Open book. Fixed fee. Fixed date.
We built Cedar Vista to remove that conflict entirely.
Open book
You see every subcontractor invoice and every material receipt. Not a summary, not a category total — the actual documents, in Buildertrend, as they come in. You’ll know what the framer charged, what the windows cost, and what we paid for them.
A fixed fee, in dollars
We quote your builder fee as a dollar amount before you sign, based on the size and length of your project. Then it’s locked. Choose $45,000 of cabinets instead of $18,000 and our fee is identical, because the work is identical. The only thing that reprices the fee — and only with your written approval first — is a change to the scope itself, like adding square footage. We have no financial reason to talk you into anything.
A fixed completion date
Your completion date goes in the contract. If we miss it for a reason within our control, you receive a credit against the contract price. Because our fee is fixed, every week we run long is a week we work for free — the incentive is already ours before any clause exists.
No allowances.
Actual cost passes through, so there’s nothing to mark up and nothing to true up later.
No markup on change orders.
A change costs you what it costs and nothing more. What it costs instead is time — every change order states its effect on your completion date before you approve it.
No upselling.
Upgrading your cabinets from $18,000 to $45,000 earns us nothing extra, because the work is the same. We’ll talk you out of spending money, and it costs us nothing to do it.
No preferred suppliers.
We choose subcontractors on price and quality. There’s no rebate or spread for us to protect.
Will it actually happen?
What drives cost on a build, what’s fixed, and how we get to a number.
How fast will it move?
A change order at a large builder routes through a coordinator, an estimator, and a scheduler before anyone gives you a number. Here it goes to the licensed contractor building your house, and you usually have an answer the same day.
How much work is this for me?
One phone number from first walkthrough to final walkthrough. The person who prices your job is the person who builds it.
Who's building it
Scott Liles is a licensed Tennessee general contractor, BC classification, covering residential, commercial, and industrial work — license #78436. He has spent nine years in construction management. As a site superintendent he supervised more than 80 new homes and townhomes, with up to 25 under construction simultaneously and values to $1,000,000, without missing delivery dates. He founded Cedar Vista Homes in 2022 and builds a small number of homes at a time, on purpose.
What's required, and what we put in writing.
| Tennessee requirement | Cedar Vista Homes | |
|---|---|---|
| Written warranty | None required by law | One-year written workmanship warranty |
| What it covers | Implied standard of care only | Defects in materials and labor, defined in the contract |
| Who responds | Undefined | The licensed contractor who built the house |
| Response time | No standard | Within two business days |
| Follow-up inspection | None | 30-day and 11-month walkthroughs |
| If there's a dispute | Civil court | Direct with the contractor first |
Tennessee does not require builders to provide a written warranty. Coverage details are defined in your construction contract.
