If you are building a new house or extensively remodeling an existing house, your number one question for your contract will be “when can I move in?” To get a sense of the timeline, you should see whether your city offers online inspection histories.
For example, the City of Palo Alto has an online Permit Manager, that lets you check and research permits, and review the inspection results. If a contractor you are considering has handled a few projects within Palo Alto, then you can look up those projects by address and see how long the construction took from when the permit was obtained to the final inspection. Of course, not all delays are caused by the contractor, but at least you can get a sense on how quickly different contractors wrap up their projects.