Before you sign a builder's contract, have somebody read it who reads them for a living.

Why does a new build need a broker's read, not just a buyer's?

Who is reading this contract for you — not skimming it, reading it the way somebody who has closed hundreds of these reads it? A new house is not a harder purchase than a resale. It is a different one: the contract is written by the builder's lawyers, the money moves in stages, and the knowledgeable person in the model home is paid by the company selling you the house — good at their job and not your advocate, both at once.

That makes new construction a purchase where representation matters most at the front end — the contract, the incentive negotiation, the registration rule below — rather than spread evenly through the deal the way it is in a resale. I work new-construction purchases across all six Northeast Florida counties — Nassau, Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Baker and Putnam.

What does a builder contract actually say?

Ask whether the contract can be changed and you'll usually hear "no, it's standard." True for the boilerplate. Not true for the clauses that cost buyers money — worth reading closely, because the answer is rarely explained out loud.

• Escalation clauses can let the builder raise your price between signing and closing if costs rise, sometimes capped, sometimes not. No cap, no exit — that's the clause most worth negotiating.
• Earnest-money treatment differs from a resale's. A builder deposit often turns non-refundable at a defined milestone regardless of why you walk. Know the date, not just the amount.
• The builder's right to substitute materials "equal or better," and to adjust elevations without your sign-off, is standard — but it means the model home is a sample, not a guarantee.
• Arbitration clauses route disputes away from court and name the venue; rarely movable, though the arbitration body sometimes is.
• Construction tolerances — how far finished square footage may differ from the plan — and which closing costs and survey fees land on you.

None of this makes a builder contract a bad contract. It rewards being read by somebody who's read a hundred of them, before you sign it rather than after.

Bring your own agent — and register on the first visit

The single most consequential thing on this page, so it goes near the top. Nearly every builder requires your agent disclosed — usually physically present — on your very first visit to that community. Walk in alone, and at a lot of builders you have permanently forfeited representation there. Not for a week. For good. Representation is customarily paid from the builder's marketing budget; the base price does not drop because you came alone.

Call me before you set foot in a model home — even if you are "just looking." One phone call, no cost to you, and not reversible afterward.

How do I weigh a builder's incentive against a lower price elsewhere?

Builders resist cutting the base price because it sets the comps for every remaining home in the community. So they pay in another currency: closing-cost credits, rate buydowns, design-centre allowances. Most of the largest incentives require the builder's affiliated lender — legal, disclosed, and often genuinely the better deal, but not automatically. Pull a Loan Estimate from the affiliated lender and an independent one, same day, same lock period, and compare total cost, not the headline rate. A verbal promise is not a term: if it isn't in the contract or a signed addendum, it does not exist at closing.

What are CDD and HOA fees actually paying for?

An HOA fee goes to a private association for common-area maintenance and rule enforcement. A CDD — Community Development District, a special-purpose local government unit created under Florida law — borrows the money to build a master-planned community's roads, utilities and amenities up front, then repays those bonds through an assessment on your tax bill. Across my six counties, that assessment vary by community and phase over roughly a 30-year bond term, though it has to be pulled for the specific lot to be exact.

The assessment has two parts: debt service, which retires on a fixed date, and operations-and-maintenance, which continues indefinitely. A CDD isn't automatically a bad thing — it's often the reason the amenity exists — but ask three questions before you offer: the current total assessment, when debt service retires, and whether a separate club fee sits on top.

Is a new-construction home a good rental, or does the HOA say no?

This is where I see investors get surprised most. Many new-community HOA declarations cap the share of homes that can be leased, set a minimum lease term, or bar leasing entirely in year one. The document that governs is the one recorded against your specific lot — not the brochure, not what the sales consultant tells you. Read the declaration before the rent-roll assumption goes into your spreadsheet; a cap rate that pencils on paper can be off the table entirely if the community already has its investor-owned units full.

