Qualifying

First, I'll need to do some very basic qualifying to make sure that we're on the same page as far as the budget is concerned.  I don't want to waste your time or provide false expectations, and I don't have the time myself to work on a project if the budget will not support the proposed home.   This qualifying is done over the phone or by email and only takes a few minutes by asking a few questions.

I'll also make sure your home is within our travel range, and that we can fit your project into our schedule.

One of the first questions my potential customers ask is how much their home will cost to build.  This is a very complex question, and one that is easy to answer without accuracy, and difficult to answer with accuracy.   When a builder, including myself, gives you a price during the first phone conversation, within a day, or within a week of meeting with you, you have received an inaccurate, quick price.  This information can be valuable, but only to a certain point.  Obviously a quick price is a rough price, and the actual cost of the home can be substantially more or less depending on the actual details of the construction.  I will provide my best estimate as a rough price guide for your home, based on the information you provide.  Again, this can be done over the phone or by email very quickly, and is part of our initial qualifying process to make sure we are both on the same page.

Once I know that the budget is within a reasonable range for the size and complexity of the proposed house, and the project is within our travel range, I'll provide you with references, literature, and sample documents.

At this point, we usually have a meeting to talk about the home, design, construction, the land, schedule, etc... Often this is when we'll meet at your land too.

After this initial qualifying process and one or two meetings, we'll both evaluate how things are going, to decide if we want to continue the process to the Pre-Contract stage.  

Now is the time for you to be working on the financing of your home.  Many of my customers have the funds to build a home and are not using a bank for financing.   But for those of you using a bank, now is the time to start working on that end of things.  In fact, you may want to get pre-qualified before moving ahead with the pre-contract work described below.  It's your call.   I will ask you about where the funds are coming from to build the home.

If you are working with a bank, I will take care of any paperwork that they require of me, and I'm available at any time to meet or correspond by phone with your banker and the appraiser if needed.

Working Together - Pre-Contract

With the qualifying out of the way, and the decision made that we'd like to work together - Customer and Contractor together as a team - it is at this point that I will begin charging for my time involved in your project.  This is what I call the "Pre-Contract" period of building your home - i.e., the time prior to us being ready and willing to sign a new home construction contract.   I will detail the work that is done during this phase below, but first I'll talk about the cost.

When I do pre-contract work for you, I require that payments be made in advance to cover the costs of the pre-contract work.  We usually start with a $1,000 payment made that establishes an "account" to use.  As I do work for you, I keep track of my time, the time of other subcontractors that I hire to do the pre-contract work, and cost of materials or travel.  I will keep a running tab of all costs and periodically provide you with that information along with the current balance of the account.  When the account gets low, I'll ask for another payment.

You will approve all costs during the pre-contract stage.  I will not spend my time or hire anyone else without first consulting with you.

You can suspend or terminate our working relationship at any time and I will either keep any unused funds you've paid on account or return them to you; your choice.

I charge $50 per hour for my time and for the time of my subcontractors in doing the pre-contract work.  The range of pre-contract costs (total costs) for customers over the last few years, since I began charging for this work, has been a low of $2,450 to a high of about $6,000.  The difference in cost is mostly due to the size and complexity of the project, but can also be from the number of times we have to re-design.  Much of the total cost of pre-contract work is within your means to control, which is why it's important to be as prepared as possible with knowing your budget and what you want for a home design before we start this work.

After the pre-contract work is complete, and when we're ready to sign a construction contract, I will credit back 50% of all pre-contract money that you've paid towards the price of your new home, as long as you do sign a contract with me to build a new home for you.   If you decide not to sign a contract for me to build your home, I keep whatever money is spent for the pre-contract work and return any unused funds to you.

So just to clarify why I do things this way - if I knew 100% that you were going to hire me to build a home for you, I would not charge for these pre-contract costs at all.  I would accept the work as part of building a new home for you, and the costs for this work would be built into the cost of the home.   But of course there's no way to know this up front.   Do you have any idea how many people over the years have used me to produce plans, specifications and pricing, only to go to another builder to have their home built?!!  Too darned many!  It's very frustrating from my point of view.  I'm sure you can understand.  So a few years ago I decided that I wasn't willing to work for free anymore and came up with this plan, and it seems to work very well.  I think it's fair to both of us, and I hope you agree.

So what are we doing during this Pre-Contract stage?

A lot!  This is actually the most important part of our working together.   It is during this time that your home will take shape, literally on the plans, and figuratively through all the decisions that we'll make to specify just how everything will be built, and with what materials.  There is no more important service that I can offer you than the work I'll do during this phase, and it's exactly why I need to charge for my time and expertise in doing this work.  Even though it may not feel like it initially, the money you spend during the pre-contract phase will provide you will the most value of any money you spend on the whole project.  And don't forget, you're working with someone who's built over eighty homes in Maine over the last 23 years!  I know how to do this now!  LOL.

