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When it comes to building a new home, you might think that all building companies are similar, and the only thing that separates them is the price you pay...
However, in this industry, while you may not always get what you pay for, you certainly do not get what you don’t pay for!
By that, I am talking about service, because unfortunately, not all builders employ specialists to help you get started with building your new home.
In most cases, and it is certainly true of the builders operating display homes, you will find yourself dealing with a salesperson who is driven by commissions rather than a building consultant who is focused on client satisfaction.
Volume builders employ sales people without qualifications, knowledge or even experience in the construction industry and measure success in terms of hitting sales targets.
Professional builders on the other hand offer their clients a fully trained, experienced, custom home specialist who will guide you through the process of designing and building your new home.
Salespeople First And Foremost
The fact is, sales reps operating in display homes only have five to 10 minutes to sell you on the idea of building with them because the moment you walk out the door, you'll be walking into a competitor's display home, offering a very similar package at a very similar price.
These salespeople know that what they have to offer isn't unique when compared to the 12 to 15 display homes that surround them, so they literally have one opportunity to reel you in!
As a result, display home salespeople use any tactics they can in order to convince their visitors not to leave.
Which is why they always start with an unrealistically low starting price, a timeline that has never been achieved, and a start date that was never an option before introducing manufactured artificial deadlines in an attempt to get you to sign a contract quickly.
A custom home specialist consultant on the other hand, is not looking to sell every client.
They can’t, because the process requires specialist construction knowledge which means they look for the right clients to work with rather than any client.
What Volume Builders Don’t Want You To Know
Recently, I advertised for a Custom Home Specialist to join our team at Stannard Family Homes. One of the applicants that applied had previously been employed as a salesman for a volume builder.
He wanted to do something different because he was fed up with the way his current company operated and went on to share some of the dubious tactics sales teams were encouraged to use in order to get consumers to sign on the dotted line quickly.
Here is what he shared with me:
Firstly, volume builder sales people always understate the likely price of the build.
They know that they have to offer something that sounds exceptional in the initial meeting, because after the initial meeting, if they haven’t signed the client by then, they won't ever see them again.
Unfortunately, as in most things in life, if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
The way it worked was for the client to be hit with additional items later in the process that were deliberately left out of the original estimate.
To sweeten the deal, the timeline for the home to be completed was always a date that appealed to the consumer, but was impossible for the company to deliver on. The reason they did this was because it worked!
The truth is, salespeople are driven by the commissions on their sales, and because they have no further contact with their customers once the contract is signed. So there are no consequences or repercussions.
Their focus now becomes the next sale rather than ensuring their clients’ expectations are met, and then exceeded.
Conversely, custom home specialists are less focused on getting their prospects to sign up and more focused on ensuring all the required information is in place because they know they will be the ones dealing with the client all the way through the build process, not just during the design phase.
Why Custom Home Specialists Care So Much About Your Build
A big reason why custom home specialists are dedicated to ensuring their clients enjoy their building experience from start to finish is because they are dependent on referrals for future business.
Unlike display home salespeople who have an unlimited number of prospects pouring through their display homes every day, custom home specialists deal with a limited number of opportunities so they cannot afford to ‘burn’ people.
Another tactic that was shared with me by this applicant was how they would manipulate square metre rates in order to create a favourable comparison with another builder.
Inclusions were systematically and deliberately left out in order for them to quote a square metre rate that was $300 per square metre LESS than it was possible to even build for.
By the time the consumer gets to the true price per square metre with all the inclusions they were led to believe had been previously included, the quote invariably becomes more expensive than building with a specialist custom home builder.
Building a custom home is one of the biggest investments you’ll make in your life so you need to be sure you’re signing up with a builder who takes into account your individual circumstances, time and budget.
Professional builders set out to exceed your expectations throughout the entire design and build process, rather than viewing you as a number.
To ensure you get the home you desire, I’ve put together a quick guide for you to download - The 7 Things You Must Know Before Designing A New Home.
It’s completely free, and it will help you to avoid any nasty surprises that can sneak up on you when building a custom home.
Just click on the link below and let me know the email address you'd like me to send it to.
