I have sat across the table from a lot of families right before they signed a contract, and the questions they ask in that meeting tell me more about how the build will go than almost anything else. Before you sign with any custom home builder, ask the questions below. I would answer every one of them the same way whether you build with us or someone else, and a builder who cannot answer them plainly is telling you something.
What Should You Ask About Pricing and the Contract?
Start here: ask for a fixed, itemized price with real selections written in, not a base price with allowances. This is the single biggest driver of whether a custom build stays on budget or blows up. An allowance is a placeholder dollar figure for something you have not picked yet, like flooring or cabinets. If a contract is full of allowances, the number on page one is not the number you will actually pay once you walk into a showroom and pick what you actually want. We price custom builds between $250 and $550+ per finished square foot, with most complete projects landing between $1.2M and $4M+, and every selection in that number is one you chose with me before signing, not a guess.
Ask specifically:
- Is this a fixed price or a cost-plus contract, and what does that mean for overruns?
- Which line items are allowances, and what product level do they actually buy?
- What is included in the price per square foot: site work, landscaping, driveway, well and septic?
- How are change orders priced after signing?
How Do You Know If the Price Includes Real Selections or Allowances?
The allowance game is the most common way custom home budgets go sideways, and it is worth a question of its own. Ask to walk the showroom and price your actual flooring, cabinets, fixtures, and countertops before you sign, not after. If a builder cannot show you real selections at real prices before contract, assume the allowance is a placeholder built to make the headline number look smaller than the real cost. I covered this in more depth in my post comparing custom builders to production builders, because it is the question that separates the two models more than anything else.
| Question | Good answer | Red flag answer |
|---|---|---|
| Are selections priced into the contract? | Yes, chosen and priced before signing | "We will figure that out later" |
| What does the flooring allowance buy? | A specific named product you can see | A dollar figure with no product attached |
| Who prices change orders? | Written formula agreed in the contract | "We will work it out when it comes up" |
| Can I see the actual cabinet line? | Yes, in the showroom now | Only a budget range |
What Should You Ask About the Schedule and Draw Payments?
Ask how the draw schedule is structured and what triggers each payment. On a construction-to-permanent loan, your lender releases funds in draws tied to completed phases, foundation, framing, dried-in, mechanicals, finishes, so ask your builder to walk you through each draw and what has to be done before it is released. Also ask what happens if a draw inspection fails or a trade falls behind. Our builds run 12 to 14 months of construction after 3 to 6 months of design and permitting, and most of our homes deliver within two weeks of the target date we set at signing. Ask any builder for their actual on-time delivery record, not just their stated timeline, because the gap between the two tells you whether the schedule in your contract is real.
Who Will Actually Be On Site, and How Often?
This question gets glossed over more than any other. Ask who you will talk to after you sign: is it the person sitting across the table right now, or does the project hand off to a superintendent you have not met? On a lot of larger builders, the person who sold you the job is not the person running it. I am on every job site myself, I run every client meeting myself, and I keep the number of active builds small enough that your home is never fifteenth in line behind someone else's. Ask directly how many homes a builder has under construction right now and how often the owner is physically on site, and get a specific answer, not "regularly."
What Should You Ask About the Warranty?
Get the warranty terms in writing before you sign, not after. Ask exactly what is covered, for how long, and who backs it if something goes wrong in year three. We put ours in writing on every contract: one year workmanship, two years on systems, ten years structural. Ask a builder to show you the actual warranty language, not a verbal promise, and ask what their process looks like when a client calls with a warranty issue after move-in. If a builder gets vague here, that is worth paying attention to.
What Questions Reveal Whether a Builder Can Handle Your Land?
If you own acreage, your questions need to go further than the house itself. Ask directly about well and septic experience, soil engineering for Parker County clay, and drainage planning, because these are where inexperienced builders get into trouble on rural lots. I learned to engineer foundations for this clay over thirty years of building across Weatherford, Aledo, and the surrounding acreage, and it shows up in which homes are still square and dry a decade later. If a basement is part of the plan, ask specifically who engineered it and where they learned to waterproof below grade in Texas soil, since I learned that skill building in Colorado and it is not common knowledge in this market. Our acreage building process and real Texas basements pages go deeper on both if you want the specifics before your first meeting.
Texas does not license general residential contractors at the state level, which means anyone can call themselves a custom builder with no credential behind it. That makes these questions, and checking references and past work yourself, more important here than in states with contractor licensing. The Residential Construction Liability Act under Texas Property Code Chapter 27 is the law that governs construction defect disputes in this state, and it is worth understanding before you sign anything. If you are financing with a construction-to-permanent loan, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's explainer on construction loans is a plain-language primer worth reading before your first lender meeting too.
What Should You Do Next?
- Write your own list from this post before your next builder meeting. Bring it, ask every question out loud, and write down the answers.
- Ask to see real selections and real pricing before you sign anything, not allowances and not a verbal estimate.
- Visit a home the builder actually completed, ideally one that has been lived in for a few years, and ask the owner directly how the warranty process has gone.
- Talk to us before you sign with anyone. I will answer every question on this list the same way in person that I have here. Schedule a free consultation, browse our completed homes, or call me directly at (817) 736-6323.
I have built over 100 custom homes in North Texas since 1995, and I would rather lose a job to a straight answer than win one by staying vague. Ask hard questions before you sign. A builder worth hiring will welcome them.
