The nine

What to know before you sign the builder’s form.

1. Agency, and the visit that decides it

   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.

2. The contract is the builder’s, not the one you have seen before

   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?

3. What is in the model, and what is in the base price

   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.

4. Lot premium and upgrades do not appraise one for one

   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?

5. Incentives tied to the builder’s lender or title company

   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.

6. What is approved to be built behind you

   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?

7. Your own inspections, at the right three moments

   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.

8. The warranty stack, and the date the clock starts

   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.

9. Who runs the neighborhood, and for how long

   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.