A Guide To Hiring A Custom Home Builder

www.regalclassichomes.com

A Guide To Hiring A Custom Home Builder

Hi I'm Michael Mcguffie, President of Regal Classic Homes since 1988 and Licensed by the State of Florida since 1980.

Over the years I've found:

You can pay people to work for you but you can't pay them enough to give you their heart. They either have that capacity or not. Paying more for their heart only throws good money after bad. Select a Builder that will put their heart into constructing your dream home.

A. What Is A Custom Home Builder?

Many times Homeowners ask, can I do this to my home or change that? I usually reply, of course.

Other times I respond, your home is only limited to your imagination and your pocket book! We can do anything you want to do with your home as long as it's legal.

I even sometimes reply, if we complete your home and you don't like it, we can tear it down and start again. This is even better than McDonalds, you can have an entire home your way, as long as you are willing to pay for it.

Custom Home Builders create one of a kind homes for a specific lot to an Owners specifications. We start with a blank piece of paper and go from there. 

Basically, you can have whatever you like when you build your home. Everything moves in a Custom Built Home, the walls, floors, ceiling and all the options are on the table.

We also build Semi-Custom homes too! Where we start with a a floor plan supplied by the Owner or one we provide.

B. Custom or Production Builder?

Ok, here is a test question to see if we are both on the same page? What type of restaurant do you like to eat at with your family? Do you frequent national chain restaurants or do you seek out the hard to find mom and pop places?

If you are like me, I hunt for the difficult to find restaurants, owned by a family where the owner is right there watching over things. The spouse is there too and the kids are the servers. The owner greets you at the door and stops by your table to see if you've been treated right. Somehow, the food always tastes better and I like being treated as though my being there matters. They know me by name after a few visits and what I ordered last time I stopped in. I'm feeling the love.

I live on the SW side of "O Town" so I'll mention a few restaurants I frequent so you get my point. Taquitos Jalisco, Bonsai Sushi, Little Saigon, Brazas Chicken and Magic Wok. All of these restaurants are exceptional!

On the other hand, you can eat at a national chain restaurant. The food and service is consistent but not exceptional. You take home your left overs and the next day when you take them out for lunch, there's sludge on the bottom of the container or you find out they use pink slime to make their chicken pieces you're feeding your kids!

The difference, one has a stake in the community and the other doesn't. One is beholden to a bunch of stockholders distributed throughout the world and the other depends upon your support to feed his kids. For the family restaurant, you the customer, his life's blood. The chain food restaurant has to meet profit projections set by corporate headquarters in another city. 

Now that I've made my point, the same is true for Production vs Custom Builders. It's some huge corporation that's building 10,000's of homes throughout the country vs a small Custom Home Building Company that builds a handful of homes to feed his family and put a few bucks away for his kids college fund and retirement.

One that hires people that are only as good as the last home they delivered vs a builder that put his heart into each home that he builds. That has a team of suppliers and subcontractor that he's created a relationship with over the years vs one that hires the lowest bidder to build your dream home.

Perhaps, buying a production home was all you could afford for your first starter home but now you've saved your hard earned money and are ready for a New Custom Home, Renovation or Addition. 

I can always tell when I first meet Clients that had the production home building, experience, previously. The walk into our first meeting like they have 2 six-shooters mounted on both hips, one eye squinted closed and extra ammunition belts strapped across their chests. It looks like something out of an old western movie. They are loaded for bear!

The questions are pointed with a determination not to be ripped off again. They felt like were squeezed like a loaf of "Wonder Bread" after their last home building experience. I spend the next several meetings and sometimes the entire time building their house getting them to trust me.

Ok, now it's your turn to decide, Production or Custom?

C. Building A New Custom Home Is Fun!

Why does gambling in Las Vegas have such a wonderful reputation? Talk to anyone that has just returned from Vegas and ask them about their experience. We had a wonderful time! Did you gamble while you were there? Oh, yes! How did you do at the casino? The normal response, we won a little, came out ahead or we were ahead until the last day.

If the wife is out of ear shot the husband will say, I was ahead but my wife lost it on the last day.

How can everyone that goes to Las Vegas come home ahead or break even? Have you see that place? It's built on losers!

Ask a friend that just bought a new car if they are happy with their purchase? The typical response, I love my car and I got a great deal! How can everyone that buys a new car get a great deal?

Whenever I go to a dealership I get an uneasy feeling, like a lamb being led to slaughter. Their process is so slick it looks like a game of "Three Card Monty". When I leave a dealership, I feel like I've been squeezed like a loaf of Wonder Bread!

It's difficult for me to believe that everyone is getting a great deal.

