Posts
10 Important Questions to Ask Your Builder
What to Consider and Ask When Building a New Home
Pricing, craftsmanship and location are factors to consider when looking for the right builder for your new custom home. Once you’ve narrowed down your preliminary list and start to meet with Asheville home builders, ask these important questions.
1. How many years have you been in business and how many homes have you built?
2. Can I tour a home you built for a past client?
3. What type of home warranty do you provide to homeowners? What do you cover in the first year and what’s covered in 10 years?
4. Who will be my primary contact during the project and how will they keep me updated on issues and progress? Do you use a home building software platform where I can access project information.
5. Can you provide potential clients with references that are available to speak about their experience building a home with you?
6. Why is your company better than other home builders? What makes you different?
7. Will you build on land that I purchase or do you only build in planned developments?
8. Do you have a final walk-through after the new home is built?
9. How and when will the final price of my home be determined? Do you have a sample contract for new construction homes?
10. Will you work with my architect or help me make changes to a house plan I found online? If the home builder has stock plans, ask them how they charge for upgrades and how the change order process works.
The Home Building Process
There are many other important questions that you will want to ask, but this list is a good starting point. You’ll be spending a lot of time with the Asheville NC home builder you choose so be sure you feel comfortable communicating with them and have a good sense that they’re straight-forward and trustworthy. The home building process can be exciting, fun, confusing and emotional. It’s so much more than just a house. It’s an investment of time and money and usually the result of years and years of hard work. We hope this blog post will help you navigate finding a home builder that’s a good match for you. If we can help with your new custom home or home remodel, feel free to call us at (828) 274-4448.
Judd Builders Wins Best of Houzz 2019
Houzz Award Winners Announced
Houzz has announced the Houzz community’s picks for Best Of Houzz 2019, a homeowner-to-homeowner guide to the top kitchen and bath remodelers, architects, interior designers, landscape pros and other residential remodeling professionals on Houzz from custom cabinet makers to flooring pros and painters.
Judd Builders, home builders in Asheville NC, was awarded Best of Houzz for client service. “Best of Houzz is an honor to be awarded because the Houzz community chooses the professionals they enjoy working with and have had positive experiences with. We have our clients to thank for their support and reviews,” said John Judd Jr, Co-owner of Judd Builders.
Houzz has 40 million monthly users and features photos of projects from the top kitchen and bath remodelers, architects, interior designers, home builders, landscape pros and other residential remodeling professionals. The Best of Houzz awards are given out annually, in categories including design, customer service and photography.
Check out our Houzz profile.
The Judd Difference and the Most Frequently Asked Question
John Judd Sr, Co-owner of Judd Builders, an Asheville NC home builder, speaks about what makes Judd Builders different and what he gets asked most often by people wanting to move and build a home in Asheville. Watch our get to know us video and find out more about building a home in Asheville.
Judd Builders Marketing Director Quoted on Realtor.com
Our Director of Marketing Lauren McKinney was recently interviewed for a Realtor.com article on why the cold weather months are a good time to buy a home in Asheville.
6 Reasons Why Winter Is Actually the Most Chill Time to Buy a Home
When the weather outside is frightful, trudging door to door to look at houses might seem like a fool’s errand. Everybody knows spring and summer are the home-buying seasons, and winter is the time when you—and sellers—cool it for a bit and take a break, right?
While it’s true that things do slow down in the winter, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, it’s cold. Yes, fewer homes are for sale. Yes, moving in a snowstorm is a pain no one should experience. But there are quite a few darned smart reasons to buy a home in the winter. In fact, we’d argue that this might even be the best time to buy a home—if you can. Here’s why.
Most likely, sellers listing their home in the depths of winter seriously want to sell. That gives buyers the upper hand.
“Many people place their homes on the market at this time of the year because they need to,” says Lauren McKinney, a Realtor® in Asheville, NC. “Many sellers are looking to get out fast and will be more willing to work with you.”
You’ll also want to keep an eye on each home’s “cumulative days on market,” which you’ll find on the home’s listing details page. It’s possible that the house has been lingering on the market—giving you more leverage to land a fantastic home for a fraction of the price you would have paid six months earlier.
“If you are buying in the winter, you may want to target houses that have been on the market for a few months, because you might just find a seller who is more motivated to accept a lower offer,” Sztanyo says.
