By Vance Neely
When you have decided to build your new home, it can feel exciting. You are so close to living in your dream home. You may have waited your whole life to save for your perfect retirement home, or you are working hard to build the perfect home for your family.
Whatever the reason you have chosen to build your home, it is a fun yet strenuous process. There are hundreds of home building companies to choose from, so how do you know what contractor is the best? Here are three tips to get you started on the right foot:
- Full-Service
Before you select a home building company, you should consider what services they offer. While this may seem obvious, many home building companies offer more services than just building your home. For example, some home building companies have architects, contractors, land excavators, designers, and other members of the company that smaller companies cannot offer. You must have your plumber, electrician, and other contractors render services at specific times during the building process.
If you have to search for an outside electrician, roofer, HVAC specialist, or plumber, it can be extremely difficult to time their services in conjunction with your house being built. Full-service home building companies have all of these contractors working for and with them. They will coordinate the timing of services and contracts so you only have to pay one company, rather than multiple companies.
- Do Not Cut Costs
You may think that it is easier to cut costs by hiring each service yourself. In the end, you will feel as if you are drowning in paperwork, contracts, and communication. As stated previously, one full-service house building company (called บริษัทสร้างบ้าน in Thai) is much easier to manage than multiple. You may think that it is cheaper to hire separate drywall crews, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, plasterers, and other tradespeople. However, you will have to spend your time verifying the quality of each service. Cheaper is not always better.
Hiring a general contractor may not be as cheap, but they will follow through with quality assurance. This is their field. They know what and how to inspect for low-quality jobs. They also already have the contacts, the experience, and the rapport with their co-workers. If anything is to go wrong, you have one point of contact to address and that is responsible.
- Be Specific
Only you know what you want and what will satisfy your needs. You will set clear guidelines of what you need by being direct and specific with the home building company. You should create a list of all of the items you specifically want to be completed. This will also help the builder come up with an estimate of the overall cost. If you hire a full-service home building company, they will most likely have a basic contract that is expanded to match your needs.
You should also be specific on details that you may give the freedom for the builder to improvise. For example, in some areas of the construction process, you may need details of the design worked out by the builder. They understand the structural needs of your home. You should specifically tell them that in these areas they are free to improvise, but it must get your approval first.
