The Business of Home Building - Managing Client Expectations
It is the final day. You have taken months to build the house and now it is finished. You, your staff and trade contractors have put many hours of skilled labor into creating this home. It is a good house and you are proud of it.
In a few minutes the home buyers will arrive and you will walk them through the Final Inspection. They will find a few minor items and you will move on to closing tomorrow. Pay day. After months of work you finally get paid.
The new homeowners show up, not just the husband and wife but a contingent of relatives, mothers, fathers, uncles and teenage sons. "I hope you do not mind we brought some help to inspect the house. We are new to this and feel more comfortable with help." How can you object. Objection would imply that there is something wrong.
Two hours later after feeling all the walls for faults in the paint, crawling on hands on knees across the wood floor looking floor scratches and jumping on the floor to see if there are any squeaks the new home buyers are exhausted from creating a sea of sticky notes all over the walls where they found faults in the paint and drafting a four page list of "defects" that makes them unhappy and suspicious of their builder. They should have bought this home in the first place. They tell themselves they will need to make sure they find all the warranty items during the warranty period. You not only have a bad walk trough but have created a difficult and unhappy customer for the length of the warranty period. You can also be assured that they will share their concern with their new neighbors.
Avoiding this situation starts not a few days before closing but when the contract is signed. As a professional builder you need to set expectations, establish standards and document those standards. I have found the best way to establish standards is to include performance specifications along with your warranty in a detailed Homeowners Manual.
Performance specs must be practical and easy to measure standards such as painted drywall is made to be viewed from six feet under normal light. This type of standard is easy to defend and prevents such actions as feeling walls or placing lights at right angle to walls to find defects. A few other examples are;
- Wood floors are made to be viewed standing up. Scratches that cannot be seen standing are acceptable.
- At zero degrees exterior temperature the heating system must maintain a temperature no less than 65 degrees in the home.
A great resource for performance specs is the Residential Construction Performance Guidelines published by the National Association of Home Builders. It establishes a third party authority for industry standards. We always included these standards in our contract.
Once you have established the standards make sure the Buyer, your employees and trades all have copies of the standards, understand them and follow them. Make the final meeting before closing a Homeowners Orientation which implies a learning experience and not a final inspection which implies the need to find fault.
In future articles we will explore the Home Owners Manual and New Home Orientation and their functions in setting expectations and managing the construction process.
A Look at President Bush's Likely New Home - FOXNews
FOXNews A Look at President Bush's Likely New Home FOXNews - The Bush family announced Thursday they've found a home in an upscale Dallas neighborhood. By Sara Bonisteel Dec. 4, 2008: The Bushes haven't provided ... Bushes Settle On a Home in Dallas Preston Hollow home rumored to be new Bush residence Bushes Purchase Home in Dallas for Life After the White House -Home builders' shares soar as mortgage rates plunge - Reuters
ABC News Home builders' shares soar as mortgage rates plunge Reuters - By Helen Chernikoff and Julie Haviv NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of US home builders rose on Thursday as the beleaguered sector, floundering amid a ... US Eyes Plan to Lift Home Sales Paulsons New Plan: A Cheap Mortgage for Every Home Uncertain impact of US push to cut mortgage rates -