Constructive Conversations
Welcome to Constructive Conversations with co-hosts Zac Daniel of Victorian Finance and Luke Barksdale of Viz3Dspace. This podcast is designed to take the confusion out of new construction and give you the knowledge you need to confidently begin your homebuilding journey.
Each episode, we break down the process step by step including everything from financing and design to builder relationships, budgeting, and the real questions homeowners should be asking before they ever break ground. With perspectives from both the lending and design sides, we’ll equip you with practical insights, industry knowledge, and the confidence to make informed decisions.
Whether you’re buying your first home, building your dream home, or simply curious about how it all comes together, Constructive Conversations is your go-to guide for navigating the world of new construction.
Constructive Conversations
Episode 4: New Construction 101 with a Builder
What really happens before those walls go up? Val Collier of PDG Homes pulls back the curtain on the mysterious world of home building, revealing the intricate dance that takes place long before construction even begins.
With over a decade of experience crafting custom homes, Val walks us through the journey from initial permits to final inspections. He explains how seemingly simple decisions—like foundation type or material selections—can dramatically impact your timeline and budget. Did you know hitting rock during excavation can delay your project by weeks? Or that changing your tile selection mid-build might push your move-in date back by months?
The conversation demystifies the critical stages of construction while highlighting the importance of finding the right builder relationship. As Val points out, "There's always going to be someone cheaper, but cheaper isn't always the best option." This wisdom extends throughout the episode as he shares candid insights about how to avoid the frustrations that lead so many first-time builders to say "never again."
Perhaps most valuable are Val's practical tips for prospective homeowners: make selections early, maintain open communication with your builder, check reviews before hiring, and never schedule your moving trucks until you have that certificate of occupancy in hand. His passion for changing the narrative around home building shines through as he emphasizes the power of transparency and realistic expectations.
Whether you're actively planning to build or simply curious about the process, this episode provides an illuminating roadmap through what can otherwise feel like an overwhelming journey. Subscribe now to hear more expert conversations that will help you navigate the exciting world of new construction with confidence!
Hey, I'm Zach Daniel with Victorian Finance and I'm Luke Barksdale with Biz3Dspace. We're your co-hosts for a constructive conversations and we're going to talk to you about all things new construction that will help educate you so you're feeling more prepared to venture into the home building and home buying process.
Speaker 2:That's right. And today we're joined with Val Collier with PDG Homes. He's been building houses for a little bit over ten years and we're gonna be breaking down the home building process step by step, so that you'll know exactly what to expect when you're building your dream home.
Speaker 1:So when people hear new construction, they often imagine the walls going up, but I know there's a lot that happens before then. So, val, if you would kind of walk us through the first steps of the home building process, before there's even ground broken.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So you know pulling a permit is a lot more than you know. Hey, we're ready to build and let's go get the permit, let's start next week. There's a lot more than you know. Hey, we're ready to build and let's go get the permit, let's start next week. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes work, you know working with city officials. You know you're working with your inspectors as well, the Planning Department, so you know there's a lot of boxes that you got to check, surveys got to be completed and need to be able to turn all that information in. You know that takes a couple weeks and stuff like that to get all that approved. And then you know from there there may be some revisions that are needed. You know something that the city doesn't like, or setbacks, or something that was not, you know, designed appropriately. So you, we will. You know, design appropriately, so you, we will. You know work on that, get it fixed and you know, get it approved and at that point then your permit is ready to go.
Speaker 2:So this what you said just second ago, like setbacks and stuff, what are some things that, like homeowners need to be aware of when they are getting their permit? What do they need to be thinking about ahead of time when they're talking to designers and the builder?
Speaker 3:I would say keep the end goal in mind. What are you looking for in your home? Is there a certain design style or something that you want to have, such as how wide is the home? Do you want to maximize the footprint of the lot? Do you want to keep it narrow and skinny, so you've got more side yard? There's a lot of things that they need to keep in mind and think about and just be open to creativity and kind of just work that process with your builder or whatever. So you know, I think that's something, a few things that they need to think about, sure man.
