iNest Newsletter

How You Can Do Your Part to Get Your New Home Completed on Time

Dena Kouremetis
A veteran of the homebuilding industry, Dena Kouremetis is the foremost real estate columnist specializing in new home issues, trends, products and designs. Her columns appear in the New York Post as well as other newspapers throughout the U.S.

If you are the type of buyer that frequents the building site of your new home every week or on your lunch hour to check on the progress, you may very well see the house you are waiting for remain virtually untouched for days. With fewer construction crews, weather delays, untimely building supply drops, and any possible glitch in this intricate process, it’s not surprising that builders can only estimate fuzzy target dates for completion. Rest assured, however, that no one wants the homes completed on time more than the builder itself, since no one in that organization gets paid until the proverbial fat lady sings.

Rather than point fingers, however, buyers may want to consider what they can personally do to “set the stage” for the timeliest completion possible of their new homes. Sometimes by their action (or inaction) buyers can have more control over the process than they may realize. This is because builders gauge their schedules on certain “mileposts,” such as a buyer’s loan approval or a buyer’s sign-off and deposit on items they chose at the design center, to determine when they may move to the next step in the construction process. Each step is vital, but many buyers oftentimes don’t see themselves as part of the process.

Time-consuming builder status meetings are usually held weekly, with sales, construction, lending and design center personnel all in attendance, chronicling every home site in every community the builder currently has under construction. To the builder, no matter how warm and fuzzy the salesperson may feel about your personal situation, you have become a statistic in their status reports and time waits for no buyers on contract.

To do your part in getting your home completed on time, here are some steps you can take to ensure success:

1. Fill out your loan application as soon as possible. Dig up your W-2’s, paycheck stubs and bank statements and make quick copies of them for the lender. If you can’t meet with the lender in person, mail or overnight the package (you may even be able to do a “telephone loan application” with the lender) and, if required, include the small check for the credit report fee. Sometimes a mere “credit approval” will get you house going.

2. Make your design center appointment as soon as they will permit you to. If a full appointment is too lengthy, see if you can split them in to two, choosing major stuff (cabinets, appliances, electrical and plumbing options) first, and saving “colors” for last. And be ready with the deposit money (used towards your eventual down payment) so that the builder can order your choices.

3. Schedule out-of-town trips for after your own legwork on the house is complete. Use long lunch hours or take vacation time, if necessary, for your builder/lender appointments. (As one of your life’s biggest investments, this process is at least as important as a doctor’s appointment or a set of new nails.)

4. Check on the status of your loan frequently. To most lenders, no news is good news if they have given you the green light after a cursory look at your financials and credit scores. But that doesn’t mean that something can’t cloud up the picture – like your decision to change lines of work, apply for another charge card, or put a new car on credit, when your loan officer told you to keep your financial picture “frozen in time” until the house is finished.Eleventh hour revelations can be a real pain when your credit report is reviewed again at closing time.

5. Don’t make special custom requests of the builder if you want your home finished on time. Many builders nowadays won’t entertain them anyways. Specialized pricing requires extra buyer deposits and the ever-dreaded flood of additional paperwork, forcing the time issue.

If you do your part, no one can point out that you had anything to do with a potential delay. And you can finally look gleefully forward to your move – unpacking box after box, moving furniture, hanging pictures, ordering take-out food, and (the best part) spending your first night in your brand new home.