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Building Our Custom Home |
| CHOOSING A BUILDER To begin the home building process, I found one builder who had a good reputation building the style of home in our price range. However, when I tried to get a ballpark figure on costs for various house plans, he was extremely vague. I didn't want to spend the time and money on a certain house if it ended up being out of our price range. I also wanted to know up front if their were any changes that we should consider that would give us a significant cost savings. All he would say is "I'll build you a quality home you will love." The bottom line is that this builder didn't want to put the time into putting a detail quote to me if he didn't have a contract. In the end, his lack of customer service skills lost him the job. When we had a house plan that was 90% to our satisfaction, we took it to 2 other builders and a company called UBuildIt, that helps you build your own home, basically cutting out the contractor. After talking with all these builders about our house plan, they gave us good feedback on our plans and questions. Within a few days they submitted their cost estimations, which actually varied by about $40,000. Using that information, we went back and finished the house plans and submitted them to the builders for a final bid. Because we let the builders know that we were interviewing 3 other builders, I feel that it helped us to get more competitive bids. There was one builder that I instantly hit it off with, had excellent recommendations and important for me, is an active Christian. I was delighted to be able to sign a contract with him to build our home. It is Brian Smith with Taylor Custom Homes. |