How to Work With Your Custom Home Builders

Whether you purchase an already existing home or choose to have a new one built for you, buying a new home is a big move for a lot of people. Especially in the case of having a new custom home built, there’s a lot that goes into the process from start to finish. In order for it to go smoothly, it’s a good idea to know how to work with the builders of your new custom home.

Sit Down and Discuss Plans

To start with, you’ll need to find and choose a good builder. As with any profession, there are good home builders and ones that aren’t so good. Once you’ve found the one you want to work with and you’ve hired them, you’ll need to have a discussion about the plans you have for your home. Your builder won’t be able to guess what you want in your new custom home. You’ll have to tell them. Discuss things like how many rooms you want and the floor plan for it, the materials you want used, your timeline, and anything else that is relevant to your new home. Once you’ve settled on a plan and the details, they’ll be able to get started building your home.

Communicate Well

There are a ton of details involved in building a home. You’ll want to make sure that those details are clearly communicated between you and your builder so that the finished home is how you want it to be. Beyond that, making sure you are each reachable by the other will be essential to communicating well. Establish communication guidelines such as parameters for acceptable hours to contact one another, the best ways to get in touch, and how long you can take to respond.

Keep Up With Progress

One of the points of maintaining an open line of communication is so that you can be kept informed of progress as it happens. One of the things you can establish during the planning phase of this process is at what points you want to be contacted with progress updates. You can also discuss when you should be notified of construction delays. There are lots of reasons why delays happen, some more serious than others. A delay in construction due to weather is going to be much easier to work with than a delay because the materials you wanted used in the construction of your home can’t be obtained at the moment. You may find it helpful to ask them to notify you if delays will push things back for more than a day so you can make sure you don’t run into trouble with closing on the home.

Schedule Visits

Having your builder call, text, or email you with updates can be good, but scheduling visits to the construction site for your new custom home can be a great way to keep up with the progress being made as well. It’s best to schedule visits instead of just dropping in unannounced so your builder is prepared for your visit and can organize the site so that you can be shown around safely. One of the things they’ll want to do is make sure to remove hazardous clutter to help keep you safe. Just moving it isn’t good enough though. It needs to be off the ground altogether. Trash hoppers make worksites safer by keeping material clutter off the ground. Beyond that, it’s important to dress appropriately for your visit, to follow all the rules you’re given, and to try to not get in the way of the workers too much.

Ask Questions

Unless you’ve been involved with custom home building before, you’ll likely have questions throughout the process. There are a lot of common home building questions that crop up, and in many cases, your builder is the best one to ask. They understand the whole construction process from start to finish much better than homeowners typically do. Of course, you could just sit and stew over them, but that can lead to unnecessary stress and frustration. There’s a good chance you’ll end up with some questions during site visits, which is one of the reasons why they’re so valuable. Site visits give you a chance to ask questions and have them answered on the spot. The more clarity you have, the more peace of mind you’ll have about your new home.

Have Everything In Writing

Despite best efforts, miscommunications and disagreements of some degree are bound to happen during the construction process. You can help keep both you and your builder on the same page and reduce the chances of there being any misunderstandings by getting everything in writing. Details such as the expected timeline, agreed price, what jobs need to be done, how to handle cost discrepancies, delays, or other disagreements, and what the overall responsibilities and expectations are should all be had in writing. Both you and your builder should have copies of all agreements signed. That will make it easy for both of you to reference if you need a reminder of what was agreed upon.

Be Respectful

Throughout the entirety of the construction process, it’s important to be respectful of your builder. You should show respect in the way you talk to them, when you choose to talk to them, and how you handle things that don’t go as planned. It can be frustrating to experience common home construction problems, especially when they are things you feel should have been handled better. How you approach your builder when things aren’t going well will make a huge difference in the relationship you have with them. Be as realistic and understanding as possible.

Show Appreciation

A good custom home builder will take pride in their work and will want to build you a quality home. A job well done deserves appreciation, as does the level of skill and hard work put into it. There are a lot of different ways you can show appreciation to your builder. Tips and gifts are unnecessary, but they are nice. If that’s beyond what you’re able to pull off, throwing a party for the people who built your home can be a good alternative. Remember to refer them to others too. Few compliments are as obviously sincere as being willing to send a friend or family member to a business because you’re pleased with the work they did.

Knowing how to best work with your home builder can make a huge difference in how the process goes. It’s important to maintain open, respectful communication and keep up on progress. This will help you minimize miscommunications and maintain a good relationship with your builder so that they feel good about doing their best work on your new custom home.

If you are ready to get started on your custom home, let us help you!