That cheap quote from a builder in Ohio almost cost me my whole project

Last month I got a bid from a guy for 30% less than everyone else on a custom home near Cincinnati. He seemed fine on the phone, showed up on time, talked a good game. But then three days after I signed, he asked for a $10k advance for materials I never saw delivered. I drove to the lot last Wednesday and found nothing but a hole dug and a pile of trash. Has anyone else had a builder pull the old material advance trick on them?

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ryan7192mo ago

That line about the $10k advance for materials really hit home for me. I had almost the exact same thing happen a few years back on a garage addition. The guy asked for half upfront to "secure the lumber" and I wrote him a check, but then he kept pushing back the delivery date and I never saw a single board. What finally worked for me was switching to a pay-as-you-go system where I paid for materials directly to the lumber yard myself, with the builder just sending me the invoice. That way I knew the money was actually going to what he said it was for. Take this with a grain of salt but if a builder can't work with that kind of arrangement, it's a big red flag. It's one thing to be cheaper but another thing entirely to ask for money before anything's actually on site.

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henry_moore552mo ago

Wait, he never even delivered a single board?

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