Price chaos for materials has made budgeting more complicated. Here's what you need to know.

Most people are familiar with allowances—a way to let homeowners create firm budgets for items that haven't been specified at the time of contract signing. As with many other things, the financial chaos of the past two years has forced allowances to adapt.

As a result, builders have been setting allowances that wouldn't have been conceivable two years ago.

Creating Functionality and Beauty in Your Outdoor Space

A lot of homeowners are looking beyond the basic deck or patio to a complete outdoor experience. They're designing and building homes with multi-level decks, patios connected to decks and pools, screened porches, arbors and outdoor kitchens.

Should you heed the conventional advice about getting price bids from three builders?

Maybe, but once you understand the complexities and uncertainties that go into putting together a bid, you will see why there may be a more effective approach.

We pride ourselves on building and delivering homes that bring our clients' visions and imaginations into reality. We build dreams.

As a professional builder, we offer a period of time in which we respond to warranty requests and address questions from the homeowners. Eventually the baton is passed to the homeowners for regular home maintenance. 

While every home we build is unique, specifically with regards to the various exterior and interior finishes, they all need proper care and maintenance in order to retain our clients' investment and help maximize their quality of life. 

Quality homes and happy customers don't happen by accident. The best builders have systems to ensure those outcomes.

Rarely does a customer initiate a custom home building project with every product selection already in place and final blueprints ready for building. Design and selection changes, both initially and throughout the project can significantly impact the final cost of the home. 

Post-contract changes need not be a problem, but they absolutely need a well thought-through process

The usual definition of a change order is anything that alters the scope, schedule or cost of the work after the homeowner has signed the final contract. We refer to these changes as 'Additional Work Authorizations.' 

Trust? Maybe. Verify? Definitely.

Fake reviews are blatantly unethical, but it's not surprising why some businesses post them. Positive reviews bring more customer inquiries than anything else because they offer busy people an easy decision-making shortcut.

The question is how best to use that shortcut. 

Outdoor lighting is a real art, and the best results come from planning ahead.

A beautiful custom home represents a huge investment of time, care and money. Therefore, it's recommended not to approach outdoor lighting as an afterthought—an element often postponed thinking about until the end of the project.

We encourage homeowners to start considering it earlier, for reasons of creativity and efficiency.

The vast majority of professional home builders are happy to provide prospective clients with a list of individuals for whom they have recently built homes and will typically encourage you to call these references to confirm the homeowner's experience and level of satisfaction with the builder.

Homeowners who fail to check their builder's references do themselves a disservice. After all, a reference check is an easy way to avoid trouble and an important confirmation that hiring a particular company is a good choice. 

Builders hear this question a lot. The answer, as with most such questions is, "It depends." But on what?

Those who haven't built before may have an unrealistic concept of how long it will take to plan, budget and build a home. Many variables will affect the timetable. Three that stand out are design, permitting and site work.

Take the time to choose the models that work best for you.

We find that most homeowners like to take plenty of time researching their kitchen appliances. And, many of them also want some advice when making the final choices.

Allowances, that is, budgeting general costs for line items before the specific items are chosen, are a fact of life on many custom home projects. 

For an allowance to positively serve the homeowners' interest, it must be based on accurate numbers. For example, the homeowners should at least decide what grade of products they want - a decision that can require legwork as well as self-awareness.