Controlling Custom Home Project Costs
NAHB Builder 20 Group Spring Meeting in Lake Tahoe In Las Vegas [...]
The Problem with Competitive Bidding
Some big obstacles stand in the way of the three-bid advice. Folk wisdom, online articles, and basic instincts advise homeowners to solicit bids from several qualified contractors. But three major obstacles get in the way of making those bids realistic and useful: the need for detailed plans and job specifications, the need for comparable bidders, and the need to structure the bids for easy comparisons. Getting all three right is rare.
Controlling Custom Home Allowances
Strict allowance policies benefit homeowners as much as builders. Why does the Merlin Custom Home Builders team and other builders prefer that the homeowners choose every single item that will go into the house before they break ground? It’s not just for the builder’s convenience. A choice postponed may end up being made at a time when the homeowners are feeling a lot of construction stress. Decisions made under stress raise the chance of buyer’s remorse.
How Long Has The Custom Home Builder Been in Business?
Why this is a great question to ask a builder. The National Association of Homebuilders estimates that it takes at least 3 to 5 years to create a sustainable building business. Most builders never get there: residential contractors have a failure rate higher than nearly every other business type, surpassed only by restaurants. Only the strongest competitors survive this winnowing.
The Connected Custom Home
New technologies put the smart home within reach of any homebuyer. Connected home technology in the early 2000s was a costly proposition. In most cases, high-priced “structured wiring” linked a central server to the devices it managed and also to proprietary, hardwired keypads and control screens.
Custom Home Construction – Avoid Costly Mistakes
How professional builders avoid some of the most common and costly construction mistakes. Most homeowners judge a home by the obvious: a floor plan that’s a joy to live in, a streetscape that wows passers-by, great natural lighting, and lots of storage. The list goes on. But some less obvious details have as great an impact on the homeowners’ satisfaction over time. While homeowners have little control over these details, a professional builder with a sustainable business will make sure they get done right.
The High-Performance Custom Home
Many of our buyers are less interested in “green” construction than they are in homes that offer health, comfort, and low ownership costs. The Merlin Custom Home Builders Team has been building homes with the “green” concept in mind for 25 years. From the early days when we recommended additional insulation, better performing windows and tighter homes, Merlin Custom Home Builders’s homes were and are built for generations of families. Both Steve and Bart are Certified Green Builders by the NAHB. Robert Brown (our estimator) has completed the 40 hour HERS training course. Merlin Custom Home Builders installed Southern Nevada’s first two large custom energy saving “gas fired chillers”, set up numerous solar systems throughout the valley and built two homes completely off the grid. Merlin Custom Home Builders appreciates that “green” is different for each of our custom homes and works with our homeowners, presenting options, associated costs and, when possible, payback timelines.
The Role of the Custom Home Builder
A lot of people don’t understand the sheer complexity of the builder’s job and the systems required to build a house from scratch. Many analogies have been used to describe the professional builder: the conductor of an orchestra, the captain of a ship, even a general executing a military campaign. The point is that the builder is the one who must coordinate the innumerable players and products needed to transform a set of two-dimensional drawings into a finished home. The builder has to make sure that everything happens just when it’s supposed to, and that the end result is exactly what the clients envisioned.
How long will building a custom home take?
Builders hear this question a lot. The answer, as with most such questions, is “It depends.” But on what? People who haven’t built before often have an unrealistic concept of how long it can take to plan, budget, and build a home. Many variables can affect the timetable. Three that stand out are design, permitting, and site work.