Before You Build: Smart Questions to Ask Before Becoming a Homeowner

Show Notes: Let’s dive into the crucial questions every aspiring panelized kit home owner should ask before building. From evaluating build sites on hillsides, in flood zones, or earthquake areas, to understanding how soil conditions and local permitting can affect timelines and budgets, this episode emphasizes the importance of planning and education. Steve discusses how even experienced contractors may not fully grasp engineering or design details, and why people shouldn’t be afraid to ask “entry-level” questions. With real examples and expert insights, Steve shows how Landmark helps simplify the process of building smart from the ground up — avoiding costly surprises and putting owners in control.

Transcript:

Steve Tuma: There’s a lot of professionals in this business — that might be a pro, they might have been a contractor, they might have been building, they might have been in and around the trades — but they may not have been in the designing and engineering and why was a house built a certain way.

Interviewer: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 70 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show!

On the podcast today, as usual, is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company — a company which has been helping people build their new homes, where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993 — the always incredible Mr. Steve Tuma.

Steve, can you believe we are on episode 70 of the podcast?

Steve Tuma: It is kind of amazing. But when you think about it, there’s a lot of topics we can cover. We could probably get a few hundred more. I guess we’ve got to keep going.

Interviewer: I wasn’t planning on stopping — I don’t know about you.

Steve Tuma: It’s just one of these things. You get in there talking about this and we have a couple ideas, and then it’s like — “Hey, but what about this?” or “What about that?” Or midweek, you come up with other ideas. There’s always a detail.

So I think what we’re trying to do is give people an idea of what it’s like to work with us, be an owner builder with our panelized home packages, how we help with plans and everything. So — just a lot of stuff to cover.

Interviewer: Well, that kind of leads us into this episode, because I was thinking today — we might address some of what you, Steve Tuma, feel would be questions that anyone considering becoming a panelized homeowner builder would be well advised to ask… before getting started. From the get-go, if you will.

So if you’re ready to go?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, let’s do it.

Interviewer: So, let’s just say we’ll start with building sites. Is there a building site that’s too challenging to build on? Or, I would say there probably isn’t anything too challenging. But when you look at building sites, you look at the more challenging and the simplified ones — slopes, flood zones, hurricanes, earthquakes, snow loads, civil engineering requirements.

Interviewer: What would be a good way to start off? What questions would you say that a future owner-builder might want to ask when it comes to those topics?

Steve Tuma: That’s an interesting question because as you think about the geography around the country, the Midwest is theoretically flat — compared to the Rockies or the Sierras or Cascades or any of the mountain ranges in the Northeast and Southeast.

So there’s a lot of situations that come up with, but in general — if you have a flat piece of land, in general it’s going to be easier to build on.

Just because — sides of hills and mountains — the foundation, you need to have a lot of work done to just design a foundation for that.

But on the other side, if you’re on the side of a hill or a mountain — maybe you could do a walkout basement, which then becomes an enhancement to the design.

So it’s kind of one of these things — that every lot has the method for designing it. But generally, everything can really be overcome.

What I found is — hey, people who live in mountains aren’t used to flat land. So to them, building on the side of the hill is normal, and they understand it, because they’ve been in homes that were built there, that have been built on the side of a hill — sorry to say that laughs — but there’s a lot of things that come into it with each different situation. And by the way — even with flat land, you can run into interesting situations.

We’ve worked with groups that will do redevelopment in the cities — and there’ll be infill lots. They buy a lot to build a home, or the city has some program to get homes on the tax rolls where they work with existing lots in cities.

And then people find out, “Hey, there’s an existing foundation. Someone just knocked a house down — they didn’t pull the foundation out.”

So that’s more of an infill in an older town.

So a lot of these details I’m bringing up as points of discussion — but people shouldn’t be scared of them. We can help people through the processes and understand. I’m just trying to give people a scope of ideas.

Generally, when you have land, the question is — are utilities available?

And sometimes someone will say, “Yes, they’re available,” but they’re a half mile away — and you have to bring them in. Or there’s a big cost. Or — are the utilities literally at the front of the lot?

Is electric there? Gas? Water? Sewer?

Or do you have to bring things in?

Or is it an off-grid situation where you’ve got to do your own solar systems or whatever it may be?

So you want to check on stuff like that. And it’s generally available through the different public works departments — water, sewer departments, electrical companies — to find out what’s there.

But then there’s the details. And recently we’ve come up with this — flood zones. Someone might say, “Hey, you know, we’ve had this land forever. Hey, it’s never flooded.”

