Q: What should we have prepared before we meet with you?
Building a home is a very relational process.  We will spend several months working closely on something that will be a very important part of your family's life.  You as a client, and I as your builder, both deserve a certain level of comfort and familiarity with one another, so it makes sense that we would want to meet in person to discuss working together.

The up-side to working directly in my process is that I don't hand you off to staff or outsiders; we collaborate directly.  The downside is that because I am personally involved in every decision and implementation, I have to be very focused on where I apply my time, as there are only so many hours in the day.  Therefore, meetings need to be productive and actionable.  

In order for an initial meeting to take place, it's important that you've narrowed your focus and have taken a few key steps to be prepared for the process.

  1. Determine your timeline.  Are you ready to roll and wish you were in your new home yesterday?  Or are you just kicking tires, for now, thinking of building in a year or two?  If the former, once you've achieved items 1 and 2 above, reach out to me to move discussions forward.  If the latter, a meeting is probably not necessary to get your questions answered.  I'm always happy to help provide answers to questions and guidance about future options by email.
  2. Get pre-qualified.  In order to purchase a home, you need to verify your purchasing position.  Pre-qualification is easy with a trusted lender and will help you in determining your monthly payment budget and total purchase amount that is right for you and your situation. 
  3. Narrow your focus based on budget.  Once pre-qualified, you will have a better idea of what you can spend, which will point you towards which community and which plans you are interested in.  Narrowing it down to 1 or 2 plans is optimal to narrow the focus of the meeting.  Note that not all plans can be built in all communities.
  4. Location, Location, Location. With a budget, community, and plan selected, one major decision left is the lot you'd like to build on.  In advance of our meeting, reach out to me to get a list of available lots and the neighborhood plat for your chosen community.  This will be helpful in identifying your top 3 lot choices.
  5. Your Wishes, My Command.  Before meeting, I strongly encourage you to dream up a list of anything you can think of that you'd want your home to potentially have, and get that to me in advance.  Don't get too caught up in worrying about budget on this list.  Often, a wish-list includes a number of things I do or can do without any cost.  You like the Aria plan, but want the master suite a a little bigger?  List it.  Love the combination of brick and colors on that one house I built?  List it.  Want a storm shelter because Mom says you should probably have one?  List it.  Getting this list to me before the meeting will allow me to think through what you're after, as well as do any pre-research and pricing on cost-affecting items.  This is an essential step in ensuring the meeting can be productive and actionable for you in making a decision to move forward.

For more information about step 2, be sure to see What key decisions do I need to make to get my new home started?  Once you've achieved these steps, reach out to me and let's talk further!

See a discrepancy, or have a question you don't see here? Let me know!
Last Updated: 1.8.2020