But remember: Just because a seller’s eager doesn’t necessarily mean you should dramatically lowball or make unreasonable demands—you can sabotage yourself if you get cocky. Instead, work with your agent to determine an appropriate negotiation strategy.
You can read the full article “6 Reasons Why Winter Is Actually the Most Chill Time to Buy a Home” on Realtor.com.
After you purchase your home in Asheville during the winter months, don’t wait to remodel. Now is a great time to find an Asheville remodeling contractor to start a kitchen remodel, bath remodel, home addition or whole house remodel. Read our blog “3 Things to Renovate Before You Move Into Your New House” to figure out what areas of your home should be a priority and if you should delay moving in until the remodeling projects are completed.
Judd Builders is an experienced Asheville remodeler with years of experience remodeling kitchens, bathrooms, outdoor living space, basements and building home additions. We are known for the custom homes we build in Western North Carolina, but we love seeing the transformation during a home remodel almost as much as a new construction build. Our knowledgeable project managers can help guide you through the process so that the Asheville home remodel becomes everything you want it to be and more.
Judd Builders Joins Green Built Alliance
When John Judd Sr. and John Judd Jr. formed Judd Builders in 2007 they had a vision to build quality custom homes with sustainable and environmentally friendly materials and building practices. Becoming a member of the Green Built Alliance is another step toward our commitment to be good stewards of the environment. No two homes are exactly alike so we look at each home like it has its own ecosystem and we adjust our green building approach accordingly in order to match our clients’ wants and needs.
According to Green Built Alliance “Green building, or sustainable design, is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use energy, water, and materials, and of reducing impacts on human health and the environment for the entire lifecycle of a building. Green-building concepts extend beyond the walls of buildings and include site planning, community and land-use planning issues as well.”
As a green home builder in Asheville, NC where the home building industry is booming and many builders are taking shortcuts to build more homes faster, quality has always been at the forefront for us and utilizing green building techniques and materials is a no-brainer for our clients.
“Joining the Green Built Alliance is a continuation of our commitment to the environment as a company and stewards of the environment. We have worked to be as environmentally friendly as possible and always want to improve and hold ourselves to a higher standard. Asheville building clients are asking us to build efficient green homes and they rely on us to educate them on which products and green building techniques can work for their custom home,” said John Judd Jr.
Judd Builders Mentioned on HuffPost
Judd Builders, an Asheville NC custom home builder, was recently mentioned in a HuffPost article “Bad Real Estate Lessons You’ve Learned From Watching HGTV.” Our Director of Marketing, Lauren McKinney, was interviewed for the article and spoke about her experience working with clients wanting to remodel existing homes and their lack of knowledge about the cost to remodel due in part to budgets on HGTV shows that aren’t realistic in the Asheville market. She said “the biggest misconception I see as a result of people watching HGTV shows is that it skews their idea of what things should cost. Whether it’s an existing home that needs to be remodeled or they’re buying a lot to build a new home, they think they can pay prices similar to Waco, Texas, where ‘Fixer Upper’ is filmed and where the market is completely different and building and labor costs are much lower.”
Read more of the article at HuffPost.
Asheville US News and World Report Ranking
Asheville, NC was ranked #24 in the recent US News and World Reports list of 125 Best Places to Live in America. To determine their rankings, U.S. News analyzed 125 metro areas in the United States to find the best places to live based on quality of life and the job market in each metro area, as well as the value of living there and people’s desire to live there.
This latest ranking comes as no surprise considering how many accolades Asheville has recently received. Asheville is well-loved by tourists and natives alike. Many of our clients come as tourists and fall in love with our city and make plans to revisit and eventually make the move. As a custom home builder in Asheville, we have clients that move here from all regions of the country. The natural beauty of the mountains is alluring and the quality restaurants, breweries, and cultural activities are an added bonus.
Asheville’s neighborhoods have very different vibes and it’s not hard to find one that makes you feel at home. Judd Builders builds custom homes in all areas in and around Asheville and Black Mountain. We are currently building and remodeling in the Farm at Mills River in Mills River, Champion Hills in Hendersonville, Biltmore Park, Fletcher, Haw Creek, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, and Fairview.
If you are interested in moving to Asheville and building a new home, please call us at 828-274-4448.
Portfolio Items
Connect
