New Construction?

[jmen24]

A minimum 1 year warranty is required by the State of NH on all work performed by a contractor, by LAW. Any good company will provide you at least double that.

Going to the town to review the lot and restrictions is a must and is great advice.

Just because a builder only provides a handful of references, shouldn't turn you off. There may be other reasons for that, even with 30 years experience. For example, I am not going to give you a reference for a bathroom remodel, if you are looking to build a new home or renovate a kitchen. We have 6 different reference lists for a variety of different types of projects that get updated every year to include new projects. Your only as good as your last job and getting a reference that is 15 years old is not going to do you (the customer) any favors.

Plus, anyone that can show me a company that doesn't cherry pick reviews in their favor when they have the chance to control that aspect, feel free to let me know. That's some honesty for anyone that is not familar with running a business.

I personally and professionally would recommend not having a house built in a development that you cannot buy the lot and choose your own builder. They control everything and you have no choice in the matter.

Some advice that I will give as a professional in the industry.
1. Building a home is very different than buying. The amount of stress that this will put on you and your wife will be far greater than you think.
A. Do not sweat the small stuff as it will eat you up.
2. Just because the builder doesn't have 10 people working on your house when you come up to check things out, doesn't mean they don't care about you or your project (some of the nicest homes I have ever walked through, were built by very small crews (1-3 carpenters), that cared more about how that Miter or Return looks than how fast they trimmed that door; if your not familar with those terms, get familiar; a picky customer is a good one).


And my last piece of advice. Draw a circle on a piece of plain paper, divide that circle into 3 pie pieces. Label one PRICE, label another QUALITY and the third SQUARE FOOTAGE. You and your wife get to pick 2 of the 3, the builder determines the third. Just because you are building your own dream home, doesn't mean you can have your cake and eat it too.

4. And don't take the lowest bid in this economy, you are going to be devestated by what you receive. We are seeing contractors coming into our area competing for work that have driven over a 100 miles to find work. They weren't here yesterday and they won't be here tomorrow.

Take the lowest bid, if that contractor can look you straight in the face with a 20 plus page specification and agreement and go through line by line, and prove how he can produce the same work as the next guy at a fraction of the cost.
(send me a pm, if you would like an example of what I am talking about, I have them on file, anywhere from a 10K bathroom, to well over the million dollar lakefront home, they are all handled the same way)

Good luck and hope your retirement in this area is everything that you hope it will be. Merry Christmas!