Your home is your castle. This is especially true of a custom-built home for you and your family. A custom home is one that is made expressly for you, and it’s often the result of a lifelong dream. It expresses your lifestyle and includes the comforts and style you want.
To create that home, you need a home builder you can trust to do accurate, quality work. In this article, we look at a few things you can do to evaluate possible home builders so that your journey to the home you envision is a rewarding one.
Interview Each Potential Builder
Ask each candidate to share examples of their work. You also want to learn about their process for ensuring you are kept in the loop during the construction process from start to finish. Here are a few other points you can touch on to evaluate the contenders:
- Ask what they know about custom trends. These include activity spaces, connecting the indoors and outdoors, large kitchens, home offices and mudrooms.
- What is their custom home design process? At LaBram Homes, we include a discovery meeting and a design stage where we ensure your vision makes it into the design of your home.
- Look at their testimonials. Happy customers are proof of the quality of work. At the LaBram website, we include testimonials from our customers, including this one from David A: “I have experience with many builders and will tell you that LaBram is different. The owner, Elisa, and her team take their work personally and demand that every sub contractor’s job is done perfectly. I highly recommend LaBram Homes for anyone wanting the best.”
Tour Your Prospective Builder’s Homes
Ask your potential builder to take you inside one or more homes they’ve built. This will allow you see the quality of their work.
To give you this insight, LaBram Homes is happy to host a “discovery day” with our pre-qualified clients. This is where we take you on a tour of homes we’ve built and that are in-progress to show you the quality of our work. You may also find some inspiration along the way.
By doing your due diligence, you’ll gain the peace of mind that the home builder you’ve selected is the right one. A qualified home builder that has your best interests as their first priority is the one best qualified to help you realize your vision. The earlier you involve your builder in this journey, the better the outcome.
What is the Legacy of the Home Builder?
When a business has successfully passed through the generations, that’s a good sign that they are maintaining the quality the business was founded upon. Dale LaBram, who started LaBram Homes in 1986, has entrusted the business to his highly talented daughter Elisa LaBram. Elisa’s career-long experience with designing floor plans and her passion for working with customers just like you are big reasons why LaBram is different – and better – than other home builders.
How to Build a Custom Home
A big part of choosing your home builder includes evaluating their approach to the design process and the building process. At LaBram, we typically start with two steps:
- The discovery meeting. During this get-together with our team, we’ll determine the lot size, budget, and goals for your new home.
- The design. This is where your ambition is translated by the builder and designer to the design documents. During this stage, we’ll work closely with you to ensure that you’re as active as you want to be in the design of your home.
We then move on to five more steps in our approach, including:
- Engineering
- Specifications
- Pricing
- Permitting
- Ground breaking
Learn more about each step in our process and what we do to design a custom home.
Create Your Home with LaBram Homes
LaBram Homes has been building custom homes for 36 years, and we are ready to help create your castle. We are eager to share with you our entire design-build process, which we have organized into steps that are clear and easy to understand. Contact LaBram Homes today to schedule a discovery meeting with our team.