Embarking on the journey of building a new home can be an exhilarating and stressful experience. Which builder do you partner with? Do they have building plans you can choose from to build a home? What if I already have building plans for the house that I want to have built? What else do we need to consider before starting the journey?
You might be frustrated with the state of the housing market and struggle to accept paying for a home that is “x” years old and is selling at the same price point as a brand-new home. On the other hand, you might have heard horror stories from others who have built a home, or you have experienced the struggle on your own. What if there was a builder that offered a program that guided you through pre-construction activities to help you develop the home and specifications that matter to you?
McMahon Custom Homes takes each client through a pre-construction planning agreement (PCP-A) to ensure a proper fit between customer and builder. We aim to develop long-term relationships with our customers, and we believe guiding you through pre-construction is the best way for both sides to get to know one another and ensure mutual fit and alignment. We start each relationship by understanding the vision for your home to include must-haves, your budget, and anything else pertinent to your build. Keep in mind, as a design-build firm, we are likely to be able to design and build the home that you wish to have for the budget you are comfortable with. If we design a 3.4-million-dollar home and you decide you have a budget for a 1.2-million-dollar home, that is a lot of misused time on both sides. We will design the home that matches your budget and vision.
We are a design-build firm that has partnered with an architectural team to bring your vision for a dream home to life. Our team takes great pride in designing the home of your dreams within the budget you have prescribed. If you have land that is rural and requires a well and septic, we will contract with an On-Site-Soil-Evaluator for a well and septic permit that can be submitted to the Virginia Department of Health. In this stage we will hire a survey team to develop a plat for your land so we can determine where to place your house, driveway, well location, and septic location.
If you have your own set of building plans, we can modify our process to work your plans into our PCP-A.
Once we have a set of building plans in a conceptual state, we will begin developing your specifications and selections for each component of your home. At this stage, we can fine-tune each room of your home and take you to our preferred trade partners so you can make selections based on your wants. We can further develop a budget for your home at this stage, which gives you a realistic price to build it.
The Pre-Construction-Planning Agreement is not a waste of effort or money. If at the end of the PCP-A you determine we are not the builder for you, we will have the following deliverables for you to take to another builder to construct your home.
We believe a PCP-A is the best way to work through pre-construction and acknowledge that it is not a tool used by all builders. We are confident that going through this process ensures you spend the time and money necessary to design your home and it also gives you a way out of the deal if you find that you and your builder are not aligned. Remember, building a home will take 3-6 months for pre-construction, 4-24 months (depending on the complexity of the home), one year of warranty, and hopefully many decades of enjoying the home. This is a long-term relationship and commitment. We do not want anyone to have a poor experience and the PCP-A ensures all parties get acquainted before advancing the discussions into a home building contract.
