How do you Handle our Budget Concerns?
You have heard nothing but horror stories. The cost of construction for your friend’s home sky-rocketed during the build, and they couldn’t adjust for it. Your aunt involved an architect and paid an arm and a leg, just to find out, when it was all said and done, she couldn’t even afford the construction. You heard during the Pandemic the cost of construction nearly doubled nationwide. And what about those supply chain troubles?
If you aren’t scared, you are at least deeply worried.
Will you guide us through the budget planning and the costs we will face?
All that is too painfully real and manifests concerns you should have.
The truth is, each custom designed and custom made home is a prototype. Your home will get figured out only once. Luckily some of the steps involved have been tried before or at least some version of it, but plenty of unknowns remain.
You are asking for creativity. That means a venture into the new and unexpected.
In addition, even if a particular detail has been thought of and executed before, there is the likelihood a new subcontractor will be asked to do it, or a different distributor has to be involved.
The world of construction is a constantly shifting field of moving parts and parties. It means that you can only guess at the cost you face.
The craft of custom design and construction also has absolutely nothing to do with the manufacturing of the sea of heartless uninspired houses being spit out by a profit driven mass-housing industry.
You very likely have been conditioned by erroneous sources about what it cost to design and build a custom tailored home from scratch. Imagine having been inundated by ads on your favorite social media feed about the cost of some fast fashion retailer’s button-down shirt and walking into the shop of a custom tailor thinking the shirt you are asking for should cost $39.95. Let’s just say your wallet will hurt after leaving.
Nonetheless, you come to this process with a limited budget and finite appetite for financial pain. So what to do?
What to do?
Simple! Check, check and check again. Take these 5 important steps:
⚫ Get the Honest Picture Upfront: As part of our Design Goal Review, we try to paint the picture as clearly and honestly as we can. That includes laying out the entire financial framework of the project. We want to give you the opportunity to walk away before we get started. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.
⚫ Double Check as you Proceed: Our Design Goal Review also serves as a guide as we move through the design process. If we have set out to design a certain size home with certain qualities that should land the overall coast in a certain area, then we stick to it. At the moment we step outside our sand box, we’ll discuss it and consider the financial implications.
⚫ Receive a Preliminary Cost Estimate: Halfway through the design process, before the ink dries, we bring a builder on board. Part of the reason is to get a trusting partner at our side early on. Another part is to receive a preliminary cost estimate before it is too late. This preliminary cost analysis should reveal what your particular madness wil cost at this particular point in time, in your particular location, and with particular parties involved. If it is not up to snuff, we can still make appropriate changes.
⚫ Receive a Final Cost Estimate: Once the design is completed, with a set of construction drawings in your hands, and before construction is to begin, we have our builders provide a full and final cost estimate. We want to know what we are getting ourselves into as good as we can before the first shovel hits the ground.
⚫ Be Prepared for Contingencies: Things will change. Prices of materials will fluctuate, subcontractors will drop off, you will want to upgrade certain parts and pieces, nothing stays the same as we move forward through the construction of your home. So build in a buffer, either in the estimate or in your bank account. You will make use of it. Guaranteed!
Trust, Guidance, Planning and Vigilance!
All this to say, we carefully move through the entire process one step at a time with our eyes firmly on your financial goals. While we cannot promise we will hit the bull’s eye, we try hard to improve the odds.