What to Look For When Searching For a Home builder
How do you choose a home builder in your town or city when there are so many?
Home builders are everywhere, and in Edmonton like most other locations, Edmonton home builders can be good, or they might not be any good at all. As with any other business a home builder must have a license, and should have insurance, and a surety bond. The purpose of a surety bond is to secure your funds from illegal companies. Always check with the authorities in your town or city to see what regulations must be followed.
Larger home builders mainly work in subdivisions where they have bought a handful or more of lots at wholesale to build houses on and sell to people like you. Smaller home builders are generally more custom home builders and will build your home on a farm, acreage, or city lot.
When interviewing a potential home builder you will want to make sure they are part of some kind of home warranty system. This will protect you from some problems that can come up in the first 1 to 5 years. Most of these warranties advertise being a five year warranty, but that is only in a few areas. Anything structural is normally 5 years, while other parts of the house can be 1, 2, 3, or 4 years. Plumbing and electrical are normally only 1year, but the fixtures can be a lot longer. Drywall screws popping through the drywall are normally only 1 to 3 years, the roof can be 5 years, while the shingles can be 25 years through the manufacturer warranty. Same goes for the furnace and water heater, these may not be part of the home builders warranty, but the manufacturer warranties will cover these products. Of course they only cover the products and not the installation of the products.
After choosing a home builder and you have a set of plans, as well as a price, you may be tempted to make changes. This is where a lot of homeowners lose a lot of money. Some of these changes may not cost much, while others can cost quite a bit. Start moving walls around and changing the sizes or locations of windows and you can be in for thousands of dollars in extra cost. My advice is once construction has started , do not open any magazine or go onto any website that has to do with design. Yes, you can look at cabinetry for your kitchen and bathrooms, or light fixtures, but that is it. Otherwise these websites and magazines will get your brain going with ideas. Leave this alone for the time being. I have done construction on over 100 houses, and every time the house has been sold before completion or the homeowner has been there from day one. In both of these cases I have always seen the homeowner make changes, and these changes always got out of control. This is human nature, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Even after the changes I always here 'I wish I would have done this' or 'next time I will do this'. And yet when someone just goes out and buys a new house, they are happy.
Enjoy the learning experience you are about to have.
Learn more about contractors Edmonton. Check out www.contractorsedmonton.net to discover the secrets to finding reliable contractors.