On the other hand, when people hear that you are having a new home built the typical reply is, I hope you have a solid marriage, good luck you'll need it or how are you getting along with you builder?

As a Builder I can't understand why Vegas and car buying have such a positive reputation and home building the complete opposite?

Why is it that people that gamble and buy new cars are only willing to talk about the experience in a positive manner and homebuyers are not?

Frankly, not all of the homeowners that buy a Regal Classic Home are ecstatic over the experience but many of our Clients are. Many have said, I've really enjoyed building our home and I'm going to miss this. 

Building a custom home is a major investment of time and money. Not everyone is geared for the experience. Clients that expect life to be perfect usually don't fair well.

It's an opportunity to dream a dream and then watch that dream become a reality. We build a prototype together. A one of a kind never been built before home. 

Even if the house plan has been built previously, the site conditions are different as well as all the Client selections. This is a one of a kind home.

Clients need to be good at negotiating win, wins, between their spouse as well as other members of the team.

D. How Do You Find A Custom Home Builder? 

Frankly, true Custom Home Builders are more difficult to find than a Production Builder masquerading as a Custom Builder. There are lots of Production Builders that say, "we are Custom Home Builders" but the reality is quite different.

 

Below are some suggestions:

 

Visit homes during the Greater Orlando Builders Associations (GOBA), Spring Parade of Homes.

The Master Custom Builders Council (MCBC). The top 25 Custom Builders in Central Florida at www.custombuilt.com 

Family and Friends.

Google Search for Orlando, Custom Home Builders.

E. Hiring A Builder Is Like Selecting A Spouse. 

Why do good marriages and building relationships go bad? Is it because they are bad people or just a difference in values, communication and problem solving skills? Select a Builder that mirrors the attributes you admire. 

Your Builder is somebody you are going to spend a great deal of time with over the next year or years. Sometimes it takes months to develop building plans, a year to build your home, another year of warranty and more if you need help with a future issue. Having a good relationship with this person is going to be really important to you.

Your first meetings are like dates. Does your Builder:

Show up on time? 

Take detailed notes? 

A good communicator? 

Follow up afterward with meeting notes? 

Do what he says he is going to do? 

Helpful or just focused on signing the deal? 

Is he patient?

Is he somebody you want to have a relationship with? 

Is he married, in a long term relationship or is this his 4th marriage? 

Look carefully at his close building team:

The Interior designer, Architect, Realtor and site superintendent. This is the group you will be spending most of your time with.

Who's really building your home?

Does your builder construct your home or does he use a site manager. If he does, what is he like? Does he have the same skills you are looking for in a builder?  

Is the site manager even licensed?

If your builder is also the same person that will be constructing your home and you like him, that's a big plus. A streamlined communication channel means a smaller chance of communication breakdowns. He sells you the home, builds it and follows up with warranty service. If somethings not right you know who's responsible.

It's all about the relationship!

A period of many years. 

Your Builder will want to show your home to potential clients. 

You will want your Builders help with future home issue.

Your Builder will want to use you as a satisfied client reference. 

It's about the win, win!

Many clients think the best builder is an x tradesman. I've found they don't have the skills to manage the process successfully. 

Building a home is a complicated process.

It's best to look for an organized, communicator. 

A Builder needs a solid team and an organized process. 

Stop by one of the builders jobs and speak with the trades on site. The workmen are loose cannons and will tell it like it is!  They'll let you know if the Builder is a jerk, builds a quality home or if he hasn't been paid in months.

Look for:

An experienced Builder.

State licensed.

Client references. 

Member of the Master Custom Builders Association or (MCBC). The top 25 Custom Home Builders in Central Florida.

Supplier and Subcontractor references.

Warranty.

Member of the local homebuilders Association.

F. Do You Want The Biggest Custom Home Builder Or The Best?

Think about it, do you really want the largest Custom Home Builder constructing your dream home? 

How much time is the owner of a larger building company going to spend thinking about your home?

We are not the largest Custom Home Builder, just the best!

Smaller, personalized and supervised by a Builder with over 35 years of building experience. Your Builder is the State License holder. 

We purposely take on only a few project per year so our process is personalized and controlled. Becoming the largest Custom Home Builder is the last thing we want to do. 

Our Clients like the idea that the same person that sells them their home is also the one that will be on site each day supervising the construction and the one to call when somethings not right. 

You decide. 

Experienced, personalized, higher quality, lower overhead, better value!

G. Who should I hire first, the Architect or the Builder?

That's a question many home buyers ask before they embark on the home building process. We have our building lot, now what?

Over my 30+ years of building homes I've watched Clients proceed in both directions with quite different results. I'll start with the Client that hires the Architect or Plan Designer first. 

Architect First:

The problem with this approach, Client is left to deal with the Architect without feedback from a Builder. 