Things we'll work on during the pre-contract stage:
Design/plans
Specifications - describing your home in writing
Pricing

As we get into the pre-contract stage, we'll begin working on the design of the home, if it is not done already.  The only way I can provide an accurate price for your home is if I have accurate plans and specifications.  So the design work is critical to getting to the point where we know what the house will cost.  But it's a "chicken and egg" thing.  We need to know how much home we can design and we also need to know how much the design will cost.   It's important to work both of these together, making sure that the design will at least be close to the desired budget.  So often people come to me with plans that they had done at a lumber yard - beautiful plans of the dream home that the customer envisioned - that will cost twice as much as the customers budget to build!   This is an aweful situation to be in, and it's what we will avoid when we design a home for you, knowing what the budget is ahead of time.  I'll make sure that we don't design something that can't be built within your budget.

I do provide design services myself.  I work closely with an outside source to provide the CAD services, and I am doing the designing, along with you of course.

I can also work with a CAD designer that you know.

I can also recommend several architectural firms to provide design services.  I enjoy working closely with architects, and I find they generally become valuable members of our team.  I usually meet with the architect and you together at least once to go over special construction details that may influence the design, or to provide guidance to the architect as to my pricing so that the house that is designed can meet the proposed budget.   By the way, it's not necessarily $50 per hour for architects fees.  If I'm paying for the architect myself, I will charge whatever they charge plus a reasonable markup; plus I will be charging for any of my time working with them.  If you are paying for the architect yourself, you avoid my markup, and I'll only be charging for my time in working with the architect.

While the design of the home is proceeding, we'll work on the specifications.   If you have email, it's very easy for us to work back and forth on the specifications until they accurately describe your home and you are satisfied with the document.   The spec sheet is probably the most important document that we will sign, and it is part of our new home construction contract.  This document is your new home in writing.  It is this part of the pre-contract work that details exactly how all the various parts of your custom home will be built, and with what materials.   By making these decisions now, we make it possible to obtain accurate pricing on the home, and a great deal of time is saved later on making decisions about the home.  It is a comfortable feeling, knowing that most of the decisions that you'll need to make regarding the building of your home is done ahead of time, and not during the "heat of the battle".  It continues to amaze me, how many people will enter into a contract with someone to build a home for them, and not have most of these details worked out.  It's no wonder people get into so much trouble with their builders, over miscommunication about how the home was supposed to be built.   The pre-contract phase, and the clearly written description of your new home in the Design Concepts Company spec sheet, will avoid these problems, and ensure a smooth and enjoyable building process for both of us.  As I said before, this kind of clear communication is why we'll still be friends after your home is complete!

I'll start by sending you a sample spec sheet by email, and from there you'll provide me with notes and questions in a return email.   I'll respond by making changes to the wording of the spec sheet and answering your questions, and it will continue back and forth like that until it's done.

While the spec sheet is being worked on, I'll also be working on pricing the home.   Now keep in mind that the accuracy of my pricing is only as good as the accuracy of the plans and specifications at the time that I'm doing the pricing.   Since you're paying for my time to do pricing, I'll be discussing with you just how much time you want me to spend along the way, during the pre-contract stage.  I'm comfortable doing as much or as little pricing as you want me to do while we wait for the plans and specifications to take shape.  It's a comfort level thing on your part, and you'll just have to let me know how much you want to know and when.

When the plans and specifications are complete, the pricing that I do will finally be accurate.  That doesn't mean that the pricing I do during the planning and specification stage isn't accurate, but there are varying degrees of accuracy!   LOL.  Sorry, but this is just how it is!  I'll try to figure everything as closely as possible, but if you think about it, there's just no way to know for sure until we know for sure what we're building.

So when I do get to the final and accurate fixed-pricing on the home, I want you to know that it's done in a very detailed and transparent way.  Unlike so many other builders who throw a price at you, I will provide you with a breakdown of the pricing by category, including my markup and profit margin on the project.   Because of this pre-contract relationship that we're working under, I can feel free to provide you with details of the pricing that would otherwise be hidden from the customer.  This enables you to make decisions about the specifications of your home based on more detailed pricing information.  You'll be able to see just how much the plumbing is going to cost, and how much we're figuring in for framing materials for instance.  This kind of transparency will help us to make good decisions through the pre-contract phase, and the end result will be a much better understanding of the costs of building your home throughout the whole process.

As you can see, there is a lot of work to do during this pre-contract phase.   Hopefully now you have a better understanding of why I think this is the most important phase of our relationship - builder to Customer - why I need to charge for my time involved during this phase, and why the money you spend during this time provides you with the most value of any money you'll spend on the new home.

The pre-contract phase will provide us with a finished set of plans, accurate description of exactly how the home will be built and with what materials (specification sheet), and an accurate price that fits your budget and that I will agree to build your home for.

Summary:
1.   Qualifying - budget, travel, schedule
2.   Secure financing
3.   Pre-contract phase - plans, specifications, pricing
4.   Sign a Construction Contract and build your home!