Oh golly, DO NOT LET ANYONE CAULK your siding like that. It is a terrible idea. Your paint may be failing due to a lack of a moisture barrier allowing indoor moisture to migrate outward and interfere with the underside of the paint bond. If this is the case, caulking would only make it much worse, potentially causing internal wall moisture problems (rot and mold) and in addition, failing to solve the moisture problem will result in continued, repeated, paint failure. Before you pay anyone to re-paint, figure out why the last paint job failed so quickly, and correct that first. Moisture migration is one possibility, but poor pre-paint preparation is another likely culprit. Painting over too much accumulated paint is also possible; poor quality previous coats could also be a problem, no matter what paint you paid for last (paint is only as tough as the weakest bond in any underlying layer); poor quality paint or poor match between it and previous paints or inappropriate pairing -- the oil v latex problem -- are also possible issues. In short, find out what the problem is and solve that. It may be as simple as installing more indoor ventilation fans (kitchen and bath are the two most common ones); it may require complete stripping of the house down to bare wood. In the meantime, if your house looks ugly, you could touch up the peeling parts while you are figuring out the final solution. I'm sorry to be dumping on the advise of your friend's husband, but it would lead to big trouble, IMO. Can you post some pictures (close-ups) of the paint where it is failing. Perhaps we can help. There are characteristic patterns of certain types of paint failure. Also it would be helpful to know the orientation (east/ west etc.) of the walls where the damage is occurring and also the interior room arrangement. (That's going back to the moisture from indoors idea. For instance if the damage is directly outside the bathroom, then that would tend to indicate indoor moisture ....) Hey, the good news is we're trying to talk you out of the most expensive bid. Good luck! Molly~

This is a little OT from the OP question but some things to consider nonetheless-- I didn't want to proceed without a Realtor for our side-- But in my case, it wasn't all about price- I am interested in a new construction home. The builder usually only builds custom homes but had an opportunity to develop a small subdivision of about 28 homes. I asked our realtor about them. He didn't know this particular builder but said there was some risk in this market (already happened with another builder) that the builder could go belly-up in the middle, leaving the development half finished or that they could run low on funds and start cheapening up the materials during the building process. He heard of another case in town (again, not this builder) where people lost their earnest money and their houses were left unfinished. The funds were not put into escrow but used to begin construction but buyers didn't know that going in. I've been (unoffically, usually online) looking for the right home for us for 2 years. When I walked into this model home I fell in love. The price was within our range but the home's look/feel/features were so much above and beyond what I had seen in this price range, so I was skeptical. I wanted the Realtor, who looks at homes day in and day out, to look-- to check the build quality, the surrounding neighborhood (older and not as upscale)to dig up information, and also his opinion on the pricing. Talking price is always uncomfortable for me. I don't want to insult anyone or come across as a cheapskate but I also don't want to overpay so I did ask my Realtor if there was room to move on the price, especially in this market and since I am clueless in the new construction process. He told us there might be a little wiggle room but that he and everyone else that goes into this home can't believe they aren't asking more. I believe they have priced it right to start with (compared to everything else I've seen) and although who wouldn't want to pay less, I think the price is fair. He was also able to check the sales in the developement. He confirmed what the builder told us which was all 5 spec homes they have built so far have sold except one (and builder told us they have a possible contract coming on it) and they have done about 4 pre-sales. The model has only been open for about 6 weeks. Their agent told ours that they got 3 new contracts last weekend. Some builders may be hurting and are giving away the farm to sell, but it is not the case for our builder. Another advantage this builder offers is free consulting with his wife, who is an Interior Designer on all your materials as well as paint colors and modifications (I just paid 75.00 per hour for this in our current home to pick new carpet & paint and other flooring for resale) Also, since they usually build custom, they allow for (and help design) modifications to the plan --we have a few we are already considering-- One is to turn a full sized closet in the laundry into a mudroom style bench with pull out drawers below and hooks for coats & keys and cubbies for gloves/hats etc. Most new construction homes wouldn't change a thing for us, beyond letting us pick the standard carpet etc... The Realtor also negotiated a 6 month contingency to allow us some time to sell our home, while this one is being constructed, and during that time, they can't sell the home from under us and I still get to pick all the colors etc. (I will have to prepay for those modifications upfront which I may not do if my home hasn't sold by that time. I still love the home as is~) I honestly don't have a clue how my Realtor is being compensated by the builder. Maybe they pad the price by a few K to cover it. But he has already handled many details in the contracts that I would not have thought of and I feel I have someone that knows what they are doing lookng out for my best interests in the transaction. We get along wonderfully (at least so far) with this builder but this is the biggest ticket item we will EVER buy, not having a a rep on our side for me would be like going to trial with out a Lawyer.

We signed our contract to build about 30 days ago. This is my 6th new build (and my last!). A little background - we are building in a subdivision of 40 homes, 15 of which are completed. The builder is solid as a rock having built several other subdivisions, condo's etc in the same town. His son lives in one of the 15 completed homes. Our new home is semi-custom. Meaning, we took an existing model and ripped it apart. With every change and/or upgrade we asked for an approximate cost so that we would land somewhere within our budget. In the end, there wasn't a whole lot of wiggle room on his part. He ultimately threw in some upgrades and we increased our budget (no surprise there). We landed at $50,000 over the price of the original model and we expect to spend another $20,000 upgrading the appliance/lighting/misc other selections. Some builders really low ball their base price, and you get nickeled and dimed to death. Other builders price their homes with attractive features right from the start. So, most importantly you have to know what you're getting. Since this is your first home, you many not fully understand what you want. I think all of the other posters pointed this out to you, so I won't reiterate. What I will tell you is that I expected the builder to have a whole lot more wiggle room. The real estate market is struggling, so we figured we were going to get some amazing deal. Well, that's not how he works. He prices his homes fairly right from the start and doesn't play games. Trust is a major issue - good contracts help, but ultimately they are only as good as the parties involved. Do your due diligence. Review the contract with an attorney, speak to other residents of the community about their experience with the builder. Visit previous subdivisions that he's built, preferably 7-15 years ago. Speak to the building inspector in town. You sound very determined and very accomplished professionally. If you have a good builder you should come out of this relatively unscathed. Btw, my last house is the same price as your first house. I can't imagine where you'll be when you're my age. :) Good Luck!

In our area, builders are beginning to negotiate on spec houses because inventory is too high. However, they are not yet negotiating on to-be-built houses. The savings on buying an existing new house may be worth the trade off of not getting exactly what you'd like. For example, a couple I know recently bought a builder's spec house that was originally listed for $849K for just $699K after some intense negotiating. They loved the lot and location, but weren't entirely wild about the house. However, they believe they can put $50K+ into changes and upgrades and still have a good value. A RE agent friend has recently persuaded a few builders to come down $100K - $200K on houses reduced to $1.1MM - $1.3MM. These same floorplans sold two years ago for $1.5MM - $1.7MM with similar finishes and on equivalent premium lots, so you can see that the builders thought they had already reduced their prices to rock bottom. Folks who insist on building here are not seeing any reductions. Whatever savings there may be in materials costs are more than being offset by increased fuel prices, and we're seeing higher labor costs and higher delivery fees. That's a long, round about way to get to the answer. Sorry. I think that if you find a new house that you like well enough you could try to get a bargain by putting up a large earnest money deposit along with an offer to close quickly, and give the builder 24 hrs. to respond. If the answer is anything but yes, walk away and try a different builder. If you really love the first house, give it a week or two and try again, perhaps with 10% or 20% earnest money to show you mean business.