What kind build? Custom home? What type of contract? GC handling everything? Is everything picked out by you 100%?

Dangle a carrot ($$,$$$) in front of them that they can have if they finish on schedule or before; and/or hire a builder that can control the weather; and/or answer their questions within five minutes of them asking it; and/or hire a builder that has all the materials on hand to build your house; and/or hire a builder that has the cure for all viruses . . . .

Hire a good builder, check references. BTW with all of the COVID flying around, supply chains are really iffy. We've had a lot of problems getting materials, appliances, lumber, and such. , even stuff we ordered long ago. In fact, we just had an entire lumber order of engineered wood go offline as it was being milled in Louisianna and the hurricane shut down the mill!

Forget a hard deadline. if you ”must“ have a home by next spring’s graduation, or some other artificially imposed external date, then don’t build. That’s not how building works.

You can’t enforce any penalty for missing a deadline. Not unless you can control the weather, the supply chain, the entire neighborhood’s build progress, and home inspector schedule. Giving a bonus for a rapid finish is a big time no. That’s an incentive for shortcuts, not quality.

Even discussing such a thing with a builder puts you on red flag probation. You will lose the busy good ones right away over that talk. You’re setting yourself up as an enemy, not a partner. No one can pay enough money to build in conflict like that. Well, maybe at double the price, but unless you’re willing to pay double, forget it.

We just told our contractor (restoration, not a new build) to take all the extra time he needs to get it done right. That means living in temporary rented quarters for a month, but we wouldn’t dream of rushing something as important as our home, particularly with all of the insane supply chain issues out there right now. Faster isn’t necessarily better.

Crystal ball, Ouija boards, voodoo dolls, offerings to the religious deity of your choosing. :) :)

You can stipulate a bonus for finishing within a certain mumber of days (known as the project Time). The contract should also say that certain kinds of delays beyond the control of the contractor will extend the project Time and that such extensions must be requested within a certain number of days after the delay. These terms are included in many standardized contract forms.

Just don’t have a deadline, other than the time the building department allows a permit to stay open. Delays are even more common now.

I've worked on projects with liquidated damages in the commercial/institutional world. All it does is give the contractor a reason to keep a list of everything out of their control that has delayed or could delay the work. And I've never seen the owner collect. The key to timely completion is communication, and timely decisions. Get references.

Liquidated damages are awesome. They increase the bid price significantly and never actually get paid. Unless you are in a high seven figures or better project they are a waste of time.

Due diligence before you hire the builder is your best option. Bonuses can work but can also backfire as contractors can sacrifice quality to meet a bonused deadline.

I've had clauses in two projects (of 150+). My very first contract after leaving the family home building nest 30+ years ago, which cost me. The second was for a logistics expert. We beat it and collected.

I learned to price changes with both dollars and time added. Remember that every time a trade shows up on your project and you say "I'll get back to you on that decision..." they may move to another project where decisions are complete. It may be a day or a few weeks.

In this time of COVID, we're discovering a growing list of unpredictable items. Hardware & fixtures that would be under a week out can be 10-12 weeks. When we hear that, its better to reselect as those lead times can grow (in other words they really don't know). What if your window manufacturing plant shut down for a week or two? etc.

Always get out there and complete selections much earlier than you think, engage in the design process, listen to expert suggestions.

Have you started calling builders to get a bid? I have found that the construction trades are so so so busy that you are seriously lucky if they will even entertain giving you a bid. Act anything other than the easiest customer ever, and they will no longer be interested. Throw in Covid and everything being out of stock and completely backordered and good luck!

If you're the builder you can have the best chance of controlling the finish date. Or understanding why it may need to change.

Builder told me fire rebuild would take 6 months; took 2 years, because builder had "other jobs more important" to his business. Yes, he said that quote to me. Suffered financially (>$200K), primarily due to loss of some insurance reimbursements due to delay.

Good luck.

No residential builder in his right mind is going to agree to a hard deadline with penalty clauses such as liquidated damages. In fact, they'll talk about you at the builder's meeting and have a good laugh.

When you're General Motors and you want a new front end alignment machine installed in a plant over the two-week Christmas shutdown, you're going to get it. You aren't laying off 3,000 people because a contractor forgot to order a widget on time.

Chase bank can turn a used car lot into a state-of-the art bank in 90 days. No fooling around; no excuses.

You are not General Motors or Chase bank. You do not have millions of dollars of future work to use as leverage and you will never have it. There aren't companies spending years trying to get and stay on your bid list. You and the contractors who are interested in your little onesie project are just too small for big-boy penalties.

The only part of the build you can control is yourself. Make your selections for everything from flooring to appliances to lighting long before the builder says he needs them. Then be prepared to offer multiple alternatives when your first choice is not available. These days, especially, be flexible. Think hard now about what's important to you and where you will compromise.

Be respectful of your builder's professional expertise and of his trades' skills. That should go without saying just because it's the right thing to do, but you'd be amazed at how much more effort builders and subs have made for us over the years because we treated them well.

Prepare for a new build to take longer than anyone predicts, especially in the next couple of years. Supply chain problems won't be resolved overnight.

For us move in date of our custom home, land owned by us, was a moving target. But slowly moving and with us all in the know. Our first target was August 2018. But we knew a year before that it wasn’t realistic. Then it became September instead. Six months later we knew that was off. By August 2018 we knew with certainty we would move in Oct 26, 2018 and we did. But we still needed things done and didn’t get occupancy permit till January.

The mandatory Warranty Programme I built under does provide for compensation for homeowners whose home is not ready in time. So it can be done.

The only time I missed the initial closing date was when the clients ran out of money for a month--they paid in stages.

Any builder nowadays would put that closing date far in the future and provide for further delays for reasons beyond its control. Case in point: the commercial lumberyard I deal with says they can take orders, but cannot guarantee delivery as it's hit or miss what they receive. And the builders with 700 homes under way have priority over my planned single dinky home.