Charlottesville agents will know the builder about whom I write, and likely have a story or two to share.

Would you call your builder ten years after you built to ask him to look at/fix a problem?

You could call, but what would they do? If it’s the builder I’m writing about, there’s a darn good chance they might just fix it.

I was representing a buyer, and we did the home inspection. Something was found in the trusses where one of the trusses had been cut during building about 15 years ago. and had been sistered onsite by the framers. Sort of like this; this is common, but in this case it was just atypical-enough for the inspector to call it out. My buyer asked for it on the home inspection response, and the agent did what I would have done – she called the builder, asking who she should call to have look at it.

The builder, without hesitation, said he would take care of it. About fifteen years after he’d built the house. To help resolve a home inspection issue, that he clearly did not need to solve.

Because that’s just what he does, and that is a reason that, when helping my buyer clients evaluate Charlottesville area builders, I say that I like that builder because they build a good house, and will be here in X years just in case something goes wrong.

And then the agent and I spent a few minutes telling our respective stories of other times he had helped out out clients when he didn’t need to.

That kind of marketing? You don’t buy it, you earn it, by doing the right thing.

I’ve written about building with small local builders and with production builders. I’ve written about custom vs. production building, too.