Great info folks, I am shopping for a new home and now have some extra items for my check list.

One issue I did not see answered from the original post was whole house power protection.... generators and battery backups are fine, but living in the lightning capital of US (Tampa), or anywhere in the risky parts of the country, you need a little extra Zeus protection.

Certainly your developer will build to code, whatever that means. Usually a thin copper wire from your utility box to a water pipe or wimpy 6’ copper rod loosely buried next to the house. Don’t for a second believe that this will do a thing to protect your house and valuable electronic goodies from a pissed off storm front. Invest in a ZapCap or other aftermarket whole house protection for your utility box and maybe even a secondary protection device for major appliances (PolyPhaser, Lutron, Leviton, etc.). Have an electrician mount these as close to outside as possible and connect them to a good ground system (one or more 12’ copper ground rods connected with a beefy braid or wire built for grounding applications (you will not find this at Radio Shack). The best systems fan out the grounding system away from the house and do not rely on a single point.

For a few hundred bucks in time and materials, you will have that little extra margin of safety that could save you a whole lot of grief. ….but of course you can just rely on your home owners insurance and then you have an excuse to go shopping for new stuff.