Speaker 1:So you know, I guess you talked about the setbacks and you know that makes sense. So I'm assuming just city easements and things really play in part when you're pulling a permit to make sure the house you want to build fits the land that you own, right, mm-hmm. So moving forward, I guess you know permits are approved, your plans are set, you've designed everything. Can you walk us through kind of what happens when clearing and pouring the foundation?
Speaker 3:yeah, absolutely so. Before we start clearing clearing we'll get a survey. We want to make sure first that we're building on the correct property. That's important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, extremely important. Yeah, we don't want to buy the neighbor's property.
Speaker 3:So I'll work with my survey company. They'll come out, stake the property, lay the corners out, stuff like that right there, because property pins have been known to move. You know there's some other people you know cutting grass or something like that that may move the property pin one foot. So it's always better to, you know, have a survey company involved. Then from there we'll get the pin set and you know we'll lay out the foundation and then we start lay out the foundation and then we start working on the elevation of the home. How many steps and stuff like that right there. And is it going to be a block and field, is it going to be a monolithic slab or is it going to be a crawl space?
Speaker 2:So how do you decide? Because I know in design we run into it. We're like we design them a house're like we design them a house and we've designed them a crawl space and it's got three steps up the front. And then they go and they put it on the lot and that's got eight steps up at the front because there's some fall like so how are you decided as a builder, what like type of foundation they're going to get, first of all, like what type? And then, second of all, like how do you get that vision? Maybe I don't want eight to ten steps going up the front. How do you kind of account for that?
Speaker 3:uh, so you know, of course I would like to be involved in in all of the house designing, but sometimes I get plans that are not given to me and, uh, in that situation, uh, what I tell the homeowner is basically, we just work together, you tell me what it is that you need and then you know a large factor is the land that you already got.
Speaker 3:You know the elevation, the terrain and stuff like that right there. But you know, specifically, if you're like, hey, you know, I want three steps going into the house, I need to know that when I'm digging the footing, so that way you know I can three steps going into the house, I need to know that when I'm digging the footing, so that way, you know, I can form my wall up to a certain height. You know a lot of things that can get overlooked would be like the floor assembly. So if you're doing a crawl space, I already know that it's 18 and a quarter inches, because you know you've got your top plate, your odd joists, your subfloor. So essentially, out of that, you've got your top plate, your eyes, always your subfloor. So essentially, out of that, you already got to two steps right, um, so, yeah, it's, I forgot your question no, it's fine man.
Speaker 2:So what's, I guess? How do you determine what kind of foundation you're gonna be getting?
Speaker 1:rather, it's gonna be a crawl space or a slab, or you know, is it just strictly the land or what's that factor?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean I would say, uh, the land plays the most important part, because if you're trying to put a, you know, monolithic slab on a basement lot, um, it's just not going to work. Ultimately, we can work to be able to get you what you want, but the land is really important and that's why I always advocate that come talk to us first, figure out a time for us to meet on your site before you go and work with Luke or whatever the case may be, so we can advise, consult you and if you're like, hey, I'm getting up on, up in age and I want to make my house as mobile-friendly as possible, so between the two of us and creating the design and then building it, we can give you what it is. You know, your dream, right?
Speaker 1:I would imagine that could be, you know, filling in land to flatten it out oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you mean, I've got a good example. Actually, we worked on a project together uh, it's called the patel project and then he's building it right now and finish getting ready to finish it up and there was a elevation, and then we had designed it. I believe it was flush like a zero entry and then there was elevation chains that we hadn't accounted for in the design, and so he called us up and said hey, I need you to come out here, I need you to look at this foundation. We met him and the foundation guy out there and kind of on the fly, we go okay, these are the adjustments we're going to make, and having a knowledgeable builder that has an open line of communication with the design team and having knowledgeable subs. We're standing out there and the foundation guy goes hey, I'm just going to hold this wall down, we're going to pour it like this. Good to go, it's going to have like two steps coming into it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, kind of sorted it out on the fly so let's not overlook how quick he got out there. I called luke and was just like hey, we got a slight issue, because in construction it's never major, we know always. But next day Luke and I we met out there, like you said, with the foundation guy and we got it resolved.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so I mean, I guess, what are common surprises that you think people would run into at this stage in the process? Would foundation elevation changes be kind of the most common, or are there others?
