I'm now considering expanding my real estate ventures into building custom homes, but I know this is an entirely different beast between the required capital, learning curve, time committment, etc. 

You state, "your lender" - I admire the loyalty but also would recommend you get a minimum of 3 quotes (at least two from mortgage brokers).

You CAN limit that agreement to a specific property; but, as others have stated, agents are looking for a certain amount of loyalty from their clients.If an agent gets vibes from a prospective client that indicates that they want to cheapskate and not pay a professional for their service, they are not likely to waste their time with them.

There's other dialers out there that's more custom tailored to organizing calls, lead follow-up plus much more cost effective and honest with a live customer service line.

We have a Chicago general contracting business, and handling the field operations is a ridiculously heavy lift.As far as finding customers I think you'll have some good success with gorillia marking at some of the local investor meetups. 

So even though I lost a deal and commission I won loyalty and a client for life and became very valued as an agent and very successful by getting the money that was deserved and obviously, rightfully, morally and legally due to her.  

This doesn't come cheap--these folks were making high six to seven figures depending on volume.We focused on lending to professional real estate investors--so our customers were frequent repeat borrowers. 

I'm a Project Manager at an Architectural Firm specializing in Custom High-End Homes. 

Are you looking for custom, semi-custom or spec homes?

I've looked into 6+ including calling and experiencing the customer service myself and have not found one that seems reliable.