New Construction Homes Done Right - Houses to Homes Podcast

One of the scariest AND most relieving parts of buying a new home is the point where you commit to all your choices and have to wait to see them finalized.

But luckily Allen Edwin keeps it easy in several ways:

1) They'll limit you to your set budget instead of blowing through it with every available home feature.

2) Their showroom process is streamlined to make your decisions straightforward.

And perhaps best of all, your home purchase price is locked in when you make the agreement, so you won't end up paying more if material costs go up. That alone is a huge benefit and peace of mind in the era of massive supply problems!

Podcast transcript:

Hello everyone I have Karen Nouhan back from Allen Edwin builders. She was so nice to come out to us before and talk about basically the possibility of building so now we're going to talk about all the fun and cool things that comes along with customizing and building your own home. I know for me for example it was awesome, it was fantastic, it was a little frustrating and scary at the same time because it's such a commitment. But um she's gonna go over with us some of the things that you can check out and some of the things that you're gonna be doing when you do tour that 7,000 square foot showroom.

Yes.

Thank you Karen.

Thanks Kristi. Well yes, it is so exciting to be able to create your own atmosphere, your kitchen cabinets your bathroom your flooring and all of those different things, and I think there's a little bit of dreaming with any new home purchase, whether it's brand new or existing, you paint a picture in your mind of the atmosphere you wan. And building creates the opportunity to do it all in one sitting.

And you get to do pretty much everything at the showroom, like there's not a stone unturned really, for the most part.

Yeah and once you establish your budget, because everybody has a budget, you can decide where you want to put those dollars. Is it in space…

I'm going to stop you right there because that's one thing that's really cool about this builder. So a lot of people think that builders are like the sleazy used car sales person, and they're not. So Allen Edwin… when you establish your budget their showroom, their people are like hardcore. If you tell them your budget is 350 and you're at 349 they cut you off. They look at you and say no, you're approved to 350, we need to keep you under your budget. Yes you can have the selection but what are we going to take off? And I really like that because people do get excited.

You do. And you know you can end up being like a kid in a candy store, right? You just want to do everything, and there's really no unlimited budget in this world, there's always got to be a governor on what you do, but being able to direct those dollars to the things that are most important to you, whether it's the space or the finishes on the inside or a three-car garage, those mechanics are all in your control.

I totally dig that, and having that budget in mind makes a conscientious effort when you are there to stop and re-evaluate. Like is this something I really really have to have, or is this something that would just be really cool to get?

Right, and also, you know, home ownership - there's some pride, and a lot of times folks want to do things over time, and so you want to leave a little bit of that for your creative spirit to do later. But ultimately we can really get granular at the showroom.

Handles and tiles and toilet seat levers.

Yes toilet seat covers, everything.

What about things like the brick? If you have brick or stone in front of your house is that something you pick out or the buyer picks out?

Um so yes, the buyer would pick their stone, brick, color of siding, roof color, shutter color… so really we do have palettes if you're challenged in those areas that say all this stuff looks great together, right? The other part is we don't leave you alone in the showroom. You would go through the showroom with a design consultant who organizes the appointment in a fashion that makes sense. So you're going to start in kitchens because that's where folks spend the most money, and you know what makes the most money on a house on resale?

The kitchens and bathrooms.

Right, so that's where, you know, you really want to put your attention to it. And then we have a full flooring showroom, lighting, all exteriors…

And you have different things at different price points and levels.

We do. So folks are sometimes surprised to see the entire appliance package in the showroom - a complete kitchen, so you can really see, you know, open drawers, look through and see exactly what you want, quality and craftsmanship, and then we lay it all out on a big table with a big carpet sample.

I mean historically builders are going to take you into a basement room and have you know, horrible lighting.

Actually i've been to your showroom before and I'm the person that's looking at my clients going, let's go outside, let's take this outside and look at it in the sunlight.

Yes, all these factors do play a part, so having big samples, and it just it will give the confidence that you're putting things together the way you feel that they look the best.

What happens if a buyer changes their mind when they're in there? So like we'll build a house on paper when you're with my clients. I'll tell my clients like, you're building this house, let's make it what you want, and then get that price, and then we'll do the takeaways if we need to.

Yeah so we start out on paper, and like Kristi said, the builder, Allen Edwin has enabled me as a salesperson to completely price out the home with the cabinet choices, the flooring choices, carpeting, everything, I can put that all together in an office setting. Then they're gonna have two 3-hour showroom appointments. And this gives them the opportunity to edit. So usually they can get through the entire showroom in that first three hours and then maybe go to lunch, come back and edit, or come back another day and edit, just depending on how they feel about it. Because once you do that second appointment, it's done.

