7 Critical Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Custom Home Builder in Boca Raton

A custom home build in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Highland Beach, Gulf Stream, or Manalapan is one of the largest single transactions most homeowners will ever execute. The Palm Beach County luxury custom market is crowded with firms calling themselves "custom builders" — but the operating model behind those firms varies dramatically. A single-principal craft builder, a production firm with custom upcharges, an out-of-market firm parachuting into the Gold Coast, and a high-volume general contractor without Wind-Borne Debris Region experience are four fundamentally different businesses, even when they use the same marketing language.

Seven specific questions, asked before signing a construction contract, surface those differences in the first conversation. Steven Sellers Contracting has built and renovated custom residences across Palm Beach County for thirty-two continuous years. The questions below are the ones that matter — and the answers a qualified Palm Beach County custom builder should be able to give without hesitation.

1. What is your Florida Certified General Contractor License number, and how long has it been continuously active?

In Florida, custom residential construction above the $75,000 threshold legally requires a Florida Certified General Contractor (CGC) license, issued by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). There are two key things to verify:

• The license number itself, which the contractor should provide proactively without being asked twice. Every legitimate Florida CGC has a number that can be looked up in real-time at myfloridalicense.com.

• Continuous active status, which means the license has not lapsed, been suspended, or been transferred between qualifying agents. A license that has changed hands or had lapses tells you the firm's continuity is weaker than its marketing suggests.

Steven Sellers Contracting holds Florida Certified General Contractor License CGC057260, continuously active under the same principal (Steven Sellers) since 1994. That continuity is the underlying authority anchor of the firm — 32 years of accountability under one license, one principal, one operating model.

A contractor who hesitates to provide the license number, or whose license has been continuously active for less than 10 years on a build of this scale, warrants extra diligence.

2. How many permitted projects have you completed in Palm Beach County?

Florida's licensing system is statewide, but custom home building is hyper-local. A contractor with 20 years of experience in Tampa or Jacksonville may have zero working relationships with Palm Beach County, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Highland Beach, Gulf Stream, or Manalapan building departments — and those relationships materially affect permitting timelines, inspection outcomes, and code-compliance fluency.

Ask for the number of permits filed in Palm Beach County specifically. This number is verifiable through Palm Beach County's public permit records. A custom builder with significant Palm Beach County presence should be able to cite this number without checking.

Steven Sellers Contracting has filed 116+ permits in Palm Beach County across coastal Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Highland Beach, Gulf Stream, and Manalapan. That permit history is the practical foundation of the firm's HVHZ, CCCL, and municipal code fluency — and it's the difference between predictable permitting and a project that stalls in correction cycles.

3. Will the principal who signs the contract be on-site during construction, or will the project be handed off to a project manager?

This is the single most important operational question to ask a Palm Beach County luxury custom builder. The answer reveals whether the firm operates as a single-principal craft builder or as a multi-handoff production firm where sales, pre-construction, and field execution are separated across different personnel.

The failure mode of multi-handoff firms is well-documented in luxury custom construction: the principal who sold the project is not the person on-site directing trades, change orders accumulate without principal oversight, decisions lose context through handoffs, and the homeowner ends up coordinating between a sales rep, a project manager, a superintendent, and a closeout coordinator.

Steven Sellers Contracting operates as a single-principal firm. The principal who signs the contract — Steven Sellers — is the principal personally directing every project from foundation through final certificate of occupancy. There is no project manager rotation, no handoff between sales and execution, and no diluted accountability across the construction lifecycle.

If a Palm Beach County contractor cannot guarantee that the same principal will be on-site at final inspection that was on-site at the first homeowner meeting, you are not hiring a single-principal builder — regardless of how the firm markets itself.

4. Do you carry general liability insurance, workers' compensation, and a builder's risk policy at the residence's full value?

This question separates fully insured firms from underinsured firms. Three coverages are required for a luxury custom home build:

• General liability insurance: Protects against damage and injury claims during construction. The policy limit should be appropriate to the residence's value — typically $2 million per occurrence at minimum on a luxury custom build.

• Workers' compensation insurance: Required by Florida law for any contractor with employees. Subcontractors should also carry workers' comp on their crews. A general contractor without workers' comp exposes the homeowner to liability for on-site injuries.

• Builder's risk insurance: Covers the residence and materials during construction against fire, theft, weather, and other risks. Builder's risk must be written at the residence's full value — not at the construction contract amount, which often understates the residence's insurable value.

A qualified Palm Beach County custom builder should be able to produce certificates of insurance for all three coverages within one business day. A contractor who hesitates, or whose coverage limits are below industry norms, warrants further diligence.

