I'm sorry, but I can't/won't share our contract with you. By the time all of the information pertinent to our build was blacked out, you'd hardly be able to read it!

I would say that the majority of people use the contract that the builder provides. You will probably have some trouble getting your builder to sign a contract that you have drafted...for the same reasons that you don't want to sign his. The person who drafts the contracts generally provides himself/herself more leverage. It is hard to be fair and equitable to each party when you are trying to protect yourself and your investment, particularly with no legal skills.

If you want a contract, then you need an attorney familiar with this field to draft it. I know others on this forum disagree with this next statement, but...you need an attorney ANYWAY to review any contract before signing it.

Good luck. I know it is frustrating to deal with this issue and the delay in signing a contract, but it is much better to have your interests protected from the very beginning. Don't forget to include your spec sheets and any schedules in with your plans as part of the contract documents.

I totally agree! Get an attorney involved before you sign anything. At very least, have the attorney look over the contract from the builder before you sign it. Even better, have him/her write the contract or an addendum that protects your interests. And make sure the attorney specializes in real estate law and has specific knowledge of construction loans. It will be the best money you ever spent if there's any problem down the road.

Cork2win, I could have written your post! We have completely stalled out on our build because of it. We thought we had found the perfect contractor, but when I started to read the contract, I physically became ill. It had so many mistakes, such as things I did not ask for, things taken out and was completely one-sided with no mention of a warranty. But weeks before drafting the contract, he wanted a wish list so that he could include on the contract specific things that we wanted,(even though I gave him one to provide his bid on!). As it turned out, I don't even think he read it. He completely ignored things that I had specifically mentioned and/or had price quotes on, he didn't even include the main stairs in my entry, but the worse red flag to me was at the top of our contract, it said something like "both parties agree to build 4 bedroom..."---ah no, we are building a 5 bedroom home. Not to mention, he was over at least 100k from his bid. Scary!

After going round and round with him, our trying to compromise and eventually some tears--I'll spare you with the latest details, we are getting bids from others. There was even a point that I really felt like we were going to have to scrap our home plans and just forget building all together. We were hoping to have broken ground several months ago, but now have settled that if we even break ground this year we will be happy. We have started on the driveway since we are using a separate excavator for that. At least that is a little bit of excitement and joy for us--very little LOL!

But as far as the contract, as others have advised me, get everything you want for your home in writing. I will not sign a contract that isn't specific. I don't want it to come back and bite me on the you know what. My DH never wanted to get an attorney, until he saw the stink we were presented with. Now he's the one that is insisting on an attorney.

Good luck and stick with your instincts. You have to protect yourself, your money, your future.

We had an attorney review and make changes to the contract provided by our builder. In retrospect, the attorney did a very poor job of representing our interests. Luckily, we have a builder that's not interested in sucking every penny out of us and actually makes sure our money goes as far as it can.

Oh, except he doesn't seem to mind all the interest we are paying due to this excruciatingly long build!

Get an attorney. Let her/him make revisions, any addendums, etc. needed. You negotiate the contract terms with your builder; the contract commits the business deal to writing. The attorney makes sure that the business deal is properly represented by the contract, and that your interests are protected.

Don't even think of signing anything, including anything you draft yourself without an attorney. It is not an expensive proposition in the overall scheme of your build.

Remember, that the initial contract is just a starting point. I've never seen any business deal where anyone signed the first contract presented. Good luck!

We use AIA documents which are very detailed and specific. Just be sure to get the one appropriate for your size project and the 205 also. Tom

Here is a link that might be useful: AIA Contracts