Speaker 2:you should run in like rock or something like that yeah, they throw you for a loop on a foundation yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 3:So you know everything's going well. We're out there digging, we're hitting red, beautiful dirt and next thing you know you hear the the teeth on the bucket make a loud noise. You've hit some rock. That does not make for fun time. So you know, usually at that point you know I'll have a geotechnical engineer, you know I'll work with them to figure out, you know, if we can remove the rock or if we need to, you know dowel into it or something like that. But unfortunately for the homeowner that's one of those things where you really don't know until you start digging. And that's where in our budget we'll have contingency items, stuff like that, to be able to help offset that cost.
Speaker 2:How much time do you think that I mean? Again, I know it's specific per the job, but is that like a week-long shift or two-week-long shift that may happen to a project? Because I know time for a homeowner is one of the more frustrating things. But what do you see happening when something like that comes along?
Speaker 3:I'd say it really depends. Honestly. It can be anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks, just depending on where you are. You know, here, specifically in our area in Huntsville, and as we get closer to Chapman Mountain and stuff like that, you know it's almost a guarantee that you're going to hit a rock or something like that and, like I said, it could delay it. You know a couple days, you know a couple weeks.
Speaker 1:But ultimately, you know know, it's not that long of a process, gotcha, gotcha. So you know, at the point where the homeowner really starts seeing their home come to life from the walls go up about how long would you say it takes from going from foundation to walls up on a house.
Speaker 2:Like in the dry. Yeah, pretty quick honestly no, no no, no, no.
Speaker 3:The rain. Yeah, so usually, depending on the size of the house, we can have it framed up in a couple weeks and then shortly after that you have your roof and your windows in A generic ballpark range. From foundation pour to dry in, I would say could range anywhere from six to ten weeks, something like that. Okay, awesome.
Speaker 2:You guys are specializing more in some pretty high-end homes right now. Um, as far as far as those go like the key stages buyers are expecting from that, you know y'all are working with the design team. Interior designers are a few more steps involved in the homes y'all are doing versus like just your everyday home. We like talk about those a little bit.
Speaker 3:You know what are you seeing as far as the stages of the build oh yeah, absolutely, man, there's, there's, as as the homes get larger, or I would say as as my client dreams, more I'm there to assist and help them any way that I can. So at that point it becomes bigger than just, you know, a draftsman, architect and a builder. You know I may have MEP, mechanical, electrical, plumbing engineers involved. I'll have you know, obviously, a survey crew may have to have a geotechnical engineer. We'll have people working on interior design selections. We'll do, you know, automations of the home, low voltage designs. It's really a lot of people coming together to make you know some of these homes that we do, uh, work out best for our client.
Speaker 2:When you get in these high-end homes like that, it's almost a light commercial project at that point.
Speaker 2:Like it's that close to being commercial and then, like your standard houses, you've got the frame and plumbing, drywall finishes. Where you're really adding on is those high-end products that you're talking about. You know, one of the things we get into and I think I mean you've talked about it before is like finishes and chasing that with a client through a project, when is a good time or what's the most efficient thing clients can do to help you as a builder with their finish selections.
Speaker 3:Believe it or not, I think I think not just myself, but I would say all builders probably say this but it helps us when you make your selections up front. I know specifically for us, selections are important. We actually just had a scenario yesterday, so basically building a house in Tennessee, beautiful stamped concrete, cedar porch, all that kind of stuff, and I was telling them like I really don't want to just pour this slab and that's the end of it. I think in an outdoor space like this, you need some floor plugs and you know I want to put that in and I think it's going to. You know it's going to add character.
