Charlie: Romeo in northwest Houston says, “I’d like some advice on a home builder. I’ve seen several reviews, which are not praising of any builder. In other words, they’re just …
Tom: I don’t know if you can get a praising, a home builder review if you want to know the truth.
Charlie: Well that’s his question. He says “Is this pretty common? And how do you choose a builder Tom?”
Tom: Oh there’s a lot of ways to choose a builder. But first off, building a new custom home is so frustrating for people who don’t do it regularly that they always are going to find days where they just wished they hadn’t done it. It’s just the nature of the beast Charlie. Just like when you took over this building and there were days you’re going, “What was I thinking?” But now that it’s all done, it’s six months later, everybody’s happy. Everybody’s paid and everything’s good.
Charlie: Actually no hold on. But we’re not done.
Tom: Oh you’re not done?
Charlie: This is you know I’ve found that owning a building you’re not done. You’re always in process, so believe me there’s still stuff to do.
Tom: Yeah.
Charlie: But you’re right, but it …
Tom: They just have bad days and you get on there and write that review. I’m going to write a review right now and they have a bad day and it’s just not a good thing. It’s like drinking and doing Facebook.
Charlie: Well let me tell you this about that. People remember, as my experience in working with clients and every industry there is. People remember how things end. And if home builders want to get better reviews, they would really polish up the finish end of the job. And that is doing something nice at the end, some kind of land yap or something that they do at the end that makes somebody feel really good about their project because that’s what they’re going to remember.
Tom: I know and at the end when they have to write the check, the homeowners they get upset. And it’s funny when they first move in the home, they go “God that was such a terrible experience, worst house ever.” When they go to sell it, “Oh this is a best home I’ve ever had in my entire life.” Okay fine. But yeah you’re going to find bad reviews. What you need to do, if when you look for a builder is look at his work. Try to take a look at it and see what you think about it. Make sure you get along with him like you would interviewing your doctor, lawyer, CPA. Make sure there’s a good rapport with that person. Don’t go by price, a lot of people do and that’s when they really get upset because they try to think someone’s going to do it cheaper and it can’t be done cheaper. It can only be done worse.
Charlie: Oh it can be done cheaper.
Tom: And worse.
Charlie: Called ghetto pricing.
Tom: That’s well.
Charlie: Don’t do it.
Tom: And that’s what a lot of people experience with builders, so don’t do that. Find someone you trust that’s good, been in business a long time. Look at their work and you know you’re just going to have to get a feel for it when you go pick a builder. And then you have your usual things like calling their bank, making sure they been with the bank for a long time, good standing. Make they’re insured, make sure they have a place of business, they’re not working out of their pickup truck. These are the kind of standard things we talk about on all our certified home show pros.
Charlie: Absolutely.
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