How can I find the builder for a particular house?

Question

There are a number of great new construction builds around Philadelphia, and I'd like to reach out to the builders. How do I go about finding the builder for a particular address?

Kevin Moyer · Answer

The easiest way would be to look up the permit history for the new construction.

Type the address in to; https://li.phila.gov/property-history

This will give you the name of the contractor who pulled the respective permits for the work including the underlying Building Permit. You can then search for information about the contractor here;

https://li.phila.gov/contractor-lookup

In theory this will lead you to the builder.

In reality it may lead you to some kind of shell company with no contact info or 'friend of a friend with a license', but it's at least a good place to start

Sheryl Sitman · Answer

@Hans Baum What @Kevin M. has suggested is on spot. In Philly, you can find out just about anything about a property / zoning / permits online. I will caution that what you can not know is whether that builder actually did a good job and how he did the work (his own crew or subs for example). I run a large group of independent landlords and we share lots of stories and info exchanges about working with contractors. As you may imagine, there are good and bad and you can not tell by the pictures you see. In addition to the workmanship, you want to work with someone who is good at managing time, people and his relationship with you, his client :-)    We are actually building out a network of approved contractors because one of the biggest pain points investors and landlords face in Philly is finding reliable solutions.  Good luck!!

Chris Seveney · Answer

go to the county permit office and see who pulled the permit or look at the plans to see who the GC is.

Xavier Milsoni · Answer

Know this thread is old, but leaving this for anyone searching later: you can usually pull county property tax records or building permits online for that specific address to see who pulled the permit. Also, if it’s around Central/SE PA, a lot of those solid custom builds are done by regional teams like Garman Builders we used them for our build and you can often just check their model galleries or ask them directly if a lot looks like their work.

How can I find the builder for a particular house?

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