Speaker 3:You're not going to have extension cords coming across and stuff like that. So they think about finished product, whereas I think a little bit more about what it's going to look like, the functionality of it. I don't want to make sure I'm going to get an extension cord. So it's always my job to mention, you know, errors or mistakes that you know previous clients have made. So I want to help the clients as much as I can.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah. So, what would you say are some of the more common, like change orders.
Speaker 3:You get in a job and you know by change order it's you got the design've started building and then halfway through they're like well, I want something else so I would say I I run into that a lot, um, you know with, with plans that are already completed, um, that you know we was not, you know, there to work with them. Um, and you know I saw you know some people, uh, I've had a house framed up before and they're like we don't like it. We really want to change the entire thing of it. So we've added on to it, we've made modifications. Pretty much every change you could think of I've dealt with.
Speaker 3:But you know, kind of like Luke, with Luke, when he's drawing the plans, it's more of it's a finished product, so it's a virtual walkthrough, so you're able to visualize and see your entire home before we even break ground. You know that's one of the things that makes Luke so special. Is his company like not only just provides like a 2d drawing, but it's more of it's more helpful for me because the client can see their, their trim, their doors or paint colors and visualize it before we start. So it does a real incredible job.
Speaker 2:For that appreciate that, yeah, we're trying to knock out those change orders that you're running to because it's like you're talking about. You know if you have. Hey, I found this plant online and they get in there. They don't realize and they take I guess they take for granted that there's another thousand decisions to be made on trim style, door style, window style, like all these things. And if you're not able to see that, it makes it difficult because when you see it in the field, you may go oh man, you know what? That's just not it. I'm about to spend big money, so I'll go ahead and eat this truckload of trim or whatever the return cost is, and then you start adding to the budget with change orders doing that stuff.
Speaker 1:So I got I got another question. I know we mentioned you do kind of higher end homes and custom homes. I know you have a neighborhood that you've worked on too where you kind of have your home designs and spec homes. Are change orders allowed on those? And if so, kind of when is the drop dead line of yeah, no, you can't do anything else anymore, Like we've got to finish out with what?
Speaker 3:we got. You know, sometimes I wish I had that policy, but I don't, because I'm passionate about the things that we do. You know, at PGD, that's basically what our company stands for is people, growth and diversity. So it's and you know, with us being custom home builders, I don't really see how I could tell my client that they're not allowed to make a change. I go in to the project knowing that there's going to be changes. So for me to try to charge you for a markup because you want to change something, that doesn't make sense. I'm not a track home builder, I'm a custom home builder. So I do things that are unique and if you come to me at the last moment with something, well, I want to do it because it's probably going to be cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not what you get often from a lot of builders having the willingness to like take on projects that may have some difficulty. Hey, we're going to figure that out and we'll find the professionals to do that is. That's a pretty cool uh thing that you guys do at PGD yeah.
Speaker 1:So, um you know, throughout the build, I know there are certain things that happen different checkpoints, inspections you got city inspections, uh, county inspections You've got city inspections, county inspections, homeowners inspections that come through, so you know who all is inspecting the home during construction.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would say you know you're going to have, you know, your county or city officials doing the inspections If you don't have an inspection department. Specifically, I know with our company I have the 210 home warranty so I pay to have a reputable inspector come out and do inspections for me. So you know they're looking at, you know the foundation, the framing, the MEP, all of that stuff. But you know again, so you're going to have the city officials, county officials, you're going to have the homeowner, you know you may even have their kids, you know, telling you, hey, this don't look right. But most importantly, the person that's doing the most inspecting is us. You know we take pride in the homes that we build. We're not skipping any corners. You know we don't want no warranty issues and you know we believe strongly in that, in the fact of even when we're building in the county, we're still getting inspections, even though they're not required.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like what should buyers know about the inspections? And like should buyers be coming out and looking at projects?
