How do I find a reputable home builder in Asheville to build my dream home?

When someone asks me how to find a reputable builder in the Asheville area it usually means they don't want to get ripped off or see cheap materials replace the original building materials agreed upon or have construction delayed for whatever reason the builder might come up with.

There are a number of ways to find a reputable home builder in the Asheville area and we will get to those in a minute. First, let's discuss some of the realities home builders face (and so do the owners of the home being built).

Fortunately, our climate allows for a long building season. Of course we see weather delays now and then. For safety reasons a lot of builders won't work in the rain or sub-freezing weather. Of course, there are some steps in the building process that you don't want going on in foul weather when moisture can be captured within walls, etc.

Material costs can fluctuate. Construction materials are truly based on supply and demand. A lot of suppliers have cut production and inventory because of the current recession. This has driven the price of materials up. There was a time after Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters that plywood prices went hay-wire and roofing materials were hard to get. Fuel costs can affect the cost to deliver the goods to the supplier and the job site, especially in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

This is a hard time for residential builders right now. In a good economy builders typically have pretty small profit margins. You can be sure that some builders are cutting their already narrow margins to get the work.

This could be a good thing because you might save some money in the construction of your home, but who knows how thin that margin will be at the closing table? And what will happen if the builder under estimated the cost to build the home? Will this determine the quality of the finished product? I don't have hard answers here, but these are issues to be considered.

I have dealt with several reputable home builders in Asheville and the surrounding areas. All of them were able to do the following:

Show me previous work that was similar to the house to be built

Let me speak to their previous clients

Suggest designers, architects for me or my clients to talk to if needed

Provide a schedule of completion

The points above kind of speak for themselves. You don't want a builder who has built $200,000 homes to take on your $750,000+ project.

If you are interviewing a builder that shies away from letting you speak to people who bought his completed project you should probably look elsewhere.

If you are building a large, custom home, you need someone who can communicate with designers. This way you can be sure that what is in the plan is translated to the finished product.

In today's computerized world, a lot of builders are using software that plans out when the various steps of construction will be completed and by which subcontractor. Not all builders do this, but a lot do. It kind of depends on the size of the project and how many projects the builder has going on at one time.

How do you find a reputable home builder in Asheville? There are a number of sources.

If you are buying a lot in a new home community, you might be limited to a list of preferred qualified builders or the developer of that community should be able to suggest a couple of builders.

Once you have a name or two or three do your due diligence. Go to the local Asheville's local Better Business Bureau website, do a Google search for the name, etc.

Keep in mind the largest builder in the area might not be the best for the job. Again, due diligence is the key.

Building a home can be a stressful undertaking. But if you work with a reputable home builder and have taken care to find the right one using the steps above you can head off most of the trouble that can arise.

For more helpful articles like this, home building checklists and even a free scheduling worksheet I invite you to visit.