9 Things You Need to Know When Choosing a Salt Lake City Homebuilder
Probably the biggest purchase you will ever make in your life would be your home. It is therefore only natural that you are able to select a Salt Lake City homebuilder that has the right credentials, experience and dependability to ensure that everything goes smoothly in your home construction project. Here are things you need to know when choosing a homebuilder.
Reputation of the Homebuilder
You cannot go wrong with reputation. A builder’s reputation is like a calling card and is an excellent guide for you during the selection process. If the company’s rep is not so good then why would you even consider them in the first place? How to know a builder’s rep? Try asking some new homeowners in the area where you are planning to have your dream home constructed. This is a good way for you to know about the pros and cons of different builders. You can also check out the BBB or Better Business Bureau to determine if there are any pending complaints against a particular builder. Reputations regarding builders spread like wild fire good or bad. The builders that are in the middle of very good and very bad tend to be the hardest to look at objectively.
Years of Experience
You check some websites and discover a young builder that is making waves in the community. Should you also jump the bandwagon and hire him outright? There is nothing wrong with new builders in fact they are usually up to date with the latest industry standards. However, nothing beats experience from many years of doing the same job over and over. Sure your new builder may know all the trends but does he have enough network of contacts for materials? Has he ever faced a dilemma where his entire crew did not show up for work? There are a million and one things that can go wrong during construction and only a builder with enough experience under his belt knows how to handle things that seem to come out of nowhere.
Service Record in Salt Lake City
As part of your due diligence you may want to know the response time a builder provides when it comes to complaints. No construction project is perfect and somewhere along the way mistakes are made due to human error or some other unforeseen event. You need to know how you builder addresses these situations. Find out about warranty claims and how open a builder is to providing assistance when necessary even when the job is done.
Materials
Determine the brand names that the builder uses for his materials especially for the windows and insulation. A good quality builder will use dependable quality brand names in his products whenever possible to ensure the highest level of satisfaction for the customer.
Things to Avoid
No License and Insurance
Walk away if the builder has neither one or worse both of these. All professional contractors must have updated insurance coverage and certificates to show they are licensed to do what they are advertising that they do. While not all states require licensing, contractors in areas where this is needed should be able to provide a copy for your perusal.
Wants You to “Sign” a Piece of Paper Before Hiring
Some unscrupulous contractors would want their customers to sign an estimate or an authorization prior to you making a decision to hire them. Be very careful about this as they may be trying to get you to agree to an actual binding contract.
No Contracts
Contractors that insist on having no contracts are trouble. If they are professionals everything should be on paper, clearly explained and duly noted. If you do not have a contract there is no way for you to get protection if something goes terribly awry with the project. Never hire someone that says contracts are not a necessity.
Insisting on a Cash Deposit in Full Prior to Beginning a Job
You know you are dealing with the wrong kind of contractor when he insists that you pay them in full otherwise they won’t even lift a finger to start work. A deposit to cover materials is ok but only pay it once you have in your hands a contract signed by you and the contractor.
Prices Too Good to Be True
If the contractor underbids all other contractors by a mile it does not guarantee the same for the quality of their work. If you get someone on the cheap then chances are the materials, workmanship and everything else would also be the same. Everyone wants to save money but not at the cost of something as important as the health and safety of you and your family.
We would like to thank Ironwood Custom Builders of Salt Lake City for their help and expertise on this article. Ironwood is a quality, trustworthy builder and remodeler in the Salt Lake City area. You can check out their reviews and customer recommendations on Yelp, Houzz and Facebook. You can’t go wrong when picking a builder or remodeler that is the caliber of Ironwood Custom Builders. Reach out to them today and get your project started.