Speaker 3:I think, yeah, I mean, I think it's good for the homeowner to come out and I encourage all my clients to come out. You know, during construction, you know, please give me a heads up, let me know something like that when you're coming out. But it's it's more beneficial to the homeowner to actually walk the job site, with or without me, because I want them to know the bones, the structure of the house. What I don't want is you to move in and a year later you drill in a specific area and you busted a water line. Well, you're flooding your house.
Speaker 3:But when you're a little bit more involved in the build process and you know where everything is, you know it helps you and me. But on top of that, you know, during the build process, I have a program that I use where I take pictures and I upload it. And at the end of the job I download that file and I give that to you. So before you go and hang that 75 inch TV, you might want to look at what's behind the wall, and you have the capability to do that. You don't want to hit a gas line, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't want to shut down a whole city block.
Speaker 2:You don't want to do that. Like, how do you, as a builder because, like we talked about, y'all do some pretty high-end stuff how do you watch and know that your subcontractors that you're using are doing the quality work that they've said they would? What are you doing to keep an eye on that?
Speaker 3:Honestly, luke, I don't have to keep an eye on it because everybody that I work with has a lot of experience and, honestly, they have more experience than I do, so I rely on them. But, more importantly, we work together. So it's not just my way, it's an input from my subs, from the homeowners, from myself. Basically, we all collaborate together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's back to what you and I were discussing in our previous episode. It's all about that teamwork. It's all about making sure everybody's on the same page. And then you know you've spent time vetting and building relationships with quality subs that have experience and know what they do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we don't really do too much like sub hopping or anything. Everybody that I work with are people that started with us. It's not, you know, we're not out here like shopping around doing competitive bids or anything on the homes. We're working with our subs that are going to deliver on time every time and you know that's the only way that we're going to operate and run the company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. You mentioned something right there. That's an interesting thing that we've kind of touched on competitive bids. Explain that to somebody who's a new home builder the first time they're building a home what is a competitive bid versus what you guys do.
Speaker 3:So I would say a competitive bid is where you know, say a competitive bid is where you know you know that multiple people are, you know, trying to win a project. Ultimately, we want to build a feed our family, so we need to land jobs and stuff like that. So there's times where you know you may need to cut down on your margin, your builder fee, or simply talk to the homeowner and just tell them you know some of the selections that you've made. You know we need to reduce those if I have a good chance at getting this job within your budget. But you know, I believe specifically in the power of transparency. You know. You tell me what your budget is and that's what I'm aiming for. I don't need, you know, any more money or anything like that. Like I told y'all, I'm not charging for a change order or nothing like that. It's my fee. It's what it is Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's something we've been talking about a little bit is? You know? I hear it all the time. Somebody comes in and they get a set of design plans and they they've talked with a builder who maybe referred them and they're like, talked them up this whole time and they get the plans and then they're like, well, I'm gonna go put this out for bid, I'm gonna get a few bids on this and, and really it's so much more important to build a good relationship with your builder and build, have somebody you're gonna work with, you're married to that person for 12 months or more, depending on your project and have walked through some of their homes. I mean, like, y'all build niche houses that are super nice homes. The ones we've designed with you are like a very modern style.
Speaker 2:They have a modern take, either where it's modern farmhouse, modern traditional or just very modern so, and then there's other guys that maybe do like cottages and that's what they specialize in is a cottage type thing. So it's important to kind of build that out with your builder and it's it's not a one-size-fits-all thing, or hey, I'm gonna look for the lowest bid amongst these five guys?
