When is the best time to engage a builder?

Reflecting on our customers’ decisions and motivations to partner with us in building or renovating has been enlightening.

It’s fascinating to uncover the essence of their vision and how our services fulfilled their needs. While being trustworthy to construct the project is pivotal, it often wasn’t the sole reason our team was chosen for their distinctive challenges.

We have proven that optimal results emerge when the customer, builder, and design architect engage collaboratively from the outset, working towards a shared objective.

recent customer journey - when is the best time to engage a builder

Our recent customer’s pathway to achieving success with our engagement at various stages.

In each case the core desire to embark on a building journey is founded in a generous connection to sharing with family and others. We are all just really seeking places to celebrate, commune or entertain more as our family/social lives mature, whilst still having enough private and quiet spaces to recover.

Each customer has had an idea of their own comfortable range to invest in their particular project and are seeking experienced advice on cost, advice on who are the great architects/designers and someone to grab their idea from the start and hold onto that through all the iterations of design excitement, quoting and eventual delivery.

Taking on a major life altering decision, to embark on an architectural masterpiece can seem overwhelming or risky to people who haven’t done it before. But in the right hands, with the right team, good process and experience quickly dissolves these concerns.

Example: You’ve just dusted the twisties off your lap after some much needed time watching the block or grand designs. You are freshly inspired and can see where the butler’s pantry and wall of glass doors can go in relation to the new island kitchen. You feel closer to your partner watching the excitement as they describe everything. (No judgments here, we’ve all done this. It’s actually an important part of the process!)
You call in the architect/designer for a chat and things are feeling positive, yep, we’ve got this. After the initial meeting it’s still looking ok. But you have been given a really hard figure to digest and some of your ideas are shut down pretty quickly.

…

What did we want to do this for again?

How much are we willing to commit to this idea?

Should we just move/sell the block?

But for whatever reason, it feels like this is where we want to build and we are going to give it a try.

This is the exact moment your builder should be engaged.

Seeking help to formulate the project’s feasibility and getting an industry insider’s recommendation for pricing advice along with your architect will ensure a smooth start to your building journey. Typically, it may be 1-2 years that you are in contact with your builder from initial pre design meeting through to project handover, so it’s important to feel at ease with your choice and be confident they can deliver.

After your initial meeting with your potential builder you should be left with a feeling that you have been heard and that they will endeavour to steer both you and everyone around them toward your goals. Whether the constraints are time, finances, planning, design intent or just general scope, you want to be sure that the builder you engage has your overall outcomes in mind. Landscaping, furnishing, rental costs, design costs and the time and headspace needed to commit to a project are often overlooked. Experienced builders and architects who partner together make this process a rewarding and enjoyable experience.

As soon as you decide you are serious about an architectural renovation/extension or new home is the best time to reach out and start building rapport and trust for a long and fruitful relationship with the professionals you wish to engage.

So why not wait to complete the designs and go to tender? Surely checking prices is a good thing? We will save this one for another coffee and keyboard session. For now just ask any local architect how that mostly plays out in comparison to a negotiated tender process, when the builder is invested in the project from the start, and the level of service the customer gets as a result?

Key benefits to early engagement with builders:

Lock them away for potential start dates. (most talented builders work on 1-2 year lead times)
Get first hand and current pricing on ideas you are swinging around. (since covid this is essential)
Gain experience on other projects. Builders often work with multiple architects and can bring insight from other teams’ creative solutions.
Get to know the team you will be dealing with and build rapport prior to “go time’ when they rip your asset to pieces before rebuilding it gloriously.
Given time to learn about each other. How they respond to you and their consistency and ethics.

So – are you ready to do this?

Start Your Building Journey Now

Contact us to see if we’re the right fit for your project and to get started on the proposal phase. Together, we can turn your vision into a stunning reality.