denver

where in northern VA are you planning to build? we just finished a new build in western loudoun cnty out in the blueridge mtns. If you happen to be in that county, I can provide some info - lessons we learned through our process. We did a custom home on a lot we had purchased in 2003. We started the project in July 2006 and finished in Dec 2007 (thank goodness it is finally over).

I have never heard of Classic Homes - but then again - I had never heard of our builder either prior to selecting him. One thing i recommend is talking to local lenders who specialize in custom homes, also speak with real estate agents who have been around a long time. These people really know who is good and who is not. If you would like the name of a lender I can send you the person who did our loan - she is located in Purcellville, VA.

Best of luck with the project!

sniffdog,

Thanks for the feedback. We are building in Stafford on 9 acres. I didn't think about speaking to local real estate agents in Stafford but they probably would be able to provide me with some information on Classic. Thank you for the suggestion. I'd be interested in your lender information if you would like to e-mail it to me. How did you happen to find your builder? And were you able to monitor your build daily or at least weekly?

We found our builder through an encounter with an architect that we met with but eventually did not not use. We actually had to pay the architect 250 bucks for a consultation that was not worth a dollar, but we paid him anyway. On my way out the door I asked him if he knew of any builders he would recommend and he provided us a name. We met with the builder at one of his spec homes, were impressed with the house and the builder, and decided this was our guy. We had met with 2 other builders prior to meeting him and those meetings did not go well at all (one guy was just too expensive and the other guy was just the rudest person you would never want to meet). The reason I suggested talking to lenders is that once we started the loan process, we told our lender the story and she knew all of them.

Once we found our builder, we visited several of his on-going projects and ran into the owners. They were all very complimentary of the builder and recommended him.

In hind site, we should have continued to shop around. In the end, our builder did deliver a very nicely built home but he turned out to be quite a different person after we signed the contract then before we signed it. We were lied to on several ocassions and he did a horrible job at managing our project. He was rarely at the house - luckily my wife and I were there very often and caught a number of issues that he should have caught. He told us the house would be done in 9 months (I figured on 12) - turned out to be 16. We also overran by quite a bit - and that was after we had picked out everything ahead of time - and the guy knew we were on a very tight budget. The builder completely underestimated the excavation and electrical budget, and I found out later from the excavator that he was never asked to provide a bid on our job and the elctrician was never handed the detailed plan that I had give the builder to price into the contract (so the builder pulled numbers out of his rear end). At the end of the project, I had to tripple check all of his acocunting since he made over $40,000 in errors (of course all in his favor, which I corrected). He could be the nicest guy in the world one day and then an absolute jerk the next. We consider ourselves very lucky to have gotten through the project, but during the build there were several times that we were extremely worried that we were in serious trouble. The bank had to step in at the end and put pressure on him to finish the house - and we almost had to resubmit all of our loan paperwork (at a cost to us) because the house was delayed for so long. I give our builder an F on project management and customer relations. I will never recommend him to anyone.

The issue - we believe - was that he underestimated his costs to build our house. The contract was part firm fixed price and part variable for the allownace items. The firm fixed price part included the costs to build the stucture and his profit. The allowance items covered the excavation, well, septic, trims amd finish materials (our builder did not make a profit on the allownace items). We think that once he blew the fixed price budget, he stopped caring about the house and then did whatever he could to make up his overruns - which included telling the subs that if they gave him a better price, they could finish it on their schedule, essentailly using our house as filler to balance their cash flow.

So the moral to our story is you have to search and check and double check with people who have actually used the builder, as well as people who have lent money to people who have used the builder, as well as the subs who work for the builder. If the builder tells you something, get it in writing and verify it with other sources. Make sure you visit the house frequently. Make sure the builder gives you a detailed porject schedule (prior to signing the contract) and track the progress of the house against that schedule. Our builder did not have a detailed schedule for our project - or any of his projects for that matter - and that should have been the first clue that we were going to have issues.

And even after all of that checking & verification , make sure you have cash reserves to deal with overruns.
This is the largest investment you will probably make in your life and you will be trusting an almost complete stranger to finish the project on schedule and within your budget. We were lured in by a builder who was a great talker and salesman - and then got a Dr. Jekel - Mr. Hyde situation.

Stafford is a beautiful area. Best of luck with your project. Our lender is in Purcellvile, Suntrust Mortgage, and contact Holly Hoopes. Ask her how Bunker and Divit are doing her cute little dogs.

Sniffdog, Can you tell us the name of that terrible builder? We live in Nova, too, and want to avoid someone who's not going to do a good job. Thanks.

I won't post the name here, but I would email it to you. How can I find your mail address?

Denver77,
I'm a local builder in Fredericksburg. The name of the company is Hartsock Custom Homes. We won the parade of homes last year...If I can be of any assistance just e-mail me. craig@hartsockcustomhomes.com. www.hartsockcustomhomes.com is down for a redesign we're doing, but it should be back up next Friday. If you have the Home & Design magazine out of No.Va. from last month I have a full page ad in there, that's the house that won last year.

Craig Hartsock