Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Savvy Homebuyer: Understand your Builder

Let's face it: Homebuilders don't always have the best reputations. The prospect of building a new home can cause a lot of anxiety, stemming from a combination of mystery, misperceptions, myths and illusions most people have about the homebuilding profession.

While some builders earn that reputation, the professional builder successfully exposes any preconceived notions a prospective buyer might have about the building business and the construction process. They work hard to clarify their motivations and approach to construction. They seek to view the project from the client's perspective and meet their needs and desires.

Getting to know a builder can foster a greater respect and a higher level of confidence for a company's ability to deliver a high-quality new home.

First, it is important to understand that professional builders are business people. They build homes because it's their chosen profession. Of course, like any business person, they are interested in making money; a professional builder, however, makes money honestly, and seeks to earn a reasonable profit.

As building and business professionals, we constantly refine our approach to business, adhere to predetermined building schedules, and establish reliable and lasting partnerships with building products suppliers, financial institutions, and specialty trade contractors. We live in the areas where we build and are active in our communities. We rely on a strong local reputation to continue to build our business.

Some builders, though, lack the business and communication skills to be successful, resulting in dissatisfied customers and ruined reputations that often blanket the entire industry. This is not an industry-wide scheme to separate homebuyers from their money. Rather, it's just an unfortunate slice of society that both buyers and professional builders have to endure.

Unlike almost any other industry, a builder's work is exposed to the public; while cars and washing machines are assembled in factories and seen only on the showroom floor, a house is on display from foundation to finish. This can lead to misinterpretations or misunderstandings between a builder and a homebuyer. Often, however, what looks to be incomplete or irregular during one stage of construction is quite different from the eventual finished product.

Given those circumstances it is also important to understand that builders are engaged in the home building process every day and over many years. They gain experience and have a unique perspective. They have a vision of a home's progress that extends well beyond daily progress, one that few owners can truly share or comprehend.

As a result of that perspective, a builder may occasionally appear to take a casual approach to what a nervous homebuyer perceives to be a problem on the job site. Simply, the builder has likely seen or heard about it many times during his career, knows implicitly how he'll deal with the situation and has significantly less emotion invested in a home than a client does.

Successful builders listen closely to their buyers' concerns, respect an owner's questions and patiently communicate solutions. They understand that building a house is a considerable emotional investment, a potential source of anxiety and a financial risk. Understanding this, builders seek to ease those burdens.

By the same token, an informed and understanding homebuyer recognizes that the construction process is second nature to a professional builder. When both a homeowner and a builder respect each other's roles and approaches to the business of homebuilding, it fosters better and more open communication, opens the opportunity to develop trust and maximizes the prospect of achieving a successful and satisfying project.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Practical Green

Green building is certainly a hot topic these days. For builders striving to reduce the environmental footprints of the homes they build, the process encompasses a wide range of materials, products and systems.

But does building green really mean anything to you as a homebuyer? You may recognize and perhaps even appreciate seeing the Energy Star label on windows and appliances, but what's the tangible benefit of recycled-content drywall or certified wood doors to your daily life ... and your pocketbook?

As a professional builder who is ready and able to respond to what our homebuyers want -- including homes with better energy efficiency and indoor air quality -- we also recognize that buyers need to see how our efforts impact them personally.

To that end, we strive to educate our clients about the various “green building” methods and materials we employ. Along with contributing to our planet, we approach this from the perspective of the practical benefits to our owners and their families.

Hidden Gems. The bulk of a comprehensive green building effort happens behind the finishes. Instead of touting the R-value of the attic insulation or the solar heat gain coefficient of the windows, we talk about comfort: no more drafty feelings by windows and doors; no more temperature differences between floors or rooms; the ability to walk around in your bare feet. Those benefits seem to resonate far better than any technical information.

Easy Recycling. We not only want to encourage but also help facilitate recycling household waste. So we increasingly provide convenient bins within the kitchen and laundry cabinets to make it easier to collect those items and get them to the curb and out of the landfill.

In that same vein, we have also installed handy compost bins in the kitchen to collect vegetable clippings and other organic matter that can be added to a larger compost pile or collector outside and used to improve soil for a vegetable or flower garden -- allowing homebuyers to extend an interest in local produce and organic foods.

Breathe Easier. To help save energy and boost indoor comfort, green builders often use non-toxic paints, flooring, and other interior finishes -- as well as ventilation systems -- that improve the quality of the indoor air.

Rather than explore the world of vent fans and semi-gloss paint, we often phrase our efforts in terms that address allergies, respiratory problems, and other sensitivities that our homebuyers might suffer ... and will appreciate not having in their new homes.

Future Green: Monitors and Electric Cars. While certainly not mainstream, in-home computer programs that allow homeowners to see and adjust their use of energy and water are great visual reminders of green building efforts that also help to optimize them.

Similarly, we've seen electric car chargers that run on the home's electrical service (or even solar energy) that can accommodate all-electric or hybrid cars, allowing homeowners to conveniently serve that investment in sustainable living.

The bottom line is that builders often get caught up in the details and technical specs of green building; professional builders understand that to be truly beneficial, those efforts have to improve the quality of everyday life.