. What does the warranty cover, and for how long?

Get specific. Most builders offer something like one year on workmanship, two years on systems, ten on major structural. Ask what is expressly excluded, what the process is for making a claim, and — the practical question — how long it took the last owner to get something fixed.

9. Are you insured, and can I see the certificate?

General liability and workers' compensation. Ask for a certificate of insurance sent directly from the agent, listing you as an additional insured on the project. This takes five minutes and matters enormously if someone is injured on your lot.

Texas does not license residential builders the way some states do, which puts more weight on the diligence you do yourself.

10. What is your schedule, and what is on my side of it?

A good builder can hand you a schedule that names not only what they will do but what they need from you and when — selections due, decisions due, approvals due. If nobody tells you when the tile decision is due, it will be late, and it will be your fault and their delay.

11. What have you already found on this lot?

Ask before you sign. Soil, drainage, utilities, setbacks, trees, whether anything has to be demolished. A builder who has genuinely walked the lot will have specifics. A builder who has not will speak in generalities, and the specifics will arrive later as change orders.

12. What is the part of this project you are worried about?

This is our favorite question and the one almost nobody asks. Every project has a hard part — a tight lot, a long-lead window package, an appraisal that will be difficult, a stretch of the schedule that runs through a wet season.

A builder who names it is a builder who has thought about it. A builder who says there is nothing to worry about has either not looked or is not going to tell you when something goes sideways.

Two things to notice while you ask

How fast do they get back to you? The responsiveness you get while they are trying to win the job is the ceiling, not the floor.

Do they ever tell you no? A builder who agrees with every idea you have is not going to be useful when one of your ideas is expensive and bad. You want someone who will say "we can do that, here is what it costs and here is why I would not."

Ask us these

We would rather answer all twelve at the first meeting than discover in month six that we were not a good fit. We are a family company, our name is on every house, and we are the ones standing in it at the end. Start the conversation and ask us anything on this list.