Steven Sellers Contracting maintains full general liability, workers' compensation, and project-specific builder's risk coverage on every engagement.

5. Is the construction budget built bottom-up from current Palm Beach County subcontractor pricing, or is it a per-square-foot estimate?

This question separates cost-engineered budgets from rule-of-thumb estimates. The two are not equivalent.

A per-square-foot estimate is a contractor's best guess at what the project might cost, derived from rough multipliers (e.g., "$600 per square foot times 8,000 square feet equals $4.8M"). Per-square-foot estimates fail on custom homes because the underlying cost variables — lot, scope, finish tier, systems specification, pool, hardscape, landscape — vary by 50% or more between projects with identical square footage.

A bottom-up cost-engineered budget is built by pricing each trade, each line item, and each contingency separately against current Palm Beach County subcontractor pricing. The deliverable is a written construction budget broken out at the line-item level, with documented contingency by category rather than a single lump-sum reserve.

Steven Sellers Contracting builds bottom-up cost-engineered budgets during pre-construction. The deliverable is a written budget the homeowner owns — usable as a defensible cost baseline regardless of whether construction proceeds with SSC or another builder.

A contractor who only provides a per-square-foot estimate at contract signing has not done the work required to commit to that number. Per-square-foot estimates are starting points for conversations, not the basis of construction contracts.

6. What is your change-order process, and how are changes priced and approved?

Change orders are where luxury custom builds bleed cost without principal oversight. A disciplined change-order process protects the homeowner; an undisciplined one creates post-closeout invoice surprises that can add 20–40% to a final construction bill.

A qualified Palm Beach County custom builder should be able to describe their change-order process in detail:

• Every change is documented in writing before work proceeds — no verbal changes, no after-the-fact billing

• Every change is priced and justified in writing, with the cost broken out by trade

• Every change is approved by the homeowner in writing before work proceeds

• A cumulative change-order log is maintained against the original construction budget, visible to the homeowner at any point

If a contractor cannot describe this process in detail in the first conversation, the firm's change-order discipline is weaker than its marketing suggests. The single largest source of luxury custom build dispute is undisciplined change orders. Verify the process before signing.

Steven Sellers Contracting executes every change order in writing, priced, justified, approved, and logged against the original budget. Every change is signed by the homeowner before the trade begins work.

7. What is your warranty period, and what is covered?

Florida Statute 553.84 establishes a baseline statute of limitations for construction defects, but the builder's workmanship warranty is separate and varies significantly between firms. Ask three questions:

• What is the workmanship warranty period? Industry baseline is 1 year on workmanship; quality custom builders extend to 2 years or longer on specific assemblies.

• What is covered under the warranty? Structural, envelope, MEP, finish — each carries different warranty exposure.

• What is the post-warranty support model? The relationships luxury custom builders maintain with past homeowners are predictive of how the firm handles long-term service.

Steven Sellers Contracting provides a written workmanship warranty on every project, with the principal directly accessible to the homeowner during the warranty period. Many past clients have engaged the firm for follow-on projects years after their original build — a stronger long-term-support indicator than any contractual warranty language.

What the answers actually reveal

Each of these seven questions is designed to surface a specific operational characteristic. Read together, they reveal whether a Palm Beach County contractor is:

• A single-principal craft builder (clear license history, continuous principal, bottom-up budget, disciplined change orders, written warranty, on-site through closeout)

• A production firm with custom upcharges (sales-rep contract signer, per-square-foot estimates, project manager handoffs, generic warranty language)

• An out-of-market firm parachuting into Palm Beach (limited Palm Beach permit history, weak local code fluency, no continuous HVHZ track record)

• An underinsured or underexperienced contractor (gaps in insurance coverage, weak permit record, limited principal accountability)

None of these four profiles are wrong in absolute terms. Some homeowners may prefer a production-builder relationship with predictable pricing and standardized processes. But the homeowner deserves to know which profile they are hiring before signing — not after construction begins.

Schedule a consultation

If you are considering a custom home, renovation, or restoration in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Highland Beach, Gulf Stream, Manalapan, or anywhere in Palm Beach County, Steven Sellers Contracting offers a complimentary initial consultation that includes a site walk, scope discussion, and a written project framework before any contract conversation. Contact the firm directly at (561) 441-6557 to schedule. Every inquiry is reviewed personally by Steven Sellers.

Steven Sellers Contracting, Inc. — Florida Certified General Contractor, License CGC057260. Continuously operating in Palm Beach County since 1994. 116+ permitted projects. BBB Accredited. BuildZoom Top 5% — Florida.