Building a home is probably the biggest financial decision most people make. And yet a lot of people spend more time researching a refrigerator than they spend vetting the person they are about to hand hundreds of thousands of dollars to. That is not a knock on anyone — it is just that the process can feel overwhelming, and builders are often very good at sounding reassuring. So here are the questions that actually matter, and what good answers look like.
Licensing and insurance
Ask for the ROC number — that is the Registrar of Contractors license number in Arizona — and look it up. You can verify any contractor's license at the Arizona ROC website in about two minutes. It will tell you whether the license is current, what category it covers, and whether there are any complaints or disciplinary actions on record. This is not optional due diligence. It is the first thing you should do. Millhouse ROC is 365485 if you want to see what a clean record looks like.
Beyond the license, ask about general liability insurance and workers compensation coverage. General liability protects your property if something goes wrong. Workers comp covers anyone working on your site. Ask to see the certificates of insurance — not just a verbal assurance, the actual documents. Any legitimate builder will hand those over without a second thought.
How they handle cost overruns
This is one of the most important questions you can ask, and the answer tells you a lot. Ask specifically: what happens if costs come in higher than estimated? A good builder will explain their fee structure clearly, describe how material and trade costs are handled, and be honest about what contingencies you should budget for. If the answer is vague or involves a lot of "don't worry about it," that is a red flag worth taking seriously. You want a builder who can explain exactly how money moves on a project.
Who is actually on site day to day
This one surprises people. Some builders are project developers who hire everything out and show up occasionally. Others have a dedicated superintendent on site every day managing the work. Ask: who is your day-to-day person on the job, and how often are they there? What is the ratio of active projects to superintendents? A superintendent stretched across eight simultaneous jobs is not the same as one managing two or three. You want someone who can catch problems early, because in construction, problems caught early are cheap and problems caught late are expensive.
How communication works
Ask how they prefer to communicate and how often you should expect updates. Will you get weekly reports? Photos? A project management portal? What is the response time if you have a question or a concern? Some clients want a lot of contact; others prefer to be updated at key milestones. Neither is wrong, but you want a builder whose communication style fits yours. And you want to hear the answer before you are six months into a build wondering what is happening on your job site.
How many projects they are running at once
Ask how many active projects they carry at any given time. There is no universally right number, but the answer is meaningful. A large production builder might run dozens of homes simultaneously, which works for that model. A custom builder running fifteen active custom builds is probably spread thin. Millhouse keeps the project count intentionally small — not because we have to, but because it produces a better result for every client on the list. Attention is not unlimited. Ask where yours will go.
What happens when something goes wrong
Things go wrong on every build. Soil conditions surprise you. Weather delays a pour. A supplier ships the wrong tile. Ask your builder: can you walk me through a time something went wrong on a project and how you handled it? A good builder will have a real story, will be honest about what happened, and will tell you how they fixed it and what they learned. A builder who cannot think of a single problem they have ever encountered is either not telling the truth or has not built very much.
Also ask about warranty. What do they cover after move-in? For how long? What is the process for a warranty claim? This is a sign of how much a builder stands behind their work.
A good builder will answer all of this without blinking. They have heard these questions before, they have good answers ready, and they will be glad you asked because it signals you are a serious client who will make the project better. If any of these questions make a builder defensive or evasive, that is your answer too.
Talk to Millhouse