Maybe in Manhatten, things are as Manhatten42 says. In the rest of the country? I don't think so! A huge percentage of the 100 biggest firms in the country (the "Am Law 100") are located in Manhatten and lawyers in such firms typically serve corporate clients whose business is worth millions and millions of dollars. These firms also pay $180,000/year salaries to baby attorneys fresh out of law school who can't find their own a**es with both hands. They set their partner's billing rates at $1500/hr and their 1st year associates' billing rates at $350/hr and then expect associates to bill 2500 hours per year. It's a crazy, high stress, world and for lawyers in such firms, it is true that a homeowner's request to review a contract is simply too minor a matter for them to waste their precious time. I think maybe interactions with Am 100 lawyers have colored Manhatten42's opinions. In the rest of the country however, 90% of lawyers still work in firms with 10 or fewer lawyers and a huge portion of those are either solo attorneys or associates working for a solo attorney to gain experience before hanging out their own shingles. Experienced solo attorneys' billing rates will be around $180 to $250/hr and 1st year associates are lucky if they make &45,000 a year. And they scramble to bring in new business often taking pretty much whatever walks in the door. In fact, Big-law ofter refers derisively to such firms as "door law firms" but these little firms are the ones providing legal services to most of the real people (i.e., individuals rather than corporations) in this country. Second, asking a lawyer to review a contract IS not the same as asking one to litigate. Reviewing a contract and giving advice regarding it is a form of transactional law; not litigation. In a large firm, transactional attorneys never litigate and litigators never do any transactional work. In fact, I would lay odds that very few of the transactional attorneys in Am Law 100 firms could even tell you where the nearest courthouse is located... much less figure out how to actually file and prosecute a lawsuit. Further, is impossible to predict how many hours of work a litigation matter is going to take. The matter could settle almost immediately or the other side could deliberately drag the case out for years trying to run up enough legal bills that your client gives up and goes away. The time necessary to complete a piece of transactional work is comparatively easy to predict however...especially for small matters like reviewing a contract. So, saying that "A homeowner asking a strange lawyer to review a building contract is a like a homeowner asking a strange lawyer to litigate on his behalf" is just simply wrong. The difference between the two is rather like the difference between someone asking you to come into a 1st grade classroom and spend an hour telling the kids about your work and someone asking you to take a child home with you and adopt him and raise him. Unlike large firm attorneys, solo and small firm attorneys typically do a blend of transactional work and litigation. Litigation cases may pay the bonuses but transactional work is the daily bread and butter. It pays the light bills and gives you the capital you need to keep going while you wait to win one of those big contingency fee cases. When I was fresh out of law school, I worked in a two attorney firm and I certainly did not turn away individuals who walked in the door with a contract they wanted someone to review and explain to them. Such jobs represented maybe 2 to 3 hours work for me and the clients always paid - which is more than one can say for many litigation clients! Finally, telling someone that if they can't read their builder's contract and decide for themselves whether it is acceptable or not, then they shouldn't be building, is insulting in the extreme. It's rather like telling someone that, if they can't read the manual and repair their own car, then they shouldn't buy a car, they should just take taxis or busses everywhere. Cow hockey! If each builder out there actually wrote his/her own contract, then maybe homebuyers wouldn't need lawyers to review those contracts. The builder and the homeowner would be on relatively level ground when it came to the contract. But that is not how it works. Builders often purchase "form contracts" that are made available by their state's Builder's Association. And you can bet those form contracts were written and polished by TEAMS of attorneys working for the Builder's Association and they are written to protect the builder from EVER possible contingency - including his own malfeasance. Most builders don't understand their own contracts. They don't have to. The Builder's Association looks out for the builder's interests and they paid their lawyers to write a contract that will protect the builder at all costs. Do get a lawyer who is on YOUR side. It may take a few calls but it is not impossible.

Hollysprings-this is something that our "knickers should be in a knot over". This is a 7500 sq ft house and this is not typical nail pops. Every single screw on every single wall and ceiling is protruding. I don't think you would be happy to shell out an additional $20,000 to have the house repainted. Trebuchet- yes we have used a straight edge and a rep from the co came out when we originally installed the door and agreed it was warped. So, our GC is actually a family friend. We live in a very small community and he has built most of the houses in our area. We made sure he was licensed, but mistakenly assumed that being a licensed contractor means you carry insurance. We are a young couple and obviously have no previous experience with building. After talking to him today, we learned that he does not in fact have insurance! So, he is going to talk to the Sheetrock people to see if it something they will be willing to file on their insurance. We can't afford the lawyer route and we can't afford to pay ourselves to have it fixed.

You don't need a special kind of site to do what you have described. Box and Dropbox are document storage and document sharing sites, which is what you have described, that offer free access boxes. Larger boxes are available for purchase. This could meet your needs. The exception is #5. I'm not quite sure what you mean. My phone allows text interchange between all parties. I'm guessing you mean something else. With Box and Dropbox you can notify others when you make changes or add comments. I'd suggest looking into Google Docs also. It's also free. I've successfully used all of the above for projects with far more moving parts than a house build. (think dozens of people and dozens of "houses" and dozens of bits of content to be managed and shared).

If you are using a contract written by a builder or a design-builder you will be at a disadvantage and a lawyer is essential. But, if you are bidding the project and can include a contract form in the bid documents and you don't have an architect to help with the contract, It can be difficult to find a lawyer familiar with single family construction contracts and hiring a lawyer to write one can be unnecessarily expensive and he/she is likely to follow the AIA format anyway so I recommend printing an AIA "sample" form, filling it out and taking it to a lawyer. If he/she doesn't have a subscription to the AIA forms you can buy an editable copy for $100. If you are not using an architect, you you can cross out, delete or modify any reference to an architect. Last year I recommended an AIA single family house contract form for when the designer is a home builder. Here are all of AIA single family contract forms: https://aiacontracts.com/search/all/all?curpage=1&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Surety%20-%20Performance%20Max&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=8579796829&hsa_cam=20190385363&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjwkeqkBhAnEiwA5U-uM5YvJKBdlaLvfGZR8_W6qqq451ZXNOlr12Feimn1A9aVElCaMWjPNhoCBQ4QAvD_BwE Here is a sample sheet. https://aiacontracts.com/search/all/all?curpage=1&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Surety%20-%20Performance%20Max&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=8579796829&hsa_cam=20190385363&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjwkeqkBhAnEiwA5U-uM5YvJKBdlaLvfGZR8_W6qqq451ZXNOlr12Feimn1A9aVElCaMWjPNhoCBQ4QAvD_BwE