Carolina RealtyGuide 06 · New Construction
Buying from a builder
Nine things the on-site salesperson has no duty to tell you, why the contract on the table is not the contract you know, and the two dates that decide how long the builder is answerable.
Prepared by
Licensed in North Carolina and South Carolina
mikesposato.com
704-396-4078
Edition 2026
Why this guide exists
The person at the desk in the model home is a licensed agent, they are usually good at their job, and they represent the builder. That is disclosed, it is entirely proper, and it means their duty of loyalty runs in one direction. They are not required to advise you on price, to tell you the lot is overpriced, to volunteer what is going to be built behind you, or to point out which term in the contract you would want changed.
Buyers walk into new construction assuming the process works like a resale, because every other house they have ever bought did. It does not. Different contract, different timeline, different warranty, different inspection rhythm and a different set of things that go wrong. Here is the list.
Register your broker on the first visit, not the second
The nine
North Carolina requires real estate agents to provide the Working with Real Estate Agents Disclosure at first substantial contact, and it exists precisely so you know who represents whom. Most builders also require your broker to accompany you or be registered on your first visit for representation to apply. Turn up alone once and you can lose the right to be represented at no cost to you for the whole community.
Do this first: bring or register your broker on visit one.
Resale purchases in North Carolina commonly run on the standard Offer to Purchase and Contract, and there is a separate standard form written for new construction. Builders generally do not use either. They present their own contract, drafted for them, and the due diligence structure, the deposit treatment, the delay provisions, the change-order terms and the dispute clause are all theirs.
Ask before you sign: which form is this, and who wrote it?
The model is a showroom. Flooring, trim, lighting, cabinetry, landscaping and often the elevation itself are upgraded. Get the base specification in writing and get a marked list of every item in the model that is not included.
Get in writing: the standard specification, item by item.
A lot premium is a price the builder sets. An upgrade is a price the design center sets. Neither is guaranteed to be supported by an appraisal, and if the appraisal comes in short, the gap is yours to solve. Decide in advance what you will do if it does.
Ask your lender: what happens to my contract if the appraisal is short?
Builders commonly offer meaningful incentives for using an affiliated lender or closing agent. Affiliated business arrangements are permitted under federal law and the relationship has to be disclosed to you. Disclosure is not the same as best terms. Take the incentive if the total cost wins, after you have a competing quote in hand.
Get: one outside loan estimate before you accept the incentive.
The sales office knows the phasing plan. They are not obliged to walk you through it. The municipality has the approved site plan, the zoning and often the future phases on public record, and that is the version to read.
Ask the planning department: what is approved for the remaining phases?
You are buying a house that does not exist yet, which is the one situation where inspection timing genuinely matters. Foundation before the pour, the full structure before drywall goes up, and the finished house before closing. A builder’s municipal inspection is a code check, not a representation of your interests.
Write into the contract: the right to inspect at three stages.
There is usually an express builder warranty for a first period, sometimes a longer systems warranty, sometimes a third-party structural warranty. Separately, North Carolina recognizes an implied warranty of habitability on the sale of a new home. Read what each one covers, what it excludes, what the claim procedure is and when each clock starts.
Get: every warranty document, before you sign, not at closing.
New communities are governed by the builder during a declarant control period written into the recorded declaration. Until it ends, the builder appoints the board. Find out when control transfers, what reserve balance transfers with it, whether the streets are public or private, and whether the public streets have been accepted by the municipality yet.
Read: the declaration, the declarant control period, and the street status.
The date most buyers never ask about
Both Carolinas have a statute of repose for claims arising out of improvements to real property. North Carolina sets that limit at six years under N.C.G.S. § 1-50(a)(5). South Carolina sets it at eight years under S.C. Code § 15-3-640. A statute of repose is not a statute of limitations: it can extinguish a claim before the defect is even discovered. That is the real argument for a pre-drywall inspection by somebody you hired, and for keeping every warranty document, punch list and piece of correspondence in one place from the day you sign.
Sources and limits
This guide is information for buyers. It is not legal advice. Mike Sposato is a licensed real estate broker in North Carolina and South Carolina and he is not an attorney or a home inspector. He reads builder contracts constantly; he does not draft them and he does not interpret them for you in a legal sense. On a term with real consequence, have a lawyer read it.
Next step
The single most expensive mistake in new construction is walking into a sales office unrepresented. It costs you nothing to have Mike there and it can cost you the right to representation not to.
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Carolina Realty Advisors · 1001 East Blvd, Suite B, Charlotte, NC 28203 · (704) 396-4078 · Licensed in North Carolina and South Carolina
Equal Housing Opportunity · NC License 207515 · SC License 47843. Carolina Realty Advisors and Mike Sposato are licensed to sell real estate in North Carolina and South Carolina and follow the Fair Housing Act in every listing and every conversation. Nothing on this site is guaranteed accurate; verify anything that matters to you before you rely on it.