Las Vegas Vs. mother nature
FLOODS !!! – FIRES!!!
Our Lee’s Canyon custom retreat “Lee’s Crest” is now safe from the Carpenter 1 fire which burned 25,000 acres. We had just poured the foundation at Lee’s Crest when the Mt. Charleston highway was closed for almost a month due to the forest fire threat.
The hot shot fire fighters controlled the worst fire in Southern Nevada history to the south and east of Lee’s Crest, Merlin Custom Home Builders’s third Mt. Charleston house (near the Mary Jane Falls trail head) scheduled to begin construction next year. Since the fire our late summer monsoon thunder storms have caused extreme flash floods exacerbated by the freshly burned mountain side areas.
The first day of school found the kids walking through downpours or driving around some flooded streets.
Despite this display of Mother Nature’s wrath, by the end of the summer we completed a custom home in The Ridges and a High-Rise Luxury penthouse condo at Veer/City Center with a spectacular view of our famous Las Vegas Strip. Neither wind nor rain …… Merlin Custom Home Builders stays the course.
Building Success 101
Q: How do workers’ comp and liability insurance protect homeowners?
A: Workers’ comp covers medical and disability claims when a worker is hurt on the job. If the worker is uninsured, the contractor and homeowner can be sued for damages. General liability covers claims for damage caused by defective work. For instance, if an improperly flashed roof leaks onto a wood floor, causing it to buckle, the roofer’s general liability policy should cover the cost to fix the floor. Fixing the leak should be covered by the roofer’s and/or contractor’s warranty.
The low-bid, budget custom home building company may cost more in the long run. Here’s why.
The Las Vegas housing market is improving with good values for existing homes playing a big part. Buying an existing house for a great price is only the first step in creating your new home. Many of today’s homebuyers are getting such a good deal that they have the ability to customize the new home to fit their family’s, needs with their aesthetics. Home construction, both new and remodeling, is increasing and with fewer custom contractors left after the recession the competition has increased. It is more important than ever to find the builder/contractor whose skills, staff and expertise is a match for your home.
Does your builder have the size and — more importantly — the management systems needed to handle a custom home project? If not, the final cost in dollars and frustration may be more than you bargained for.
There are innumerable ‘horror stories’ on the Internet about the downsides of hiring the lone contractor. In the extreme, you may read about solo builders who lack the needed licenses and insurance to protect the owner from accidents or fraud. They may lack written warranties or human resources to keep their promises and complete a job as promised. The failure rates of home building companies are second only to restaurants, and there is no guarantee they will be around when problems surface.
On most jobs, this type of fly-by-night operator isn’t our real competitor. Homeowner’s looking to build complex custom homes are savvy enough to avoid the blatantly unethical builder. A more subtle, yet often equally difficult set of issues is presented by a builder that lacks the internal management systems to focus the manpower and attention required to successfully complete a complex project. Understanding the difference between them and us will help you decide who’s right for your project.
Understaffed custom home building companies typically talk up the personal attention they supposedly provide. This kind of company often has a field staff of one: the owner. If the builder is present on a job all day, every day, who is running the business? Along with managing a project, the builder must market, sell, bid future work, schedule subcontractors, meet with new prospects, pay bills, and on and on. Can anyone spread this thin provide the attention to detail a custom home requires?
By contrast, the adequately staffed, well-organized professional custom home builder delegates work to a team of specialists. Custom homes have innumerable details that require the coordination of dozens of employees, suppliers, and subcontractors, all of whom need to start and finish at just the right time. The professional builder has the manpower to smoothly manage all these moving parts, including onsite project managers, office contacts, purchasing agents, designers, and others.
Robert Brown, Merlin Custom Home Builders’s full time estimator, develops detailed budgets for all our homes. One of our project managers (Mike, Larry, Mike, Oscar or Lloyd) is assigned to each house to manage from start of construction to its end. In the office, each home is assigned an office assistant (Nina or Erica) to be the information/communication hub. They manage all the complex information between project managers, architects, designers and subs. They also record every financial transaction starting with the bids, through sub’s contracts to processing change order to the final payment. Weekly reports, on every financial detail of building each home are sent to the homeowner. Sara, our bookkeeper, writes all the checks and keeps the bank accounts balanced with the construction accounts. Completing the office is Bart who, along with Steve, signs the
checks and supports the teams at work.
This staffing, along with comprehensive communication and project management systems, means that when multiple jobs are underway, no one has responsibility for more than he or she can handle. No one is overwhelmed. Ten years ago Merlin Custom Home Builders developed a custom Microsoft Access database system that manages the business of building or remodeling a custom home. Merlin Custom Home Builders’s computerized system makes tracking construction finances efficient and manageable.
It stands to reason that when adequate human resources are available, customers get better service, jobs stay on schedule, and the inevitable issues that come up during a lengthy project get addressed more efficiently.
Established, larger custom home builders also have more leverage with suppliers and subcontractors. We provide more work for our subcontractors than the small operator, so our jobs get priority. Fair or not, the small company and its clients take a back seat to our phone calls, our requests, and our clients.
A well-run company helps ensure that the final price is the one to which the homeowner agreed. Staffing, systems, and relationships mean efficiency. This enables the professional builder to get homes built faster than the competition — often months faster if it’s a large home. Many homeowners are paying construction loan interest and real estate taxes during the build, along with current living costs, so this saves real money.
The bottom line is that the best company for a custom home will have the experience and organization to handle that particular type of project. Hiring a professional company with the resources needed to do a great job, on time, and with minimal stress can save big and be a better value in the long run.
Warm Regards,
Steve Jones & Bart Jones
Merlin Custom Home Builders
6408 S. Arville Street
Las Vegas, NV 89118
702.257.8102 – Phone