The 7 Questions to Ask Any Builder Before You Sign a Contract

Signing a building contract is one of the largest financial commitments most people will ever make. The builder you choose will be in your life for the better part of a year, sometimes longer. They'll be responsible for your money, your site, and the outcome you've been planning for months or years.

Most people spend more time researching a car purchase than they do vetting their builder.

These are the seven questions worth asking before you commit to anyone.

1) Can you show me a project similar to mine?

This is the most basic due diligence and the one most people skip.

Ask to see completed projects and ask what the builder's experience is with the type of home you're planning. High-end custom homes with premium finishes require a different skill set and a different supplier network to volume building. The trades, the materials, the level of detail involved — these aren't transferable from one end of the market to the other.

Ask to speak to past clients who've been through a similar process. A builder who is proud of their work and their client relationships will have no hesitation making those introductions. One who can't provide references is worth scrutinising carefully before you commit.

2) How do you handle variations?

Variations are how a well-priced job becomes an expensive one. Before you sign, you need to understand exactly what triggers a variation with this builder, how they're priced, and when they need to be approved in writing.

Ask for their variation policy in writing. A builder with a clear, documented process for variations has thought this through properly. One who gives you a vague answer, or tells you not to worry about it, hasn't.

The questions to press on: What's included in the contract price and what isn't? What are the provisional sums and where did those numbers come from? What happens if the actual cost differs from the provisional sum? A verbal reassurance is not a variation policy. Get it in writing before you sign.

3) Who will actually be on my site, and how is it supervised?

Many builders win jobs and then subcontract the entire build to trades they've never worked with before. The person you met in the sales process may have very little to do with what happens on your site day to day.

Ask who the site supervisor is. Ask how often they'll be on site. Ask whether the trades are people the builder has established relationships with or whether they're sourced job by job.

A builder with a stable, experienced site crew and regular specialist trades produces a more consistent result than one who is assembling a team from scratch for each project. The quality of the finished home is directly related to the quality of the people building it and how well they're supervised.

4) What does your pre-construction process look like?

The amount of work a builder does before contract is one of the biggest indicators of how the build will go. A builder who issues a contract with incomplete documentation, unresolved selections, and provisional sums covering large portions of the scope is transferring risk to you.

Ask specifically: What needs to be resolved before the contract is signed? Are selections finalised before pricing? Is engineering complete? Are all reports and assessments done?

The more that's resolved before you sign, the less room there is for the price to move during the build. A builder who rushes to contract is a builder who hasn't done the work.

5) What's your workload and when can you realistically start?

A good builder is busy. That's a positive sign, not a problem. But it's worth understanding how they manage their pipeline and what determines when your project moves.

The honest answer with most quality builders is that start dates aren't lockable until the project is ready — design complete, DA approved, contract signed. Projects that are ready to go get priority. That's how a well-run build programme works.

What's worth asking is how many projects they run concurrently, how site supervision is managed across those projects, and what the realistic programme looks like from contract to handover once construction begins. A builder who gives you a straight answer on these things is one who has their business under control.

6) Are you financially sound?

In 2025 alone, 3,596 construction companies collapsed in Australia — roughly 10 every single day. The families getting hurt aren't the ones who couldn't afford to build. They're the ones who thought they'd chosen carefully and still ended up with a half-built house and a contract worth nothing. When a builder collapses mid-project, you become an unsecured creditor. You are last in line.

There are straightforward things you can check before signing. The NSW Building Commission register shows whether a builder's licence is current and whether they have a track record of completed projects under that licence. You can also check for any complaints, adjudications, or disciplinary history.

Beyond the register, ask whether the builder is compliant with Home Building Compensation Fund requirements.

HBCF insurance is a legal requirement for residential building work over $20,000 in NSW and it protects you if the builder becomes insolvent or fails to complete the work.

A financially stable builder who runs their business well will have no issue with any of these questions. One who deflects or gets defensive is telling you something.

7) What does handover look like, and what happens after?

The end of a build is as important as the beginning. Ask your builder what the defects liability period looks like and how they manage it. Ask what their process is for identifying and rectifying defects before handover. Ask how responsive they are to issues that come up after you move in.

A builder who is present and responsive during the defects period is one who takes pride in the finished product.

One who becomes difficult to reach after handover is one who considers the job done when the final invoice is paid.

References from past clients are the most reliable way to test this. Ask specifically: How did the builder handle issues that came up after handover? Would you use them again?

Why We're Comfortable With All Seven

At Eberones, we've thought carefully about every one of these questions because we've seen what happens when clients don't ask them.

Our variation policy is documented and clear. Our site crew is stable and experienced. We work hard to resolve selections, engineering, and reports before we issue a contract — that's the standard we aim for, and in most cases we get there. We're compliant with HBCF requirements. And our past clients are people we're happy to

introduce.

If you're at the stage of evaluating builders for a custom home or renovation in the Blue Mountains, we'd welcome the conversation. Our feasibility process is structured to answer exactly these kinds of questions before anyone commits to anything.

Get in touch with the team at Eberones.