Before you sign with a builder, run the numbers with someone on your side.

Pete Seider
Buyer representation, Seider Realty Team powered by The Ascend Group at LPT Realty
Publisher, New Home Dispatch

What you get on the call

• What the offer is actually worth. A rate buydown, a closing-cost credit and a price cut are not the same dollars. I'll show you the delivered price and the monthly payment side by side, against today's benchmark rate.
• What to compare it against. I track 49 Austin-area builders' advertised incentives every morning. If a neighbor community is offering more, or the deadline on the sign is already past, you'll know before you negotiate.
• The registration question. Most builders only pay a buyer's agent if you're represented before you register or tour. One call settles whether that matters for you and how to handle it.

Good moments to call

• You've narrowed your search to two or three communities and want an outside read on the tradeoffs.
• A sales counselor handed you a loan estimate or an incentive sheet and you want to know what it's really worth.
• You're about to register with a builder for the first time and want representation in place before you do.
• You're under contract and want a second set of eyes before a deadline.

What it isn't

It isn't required to use anything on New Home Dispatch; every report, calculator and chapter is free with no call and no email. It isn't a builder's in-house agent: I represent buyers, not the builders in the Explorer. And it isn't blended into the coverage: nothing about a call changes how a community or builder is scored or written up on this site.