When does a struggling new community's resale beat buying new?

When a builder discounts remaining inventory to move it, resales in that same community get stuck competing against a lower new price with fresh incentives attached. That's frequently an opening, not a warning sign — a motivated resale seller, priced against the builder's own discount, can net a comparable or better house for less than waiting on a to-be-built slot, often with a shorter close and none of the escalation exposure above.

Spec home or to-be-built — which are you actually buying?

To-be-built means choosing a lot and plan before the house exists — maximum choice, longest wait, most exposure to the escalation and delay language above. Spec or inventory homes the builder started on its own account trade choice for a shorter close, and it's usually where incentive money concentrates. A third case near a community's end: the model home itself, often sold with a leaseback.

What inspections does a new house actually need?

New does not mean flawless — it means nobody has lived there long enough to find what's wrong. Municipal inspections check code compliance for the jurisdiction, not for you. Get three: a pre-drywall inspection, the only chance to see the bones of the house before insulation covers it; a final, pre-closing inspection early enough for the builder to fix the punch list; and an eleven-month inspection just before the workmanship warranty expires — the cheapest inspection you'll ever buy relative to what it can recover. Some builders restrict inspector access; establish that before you sign, not the week you want it done.

New construction, county by county — what actually changes

Question I ask myself before I answer a buyer's question about any of these six counties: is this a builder-contract issue, or is it a local one? The contract mechanics above hold everywhere. What changes county to county is the kind of building that happens and which questions matter first.

Duval County — San Jose, Mandarin, the Southside, the Beaches, the Northside and Westside

This is my home ground, and it's mostly infill and edge growth here, not open-field development. Around San Jose and Mandarin that means smaller lot counts, sometimes a teardown-and-rebuild rather than a subdivision. Toward the Southside, Northside and Westside near the port and airport corridors, expect larger builder communities, some gated, some with a golf amenity, most carrying an HOA and often a CDD. Read the declaration on any gated or golf community before assuming the amenity fee is the only ongoing cost — it rarely is.

Clay County — Fleming Island, Orange Park, Middleburg, Green Cove Springs and Lake Asbury

Clay carries some of the region's larger master-planned communities, and the First Coast Expressway corridor has opened land that used to be a longer drive. Several bigger communities run CDD assessments in the range I quote across my six counties — an amount set by the district’s bond schedule over roughly a 30-year bond — pulled for the specific lot, not assumed. Weighing a builder incentive against a lower-priced resale here is where that arithmetic gets real: check whether the resale's CDD debt is further along toward retiring.

St. Johns County — St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and the CR-210 and SR-16 corridors

St. Johns has heavy master-planned development, much of it driven by school reputation, which means busy sales offices and confident sales consultants — exactly the environment where registering your own representation on the first visit matters most, because nobody there is going to remind you. Expect CDD assessments in most larger communities, and expect gated, amenity-rich sections to carry HOA rental restrictions worth reading before you buy with an investor's plan in mind.

Nassau County — Yulee, Callahan, Hilliard, Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island

Most of Nassau's master-planned activity sits along the I-95 and SR-200/A1A corridor around Yulee; west toward Callahan and Hilliard the pattern shifts to acreage and smaller subdivisions. So much of the county is coastal or near-coastal that wind mitigation, flood zone and insurance questions carry real weight — answer them before you choose a lot, not after.

Baker County — Macclenny, Glen St. Mary, Sanderson and the unincorporated county

Baker runs individual homes, acreage and small subdivisions rather than national-builder communities. The questions shift accordingly — well and septic rather than CDD, soil and percolation testing, access easements, and how far the nearest utility line runs.

Putnam County — Palatka, East Palatka, Interlachen, Crescent City and the St. Johns River communities

Putnam skews toward one-off builds and modest subdivisions. Land is comparatively affordable, and the due diligence is septic and well, flood zone, elevation and whether a parcel is buildable as platted — not design centres and lot premiums.