What Should You Consider Before Hiring a Custom Home Builder?

When selecting a custom home builder, what seems like a relationship decision is actually a procurement decision. It may not become apparent how poor a choice has been made until down the track, such as with variation claims, a framing package not meeting the engineer’s details or a handover punch list that no one wants to own.

This next section outlines the vital checks that allow you to differentiate between builders who can provide true custom homes and those that offer only variations of similar houses with different external finishes. It’s about identifying and ensuring evidence can be verified prior to payment.

Reading experience beyond the portfolio

A builder’s portfolio will showcase their finished homes and look great in nice light. However, their portfolio will not reveal how they managed the slab coming in out of level, the recent changes to council requirements with respect to setbacks or other site specific issues. More relevant is the complexity of the other homes that the builder has completed, the site conditions and the structural approach to the build.

Similarly, the fact that a custom home builder has completed 50 project homes and 2 architectural homes is not anywhere near as impressive as a builder with 12 completed designer homes, most on tough sites such as sloping blocks, suspended slabs, cantilevered walls and Heritage-listed homes. Ask a builder to describe the last five homes they built and what problems they encountered with each of them.

Questions that produce useful answers

• Who supervised your three most recent completions, and are they still employed by the business?
• What was the longest delay on a recent project and what caused it?
• Which trades are directly employed and which are subcontracted?
• How many projects will be running concurrently during your build window?
• What is the average tenure of the site supervisors?

Testing how far customization actually goes

There is nothing worse than designers describing themselves as custom home builders but in reality only offering a selection of standard floor plans with different kitchen cabinets and a range of color renderings.

For a custom home builder’s standard products and typical solutions (to present non-standard elements early), e.g. Unusual window head heights, concealed door frames, atypical roof pitches, discussion will ensue as to the best way to implement your design ideas and cost. For items that are outside the norm the builder will often recommend an alternative that is part of their standard range.

Where flexibility is usually lost

Provisional sums and prime cost allowances are the typical mechanisms by which customization gets eroded at the specification stage rather than the design stage. It is critical that the allowances in the contract be compared to the actual supplier pricing for the products you have specified, item by item. Note that I said specified, not chosen from a range of preselected options.

Comparing builder types against your project

Builder type	Design flexibility	Cost predictability	Best suited to
Volume builder with upgrade packages	Low, limited to preset options	High, fixed-price contracts common	Flat sites, standard planning conditions
Semi-custom builder	Moderate, plan modifications permitted	Moderate, allowances carry risk	Straightforward blocks with modest design ambition
Architectural builder	High, works to independent documentation	Variable, depends on documentation quality	Complex sites, custom detailing, designer input
Design and construct firm	High, but internally controlled	Moderate to high, single point of accountability	Clients wanting one contract across design and build

Transparency you can verify on paper

Verbal commitments to an open process don’t amount to much. A contractor’s reporting structure and contract need to make it clear the cost of a project is moving and allow time for the client to respond before incurring additional expense. A breakdown of all trade work as opposed to a single sum with headings for example is a good starting point. If you are weighing up custom home builders Charlottesville homeowners already rely on, ask to see a sample cost report from a live job before you shortlist anyone.

Insist the builder has a written process for dealing with variations and that this includes costs to carry out the variation being formally priced by the builder and approved in writing by yourself prior to the work being carried out. It is also important to understand how the builder substantiates progress claims and whether you will receive copies of supplier’s invoices for prime cost items such as joinery and stone etc.

Financial checks worth completing

1. Confirm builder registration and current insurance directly with the issuing authority, not from a supplied copy.
2. Search for adverse court or tribunal findings against the entity and its directors.
3. Check that the trading entity on the contract matches the entity holding the registration.
4. Request evidence of domestic building insurance for a recent comparable project.

Judging workmanship before you commit

Travel to the site upon lock-up. The home may look wonderful with the surfaces of finished plaster and paint but completed homes can conceal many errors and deficiencies especially with regards to the external finishes and the organization of services and site arrangements.

What to look for on site

Check the wall frames are straight, the studs are evenly spaced, the window and door frames are straight, the external corners are square, the roof line is straight, the soffits are level, the molding such as skirting, architraves and 240 casing is straight and level.

This approach helps to reach the best agreement for both parties sooner rather than later. The only builder that would have an issue with this type of interrogation is the one that does not have your best interests at heart.