And then you check, and the land is in a flood zone — which might require some different fill work or different foundation work.

There’s always, you know, the very obvious — how do you work with hurricanes, earthquakes, high snow loads?

That’s more of a design situation where we would work with a design to make sure it works, and also the structural engineering, to make sure that the house can withstand the forces that it’s designed for.

So the basic challenges can also vary by building department.

So if you’re on a hill, say, in the Carolinas or a small mountain — building departments may or may not ask for grading and drainage plans, which a civil engineer would do.

But in the Rockies, the Sierra, California — where it’s more obvious — they typically always demand it.

So we end up in a lot of unique situations, where the best thing to do is give us a call and review these different building conditions so we can get an idea of what you need — the type of foundation — and then details that you should move forward to research on the land.

Or, if you already own the land, just understand how we have to work with it.

So it’s kind of deep to get into one, you know, one conversation that kind of encompasses it.

I think the point I’m trying to get across is — we can work with you. If it’s flat land, the side of a hill, if it’s on the side of a mountain, if you’re in a hurricane zone or whatever it may be — there’s a whole variety of situations, and we’re always happy to talk to you, help someone along.

And we’ll do this as a courtesy up front — just to give people an idea of what they need to research on their land.

Because it’s just good to know — if someone’s buying a piece of land, there’s two pieces of land, and they’re watching their budget, there might be one that’s a little more affordable for them.

Interviewer: Do you find when customers — like, a potential customer — calls, do you find that it’s, you know… I know I’m this way. Sometimes I will want to ask questions, but then I don’t want to look stupid.

You know, and you’ve got a lot of experience with this and dealing with potential customers — how do you kind of feel out what the customer needs, you know, informationally?

Are you able to kind of feel out what questions they should be asking even if they don’t ask the question?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, that’s part of it. I mean, we’ve been doing this — well, last Monday was 32 years. We’ve got experience. We’ve worked all over the country and in some foreign countries, working in a variety of different situations.

So if someone says, “Hey, I’m building on a hill in Iowa or on a mountain,” that’s a lot different than if you said, “Hey, I’m in Leadville, Colorado.”

So we understand the general geography. We could look it up on Google Earth, look to see what a building site is like, get ideas, and then lead the conversation.

So the idea of, you know, the “stupid question” — I jokingly tell people the worst that’s going to happen is I’m going to have a funny answer.

You know, we just like to take it easy and work through these processes.

But the reality is — there’s a lot of details that can come out, and we can help the customer go through. And by these discussions, they’ll understand the process, the project better. They’ll understand what needs to be done.

And that’s what a lot of owner-builders want to do. They choose to be involved with this — but they need a starting point.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: They need some point to go. So you know, you could do a little research online — and yes, some of it’s right, some of it’s just not right.

But we can work with someone to find out exactly what works for their exact situation — for the exact building site that they’re on.

So, all we really request is: people give us a call, and we’ll talk about it. We’re experienced — probably in a little 20-minute conversation, we could give them enough answers and things to pursue, to check out, so that then we could work together to do it.

Because what’s interesting about this — a lot of times people say, “Well, my building department doesn’t require that.”

And that’s great. I mean, the building department may not exist. They may be very simple. They may be very sophisticated.

But ultimately — it’s your house.

You’re paying for it. You’re living in it. Your building department isn’t.

So in some of these states or areas where they don’t ask for these details, it might be good to go check it out yourself anyway.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Just because — it’s like, if you build in a floodplain and your house isn’t high enough, you’ll never get insurance.

So that’s why we can work with it. We’re always available. We’re willing to take the time. We enjoy taking the time to talk to people to find out what it is that they want to build.

What type of house? Where is it? What’s the land like?

And a lot of these things — we can get ideas. They can snap a picture, text it to us, email it to us, and we can get the conversation going.

Just with the address — there’s information online.

So the idea of a “stupid question” — it’s not really there. Because people are just asking for help.

And we probably have the answer to get them on the right path to get it taken care of.

And we’ve helped people in, you know — desert situations, mountain situations, alpine villages, oceanfront, lakefront — you know, there’s a variety of situations.

So I think we’re a good resource to help people go through and do this.

Interviewer: I always find, especially I think with the way you work with customers on the phone, it’s — I like to start off when I’m not very knowledgeable at something, just say: “Talk to me like I’m a third grader.”

Because I’d rather get all the information in a concise way than me beating around the bush, trying to act like I’m a little more savvy than I am on any given topic.