The Architect has no idea how much the home he is designing will cost. Most times he provides a cost per SF of living area that has little basis on actual market pricing.

Most Architects are hired to design commercial buildings and design very few residential homes. If that's the case, the Clients home will have more of a commercial building feel. If you decide to hire the Architect first, make sure he is a "Residential Architect".

Architects are artists and design really cool features but have no idea home much these exciting details will actually cost. Redesigning after the plans are completed when the Client discovers they can't afford them can really be expensive. 

The Architect isn't motivated to control the final building cost he's excited to see his cool design get built. 

Even if the Client asks a few Builders for check prices along the designing process, the Builders are motivated to provide the lowest quote possible as they know from experience:

1. Providing a more realistic estimate will eliminate them from consideration.

2. There isn't enough information to provide accurate pricing.

3. Any price they provide is submitted without an obligation to be accurate.

Client periodic meetings to review plans take months and months as the home gets larger and larger. Eventually the plans are completed and submitted to multiple Builders only to find out they can't afford the mansion they spent $10,000's designing. 

I can't tell you how many times I've seen this happened over my building career. The plans end up being thrown in the trash!

Submitting the plans to multiple Builders at this point isn't going to help you discover design flaws either. Can you imagine submitting the plans that you worked on for a year and spent $10,000's designing, so proud to display and one of the Builders telling you there are design flaws that will  require a re-draw? The Builder doesn't want to be eliminated from the project so he says nothing and builds it as drawn or tells you during construction when it will cost even more to fix it. 

Builder First:

Custom Home Builders have a team of professionals that they work with every day. Suppliers, Subcontractors, Interior Designers, Interior Architects, Landscape Architects and Residential Designers or Residential Architects. They are use to coordinating experts from entirely different fields.

That's important, as you want to hire someone that can bring together as many experts as possible to you custom home project. All these specialist see your home from a different perspective and Clients need an advocate that can manage this team. A good Builder will bring his team to bare early in the design process.

As soon as a Builder expects a team member to see an issue that is beyond their normal thinking, there is a problem. Expecting a painter to think "waterproofing", a framer to think "attic air flow" or a roofer to think "attic Ventilation" there is going to be a problem. THE BUILDER IS THE ONLY TEAM MEMBER THAT SEE THE ENTIRE PICTURE. That's why hiring the right Builder that has lots of experience is so vital. He knows from years of problem solving what to look out for. He knows because it's bit him in the butt before!

H. Should I Hire A New Builder Or An Experienced Builder?

Perhaps, the best way to address this question is to explain why you need a Builder in the first place. I remember years ago when my daughter Melanie, introduced me to one of her friends. She asked me what I did for a living. I replied, I'm a Custom Home Builder. She replied, so you hammer the nails? I responded, no I don't hammer nails or install the roofing, drywall etc. Well, then what do you do?

Though a Builder hires all these specialists to actually construct a home, the Builder is the only one that sees the big picture. A Builder through his years of experience sees and understands what's really happening on your home site. Sure these specialists know their jobs but sometimes they overlooks things.

I've explained to people, I not only see a construction site, I actually feel a home with all my senses. Does a room size feel right? Does the space between the vanity and the bath tub feel right? Many times, I walk a job site when none of the workers are present. It allows me to actually hear potential floor, truss or joist squeaks. 

Just walking across the floors, allows me to feel high spots in the poured concrete or subfloor that will create issues with flooring installations. I even know what a home under construction should smell like.

Walking the roof sheathing, I can feel soft spots in a valley or spot a crowned truss at a distance. Feeling a home is vital. It gives me the ability to head off potential issue early before a problem becomes a really huge one. 

An experienced Builder can eyeball the top of the stem wall and tell that the slab elevation has been set too low before the slab gets poured.

An inexperienced Builder doesn't know what he doesn't know!

Sure the new Builders price my be lower than the Builder with 30 years of experience but who's going to end up paying the price for that lack of experience?

Do you really want to have your Builder walk off the job because he's finally realized he's not going to make enough from your home to make it worth while or he can't pay his trades with the funds available.

Frankly, I'm tired of hearing bad contractor stories. The one about the woman that recently hired a Builder to remodel her home and lost $150,000 because the Builder left town. She thought she was getting an unbelievable deal! It sure was an unbelievable deal. Go to Home Depot and get a deal but not when you are paying $100,000's for your home. There's just too much at stake!

Looking for a great deal on a Custom Built Home in Orlando, then hire the most experienced Builder you can find. If you don't know how to build a home and neither do the individual trades, then you need somebody that does. 

Hire the experienced Builder because you have no idea what you don't know and neither does the new Builder.

Have an awesome day- 

Mike