What to Ask About the Months Between Contract and Move-In on a New Build

Questions to ask before signing for new construction, focused on the carrying costs that build up between contract and move-in.

New construction contracts are written around a finished home that does not exist yet. That means a stretch of months, sometimes closer to a year, sits between your signature and your move-in date. Most of the real cost of a build hides in that stretch, and most buyers do not ask about it until it is too late to change course.

Start with financing. If you are locking a rate at contract, ask how long that lock lasts and what happens if construction runs past it. If you are not locking yet, ask what protection exists against rate movement between now and closing, and get a written answer, not a verbal one. A rate that moves during an eleven-month build changes your payment before you have moved a single box.

Next, ask about your housing cost during the build itself. If you are renting or carrying a mortgage on a current home while the new one goes up, that cost does not pause for construction delays. A three-month slip in the schedule is not just an inconvenience, it is three more months of a payment you planned to be done with. Ask the builder for a realistic completion window, not the optimistic one, and plan your carrying costs around the longer date.

Then get specific about options and change orders. Base price and delivered price are rarely the same number. Ask for a full list of what is included versus what is an upgrade, and ask how change orders are priced once construction has started, because mid-build pricing is often different from pre-contract pricing.

Finally, ask what protects you if the build runs so late that your current living situation changes in a way you did not plan for. Some contracts include remedies for serious delays. Many do not. Knowing which kind of contract you are signing before you sign it is the difference between an inconvenience and a real financial problem.

Felix builds this comparison for move-up buyers in Naperville, weighing a finished house against a build slot, because the eleven months between contract and move-in are where most of the surprises live. Buyers looking at the River District or Old Town face the same math, just with different inputs depending on what is standing and what is still on paper.