The dream of a luxury home build in Houston is a special financial and career milestone for only a few select people.
Even if you have the financial where for all to achieve this goal, the commitment and the time investment can be taxing on relationships and job demands.
If you are one of these special select people, the pride of accomplishment of achieving this lofty goal is unparalleled.
A luxury home build journey is the Mount Everest of achievements by both financial and personal terms.
Building your personalized “one of a kind” house building is like scaling Mt Everest. Few will ever attempt it, but the ones that do will enjoy a special pride of ownership that most people can only dream about.
Where Do You Start You Custom House Project
So, you are seriously thinking about undertaking the custom house building journey.
What is the first step in this process?
Should I buy a building lot or interview luxury builders and architects first?
I would have to answer your question with a question. If you were considering elective surgery, would you schedule the surgery after talking to the first surgeon or would you solicit additional medical opinions?
Our recommendation is to always select your trusted advisers before making a commitment to purchasing a building site.
This is due to many factors like understanding what due diligence should be conducted before you purchase the property.
Matters such as reading the deed restrictions and understanding what to look at on a survey and how to evaluate a building site for your future house.
Understanding the elevation and how the property and your neighbor’s property drain. If the property has trees, which trees can you preserve and which trees will be removed for the drive and structures.
A careful read of the deed restrictions will often reveal the architectural limitations on the house’s total square footage and the maximum height allowed.
If an extraordinary lot opportunity comes on the market before you have assembled your design team, then tie up the lot on contract with a longer option period and leave an out while you are interviewing luxury home builders and architects.
Read our guide for a luxury home build in Houston for all you need to know
In the best interest of the owner project, the best approach is to always develop a collaborating design team consisting of architects and luxury custom builders as your first step.
This team can help you review your lot purchase alternatives, establish a conceptual footprint for your new house and use this to assist you in qualifying the desired property before purchasing or closing.
This is done by scaling the house design footprint onto the boundary survey to determine if it will layout properly without encroaching on setbacks or utility easements defined by your survey.
The builders can also make you aware of any special site condition cost associated with the lot you would like to buy.
Some of these expenses are tree removal, the purchase of soil to build the lot up for drainage and any special requirements for utility services or retaining walls.
All these preliminary items are necessary in preparing an estimated construction cost of your proposed luxury house.
Having a handle on the estimated cost will lead to creating a target construction budget.
This budget is useful for many reasons, but most importantly establishing the financial feasibility of the project as well as creating a cost target to develop the house design plans.
Luxury House Design Process
The actual house design process should commence after you have selected your design team. It is also productive if the owner completes a house design profile, which gives the design team a closer look at your design goals and how your new house will service your lifestyle.
When an owner collects and catalogs different photo images of house features that they are interested in incorporating into their new house design, the conceptual drawing phase will move at a much quicker pace.
Without the owner providing clear direction to your design team the conceptual design phase can get very confusing and frustrating for everyone.
A prepared and decisive owner makes a great collaborating partner for designing a one of a kind home.
The benefit to the owners and design team of having a custom builder in the design process is that they can provide construction cost estimates and recommend value engineering ideas as the house design evolves.
This can assist the design process by keeping the proposed design construction cost within range of the proposed target budget that was established.
Much too often, when using the traditional design-bid method of a one of a kind home, the estimated cost of building the house does not get discovered until the drawings are done and the bid process begins.
When this happens, it requires the owners to return to the drawing phase to conduct value engineering and redevelop the house design to fit the targeted construction budget.
The luxury home build design should be inspired by the owner’s lifestyle. If they have children, areas of the house should be developed to accommodate a play area, study time and an area that can be repurposed as they mature for entertaining guest.
If the family entertains the house should accommodate the needs of the type of social entertaining that the owner conducts, such as holiday gatherings, business entertaining and dinner parties.
Developing the luxury home build requires the owner to understand how the house design can serve them best while enhancing their best lifestyle experience.
Once the home plans have been approved the design team is required to complete the construction documents which include the engineering of the structure, the development of the MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) drawings, site work plans, energy calculations and any other documents required for permitting.
Luxury Home Building
When it comes to the actual construction of your luxury home build you will best be served if you focus on selecting luxury home builders that have years of experience building many different types and styles of high-end homes.
Also focusing on using luxury home builders that provide you personalized service each step of the home construction process will frequently offer you the best customer experience and better-quality standards for construction.
Many of the house builders that promote themselves as luxury home builders will have a member of their staff oversee the actual house construction process.
This can lead to many misunderstandings due to the number of participants in the process.
The primary responsibility of a luxury home builder is facilitating the execution of caring out the project management tasks required to build the house to the specifications of the documents and control the cost.
So, during the design stage the owners have shared critical information and detail about specific preferences about their house.
If these requests are not well documented a third-party employee of the builder would not have the critical information necessary to caring out the owners wishes. This can be problematic for the staff field employee and the owners.
During construction a professional builder will schedule walk thoughts with the owners to review the progress of construction but also to verify that the house is what they were expecting.
These meeting are also used for the benefit of viewing and approving selection colors, product mock ups for millwork and other ornate construction details.
This process is essential to avoid misunderstandings that are easy to take place when it comes to discretionary decisions.
Luxury builders all have their own business process methods that they are comfortable with during the design and building process.
The secret to selecting the most appropriate custom home builder for you is to select one that shares your business priorities, demonstrates a sincere enthusiasm for serving their clients and someone that will serve your interest in a professional matter.
It is critical that owner and builder are like minded in the big picture of the home building process and the business acumen of how the project is managed.
The new house design and construction is a long process. You can be connected to your custom builder for multiple years building the house and several years during warranty.
It makes sense to like and trust your custom builder.
Our recommendation to you is to surround yourself with talented trusted advisers from the beginning and your luxury home building experience will be as rewarding as living in your new luxury custom home.
Conclusion
A luxury home build can be an enjoyable and rewarding process for the owners and professional advisers.
Although it is a demanding collaborative approach requiring all parties to effectively communicate their needs and wants.
That is why it is very important to have the best professionals supporting the owners’ efforts and representing their best interest for the entire journey.
To learn more on this topic visit our home construction resources page.
