Reasons to Trust Your Dream House Project to Professional Home Builders
With the DIY culture growing in popularity, and the ever-increasing prevalence of “how to” content on social media giving viewers a misguided sense of confidence in their own “expertise”, we’re seeing more and more prospective homeowners contemplating project managing their own builds.
Misleading stats boasting a cost savings of 25% or more for DIYers willing to take that leap, can also be enticing. Realistically, however, average dollar savings sit closer to the 7%-9% mark and often, these nominal savings up front come at a much higher cost in the long run. And when dealing with the unexpected, which is almost a given with any home building journey, those up-front savings can quickly transform into a deficit in the hands of the inexperienced.
At LIDA Construction, we love working with clients who are engaged and invested in the planning process, but there’s merit in leaving the project management work to the professionals when it comes to building your custom home. Here are our top 10 reasons to hire a custom home builder:
1. Custom home builders can translate your dream into reality
You’ve been dreaming about your dream home for months, years, possibly decades. Maybe you’re an HGTV fan with vision boards full of ideas carefully clipped from your favourite interior design magazines. Or maybe, you’ve got a binder full of innovative concepts for creating a more sustainable and efficient home life for your family. Whatever your angle, you’ve got ideas and you’re keen to share them, but where to start?
Custom home builders are experts when it comes to translating even the loftiest of dreams into reality. They’ll help you fine tune your vision, identify key elements and provide guidance on how to execute your vision on time and within budget.
2. Custom home builders can help you “future proof” your home
Maybe one of your goals is to incorporate a rental suite into your dream home to generate some additional revenue and help recover partial costs of your build over the next 5-10 years. But what then? Perhaps that suite will become an in-law suite for your aging parents, in which case, you may want to consider incorporating increased accessibility into the design (open concept, wider entries and hallways, counter heights, accessible bathrooms).
Custom home builders will help you look at how your current dream home might need to evolve as your life evolves, and will work with you to incorporate some of those future needs into your design concept.
3. Custom home builders have an efficient and streamlined process
One of the most common issues we see in the DIY approach to home building, has to do with timelines. Delays occur when subcontractors aren’t scheduled properly, don’t show up on time, or are held back due to work being done in the wrong sequence. Time is money, and delays in your project timeline can snowball quickly, impacting your financing and even adding unnecessary costs to your build.
Experienced custom home builders have “been there, done that” and have established efficient and streamlined processes that will not only help your home building journey proceed more smoothly, but will help you stay on track and on budget.
4. Custom home builders have established relationships with reliable subcontractors
Building a home from scratch requires the services and expertise of a great number of tradespeople; from electricians to plumbers, from roofers to flooring installers, and everything in between. As a homeowner, sourcing reliable subcontractors is an overwhelming prospect. Many subcontractors specialize within their fields and there is a broad range of experience represented in the market, making the selection process alone a monumental task, and a potentially disastrous one if you don’t make the right choice. Scheduling is an entirely different and equally imposing prospect, with pandemic labour shortages and an increased demand adding to the mix.
Top subcontractors prefer to work with experienced home builders with whom they have a long-standing working relationship and history of successful project completion. Established custom home builders can, therefore, leverage their years of experience and industry knowledge to select and recruit the best team for your project. With over 200 custom homes built in the Greater Victoria area, LIDA Construction has a proven track record and we work with some of the best tradespeople in the region.
5. Custom home builders have purchasing power that helps you save
It’s no secret that labour shortages and supply chain challenges, coupled with increased market demand, have driven the cost of building supplies, parts and materials skyward during the pandemic. For the average homeowner, these cost increases alone can be prohibitive. That’s why it pays to have purchasing power.
Successful home builders will often have multiple projects on the go at any given time and, with the help of established supplier relationships and an inside beat on the supply chain, can leverage bulk ordering and take advantage of significant discounts not available to the public in a retail setting.
6. Custom home builders can better manage your resources
We’ve all heard the horror stories of home building gone wrong and the most common casualty is the bank account. But run-away budgets and cash-flow flounders can be prevented, by hiring a home builder who is skilled in resource management.
Between planning ahead, streamlining processes, having a direct-dial relationship with subcontractors and access to discounts on supplies, it’s easy to see why a custom home builder is perfectly poised to make the most of your valuable and limited time and money.
7. Custom home builders are pros when it comes to handling tricky logistics
Picture this… it’s the middle of your work week and you’re sitting in the waiting room at the local municipal office trying to find out why your latest building permit application was denied. Or perhaps you’ve got subcontractors on the clock and twiddling their thumbs because you’ve only just been informed that those custom finishes you ordered from Italy that were supposed to arrive today are held up at customs. Or maybe you need to temporarily prohibit parking on your street so you can get service trucks in to connect power and water to your empty lot, but you don’t know where to start. Again, some things are best left to the professionals!
Custom home builders are masters when it comes to navigating the complex logistics of building a new house. They know building codes like the back of their hands and are well versed in navigating the (often convoluted) permit and approvals processes.
8. Custom home builders know how to handle the challenges that WILL inevitably arise
Life is full of surprises and so is building a house from scratch. While thorough planning will reduce the number of surprises and mitigate potential fall-out, no home building journey is without it’s hiccups. Custom home builders have seen it all and are equipped with the knowledge, resources and skills to manage and adapt when unexpected challenges arise.
9. Custom home builders stand behind their craftsmanship for long-term piece of mind
Mistakes happen, even to the best of us. But what happens when, as a DIY home builder, you make a mistake or a poor decision during the building process that ends up costing you money a year later?
Leading custom home builders stand behind their craftsmanship with warranties that provide homeowners with long-term peace of mind. As an example, LIDA Construction offers a 2-5-10 year home warranty through Pacific Home Warranty Insurance Services Inc., and are a Licensed Residential Builder in Good Standing with the Home Owner Protection office, a branch of BC Housing.
10. Custom home builders can take care of the work, so you can enjoy the process
Managing the construction of a home is an overwhelming and hugely time-consuming process and certainly not something that can be well executed in the average person’s “spare time”. We hear time and again how homeowners felt confident in the beginning of the project that they’ve found a balance between their job, family, social life and the build, only to find the train derailing soon after.
Hiring a custom home builder will take the stress and burden of project management off of your shoulders so you can focus on what’s important in life and delight in the exciting parts of the process like picking your custom finishes and planning your first big family dinner in your brand new chef’s kitchen!
Trust the LIDA Construction Proven Process
We know from our years of experience that an organized construction process and clear transparent communication combined with a relentless commitment to customer service is the key to a successful custom home build or remodelling experience. That’s why we created “The LIDA Construction Proven Process”. This is the foundation of our custom home and remodelling experience and it follows these six Cs: Consultation, Collaboration, Contract & Design, Construction, Completion and Continuing Care. For more information on the LIDA Construction Proven Process or to book a free consultation, contact us today!
