The model home is doing its job. The contract on the table in the sales office is doing the builder's.
New construction is my favorite part of this business. I'd rather walk a slab and a stud wall than a staged resale any day. But the paperwork you sign in that office isn't the paperwork you'd sign on a resale, and most buyers figure that out somewhere around month four. Here's what I ask before a client of mine signs anything.
1. Whose contract is this, exactly?
On a resale in Texas, you're usually working from a promulgated TREC form — standardized, familiar, written with both sides in mind. A builder contract is the builder's own document, drafted by the builder's attorney, and it protects the builder. That's not a scandal. It's just what it is, and reading it that way will make you ask better questions.
I'm not an attorney and I won't pretend to be one. If the document is big enough to change your life, it's big enough to pay a real estate attorney to read.
2. If I walk away, what does it cost me — and when?
On a resale you have an option period. A set number of days, a set fee, and the ability to change your mind. Builder contracts often handle termination very differently, and your money is sitting in more than one place: earnest money, a design center deposit, upgrade deposits.
Ask for the answer in writing, stage by stage. At contract. At slab. At framing. After the design center. You want that number in hand long before you need it.
3. What is the lender incentive actually worth?
Builders put real money on the table when you use their preferred lender, and sometimes that money is the best deal in the room. Sometimes the rate quietly eats it. The credit and the rate have to be compared together, over the life of the loan — not the credit by itself, because the credit is the part they hand you on a flyer.
Get one outside quote. Just one. Your licensed lender is the one who runs those numbers; my job is making sure the question gets asked before you've already signed.
4. What happens when the completion date slips?
Every completion date in a builder contract is an estimate, and estimates move — weather, inspections, materials, labor. Ask what the contract says about delays. Then ask the practical version: what does extending my rate lock cost, and where do I live if my lease ends in October and the house isn't ready until January?
That's a month-one conversation. It is a miserable month-seven conversation.
5. How is this phase priced, and what is the lot premium buying me?
Base prices move by section and by release. Ask what has sold in the current phase and what's opening next. Then ask what the premium on your specific lot is paying for — greenbelt, cul-de-sac, water view, or simply position on the map.
Some premiums are worth every dollar. Some are margin. And nobody can tell you what your home will be worth in five years, so be careful with anyone who talks like they can.
6. What does my tax bill look like in year two?
This is the one that catches the most people, and it's the reason I keep bringing it up. Your first tax bill may be assessed on an unimproved lot. Year two is assessed on a finished home, and the escrow payment moves accordingly. Add the MUD rate that many master-planned communities out here carry on top of the county and city rates.
Ask for the total rate including MUD. Run your monthly number on the finished value, not the lot. If the payment only works on year-one math, it doesn't work.
7. Who decides what the warranty covers?
Ask for the actual warranty document, not the summary in the brochure. What's covered in year one versus later, what's specifically excluded, how a claim gets filed, and whether disputes go to arbitration instead of court.
Read it while you still like everybody. That's the whole trick.
One more, and it's the cheapest thing on this list
Bring your agent on the first visit. The person at the desk in the model home is lovely, genuinely — and they work for the builder. Their job is the builder's interests, which is exactly what they were hired to do.
Most builders require your agent to be registered at first contact, so touring alone one Saturday afternoon can close that door for good. How representation works and how it's paid gets put in writing between us upfront. It's a short conversation, and it's much better had before you walk in by yourself.
New construction rewards the people who ask the boring questions early. If you're touring this fall in Sienna, Richmond, Katy or anywhere across Fort Bend and Harris County and you want a second set of eyes before you sign, call me. That part is my fave.
If you have any questions, call me — 281.944.5484. LaShambra Ewing, MBA, Broker Associate, Keller Williams Southwest.
