For many, building a custom home is as exciting as it is scary. It’s a commitment that requires time, money and patience. A common fear for homeowners is that by the end of the process, the home will be more reflective of the builder’s style than their own. The truth is, this can happen! That’s why it is so important to explore your options before deciding on the design team that will build your dream home.
Start with an Interview
In a previous blog post, we gave advice on how to research and narrow down your options for builders. Once you’re down to that select few, set up an interview with each of your top choices. Through this process, you will be able to more easily identify who you feel most comfortable working with. In many cases, the builder will have a trusted team of people, such as interior designs, who should be involved in the interview as well. It’s important to determine the knowledge and experience of the team, as well as their ability and willingness to help you make decisions that will best meet your design needs.
Put another way, it’s important that you feel really comfortable with your builder, because he or she will be finding out more about how you live than your friends even know!
Set the Standards
One of the many benefits of a custom home should be that it is completely unique to you, with modern-day conveniences that align with your lifestyle. Your builder should be interested in the way you live on a day-to-day basis, the rooms you spend most of your time in, whether you have kids or pets, whether you like to entertain, and everything else in between. This is why it is so important to find a builder who you feel comfortable building a personal relationship with. When a builder takes the time to learn this information, he or she will be able to give you options and recommendations that will best fit your lifestyle.
My biggest question for clients is: How do you live? What’s important to you? What do you like? What do you not like? It’s important for us to wrap our heads around these answers, because this will likely be the biggest decision you will ever make.
Continue to Communicate
Early on in the process, you want to establish guidelines around how often you will communicate and when it is appropriate for you to attend design team meetings. Clients are often not allowed on-site as it can be a safety concern. Having set meetings guarantees the opportunity for you to be involved in decisions being made at the time it is relevant. The design team is able to show you options based on your preferences that you may not have known about otherwise, such as advanced forms of technology and eco-friendly products. When you have strong design preferences, it is important to speak up sooner rather than later because unexpected changes midway through the process are likely to take you outside of your initial budget and off schedule.
In the end, nothing is more important than the client’s satisfaction with their home. Westlake Development strongly values the relationships with their clients from start to finish and beyond.
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