Schooner House Inn | Home Improvement Blog

Building your own home can be both extremely overwhelming and blissfully rewarding. Of course, the goal is to make sure the latter is most prevalent. There are certain ways you can be sure of this; the most important being choosing the right home builder for the job.

With so many builders available, it’s hard to know whether or not you’ve found the right one. As we know this can be a daunting task, we’ve put together a small list of steps you can take in order to make sure you hire the right guy for the job:

1). Know what you want. Before even shopping around for a builder, make sure you have your own checklist of “must-have’s” written down and know the look you’re going for. The clearer your vision, the easier a time you’ll have finding the right builder. You can use this vision as a type of weeding out process. For example, if you know you want a rustic cabin type home, then you know the guy who’s only built contemporary homes is probably not the guy for you. Taking time on this step will save you a great deal of time in the long-run.
2). Create a list of potential builders. Now that you know what type of home you want, now you can start looking for your builder. A great place to start would be your local home builders’ association. For example, if you’re looking for a home builder in Greenville, SC you could go to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) website and find a list of all the local, credible options in the area. From there, you can begin creating your list.
3). Meet with each of the builders before deciding. Once you’ve narrowed it down to between preferably 4-6 builders, now it’s time to do your research. Meet with each builder to go over your vision and find out how knowledgeable they are in your areas of interest. Just by meeting with them, you will likely be able to eliminate a few.
4). Keep digging. Now that your down to you handful of favorite candidates, it’s time to really start doing your research on each of them individually. See if you can get several references from each. And then utilize these references. Contact several of them per builder and inquire about their satisfaction level with their own home. Ask about the good and bad. Ask them whether or not they would use the same builder for another home. Be as thorough as possible; this will likely be the most important step.
5). Check out some of their finished work. Ask which homes they’ve already built and take a peak. Even if only from the outside, you’ll get a good idea of quality workmanship and design. This is where you can actually see for yourself just how good a job they can, or cannot, do.
6). Choose and get building. By now, you should have a pretty good idea of which builder is right for you and your new home. If you don’t feel confident in any of the builders you’ve selected, then start over. Building a home is not something to take lightly. If you feel as though something is off, follow your gut. You don’t want to wind up with one of the numerous horror stories about home building.

Perhaps most important of all, make sure you have fun with this process! It may seem like a lot of work, but it will undoubtedly pay off when it’s all said and done. And at the end of it all, you’ll have your brand new dream home to call your own.