Speaker 1:yeah, I would agree. I mean, depending on what you want, there's a different builder in the different niche market that you really need to walk their jobs and decide if their style is even what you want to be a part of. That's right. There's always going to be someone cheaper. If you have a quote from somebody, that matter if it's from me, from you, from you in different industries, there's always going to be someone cheaper. But cheaper isn't always the best option. I mean, if it's a budget that you're worried about and you're looking, then like, like you said, have that conversation, like we can aim for your budget. But if you just go start shopping, I mean, yeah, you'll probably find cheaper, but you're probably gonna be happy with it.
Speaker 2:That's right yeah, sorry to jump down that rabbit hole, but like yeah uh, kind of circling back around. So we talked foundations. You got the foundation, you framed it, you got it in the dry.
Speaker 3:You've gone through rough in gone through a finish work house is getting wrapped up so like, once the home's finished, what are like the final few steps before somebody moves in uh, so specifically with us, um is a you know, as the home's coming to a close, uh, you know, we know we're gonna do a walkthrough and basically in that walkthrough, you know we're looking for you know defects or something that the client is not satisfied with. Or, walking around the outside, we're looking at the brick. You know we're talking about landscaping, we're looking for dead plants, anything like that. You know obvious things that that need to be addressed. Um, and uh, I lost my train of thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no yeah, I mean just like as you're doing that final walkthrough, like what is it? What is okay for clients to say, hey, val, like that doesn't look okay. Or what is it okay for them to talk about with their builder?
Speaker 3:Honestly, it's okay to talk about anything. You know, open communication is what I want, is what I expect. You know I don't want you to hide anything from me. I want you to be honest with me. I want you to tell me that you know, if my idea of quality and your idea of quality is something different, I want to talk about it open. You know'm. I'm not, you know, too prideful. I make mistakes we all do but I just want to fix it and I want the opportunity to fix it. I don't want it to. You know, sit inside where you're not talking about you, don't tell me and you're just upset. No, come to me, talk to me. You know, but you know we've all had that nightmare customer where during the walkthrough you know I would call it they're so excited that they tend to get carried away Right and basically, you know they may be on the floor with a flashlight looking at the drywall and at that point I can't help but just feel great about the project that I just did.
Speaker 3:I feel, incredible, because if you got to get that close to find a deep bed, um you know, keep looking. So I'll stay here all night with you.
Speaker 1:But so, um, you mentioned earlier that your company uses 210 warranty for inspections throughout the process, but you with that. What does the warranty look like after the home is complete?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say again with us, pgd, it's longer than the warranty. The relationship that we cultivate is long lasting and that's why it's important that when you pick a builder, don't look at the short term. Hey, I'm gonna be with this guy for six months to one year. But you know long term, you know, even if it's three to five years later, you know I still like getting the phone calls. It's like you know, hey, we're looking at on or we want to put a new roof on, or something like that. You know I expressed to them that. You know, stay engaged with me. You know, let me know if there's something else that you want to do with additions or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Um so, yeah, I'll tell you, man, it's a mark of a good builder to not be afraid of feedback, good or bad. If you know you get builders, hey, I'm in and out 12 months cutting ties, that's my project. I'm a paycheck, I'm gone. Those are guys who don't want any kind of negative feedback is ultimately like, over time, somebody's going to go hey, you know, maybe this side didn't age. Well, we want to fix this. You know, is that covered under warranty? The answer may be no, but you as a builder are getting educated, along with your client, that, hey, the next build, maybe this product is a better product to use or a worse product to use, and it's good like being engaged like that. I think it's a mark of an awesome builder. So Very, very good on y'all's part. So what is covered under?
Speaker 1:warranty.
Speaker 3:I would say you know. Obviously you could say you know you've got a structural warranty, the foundation of the home. You've got your mechanical design. You know again, which includes your mechanical electrical plumbing. You know a roof warranty. You know a roof warranty pretty much the whole house has a warranty for. You know, at minimum a year or whatever the warranty period of a specific product is. You know there may be some things like. You know mechanical units. You know my warranty is with the mechanical unit. So that one is, you know, let's say it's five or ten years, or a motor goes out or a fan or a capacitor or something like that. Genuinely those warranties are longer than the standard one-year builder warranty.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, so that home's wrapped up, it's done. The homeowner needs a certificate of occupancy to get in that thing. Tell us a little bit about that. What is a CO and why do they need it? Yeah, so.
