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< Step 7: Planning and Building Permit
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The Quality of Your Contractor Matters
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If you ask friends or relatives about their experience building a home from the ground up, you may hear frustrated tales of disorganized work sites, schedule delays, and budget overruns. Even if a home looks good, poorly built elements will invariably reveal themselves over the years and can lead to costly headaches. You can do everything in your power to budget, plan, and prepare for your home construction, but its ultimate success and long-term performance is by and large determined by the reliability, skill, and competence of the contractor you choose to hire.
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The quality of individual professionals varies greatly in every industry. Some doctors are accomplished while others are subpar, and there are sincere politicians as well as corrupt ones. Construction is the same. While the majority of builders are genuine and dependable, it’s not uncommon to come across a home that was improperly built or needed a second contractor to fix the job. For most people, building a home is the biggest investment of their lives, and it is well worth the effort to properly vet your contractor.
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How People Tend to Find A Contractor
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Many people ask for recommendations from family and friends when looking for a contractor. Others find contractors through vendors like Lowe’s or the Home Depot, or ask their architect for an introduction.
Yet relying solely on word-of-mouth recommendations can expose you to many risks. While your neighbor’s contractor may be a great, charismatic guy who did a fantastic job with their porch, he may not have the necessary expertise to build a new home, let alone homes similar in size, style, and budget-range that you plan to build. It’s difficult for one person – even experienced staff at a home improvement store or an architect in the industry – to know the work history of every contractor in the area, and to recommend the best one for you.
In the end, a word-of-mouth recommendation is one person’s opinion based on their past interactions with select contractors. Their idea of the best professionals is rooted in their personal experience, and their recommendation may not be aligned with your project needs.
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What about searching online? More recently, the Internet has become a great tool for learning more about a contractor’s business. You can read reviews on third-party sites, and go to their homepage to view photos of their past work. It’s important to note, however, that their digital representation may not accurately reflect their quality as a builder. A great contractor with a strong word-of-mouth referral network may not see the value of polishing their online presence. On the other hand, some unsavory companies may put a lot of effort into touching up photos or buying ads to win your business.
Browsing reviews and photos online are a good start for learning more, but it isn’t enough to make an informed decision about who you should hire.
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Don’t base your hiring decision on individual anecdotes, personal relationships, or great first-impressions. Make sure you have reliable, unbiased, and complete information on your choices before moving forward.
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6 Things to Check When Pre-Qualifying A Contractor
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1. License Status
It is illegal to do work without an active license in most locations. Check a contractor’s license status through your state’s license board or on their BuildZoom profile.
2. Insurance
Only hire contractors who provide proof of workers’ compensation and general liability insurance, or you may be liable if someone gets hurt on your property.
3. Customer Satisfaction
Check a contractor’s reviews and ratings online to get a sense of how satisfied their past clients were. Steer clear of any contractors with many low ratings.
4. Work History
Check how many new home builds the contractor has recently completed, and how many were in your area. It’s better if a contractor is familiar with the building codes and regulations for your jurisdiction. Checking a builder’s past permits on their BuildZoom profile page is a good way to learn more about their work history.
5. Home Type & Style
Review photos of a contractor’s past work to see if their typical home type and style match your vision. A contractor that specializes in high-end, luxury custom homes with budgets over several million dollars is most likely not the best fit for an economical prefabricated home with a budget of $350K.
6. Office Proximity
While it may seem unimportant, it’s much better for both you and the contractor if they’re located near you. Long commutes in traffic not only wear out workers over months, but makes mobilizing teams across multiple, distant construction sites difficult. Checking their recent building permits with the local building department is a good way to know which areas they actively work in.
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Pre-qualification Questions
- Do they have an active license?
- Do they have workers’ compensation and general liability insurance?
- How satisfied were their past clients?
- How many new homes have they completed with their current company?
- How many homes have they built in your area?
- Do they have experience with your home type and style?
- What are sample costs and timelines from past projects and are they in line with yours?
- How far is their office and other job sites from you?
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Once a contractor passes your pre-qualification screening, contact them to see if they’re available and interested in your project. Keep in mind that great contractors are usually in high demand and may have a long backlog of committed projects.
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Vetting is Hard. BuildZoom Simplifies It.
To perform fact-based due diligence, you will need to make a lot of phone calls and do a lot of research. Traditionally, it is a time-consuming and laborious process, but luckily BuildZoom compiles construction data from numerous sources listed below to objectively evaluate contractors, so you don’t have to. We’ll find you 3-5 insured contractors with active licenses that have good reviews, the right work experience for your project, and are a good fit for your budget.
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License Status: BuildZoom continually updates the license status of every licensed contractor in the United States.
Insurance: We check insurance information for all contractors we recommend.
Customer Reviews and BBB ratings: Reviews from BuildZoom, third-party sites such as yelp, and the Better Business Bureau are aggregated to provide a comprehensive evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Work history and project experience: We analyze and match hundreds of thousands of building permits each week to check contractors’ work history and experience. Unlike a company website or reviews which can be exaggerated or misrepresented, building permits are issued by local authorities and are unfalsifiable.
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Home type and style: Home builders often specialize in a particular home types and styles. We make sure this is aligned with your vision.
Proximity to you: In addition to contractor quality, all BuildZoom recommendations take proximity to your home into account.
Available and interested in your project: In the end, all this research is for naught if the contractor isn’t available to take on your project. We make sure contractors are interested before we introduce them to you.
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What’s the advantage of hiring through BuildZoom?
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1. Get unbiased and fact-based recommendations
BuildZoom compiles construction data from numerous sources, which means we have more visibility into who the best builders are. You can feel confident that the pros we’ve recommended not only pass our initial screening, but are also a good fit for your project.
2. We do the leg work for you
You’ll save lots of time researching and making calls only to find that your contractor is missing some crucial experience or isn’t a good fit. We automatically screen out the contractors who aren’t qualified or available.
3. Get a personal consultant
Building a new home is a complex process and can often be confusing and stressful. When you hire a contractor through BuildZoom, you’ll get your own Project Consultant who can walk you through the whole process and share their expertise. Isn’t it great to know you can get expert advice from a real person?
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Ready to Get Started?
If you’ve already selected a lot and have the blueprint for your home in hand, you’re ready to connect with contractors. Start by telling us about your project on www.buildzoom.com or give us a call at (855) 535-0046. Your project consultant will gather your details and begin matching you with qualified contractors.
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