A call came in recently from an interior designer who is interviewing for a position on the Project Team with a new client of ours. We're big on Project Teams! Matter of fact, I've written a whole book on the subject. Time and again the most successful projects in which we have ever been involved all have had a Project Team. There's no substitute for hiring your professionals early in the process, charging them with responsibility and parameters, and managing their creativity. Saves all kinds of time (read: you don't have to "re-do"), and money - promise!
Anyway... before giving our new client a proposal for her services the interior designer wanted to understand how we like to administrate our projects. In other words, what are our expectations. Huh...imagine that. Someone willing to invest some time in the project BEFORE getting hired to better understand what our needs, desires, and expectations might be! If I get a vote - she's hired!
Every client that walks through our office door comes with a full set of expectations. They may not realize it at the time, but sure enough, once we get down to brass tacks those expectations are right there. 'Building our home shouldn't take more than 6 months, should it?' 'What does it cost per square foot to build our home - you can do it for $125psf can't you?' 'I'm going to live upstairs while you remodel the downstairs.' Some of the expectations are just as obvious as these while some are much more subtle. 'Once the project is under roof we don't expect you will have any weather delays.' 'Surely you won't mind if we provide all of the ceramic tile for our home...' Or even 'you'll have someone on-site managing our project at all times, won't you?' Hundreds, maybe even thousands of expectations come with every project. Everyone paints pictures in their mind of how situations will turn out. Without sitting down and hashing it out, a formula for disaster has just been defined!
Builders should all do what our wives want us to do more of anyway - COMMUNICATE! A healthy dose of ANTICIPATION doesn't hurt either. We need to be about the business of trying to understand what our clients expect.
Homeowners also share in the responsibilities of communicating and anticipating, yet because they are not seasoned building professionals they often don't know what questions to ask. Not knowing what questions to ask speaks to the heart of building a Project Team. Though unclear about what information may be necessary, most people "know people," and that's precisely what makes up the Project Team. By selecting your architect, builder, interior designer, and landscape architect based on natural chemistry, an advantage will be gained by hiring advocates who will guide you through the oftentimes scenic journey of building or remodeling. These professionals will also help you define your expectations. And not only "define," but shape those expectations into realistic goals for your Project Team.
I know, I know....slowing down to take the time to build a Project Team is like ripping the wrapping paper off a highly anticipated gift only to find out that you must fully assemble it before you truly know what it can do! We don't live in a world that likes to wait on ANYTHING!! So add one more thing to your contrarian list in life - the less project planning you do upfront, the more time energy and money you will spend on your overall project!
The old saying goes, "you don't know what you don't know." So when you're building that home of your dreams, or remodeling the one you love, how do you know what you don't know? It's a fair question. In today's highly competitive housing market how do you know you're getting what you paid for when half the stuff you are paying for is covered up?
Substantiated rumors are floating around town that builders are using apartment grade plumbing on million dollar homes. But how is the consumer supposed to know about the quality of the pipes being installed behind the walls? When your water lines are decomposing or being eaten by bugs five years down the road its really too late to start questioning the integrity of what your builder is using on your job! And trust me, it happens everyday...
"Specifications don't mean anything in residential construction anymore," groaned one lumberyard vendor recently. Architects may draw it, and structural engineers may specify the materials necessary to make it strong, but some builders are changing lumber grades, product spacing and materials to cheapen costs and improve profit margins. No single construction item is more prone to homeowner deception than lumber. Why? Because ultimately everything is covered up! "Builder are wanting to get through their warranty period (with a homeowner) and that's it - period!" With the abundance of products available to a builder, changing the grading stamp on a ceiling joist, varying the distance between framing members, or even swapping out a specified plywood for OSB (oriented strand board) can make as much as a 10% cost difference in the cost of a framing package. And 10% of the cost of the single largest commodity going in your home can mean thousands of dollars in the builder's pocket!!
On a shorter leash you may not know that the $7,500 allowance your builder gave you for plumbing fixtures needed in your million dollar home will barely do the Master Bath. But you'll figure it out when you go to Ferguson Enterprises to select fixtures for the whole house and spend $25,000! By then the ink will be dry on the contract and it's too late to renegotiate. Can you spell "cost overrun?"
In tight economic times where way too many builders are competing for way too few projects, many believe the name of the game is 'get the contract signed, and make it up on change orders.' Builders feel they can deal with the fallout later. After all, who doesn't build a house understanding that there will be some cost overruns?!!
Recently we were hired to review the specifications for a couple's "dream home" after some problems arose between their builder and the bank. Budgets seemed low, and parts were definitely missing. To be safe we had our guys bid the work. Our estimate was 82% higher than the couple's builder, who, it turns out, had just declared bankruptcy! Forget the dream home, the couple purchased a nice pre-owned and have settled in comfortably.
Sensationalism you say...maybe until it's your project, but then it has a way of becoming all too real.
Disasters such as these can be avoided. Consider these tips before you build or remodel your next home:
- Build a team of professionals (architect, builder, interior designer, and landscape architect) and empower them with the specific scope of work required. Part of that scope of work needs to be a realistic budget.
