Choosing the right home-building company is an overwhelming decision. With your family investing so much into this project, it’s understandable that you’d want to find a new home builder that best fits your vision, goals, and needs.
As you begin interviewing builders for your new dream home build, here are five helpful questions to ask a new-home builder to help clarify the important aspects of a new-home-construction process, so you can feel confident in making your decision:
While it’s important to establish how much experience your potential builder has, it’s even more vital to identify the type of experience a home builder provides, and whether it aligns with your family’s needs. Not all experiences are equal. Ask your home builder for references of previous customers to inquire about their unique experiences, and perform your own research into customer reviews outside of their references. At Stonegate Builders, we practice a transparent approach to the home-building process and keep honesty at the heart of our business. For potential buyers with new home building questions, we encourage you to read testimonials from previous clients, so you get a fuller picture of the Stonegate experience.
While loyal customers speak volumes, quality work speaks for itself. When vetting your home builders, request to see some of their previous work, so you can get an idea of the types of projects they’ve produced and their unique style(s). You should never feel bad for asking your home builder for their credentials and examples of work. At Stonegate, we feature several models and move-in-ready homes we’ve completed on our website, so you can see examples of our work from plans to completion and determine if our styles can complement and bring forth your unique vision.
When buying a home, it’s necessary to know if you and your family can afford it. Before meeting with a home builder, you should have an idea of what your maximum budget is for your home, so you can determine where you need to draw the line. Then, discuss your thoughts and goals for your new construction home with your potential builder, and ask what plans may work within your parameters. It’s important to note that baseline pricing is just a launching-point figure. There are so many variables that’ll affect the bottom line, such as location, builder, size of home, design finish choices, and upgrades, etc.
When a home builder provides you with a baseline cost, inquire what specifically is included in that number. Many homebuyers don’t realize that the baseline costs often come with standard design elements, and some of the upgrades they’re envisioning are add-on costs. With the Stonegate experience, we encourage our customers to walk through our model homes and ask what elements are considered upgrades. This gives you an idea of what additional costs you can expect for selections that may be important to your family to include that are outside of the baseline package.
As you meet with your potential homebuilder, consider asking if they include these common elements within the base cost or as additional upgrades or costs:
● Lot space
● Finishes (e.g. countertops, flooring, fixtures, etc.)
● Appliances (e.g. refrigerators, range, washer, dryer, etc.)
● Lot Excavation
● Landscaping
New home construction takes time, but you should always ask potential home builders how long they estimate your project will take, so your family can budget and plan accordingly. While new builds are vulnerable to delays and potential setbacks, your builder can provide you a general time frame. Ask your builder for a detailed description of their building process, so you can determine if you need to add on time to account for finding a lot, permit processing, etc.
We pride ourselves in our streamlined home-building process at Stonegate. We try our best to minimize the stress such a big undertaking can have on you and your family. With your best interests in mind, we are committed to deliver an exceptional home-building experience from start to finish, including selecting a homesite and home plan, having a pre-build meeting to choose design finishes and set expectations, submitting for permit, building your unique home, and providing a smooth closing process. Because we know how much you have on the line, every one of our customers receives access to BuilderTrend, our online project management system, so you can always track and monitor what’s going on during the build of your home.
Even though your home will be brand new, there still can be a risk of something breaking down. It’s standard practice for quality home-building companies to provide warranties on your home. Ask your potential home builder what warranties they include and for what length of time they’re in effect. You invest a lot of time, energy, and finances into your dream home, and warranties can really bring some peace of mind, knowing your home is protected.
Our Stonegate projects all come with a variety of warranties to safeguard your investment. You can discuss what particular warranties will apply to your unique project with one of our Stonegate new home/ warranty service specialists.
In the home-building industry, delays and contingencies are often expected, and some home builders may even proactively account for contingency funds and time within your initial cost and schedule estimates. Ask your potential builder how they handle delays as they arise, and you can see how each builder responds to issues and how aware and involved they intend to make you in that process.
As a business, we hold ourselves to the highest of standards for every customer and for every project. With our dedication to deliver all our customers an exceptional home-building experience, we’ll always provide quality customer service that’s rooted in honesty and integrity, so you can rest assured you and your dream home are in good hands.
As a trusted leader in the Twin Cities home-building industry, our Stonegate Builders team comes to the table with years of experience collaborating with homeowners to create their dream homes in locations they love. From our unrivaled communities and neighborhoods to our streamlined building process and extremely high standards, we take pride in the superior home-building experience we deliver to our customers, always promising quality customer service, honest and transparent communication, and outstanding craftsmanship.
Excited to buy a new construction home? Contact Stonegate Builders today to schedule a consultation where we can address your new-home-building questions and learn more about your family, needs, and goals!
