It's old news. With the phenomenal construction labor shortage in full bloom, production homes that used to take five months to build are sometimes taking up to nine and ten months. So home prices go up, not just because with the booming economy, builders can get more for homes, but also because they must charge more for sluggish construction schedules that force them to "carry" the land longer than they used to.

If you are the type of buyer that frequents the building site once a week, or stops by on their lunch hour to check out the progress of your new home, you may very well see your house sit with virtually nothing touched on it for several days. At the same time, others, even next door to it, may be going great guns. It's important to note that a production home, no matter how high-end it is price-wise, is precisely that - like a car on a construction line, only this time there are "crews" of sub-contractors that have to perform their tasks in a scheduled sequence, finishing their handiwork on one house before moving on to the next. And with fewer crews for some important construction disciplines available these days, hence the delays we speak of.

Many homebuyers' frustration levels run high, wondering if there is some cage they could rattle or some higher-up they could speak to in order to "speed up" the process. They fear that the target estimated completion time originally given to them by the sales consultant may not be a reality after all, and they may be right.

It may be difficult to believe, but you, as a buyer, can do a few things to "set the stage" for the timely completion of your home. Sometimes buyers, by their actions, (or inaction) have a good deal of control over the process because builders use certain "mileposts" to determine when to they may move to the next step in the construction process. Each step is vital in to make the big picture happen, but many buyers don't see themselves as part of the problem.

Every week, builders customarily hold status meetings, spending hours poring over their production schedules and sales reports with all the pivotal personnel involved in the sales, financing and construction of their homes. Computers spew out reports that tell them, for instance, when your purchase agreement was accepted by the builder, when you applied for your loan, when the home site was "chalked" to receive its footings, and the list goes on and on.

Within these meetings, conversations can run like this:

Meetings like this can go on for hours, with literally hundreds of homes being discussed. As business-like and cold as the conversation sounds, it's easy to see where everyone's interests lie. The sales consultant, even though they may know each of their buyers' situations, are concerned, but have their hands tied when buyers aren't prepared to act. Sales managers care about the sequence of home completions, protecting the builder by permitting construction to work only on houses that can go forward. Building Superintendents worry about throwing an entire sequence of homes off and having to make a patchwork quilt out of their construction schedule. And buyers tend to look at their own immediate needs at times, wondering in the end, why other houses seemed to be completed sooner than theirs.

From the builder's standpoint, everyone wants the house to be completed on schedule. Within that schedule, there are some elements that may not be under their strict control, such as delays in material deliveries, inclement weather, sub contractors who do shoddy work and need to be called back, or untimely city inspections. As you can see by the builder meeting dialogue, however, there is a limit to amount of control the builder has over the buyers of their homes as well. They may sometimes be forced to take a "hurry up and wait" attitude when buyers don't meet arbitrary deadlines for holding up their end of things.

Here, then, are the things you can do to take the proverbial monkey off your back for your home to have the best possible chance for an on-time completion:

Published: June 16, 2000

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.