First Builder Meeting

I wanted to document our first builder meeting because it makes building this house seem very real!!!  It took about three and half hours to discuss our house plans, house style, and new ideas that the builder had for us to think about.  Drew and I felt very good about the meeting and believe this builder is a real contender for doing the job.  The positives is he is very detailed oriented, thorough, texts, emails, and answers his phone when it rings, and is a good listener.  We have already seen several of his homes and like the look of what he constructs.  We still need to talk to some of his clients to see how smooth the building process went, and how he is on following up if/when problems arise.

Right now we live in a home that was a spec house that had set on the market for about 2 years during the down housing market.  This builder has been TERRIBLE with following up with fixing things, blaming anyone but himself for issues, and it has left us fearful of getting into that situation again.  We have now learned over the past (almost) 4 years that this builder really doesn't care to have a relationship with his home buyers...something I totally don't understand when your business revolves around PEOPLE!

Builder 1 (we'll call him) is completely different than that and understands that having good communication, follow-up, and listening is not only good for his clients, but it is good for his business.  He has been building for about 20 years, and so far we haven't found any complaints against him with the BBB or other people in the community when we tell them our three choices of builders.

It is exciting to see what his bid will be on our house and then compare that with the other two.  We have two more meetings this coming week, and then we wait for numbers.  Our final decision won't be on numbers alone, obviously that has to play into the decision somewhat, but there are other factors to consider.  I have to get along and be able to communicate with the builder, he has to be organized and timely, I have to have faith in him that he does what he says he'll do.  Builder 1 has passed the test on all those factors so he is definitely in the running as being "The Builder".