Take this for what it’s worth. I’ve had two homes built, one by KB (*shudder*) and one by Centex. Neither of these were acreage lots and both would qualify as “starter” homes.

You probably won't get a refrigerator, though you will get a range and a dishwasher. The range can be gas powered or electrical powered, so you'll want to find out which it is in case you want to replace it later.

If you have the options for hardware upgrades (faucets etc.), know that you can put a lot of these in after the fact for MUCH cheaper. Of course, unless you request more in your loan these won’t be covered so it really just depends on how much cash you have on hand and how long you’re willing to wait to get everything that you want. After buying two new houses, however, I can tell you we got a much better house when we focused on finding a builder who did solid construction and not nice bells and whistles. Some builders (KB) put lots of flashy stuff but don’t build quality.

I don’t know where you’re buying, but here in Texas air conditioning is a big thing. In our first house (1800 sq feet one story) our electrical bill got up to $300 a month. This was due to poor construction, an underpowered cooling unit, and virtually NO insulation in the walls. When we bought our second house (2550 sq feet two story) we upgraded our AC unit and put radiant barrier shielding in the roof to reduce heat. Through these improvements and better construction, this much larger house has peaked at $200 ONE time during the summer. AC might not be as big a deal where you are though . . .

Find out what kind of landscaping package you are getting. How much of your acreage are you going to have to sod? In my experience most builders don’t sod the back yard. Grass can get pretty expensive, and you might want to look into getting a sprinkler system. You also should find out what kind of fencing you are getting, though since you’re out in the country this might not be as big a deal. I’ve seen builders who don’t put side fences, though ours have always put in all of the fencing.

Depending on how hard the water is where you are, you might want to consider a water softener, which means you’ll want to know if the house is plumbed for it. Here in San Antonio you do not buy a house and not get a water softener, as the hard water will destroy all of your appliances in five years (the joys of having an aquifer for a water source).

And since you’re a geek (I assume), if the builder isn’t gong to do it for you, you'll want to run networking cable and speaker wire before the sheetrock is put in. This is technically not legal since you don't own the house yet, however, talk to the builder and see how big a deal this really is. With one house (KB) I got the "you can't do that *wink* *wink*, but there's nothing we could do if you did . . ." With my second one (Centex) I got "Don't do that. We WILL rip it all out and make things unpleasant if you try, and we will know." (Incidentally the second house was much better built than the first).

If you decide to run your own cabling, the easiest method is to go to home depot (or wherever) and buy the little blue electrical boxes and position them where you want the speakers and cables to come out of the wall. Then simply run the wires throughout the walls and into the boxes. When the sheetrockers come out they won't know that these weren't put there by the electricians (nor will they care) and will make holes for them in the sheetrock. Then when they’re finished you can buy covers for the speakers/ drops and the whole thing looks really nice.

Finally, though the builder will tell you they have their own inspectors who visit the house through every stage of the process, it cannot hurt to have your own, third-party inspectors to make sure things are going smoothly. Visit the house as much as you can while it’s being built so that you can catch things that go wrong (which there will be). It’s much more difficult for a builder to fix a misaligned panel or a warped piece of wood days before closing.

Oh, and smuggle your toilet in from Canada!