- Challenge the team to not only work with the parameters you've outlined, but also "value engineer" where possible to produce the same product for less money.
- Demand total accountability and absolute transparency by requiring weekly reports detailing each team member's progress. This type of communication ensures that everyone associated with your project is singing off the same sheet of music.
It was totally predictable. Just like the waves that crash on the beach of the Monterrey Peninsula, the lure of big profits, and fast easy cash flow has once again washed in a whole new crop of builders! Because Texas has steadfastly refused to implement contractor licensing, anyone can hang out their shingle and start building homes. All it takes is a cell phone and a truck... And everybody in Texas has a cellphone and a truck, right?
With every downturn in the economy we see overextended "homebuilders" finding themselves short on cash, crashing on the rocks, and washing out to sea. All too often the naive homeowner is left holding the bag. But with every wave that washes out, another economic wave swells, and a whole new crop of builders washes into town. Fortunately this happens less in other areas of the country where wannabe contractors have to apprentice two years under an established builder before they can even sit for a highly rigorous licensing test. But not in Texas!
We endorse the idea of injecting new, energetic builder blood into the marketplace. But the lack of regulation governing their training puts the unsuspecting homeowner at risk.
Years ago crops of new builders at least tried to make an effort to learn something about the homebuilding business by taggin' along with the subcontractors and watching, or sometimes even working, with those that have practiced a craft for years. Now we have "cellphone" builders that know nothing of the minutia of building homes -they drive around in their truck all day barking orders at the subs by phone. Sadly it's left up to the subs to try and figure out how to get the houses built. The grand loser? Why the homeowner of course!
What most other states have figured out is that there are thousands of little bitty nuiances to the homebuilding business that need to be learned to protect the homeowner. Ahhhhh...that's called "experience!" Thousands of little 'tricks of the trade' need to be learned before a high quality product can be produced. For example did you know that:
- The maximum clear span of a 2 x 12 without significant deflection is 18'?
- Or, that ions of dissimilar metals (two or more) used together most often results in one of the metals eating the other metal? This can happen in just a year or two - not good for water intrusion!
- Or, that paint and stain rags left in a heap will ignite due to "spontaneous combustion," and fire travels at a rate of 17 feet/second?
- Or, that compressive strength of a concrete pier depends not only on the strength of the bearing rock, but also on the "skin friction" of the pier walls?
- Or, that brick is an inhibitor of rain and snow moisture but the porosity of the brick and mortar requires that metal flashings extend all the way through the brick and up the exterior wall?
- Or, that the standard backset (distance between the edge of the door and the center of the knob) of door hardware is 2 3/8" - not suitable when the doors have 3 1/2" stiles (vertical members) and you are trying to get the knob in the middle of the door.
- Or, that lacquer and lacquer products are highly flameable and cannot be used around any live electrical source that isn't fully contained? (Read: blow your house up!)
And on...and on...and on... The point is practice makes perfect! Is there really any substitute for experience? How can a guy just starting out in the homebuilding business, that doesn't have the benefit of either an apprenticeship, or rigorous testing, and hasn't done his time in the trenches of experience, qualify to undertake the construction of probably the single largest purchase a family will ever make? Maybe the better question is "would you really want to live in a house built by a guy just cutting his teeth?"
An armored truck took out the rear quarter panel of my truck a few months back. No one was hurt and the armored truck company quickly referred me to their insurance company to get the damage repaired. "Let the games begin!" After a few months of chasing my tail trying to get the truck fixed, I went back the other day to the armored truck company (couldn't get any satisfaction with the insurance company) and reminded them that this was their problem, not mine, and they needed to send someone over with a rent car to pick up my truck and take it in to have it repaired. No matter that I was stopped at a red light when I got hit, both the armored truck company, and the insurance company made getting it fixed my problem. Today, they brought me my rent car!
This most recent foray into the wonderful world of insurance comes on the heels of no less than three really good insurance fights last year! WHY WON'T THESE PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO, AND HONOR THEIR CONTRACT/POLICY?? Simple: Shareholders.
More and more there is talk in this country of a revolution. I'm convinced the revolution most probably will start over insurance and insurance companies. Rampant deception caused by excessively conservative policy interpretation has been inflamed by shareholder greed as they demand greater return on their investments. Who gets squeezed? You and I do! The more policies that are sold, and the more money insurance companies can take in translates to higher profit margins if the company can weasel you out of benefits.
Everyone knows that you have to have insurance. But when you buy protection, what do you really have? A platform to argue with the company that sold you the policy. Most likely they won't honor the face value language written in the policy. Congratulations, you've just invested your hard earned money to buy a place at the negotiation table. "Well the policy really doesn't say that, we interpret that phrase to mean this instead!" And on it goes.... If you don't like it, your Big Protective Brother's attitude is 'go ahead and sue me - we've got more money than you do, and we'll bleed you to death.'
Maybe it makes sense to hire an insurance attorney to read every policy before purchase so that all of the loopholes can be exposed. Do you suppose Big Protection will negotiate out the inconsistencies that are discovered? Good luck with that fight!
