What Happens After You Sign a Utah New Construction Contract?
What happens next depends entirely on whether you’re on a dirt start or buying an inventory home — they’re two different paths. On a dirt start, you pick the lot, put down a deposit, then schedule your design center appointment and choose all your finishes. Any structural or design changes get signed off as change orders, and you’ll put down another deposit — typically a percentage of the total upgrades you’ve chosen. From there you’re into the builder’s standard build process: a pre-drywall walkthrough, a “blue tape” walkthrough about two weeks before closing, a rate lock around the pre-drywall inspection, and then settlement.
On an inventory or spec home, the process is much more condensed. Builders typically won’t put a spec home under contract until it’s progressed — in Micah’s experience, usually framing or later. On his own home, he went under contract mid-framing, before HVAC and electrical were even in. Because of that timing, buyers can often still do a pre-drywall walkthrough. Micah’s own tip: he likes doing a full video walkthrough of the house before drywall goes up, so he can go back later and see exactly where the electrical, plumbing, ductwork, trusses, joists, and bearing walls are. On a spec home there’s usually no design center appointment at all — the design is already picked — just a couple of walkthroughs before closing.
One place dirt-start buyers get surprised is how long the design center appointment takes, how many choices they have to make, and how much all those choices actually cost. Micah typically tells buyers to plan on about 10 to 20 percent of the total home cost being added on through structural and design center upgrades — it’s rarely the flat number people expect walking in.
Full breakdown: Inventory Home vs. Dirt Start in Utah — Which Should I Buy? · New Construction in Utah