Typically in a custom home project there will be "allowance" items, which usually are budgetary amounts that are preset for certain selection items such as flooring, plumbing fixtures, appliances and the like. For instance, if a builder quotes a $600,000.00 fixed price contract amount to construct your home, and you have a $40,000.00 allowance budget [...]
Be Wary of a Builder-Driven Choice of Construction Lender Many of you that are contemplating building a custom home will likely end up borrowing money from a construction lender to finance the construction. The construction draws that the lender provides generally fuel the construction. Some builders may attempt to steer you to a builder-friendly lender [...]
Minimize the number of owner-hired contractors Sometimes owners want to hire some of the contractors directly. Generally in my opinion the fewer owner-hired contractors the better since if problems arise the builder may attempt to blame these contractors, and contend that the builder is not responsible for their work. Similarly, when an owner hires a [...]
Consider hiring your own stage inspector(s). You may have little protection from lender-driven and governmental (i.e. permitting) inspections. The lender's inspector most probably will not be conducting quality control inspections, and instead most probably will be looking primarily at the stage of completion in relation to the amount of the draw requested. Further, many loan [...]
Many of you may be considering building your dream custom home. I have represented many individuals that unfortunately have had difficulty with this process. I will be providing information on a continuing blog basis concerning issues that may arise with respect to the construction of your custom home to minimize the chance that your dream [...]
How many times have you seen or heard the phrase that a contractor/remodeler is “bonded and insured”? Probably plenty. But what does this phrase really mean? Usually, it is used to make you, the potential customer, feel at ease - that if there is a problem an insurance or bonding company (usually called a surety) [...]
It may seem odd to those of you that are buying a new home to consider hiring a third party to inspect it, since the home is “new”. While generally when a home is built in a municipality, the city or other governmental body will perform inspections related to the permitting process, many municipal building [...]
While a home or structure can have a wide variety of construction defects, usually significant defects arise from three areas – foundation movement, water penetration and safety issues. Foundation defects can arise for a multitude of reasons, including:• Poor design• Poor site preparation• Bad concrete• Improper placement of steel or improper tensioning of post-tensioning cablesWater [...]
In this blog I focus on available sources of information regarding a property that a typical real estate buyer does not ask for or receive. Normally, a residential real estate buyer receives only a seller’s disclosure notice filled out by the current seller of the home and then hires a general home inspector to conduct [...]
Take this common situation – your home has cracks in the walls, doors that stick, open on their own, windows that are racked and that cannot be opened, etc. Logically, you contact the builder and submit a warranty claim regarding these issues. The builder tells you that the cracks, sticking doors, etc. are “normal”, or [...]