Speaker 3:CO certificate of occupancy is, basically, we are now at a stage where the home is completed and that's where your building officials or inspectors whoever it may be are coming back. They've signed off on everything, everything has passed the final inspection. We're talking from final gas inspection, lighting appliances, fireplaces. We're looking outside at the drainage away from the home, at the, the drainage away from the home. It's inclusive of everything in the home that was being constructed. So basically, once everybody has signed off or given a final, a CEO will be issued to you know, to the builder or whatever. Basically, at that point I can tell the homeowner you know, hey, we've completed, we passed all inspections, here's the proof. And you know we are now completed with your home. So you know it's time for you to enjoy it. It's awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know we've covered a lot and for anyone who has never built a home it can be a very overwhelming process. So I guess, circling back and just kind of recap, and what's some of the biggest misconceptions a buyer can have about building a house, come on, paul's man.
Speaker 3:That's a good question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I work with a lot of buyers and mostly dealing with new construction. And what I would say when I'm working with buyers generally is time. They will get quoted on a project and they're like four to six months if it's a track home builder and they're thinking that they can edit. So they're planning everything around this, especially when you get to the end and they're like you know they got moving trucks lined up, they've taken off work, they got uncles and aunts flying in from out of town to help out and you know they've turned utilities on already, they've switched it from the builder's name and then that certificate of occupancy doesn't come where they have a delay in getting appliances in or garage door. You know something small that's going to delay, you know, maybe a week, maybe two weeks and they are just beyond themselves of like I can't do that. I've already lined all this up. Sold mother house. I have no place to go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, kind of going off the script here, I got a little story for you. So I've been in that situation before. I built some apartments in Madison and we ran into that exact same issue. We had completed everything, all final inspections, and we were simply just trying to get the CO, and so our city was growing so much so they're backed up. So at this point the leasing company has already started signing dates for people to move in.
Speaker 3:If you don't know much about the Rocket City, a lot of people are moving here. So we had people lined up, we had U-Hauls, we had people coming from Canada, we had all these things and all these people moving here and they could not get in this apartment complex that we had recently just finished. And talk about stressful times. And you know I felt bad, you know, but thankfully we had a storage unit right beside the apartment complex so we was able to help accommodate them. You know, we got them rental units and all that kind of stuff and ultimately we did get the CO, they did get moved in. But you never know, there can always be something that's going to pop up.
Speaker 2:I think there's time frames, Like they've got to be communicated. People underestimate them a lot. You see a whole bunch. One of the things I see as just being a big misconception is that I'm going to hire this builder, I'm going to sign this contract, I'm going to walk off and I'm not going to be engaged in this and it's just going to get done, and then when I show back up, I want to be 100 happy with everything that happened. Like some reason, people sell themselves on that a lot.
Speaker 2:They're like I'm just going to go work like normal and I'm going to show back up and exactly what's been in my imagination is going to be sitting there and I'm good with it. Yeah, this is back to that teamwork.
Speaker 3:Open communication has got to be a thing on a building project yeah, you got to communicate, man got to have you know clear expectations and, and going back to the co thing, typically what I tell my clients is don't schedule any moving, don't you know? Don't make any commitments until we have that piece of paper that says you're good to go, because you know people take off, they go on vacations. Um, you know, city may be backed up or something like that. So it's always better to get that piece of paper then playing your movie.
Speaker 1:I try to tell people that all the time and you know some people will lean into it and take the advice and plan accordingly and some people will say yes, and then they'll try to gamble on what that date is going to be and then everyone's just real upset that it can't be done on that day because of some kind of delay, whether it be weather inspections, financing. There could be a delay.
