Well you should watch for shoddy craftsmanship in the homemade ones i.e. bad or missing welds, homemade brake linkages, wiring that makes a squirrels nest look orderly, etc......as for the kits I would do a once over on every nut/bolt I could get a wrench on and check the wiring.
As for the driving they are like nothing else, kinda like explaing sex to a virgin, gotta try it yourself...........but in the fast ones, mine runs low 9's in the quarter and streets runs 8's, ya better have em pointed straight when ya nail it, ( you have been warned ) , but theres nothing else like one once ya get used to it, power to weight IS it for a hot rod, half the weight of a honda civic with 500 + hp .
As for price, they DO vary alot, about 32k to redo mine now, and I've seen some over priced at 2500.00, start REALLY looking at differences of em and what you really like/dislike most ppl at first glance can't tell the difference in a 23' or 27' for example, lots of variables going on in the T bucket world..........IMHO