Who will design the house; what kind of contract will be used; and who will write it?

Can I see your previous work or talk to any of your previous clients for reference?

Surprisingly, the answer to these was no for too many GC's

If you are using an architect or other design professional. it's good to ask if the builder has worked with these professionals previously, and is used to working from detailed drawings and specifications. If you are retaining your architect/design professional for construction bidding and construction administrations services (a very good idea in order to have a representative who is your agent and is only concerned with your best interests), it's advisable to inform the builder and ask for his past experience in similar situations.

Bidding instructions and the contract for construction are very important and another reason to use an architect/design professional who will use industry standard, court tested documents. Ask the builder for his experience in working with AIA documents.

Good luck with your project.

How many builds and remodels he does concurrently. How often will he be at your build. You want to get a sense if he is there overseeing work and giving input, or just doing a quick walk thru at the end of the day. Ask to see a sample project timeline. Some don't use at all (which I couldn't deal with). It will give you a sense as to how detailed he is and how he will communicate with you. Be honest about whatever you can be difficult about and ask if he can deal with it. Some people can build beautiful homes, but be asses thru the process so you want to get a sense of what the relationship will be like.

A dishonest GC in need of work will tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear in order to get you to sign the contract. Get everything he tells you in writing and then make everything that is vital to your choosing that particular GC, a part of the contract. (My sincerest apologies to all the wonderful honest general contractors out there. I originally posted this without the word "dishonest" in the first sentence and I was appalled when I came back to this thread today and realized that I had left out that all-important word. Someone really should have called me on it. Thank heavens that GW now allows us to edit our own posts when we make such a stupid error. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! )

In addition to scrupulously checking out the references the GC candiates give you, there are a couple of other things you can and probably should do.

ONE: Find out if your state requires GC to be licensed. (Some, like Texas, do not.) If a license is required, there is usually some process for folks to file complaints against the license holder. Find out if there have been any complaints and how they were resolved.

TWO: Check at your county/district court (and the courts of nearby counties) to find out if your GC has ever been sued by a previous home-building client. Homeowners don't tend to sue unless they are EXTREMELY unhappy. It's just too expensive to file a lawsuit and the chances of ever collecting anything are so close to nil that the only time anyone will sue is if they feel that they really have no choice. Plus, very often builder's contracts don't even allow the homeowner to sue in court. They require "mandatory arbitration" instead. So, if you see a lawsuit from a previous client, my recommendation is run from that builder.

As a corollary to the above, find out if the GC has a mandatory arbitration clause in his contracts. If he does, that could be a sign that he is proactively avoiding any possibility that you will be able to sue him in open court if he screws up your house. I personally would require that the mandatory arbitration clause be removed or I wouldn't enter into the contract.

THREE: Check your county (and nearby county) lien records to find out if there is any evidence that the contractor fails to pay his subcontractors. This is not necessarily easy to do but it can be done.

First you have to locate the addresses of other houses the GC has built. One way is to ask the GC for a list of the addresses of houses he has previously built so you can "drive by" and take a look. Of course, he may not give you a full list but if he gives you any, you at least have a start.

To find others, search for liens granted to the GC by the homeowners for the purpose of building. (You probably signed one of these documents yourself so look thru your records and take a look at the document to see what you need to be looking for.) You can usually search lien records by grantor or grantee name. In this search for addresses of houses built by your GC, you'll put the GC's name (and any prior business names he's used that you know of) in as GRANTEE. If you find any hits...and you should definitely find most, if not all of the addresses he has given you... take note of the legal property description, the address, and the date of the lien. If you find addresses that he did not give you on the list he provided, start the next step with those because they are the ones where he is most likely to be hiding some kind of information that he would rather you never find out about.

Okay, for step two, search the lien records again; only this time you search by legal property description or by address of the houses. Some online records allow search by street address, others only by legal description. If you have trouble figuring out how to search by legal description, call the county land records clerk and ask for a lesson on how to do it. By law they may not be allowed to run your searches for you but they can explain the process.

You should look for any liens filed against that piece of property over a period of about two years starting from when the homeowners granted a lien to the GC. Read any liens you find to determine if they appear to have been filed by subcontractors due to lack of payment on work done or materials provided to build the house.

If you find such liens, contact the homeowner (you'll have their name on the lien) and let them know you are considering hiring this contractor but that you see from public records that it appears that maybe one of his subcontractors filed a lien against their property. Ask if they hired the person who filed the lien themselves or if the general contractor hired that person. If it was the GC, ask if they would recommend this GC and be sensitive to nuances in how they answer. If there was a dispute between them and the GC, it is quite possible that the settlement might prohibit them from saying anything bad about him. If you can't tell how they feel, ask if they had it to do all over again, would they hire him again or go with someone else.

Also, contact the subcontractor who filed the lien. Ask them if they did work for the general contractor. If they say they don't remember, mention the address of the property where you found the lien they filed and mention the lien. That will probably jog their memory. Let the sub know you are considering hiring the GC to build your home and ask whether they would advise you to go with him or someone else.

And of course, check the BBB. Though you probably won't find much that is helpful, it never hurts to look.

Finally, join Angie's List and check for positive/negative references on your GC there.

This post was edited by bevangel on Mon, Aug 26, 13 at 0:13

All of our draws had to go through a title company. If anyone else is or will be using this type of service - they know both local banks and builders as well as anyone.

One of the most important questions I asked was for for them to tell me what part of my build is the most at risk; either costing time or money. Then followup with asking how they plan to mitigate the risk.

If you're interested in energy efficiency, see about how much the builder is up on modern techniques.

Ask if the builder is familiar or willing to have foamboard installed on the outside of the sheathing. As others will attest, in most areas, this is probably the most cost effective move you can make for insulation, but as I have learned, if the builder is not on board (no pun intended), it's not going to happen, as it requires minor modifications to a lot of things.

If you're in an area like mine, you might not find such a builder. If so, the next thing I'd ask is whether he has done sprayfoam in the rim joist. It's a basic, easy thing, but some builders I've met are surprisingly recalcitrant in their own beliefs about what makes an energy efficient wall. One builder (whom we did not go with) told me that no type of foam is necessary and his framers are so good, the wall will be tight with tyvek, sheathing, and drywall alone. Riiiiight....

Sweet fish- just have to say love the "profiling by car" Lol!
It's probably true. When I met my husband I asked him what kind of car he drove. He almost walked away! But my reasoning was I didn't want a pompous a** that would rattle off some high dollar car with extras and be really proud of it. I can't identify a car to save my life. I'm doing good to identify truck vs car and color. Lol
You made me laugh this morning! Thanks!!
Jen

Also beware the pickup truck without a scratch on it.