Building a Custom Home: Choosing your Builder
Hey everyone!
Our phones at Ripplinger Homes have recently been ringing off the hook from potential clients looking to build a custom home, which has been keeping us incredibly busy!
One of the very first comments from these calls is “We just don’t know where to start looking or how to begin this process”, and if this is you - don’t stress! It is so common to not know where to begin or to feel lost when it comes to custom home building, but today I’m hoping to alleviate some of that stress!
I am going to give you a quick run down on how to begin the process and how to navigate building a custom home.
Narrow down your builder group
In Regina there are tons of home builders, all with their own unique qualities, trades, specifications and processes. The best way to narrow down your builder group is by determining if you are going to be building with a custom home builder or a production based home builder. A custom home builder will allow you to customize absolutely everything and anything in a home and typically builds between 10-20 homes a year, whereas a production based home builder will give you options for customizations and build 20+ homes a year.
Choose your top 2 (or 3)
After you’ve decided which builder group you will be falling into, it’s time to determine your top 3 choices of home builders. You will want to ensure that these builders fall into the same builder group and are comparable when it comes to terms of quality, specifications and service. Do some research in your city/area, look at reviews, their social media presence and talk to your friends and families to see what they’ve heard about those particular builders!
Make contact
Once you’ve done your research and found your favorite builders in the city it’s time to make first contact! I always suggest phoning and following up with an e-mail to your preferred builders, some information that you will want to have on hand are:
What type of home you’re looking to build (two storey, bungalow, bi-level loft etc)
How many sq ft you desire (bonus points if you found a floorplan you like!)
Which area you’re looking to build in
Upgrades that you want in your home
The timeline you’re looking to stick to
Your budget
A lot of potential clients hesitate when talking about their initial budget as there’s the stipulation that if you tell your home builder your budget before getting a quotation they’ll mark up the price for the build, but I’m here to tell you that that isn’t true! Getting an initial budget from our clients is one of the most helpful things we can get from an initial conversation, this ensures that we include items in your quotation that you can afford you and so you aren’t let down when you see the first budget number from your builder. We want to help you build the home of your dreams not mislead you and guide you in the wrong direction!
Pro-tip: don’t begin the conversation with how much is it to build price per sq/ft (especially when it comes to building with a custom home builder), the price per sq/ft of a custom home can vary so much from house to house and never really gives you a good indication of what a builder can offer you when in the beginning stages of building.
Compare
After your initial contact and have received quotations from your top 2 home builders, it’s time to compare and at Ripplinger we always say compare apples to apples! This is why it is so important to choose builders that are comparable in quality, specifications and reputation. Analyze your quotations in detail and ensure that each builder is quoting you the exact same home, from floorplan to finishing details. These builders should have pricing that is similar and if one is way off, don’t jump ship yet! Talk to them about the differences and see where the difference in price is.
I also warn you against choosing your home builder strictly based on pricing, you might be getting a great deal on pricing with your builder but how is their reputation, their quality of finishing’s, do they work consistently with the same trades, how is their service with their clients? All of this is so important when building a home and you want to pick a home builder that has a good reputation, great quality of work and good customer service so you can feel comfortable with your purchase for years to come!
Choose your Builder!
Now it’s time to choose your builder! After analyzing the differences in your builders, talking to your friends and families about their reputation and what to expect from the builder during the process you can make a great educated decision on which builder to go with.
Make sure to let both builders know which one you have chosen to go with, it takes a lot of effort and time for builders to provide potential clients with quotations and they will be grateful you let them know you chose to go in a different route instead of never hearing from you again!
Hopefully this is a good starting point in your search for choosing your home builder and next week I will share some details on the actual process of building a custom home!
Talk soon,
Mickayla
New Home Sales & Marketing Director
Mickayla@ripplingerhomes.ca
306-596-2204