The person who greets you at the model home is paid by the builder. They are usually good at the job and pleasant to work with, and their job is to get the builder the best price and the best terms. That is how it should work. It just means nobody in that room is working for you unless you bring them.
Daniel Yoon is a Certified New Home Co-Broker (NHCB), an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR), and a Seller Representative Specialist (SRS) with eXp Realty, working across Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, Richmond City, Goochland, Powhatan, and New Kent. We represent buyers on new construction, and the builder pays our side of the commission, so our work costs you nothing at closing.
We study the builders, in writing, in public
Most agents who say they handle new construction have opinions about builders. We publish ours, with the numbers attached, and we update them when the market moves. There is a profile of every production and semi-custom builder in this metro on this site: what they closed last year, what their warranty actually covers, whether it is insured by a third party, which lender they tie their incentives to, and what independent review sites say. Thirty-eight articles, all of them free, none of them sponsored by a builder.
That is the whole argument for working with us. Not a slogan about service. A body of work you can read before you ever call, and check against what a sales office tells you. Start with the Richmond builders comparison.
Register us on your first visit, before you tour
This is the one thing on this page that costs you money if you get it wrong. Nearly every builder in Richmond pays a buyer’s agent, and nearly every builder also requires that agent to be with you, or named on the registration card, on your very first visit to the community. Walk in alone, sign the sheet, and many builders will refuse to recognize an agent later. You do not get a discount for going unrepresented. The commission stays with the builder’s team.
So the sequence that protects you is simple: call or text before you tour, and we handle the registration. If you have already visited a community on your own, tell us which one and when, and we will find out where you stand rather than guess. Our guide on buyer’s agents in new construction covers the rest.
What we check on every new construction purchase
- The contract, before deposit. Builder contracts are written by the builder’s attorneys. Binding arbitration, material substitution rights, and the point at which your earnest money stops being refundable are all in there, and they differ between builders. Our builder contract guide covers the clauses worth arguing about.
- The warranty, in writing, before deposit. Several Richmond builders publish nothing at all. Some carry insured coverage that survives the builder leaving the market, and some do not. We keep a warranty comparison across the market so you know which question to ask.
- The incentive math. A ten thousand dollar credit tied to a rate half a point above market costs you the credit back in about seven years. We run the builder’s lender against one outside loan estimate on the same day, and we price the title side too when the builder ties that in. The method is in our preferred lender incentives guide.
- Fees the sales sheet does not mention. HOA dues by section, and whether your lot sits in a community development authority whose assessment lands on the tax bill rather than the HOA statement. Buyers find that one after closing more often than they should.
- School assignments, with the county. Listing sites and builder brochures disagree with each other constantly in the fast-growing corridors. County school-board maps are the only source that counts, and we confirm before you contract.
- Independent inspections at pre-drywall and final. Not the builder’s quality check. Yours. This is the single highest-return few hundred dollars in the process, and we schedule it into the build timeline so it does not get skipped.
- The lot itself. Drainage, grading, what gets built behind you, and which premiums are worth paying. The plan is identical on every lot in the section. The lot is not.
Every builder in the Richmond metro, profiled
National and production builders: Ryan Homes, Stanley Martin, HHHunt Homes, Main Street Homes, Eastwood Homes, StyleCraft Homes, Lennar, D.R. Horton, Mungo Homes and CraftMaster, and Richmond American.
Semi-custom and regional builders: Eagle Construction of Virginia, Schell Brothers, RCI Builders, Boone Homes, LifeStyle Home Builders, and Cornerstone Homes. The smaller companies, the custom tier, and the national builders that do not actually build here are in our smaller builders roundup.
Head to head, when you are down to two: Ryan vs Stanley Martin, Ryan vs Eastwood, Lennar vs D.R. Horton, HHHunt vs StyleCraft, and Schell vs Boone vs Eagle.
By the numbers: the biggest builders ranked by 2025 closings, and the 55+ builders compared.
Community guides, written from the sales office sheets
Choosing the community usually matters more than choosing the builder, because the community sets your schools, your fees, your commute, and which builders you are even allowed to pick from. The full side by side is in Richmond master-planned communities compared, and each of these has its own guide:
Chesterfield: Magnolia Green, Harpers Mill, Watermark, FoxCreek, RounTrey, and Westerleigh. Henrico: Sadler Square, Short Pump new homes, the Village at Virginia Center, and Bacova and the Short Pump pipeline. Hanover and New Kent: Giles and Viniterra.
To see what is actually available right now across every builder and every community at once, use our new home search at showingnew.com/dyoonnewhomes. It covers the whole region, not one builder’s inventory.
Where the money usually moves
Builders rarely cut the base price, because a discount shows up in the comps for every unsold home behind yours. What moves instead is closing costs, design center allowances, structural options thrown in, lot premiums waived, and rate buydowns on standing inventory. Quarter-end and standing homes are where the room is. Our new construction incentives in Richmond VA page lists every builder’s current offer and what each one requires, and the preferred lender guide shows how to test a lender credit in ten minutes.
Working in English and Korean
We work with clients in both English and Korean, which matters in a process where the documents that decide the outcome are a hundred pages of builder contract. 영어와 한국어로 편안하게 상담해 드립니다.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a realtor to buy new construction in Richmond VA? You are not required to have one, but the builder’s sales representative works for the builder, and the builder pays a buyer’s agent commission whether or not you bring one. Going unrepresented does not lower the price; it leaves that commission with the builder’s team and leaves you reading the contract alone.
What does it cost to use Daniel Yoon on a new build? Nothing at closing. Builders in the Richmond metro pay the buyer’s agent commission, which is already priced into the home whether you use an agent or not.
When do I need to bring my agent to a builder? On your first visit, before you tour or sign a registration card. Most Richmond builders will not recognize an agent added later. If you have already toured a community alone, say which one and when, and we will check where you stand.
What is a Certified New Home Co-Broker? NHCB is a designation for agents who represent buyers specifically in builder transactions, where the contract, the warranty, the incentive structure, and the construction timeline all work differently from a resale purchase. Daniel Yoon also holds the ABR and SRS designations.
Which builder is best in Richmond? There is no single answer, and any agent who gives you one without asking your budget, county, and timeline is guessing. Ryan Homes closed the most homes here in 2025 at 961; Main Street Homes and Eagle Construction sell at roughly a hundred and fifty percent higher average price. Start with our builders comparison and narrow by county and price.
Start before you tour
Send us the community you are considering and we will tell you what we know about the builder, the section, and the current incentive before you spend a Saturday on it. Call or text 804.896.2694, or email [email protected].