Speaker 2:There's so many moving pieces in building a home that anything can delay it and you've just got to be prepared for that, and if you're talking to your builder and your builder is talking to you, you know these things like well in advance. You kind of know what to do. So what would be some advice you would give to buyers to avoid delays and frustrations in building?
Speaker 3:Make your selections early, you know, be open-minded, be okay to pivot, because you know the end goal is for you to move in. And if you got a set expectation where you know, let's say you're trying to be in by Christmas and you know you've selected this tile, that's going to take, you know, eight weeks to come in. You know, you should know that not having the tile is going to affect a lot of other trades. So therefore, basically, you may be dead in the water for eight weeks and you know your timeline of Christmas has already passed. At this point you know we're looking at, you know, moving in in January. So always be aware of when you make changes or the selections that you make, they have timelines associated with it. You're no longer just talking about a product that's going to be installed, but you're you're talking timelines as well.
Speaker 2:yeah, everything's got an impact every decision affects like a dozen other decisions.
Speaker 1:Yeah so you know if someone's choosing a builder, whether it's you or somebody else. What's some of the key questions that you think a buyer should be asking a builder?
Speaker 3:Show me your portfolio. Yeah, I would say, let me see, let me see the houses that you built. Most importantly, probably the simplest thing, is check the reviews first. Um and uh, you know reviews are extremely important. Um, you know, we always try to, uh, you know, advocate. That, you know, reviews is how we get business.
Speaker 3:So, uh, you know, look, look into your builder. Uh, figure out, um, you know, the location that they're in, where they're willing to travel, all those kind of things. There's a lot of things that you need to look into other than just building a home. Are you a fit to work together? Do the personalities jive? What kind of person are you? And you know, um, you know, because some people are, you know, different in in making selections. Like you know, specifically, I work with a lot of engineers. Um, you know, and, and they're real technical and if you're a builder from the very or when you're making your selection of a builder, ask them simple questions and figure out, see, what's the response time, how quick do they respond? How fast do they get you that estimate?
Speaker 2:because if they're not quick to give you an estimate or give you something, that kind of sets the foundation for what you could expect right yeah, you can avoid a lot of frustration, because if you have this expectation as a homeowner, I need everything super quick and I want this kind of personality to go with it and you go pick somebody that's a little slow to respond and they don't have the right personality, you're setting yourself up for a lot of frustration.
Speaker 1:You'll just be upset in the whole process and be miserable.
Speaker 2:That's why you keep hearing like I'm never going to build a house again because that's the way you did it.
Speaker 3:Yeah and you know specifically, I know I'm glad you said that, but, um, you know we're here to change the narrative. I don't want people to say you know we're never going to build again or that process was horrible. You know I encourage everyone to. You know, check us out. You know hear about us. And you know I feel like ultimately they'll be saying I'm ready to build again. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, absolutely well. Do you have any advice you give to a home buyer? I feel like you. You kind of nailed it on that last how to interview someone, but you know there's any kind of wrap-up or anything else you would really suggest to a home buyer. What would that be?
Speaker 3:I would probably say the best advice that I could give to a home buyer would be land selection, because we all have the dream of the house on the hill but you don't understand about how much that driveway cost or the utilities. Or you know you may not have gas that you know is serviceable out there. You may have to set a propane tank, but the house on the hill is a big dream.
Speaker 2:But let's be realistic and let's you know have realistic expectations is what it's coming down to. So, man, we appreciate you joining us today, val, and if you guys want to take a look at Val and his company, it's wwwpgdhomescom and his number is 256-509-3135. Y'all, take a look at them, look at their reviews, look at their website. Some of their upcoming projects they'll be posting um, and thank you for tuning in with us here at constructive conversations.
Speaker 1:So next, week we will be talking about financing yep, getting in the money of it yep, we're going to talk about what the mortgage looks like for a new construction home and why it is different than purchasing a resale home.
Speaker 2:So thanks for tuning in and we'll see you guys next time. Thank you.