Yes and they're signed, sealed, delivered, you're not changing a thing.

That's correct, and that is somewhat scary but also comforting to customers, because you know, how many times do you second guess something? But when you're there you're really thinking through all the elements that will come together, how the flooring, the countertop and the cabinet will interact together, and the flow is really consistent there. So when people want to change one element it's kind of like a, you know, it's going to have an effect on down the line.

Yes.

So having the ability to do it all at once and then not change it actually does provide some comfort and lessens anxiety for the customer.

And the builder.

Yes. Well there's a reason why we do it. At the point of purchase agreement we lock our pricing in for our customers. So if lumber goes up as it has historically, cabinetry… the customer is not going to pay that increase. The price we sell the home for is the price that they're going to pay for that home no matter what.

No matter what.

So if it takes us nine months and costs go up ten percent, the builder absorbs that extra cost. And the way we do that is, as quickly as possible, we send out our purchase orders to buy those items in advance of needing them. So we're not flying by the seat of our pants, we're very organized and processed in how we approach the build.

And that's actually a really smart philosophy, especially today, because, I mean it's been over a year since the pandemic really hit but we're still suffering from some of the consequences of the pandemic and the shutdowns where building materials are sometimes scarce and you know, we could order something today and find out three months from now that we're not getting what we ordered.

Yeah. So you know relatively quick before you start building the house if the cabinet color that you want is going to be available because you purchase it ahead of time.

Correct. You physically have it.

Yes. Yeah you know, it's impossible to guess all the different inflationary problems we're going to have with supply chains, right? But Allen Edwin being in the business for 28 years, the trade reputation we have, the reputation we have with our suppliers is truly a level up. So we haven't seen as many problems as maybe smaller builders do because of our consistent relationship with the trades and the supply chains that we work with. We do stay way ahead of the curve. We're thinking about what's going to happen next year versus tomorrow.

Yep.

We're thinking about it right now.

Yeah, which is smart. So it's, it is a fun experience going to the showroom, putting all this together, making your dream home come together the way you wanted it to. And um it's definitely a surprise that, usually folks are very happy when they come out of the showroom and had that opportunity.

It's a fun experience. and even like, like I said, I've been there before with my clients and I was there myself when I built my home, but just to see what's coming up, because you guys are always on top of trends, too. So when you go there you're not going to see the kitchen that was maybe popular 10 years ago, you're going to see the kitchen that's up and coming, that's in high demand.

And just last year we took the opportunity with the pandemic and redid our entire showroom. So you're seeing, you know, all the latest and greatest.

That's awesome.

Yeah, full size. For the majority of most of the things, the tile, you know we'll have over 15-20 examples of tile on walls, on floors, um, full kitchens, so yeah, it's a great experience.

I actually just went through the showroom for myself last week and so I saw firsthand how much fun it is to you know, get your cabinet and your flooring and kind of play with those things. And I like how you had said before it's very organized with your design center consultants. I've had quite a few clients go, ‘oh, there's no way i'm gonna be able to pick out everything in my house in three hours, there's no way they're, you know, this is BS that we have to do this.’

Yes.

And I just kind of stand back and I'm like, those are usually the people that are done in about an hour and a half.

Yes.

Because they're shocked when they go in there it's like okay, here's part A, let's pick it out, now let's move to part B. So it is very organized and streamlined.

And I think that’s a testament to you, Kristi, getting your customers ready for the showroom and walking them through the things that you found most important in their home search, and directing them down the right path. So preparation obviously will help people, you know, get to this a lot quicker. So yeah, definitely working with a professional like yourself is very helpful for the customer coming into the showroom.

And I'm going to say one other thing: so all you people that have decided that this is the route that you want to go… what's really cool too, is the showroom is exclusive to just the signers on the contract. And I'm saying this is good and exciting because then you have nobody else's opinion but yours. So you and your partner, or if it's just you yourself, you purchase what YOU want not what all the little voices and the family members and the friends are feeding into your mind.

Yes. It's all about you. Your house, your dream, your foundation to the roots that you're building.

Yeah, and you know in today's age, take tons of pictures while you're there. You know, putting your cabinet with your flooring with your countertop. And then it's very exciting.

Yeah, for sure. Well thank you so much Karen for setting everything up again and going over some of the fun stuff about building. We really appreciate you coming out and you're always welcome on our podcast.

Thank you Kristi, have a great day.