How to have the best home building experience with your custom builder
1. Know your builder – It is very important to know your builder. Treat your first meeting with him like an interview. Learn about them, their background, their business, and his experience. You will be working closely with this person over the next year, it is important to choose carefully and understand his role in the process.
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Some good personality traits to look for in a builder: a good listener, a good communicator, honest and experienced in the field. Make sure you are talking to the builder and not just the seller!
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Think service because ultimately this person is providing you with a service. What are your service expectations during this process? Ask questions that tell you how they provide good customer service.
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Do they show a genuine interest in you, your family, and your values? It’s NOT about them, it should be about you!
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Is the builder being honest about how the process works? For example, let’s say the good, the bad and the ugly! Are they realistic?
2. Get involved! – This is your home and you are choosing to build, not buy a finished home. Depending on how custom you want your home, there may be hundreds of options that need to be taken. Have a realistic expectation of the time it will take to do it. Furthermore, all partners must be involved in the process from start to finish. This can be difficult as the process is long and everyone is busy. From finding a lot to choosing finishes to approving the estimate, everyone will be happy in the end if they stay informed from the start.
3. Know and understand your budget. – Make sure your builder reviews your estimate in detail and understands what is included in each category or allowance. Ask for photos of what’s included and if you don’t like it, tell them. And then ask a price for what you like. Try to eliminate surprises and have a realistic number from the start.
4. Have discipline. – The happiest customers are those who stay closest to their original budget. This might be the hardest because it pits our emotional side against our logical/realistic side! Try to keep your emotions in check. We know a $6,000 dining room candler is perfect, and this is the last house you’ll ever build, but be realistic. How high is it on the priority list? Can it be updated in the future? How important is it really going to be 10 years from now? We say we have a lot of discipline or a great contingency!!
5. Communications – It is important to have open communication with your team. That includes you, your partner, your builder, your designer, and anyone else involved in the process. Learn the best way to communicate with your builder early and stick with it. Remember, many builders do multiple jobs or spend most of their time in the field. Try to write down and save your non-urgent important items and communicate them all together. Realistically, you should talk to your builder 1-2 times a week throughout the entire process.
6. Always keep your eyes on the ball. – Stephen Covey said “begin with the end in mind”, and that is the “ability to visualize in your mind what you cannot see with your eyes”. This does a great job of summarizing the home building process. Remember what your goal is: to have a beautiful, unique new home that you designed and helped build! It is a very rewarding process to see a home come together in a place where just a few weeks before there was only dirt and trees.
7. Enjoy the process and the result! – This may be the only time you build a custom home. By following these tips, we hope this will be an enjoyable experience and create memories that will last a lifetime.
