Most building projects do not fail at the construction phase. They fail at the selection phase when the wrong builder gets the keys to your most valuable asset. I am going to give you a number that will reframe every building decision you have ever made. One in three Irish homeowners who hire a builder in Cork report a significant problem with their project. Delays, budget overruns, substandard work, or disputes that end in legal action. And the single most common factor in every one of those failed projects? The decision of which builder to hire was made too fast, with too little information, based on the wrong criteria entirely.