How To Choose A Home Builder

Whether you are building a new home in Northwest Indiana or Southwest Michigan, it is important to know that you are buying a quality home from a reputable home builder. Here are a few tips to help you choose the best builder for your home.

Make Your Short List of Home Builders

 

Make an initial dream list of possible home builders

Different builders have different styles, and it is important to consider the style that you want for your home, so consider that as the first part of this step. Once you have given that some thought and put down some notes about the style of house you want, create a list of potential builders that either specialize in one or more of your styles, or those with experience in building many styles of homes.

Contact your local home builders’ association

Your local HBA (Home Builders’ Association) should be able to provide you with a list of builders who construct homes in your area. (You can find your local HBA at nahb.org/findanhba.) Generally, builders like to stay within a 150 mile radius of their home base. Daily site checks, monitoring progress and quality control can be quite time consuming, and if your home builder is spending most of his time driving rather than working for you … that’s not a win for anybody.

Don’t forget your local newspaper!

Look in the real estate section of your local newspaper for builders and projects they are working on. Looking through the ads and reading the articles can help you to learn which builders are active in your area, the types of homes they are building and the prices you can expect to pay. Match the builders who are within your price range.

Local Real Estate Agents

Local real estate agents may also be able to help you in your search. Agents have an in depth knowledge about everything Real Estate in your area. They will know many of the home builders, personally and know which ones have a quality reputation and build a quality home.

Friends and relatives

Ask friends and relatives for recommendations. Ask about builders they have dealt with directly, or ask them for names of acquaintances who have recently had a good experience with a builder.

 

What Questions Do I Ask The Home Builder?

 

Once you have your list of potential builders, it’s time to start asking lots of questions!

Interview Time

Call your top prospects and set up a time to Interview these home builders to get the answers to your questions. Here is a list of questions to ask builders from the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders).

Try to see examples of their work

Some builders in Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan areas build spec homes. Spec homes are homes that will eventually be sold, but until then they often serve as a live portfolio of the builder’s work. And there is always a chance that you may catch them there on weekends, either adding final touches or meeting with potential buyers. 

Ask the neighbors

Drive around some of the subdivisions where your preferred builders build. Homeowners may be outside doing chores or errands. Introduce yourself and say you are considering buying a home from the builder who built their home. Talk to several owners, and try to get a random sample of opinions. People love to give their opinions! Both good and bad. That’s the beauty…They won’t hold back and you will certainly get the truth. The more people you talk with, the more accurate an impression of a builder you are likely to get.

Some questions to ask home owners include

• Are you happy with your home?

• If you had any problems, were they fixed promptly and properly?

• Would you buy another home from this builder?

• Take along a notebook to record the information you find about specific builders and homes. Doing so will help you to make comparisons later. If you are really energetic, start an Excel spreadsheet with the Pro’s & Con’s.

Wrapping It All Up

 

Most home builders in Valparaiso, Chesterton, Michigan City, and Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties in general all have pretty good reputations. There are always going to be a few bad apples … and obviously, those are the ones you need to avoid!

Building your dream home should be fun, and you should look forward to making many happy family memories in your home. Doing your homework and asking the right questions will put you on the right path to doing just that.

If you think you are ready to move on and take the next step, check out our Home Buyers Dictionary. It will quickly educate you on the construction and real estate industries commonly used words.

Check out our “One on One” video interview with Valparaiso home builder, Jody Snider. https://integrehomes.com/videos/

If you have questions you would like to ask us… contact us https://integrehomes.com/contact-us/