Building Your New Seattle-area Home: Great Expectations
Charles Dickens may have written the classic book Great Expectations, but when it comes to custom homes, future homeowners have a few great expectations of their own!
As builders, we love it that people are excited about building a new home. We’re glad that they’re engaged—and that they have high expectations of the kind of product they’re going to get from us. But not all expectations are realistic. And sometimes expectations are mutually exclusive.
There are three areas in particular where homeowners have expectations regarding their builders and the building process (there are others, but these are the big three): Quality, speed, and price.
Quality: Good builders (especially in the custom home market) pride themselves on delivering a high-quality finished product. We want you to be particular about the details and the finish. We want you to notice our attention to detail. We think it’s something that sets us apart from other builders. This is a great expectation!
Speed: Having your home finished on time is important. Good builders take this seriously. Even when there are delays in the process beyond the builder’s control (material availability or weather), a good builder will be proactive and inform you how the delay will impact your schedule. Beyond that, quality work takes time, and a builder committed to a quality product will not sacrifice quality for an artificial deadline. Nonetheless, prompt completion is a really good expectation.
Price: Nobody enjoys paying more than they should. But ultimately, you get what you pay for. A new Mercedes costs more than a used Chevy. You expect more out of the Mercedes and you expect to pay more. Quality affects price. So does speed. If you want something done more quickly, you’ll probably pay more for it.
There’s an old axiom in the building industry that says when it comes to quality, speed, and price, you get to choose two out of three. Ultimately, it comes down to what is most important to you. If speed and price are most important to you, you’ll probably have to sacrifice some quality. If quality and speed are more important, you’ll most likely have to sacrifice your expectations of the lowest price.
The good news is that you are in control of your expectations!
What do you expect from your builder?
