What you should be looking for in a custom homebuilder--it is probably not what you are thinking.
EDUCATION
Building a custom home is not an easy task. It is very easy to be wowed by the fancy trucks, glossy marketing materials, or showhouse the hottest builder in your town possesses. While you want to end up with everything you imagined in your new custom home--do you want to have a heart attack in the process? Do you really want to spend 12-18 months working with someone that turns your stomach and emotionally takes you back to middle school gym class? Most people wouldn’t pick a mate purely based on looks. It is more likely that you will blend physical appeal, personality, character, and work ethic/career stability.
There are many textbook questions floating around that you should be asking your potential custom home builder; I want to share the things that you should pay attention to that can’t be fluffed. Anyone can develop canned or scripted answers.
What should I be looking for in a custom home builder? Here you go!
Communication
Many people say, “communication works until it no longer works”. This is very true. I am starting this post with one of the most important character traits that you must find in a custom home builder. Excellent communication is a non-negotiable. Every member of your team should be able to respond to you with answers, updates, insights, or ideas within a 24 hour period of time. During this time the problems at hand may not be resolved but an acknowledgement is not too much to task. An understanding of the needs that need to be met while a solution is in the works--this is due to anyone. Every member of your team and the builder’s team should be able to communicate effectively when things are going well and during difficult times.
You do not want to end up with a home builder that ignores your calls when times are hard. You do not want to work with a home builder or anyone that disappears on Thursday afternoon and there is no way to reach anyone from their office until 9 a.m. on Monday. When deciding on which builder you will work with, it is important that you ask about communication standards. In addition if you call the office the receptionist, cad operator, purchasing agent all should communicate and conduct themselves in a professional and courteous manner. Period.
Finally, pay attention to the way you speak to laborers, vendors, employees, and consultants you introduce to the equation prior to signing a construction contract. This can be very telling of how they will engage you during the construction of your custom home.
Collaboration
Many years ago, I had a design professor tell me that while you “can” do anything you can’t do everything. Thank you so much for this advice Professor Tate. I am well aware of my skill set and while I bring to the table when helping my clients design the most amazing custom homes. Ask any designer or architect, they will tell you one of their greatest challenges is dealing with home builders that think they are in fact designers. While they may possess the talents, interests, and passions--most likely they have not been hired to design your home. There are of course custom home builders that offer “design-build” series. This is often very practical in most cases--but the builder isn’t performing all these tasks alone.
Planning, designing, and building a custom home is truly a group/collaborative effort. It is very important that your home builder works well with others. Just as every member of your team, respect, compassion, and understanding should be very important to you. When selecting a builder, I highly recommend that you work with a builder that is capable of putting his/her ego aside and plan your needs at the top of the priority list. You may be wanting a French Chalet and if your builder thinks it is the absolute worst idea--the biggest mistake and waste of money to build; it isn’t his/her choice to make.
I have professionally witnessed sabotage from within the key players of a home building team. It does happen that home builders feel they call the “shots” and have the final say. When selecting a builder look mature adult behavior. While you are out shopping for tile, appliances, and lighting--which I know you will do on your own even if you work with an interior designer; drop your builder’s name to a few representatives. Be quiet, listen to what they have to say. Their words, facial expressions, and reactions will tell a story of how this person conducts themselves and works with others. If you are able to access various trades people--even better.
Strategic
For many people that opt to build a custom home this is their 3rd or 4th home. For others this will be their forever home. You have most likely saved, worked and dreamed for 10 or 20 years to reach this point in life to build a home that is everything you dreamed of. The way the home should work on paper versus how it actually functions on dirt can be completely different. Your architect can draw and tweek your construction plan for weeks and weeks. You interior designer can design your kitchen, bathroom, staircase, exposed beams and beyond to perfect on the computer. Well, when it comes to building it--it just might be as easy to manifest as we would hope. You may run into site issues. You local municipality may have an issue with the one thing you told yourself you could not live without.
What am I saying? You want a builder who is incense hired to implement your vision for your dream home which is designed and drawn by your architect and interior designer--to be capable of pushing through. Your builder must be capable and willing to develop strategies to overcome challenges that will come up while building your custom home. Your builder’s first response should not be the resort to what he thinks is best simply because it is easiest and keeps the job moving. I am in no way saying that you will not have to make some concessions along the way. You should not end up with a home that your builder wants you to have simply because it is faster, easier, and more profitable for his firm.
Flexible
No amount of planning or communication will prevent issues from coming up while building a custom home. As a client, you may enter the process confident that you want a front entry garage and at some point you realize that your architect and interior designer were correct in urging for a side entry. Things will go wrong. Plans will change. Items will be back ordered. Change orders will need to be made. Period. You want a flexible builder that is dedicated to serving you as the client and ensuring that ultimately you and your family have the home of your dreams. Period. Just because your builder has been building custom homes for 50 years and you come into town demanding a certain level of design, construction, quality, and style--you deserve it. If you are interviewing a builder has a rigid perspective on size of home, design style, construction techniques--basically he wants to tell you how things will or should be done CAUTION. I am in no way saying that you should ignore the advice of your builder. As an adult, I am certain that you understand the difference between being guided versus being bullied simply because these decisions make life better for them and not you.
Organized
Building a custom home is a very tedious process. There are 1000s of moving parts involved in this process. You want to make sure your custom home builder is organized and neat. It is highly important that your job site be neat and organized from the beginning to the end. This will limit the risk of injuries, penalties that may be imposed by the HOA or the local municipality. Not only will your neighbors appreciate the organization--they just might judge you as a potential new neighbor as well.
Organization will ensure that your builder and site superintendent will know what has been delivered to your jobsite--when and by whom. This will help to keep your project moving along on schedule and prevent you having to order replacement items that happen to get lost in the shuffle. This alone will help keep you on budget.
If a potential builder shows up to meetings less than prepared, confused and flustered--this could be a warning sign. It is important that to remember that building a home is a multi-disciplinary effort. There are many talents and skill sets that make for talented builders. The finished product alone should not be the barometer.
When deciding to build a custom home, yes, portfolio, experience, relationships, education, affiliations, are all important when evaluating home builders. This is not enough. Character goes a long way.
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