You are ready to hire a residential general contractor! You have looked at property, dickered on the price, got an estimate on the cost of getting the property in shape for a new home and you are the proud owner of a building lot. At this point you probably already have several copies of your building plan. If you don’t, you need to get them right away. You are now ready to begin construction on the nicest new home on the block. I am not sure what kind of a lot you bought. Is it a swamp? Is it all rock? Is it one of those side hill lots? Maybe it is the nicest and flattest lot, covered in maple trees that you have ever seen. It really doesn’t matter what it is, because we can make it work. Keep this attitude all the way through the construction period and you will do just fine.
You need three quotes from a residential general contractor. Bring in three contractors at different times and show them a copy of your building plan. They will probably want to keep the plan until they do up a quote for you. You want one contractor to do the whole job. The contractor will quote on all the excavating work, septic system, well, and of course the construction of the new home. Once all of these projects are completed you can hire a landscaper to finish or have the same contractor include the landscaping in his quote. Some residential general contractors may not want to be involved in the landscaping project. If this is the case get three more quotes for the landscaping.
When you are showing each contractor your plan and your lot, take notes of your conversation. Each contractor will have something different to add to the conversation. These notes will come in handy when it comes time to choose the right contractor. Pay close attention to what he says. Ask him questions with regards to the lot. Does the contractor sound professional? Does he look professional? When you decide on a residential general contractor, you must ask for recent referrals from previous customers. A confident contractor will give you the addresses of some of the homes he has built. When you buy a car do you take it for a test drive? A house is 10 times more important so make a point to look at the new homes he has built. In fact, make a point to talk to the home owners and get their opinions about the contractor.
Make sure the residential general contractor you hire has insurance before he starts construction. The risk of something going wrong is not worth it. You could lose your shirt should something happen. Ask your contractor about his warranties. What are the procedures if you have problems with the new home? Time can be an issue with some contractors and they may not be able to start when you want them to. Worse still, they may not start when they said they would. Building a new home takes a lot of careful planning, with so many things to consider. You definitely don’t want to be bothered hiring several contractors to do different phases of the construction. Hire one residential general contractor and let him worry about scheduling.
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