Services
The builder's contract is not the contract you are used to
The most important thing to understand about new construction: you are very likely not signing a Georgia Association of Realtors contract. You are signing the builder's contract, drafted by the builder's lawyers, and it differs from a resale contract in ways that consistently favour the builder.
• The completion date and what happens if it slips. Many builder contracts grant generous extension rights and limited remedies to you. Know your actual recourse if the house is ninety days late and your lease has ended.
• Allowances versus what is included. Allowances are budget placeholders. Exceed them and you pay the difference, often at the builder's pricing.
• Change orders — when the window closes, and what a change costs after that point.
• Appraisal and financing contingencies. Resale contracts commonly contain protections builder contracts weaken or omit. If the home appraises below contract price at completion, months after you signed, find out now whose problem that is.
• Earnest money. New construction deposits are often larger and less refundable. Know the conditions under which you get it back.
I read these before you sign. That is the service.
Register me on your first visit, or you may lose representation
This one costs buyers real money every year. Most builders require your agent to be present or registered at your first visit to the community. Walk into the sales office alone on a Saturday and many builders will later refuse to recognise your agent on that community — leaving you negotiating the builder's contract, against the builder's on-site sales representative, who works for the builder.
That on-site agent is a professional, and they are not your advocate. If you want someone on your side of the table, bring them the first time. It costs you nothing.
Buying land — where the money is actually lost
A house has an inspection. Land has a diligence period, and what you do with it determines whether you bought a homesite or a very expensive field.
• Utilities and septic. Public sewer, or will it need septic? If septic, the soil has to support it — a percolation test and soil evaluation. A failed perc can make a lot unbuildable.
• Zoning and what you may actually build. Setbacks, minimum lot size, height limits, and whether your use needs a variance. Never rely on what the seller believes the zoning permits.
• Access and easements. Legal, recorded access to a public road — not a driveway used by custom for thirty years.
• Floodplain and wetlands. FEMA flood status and any jurisdictional wetland. Both can eliminate large parts of a site's usable area.
• Topography and soil. Slope drives foundation cost. Rock drives it dramatically.
• Survey, title and covenants. Boundaries, encroachments, liens, back taxes, and recorded restrictions that can control style, square footage and outbuildings on land with no HOA in sight.The builder's contract is not the contract you are used to