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about that is — there’s a lot of professionals in this business that might be a pro. They might have been a contractor. They might have been building. They might have been in and around the trades. But they may not have been in the designing and engineering — and why was a house built a certain way.

Interviewer: Right?

Steve Tuma: So we have some customers that are professional contractors. So they know how to drywall a house. They know how to frame a house. They know how to roof it.

But they don’t know why a structure was put a certain way. They don’t know why the foundation’s at a certain height. They don’t know why a footer system is designed a certain way.

So some of the questions that we get — even from people in the trades — are kind of entry-level questions, because even they aren’t exposed to all these details.

So it’s not a big deal. I mean, to us, it’s actually — when someone asks a question, I’m intrigued by it. Because it shows they’re buying into being serious about it and wanting to do it.

You know, so when someone calls up and says, “Hey Steve, I’m building in Iowa City,” or, “Hey, I’m building in Tallahassee, Florida,” or, “Hey, I’m building, you know, in a beach community in California or Oregon,” or something like that — it gives us an idea of what we’re looking for.

Because each of those areas will be a little bit different. And there are different regulations for different types of building sites — even building department to building department, sometimes even building inspector to building inspector.

So the idea that someone’s going to know everything — hey, we’ve been doing it 32 years, and every once in a while, we learn something. You know, just something that comes up that is just rather… rather interesting, or you get a unique thing.

The key to it is — we’ve done it. We have access to the questions. If for some reason, you know, the answer doesn’t pop up right away.

Interviewer: Well, you’ve been doing this a long time, and from your experience — where do the surprises typically come from when it comes to, like, especially new customers? What sort of things set them back a little bit — that like, they weren’t expecting?

Steve Tuma: What I have found — in my own projects and over time — any surprises generally have something to do with touching dirt.

And I’ll tell you why: you can’t tell what’s under dirt.

You know, so if you’re in a geotechnical situation — like, you know, someone says, “Hey, I don’t want to get a geotechnical report.” Then they excavate… and they hit granite.

You know, there are ways to do that — get a geotechnical report, and then we get a better idea of what’s there. But it’s not a 100% guarantee.

So that’s what I’ve found. You know — hey, what type of septic has to be there? Where can the well go?

You go into certain parts of Colorado, and it’s like — they drill a well and hope to hit water. There’s no guarantee.

And that’s what I found — the variables are of the unknown. But we do our best to work with customers to suggest geotechnical reports, getting the septic design, doing all these details, checking to make sure that — you know — your water connections are close, your sewer connections are close, if those services are available.

If you know you’re building on a tighter lot, make sure that there’s space for all these details. Where do they come in? How do they come in? And make sure that it’s properly planned.

That, in my sense, is the biggest.

Once you install the foundation, frame the house — it’s kind of controllable. You have our plans. You know how many windows. You know how many square feet the house is. You know how tall the ceilings are. You know how much roofing you’re going to need.

And it’s easier to go through and do it.

One thing — which I’ll throw in there, it wasn’t really part of my typical answer — but sometimes the surprise is the customer themselves, when they say, “Oh yeah, you know, we want to add this, we want to change that — it won’t be a big deal.”

And you’re like, “OK… so where’s that extra three thousand dollars coming from?” laughs

You say that ten times — it’s thirty thousand dollars.

So the point of being honest with yourself up front, and realistic in the design phase — to make sure what you’re thinking about, and making sure that the house you’re building is what you want — will really help avoid surprises.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Surprises to the wallet aren’t fun.

So the more work we could help a customer do up front to walk through these — it’ll just make it a more enjoyable process.

Interviewer: So do you ever find yourself doing gymnastics with people who aren’t sure what they’re looking for? But you know they want to design a home that’s really — let’s face it — their dream home, no matter what the price is.

But do structural details affect the overall architectural design? And how do you walk people through that process?

Steve Tuma: Yeah — well, you have a couple of questions there. On how to get someone’s ideas and then the structure together.

And yeah, we do work with it. Like you say — the “gymnastics.”

So if someone’s kind of not fully decided —

Interviewer: which is going to be most of us going into a big deal like this.

Steve Tuma: Right — it’s something like that. And then some people — their ability to visualize — if you tell some people, “Hey, this is a 12 by 12 bedroom with a 3 by 5 window facing north,” they can’t picture it. Other people — snap! — there it is. You know?

So sometimes we’ve got to work with people to have the understanding of — how can we communicate with them to go through to make sure that they get the house they want.

So they’ll go through and — like a typical thing with a foundation — we’ll say, “Hey, what type of foundation are you looking for?”

What I’m asking for is: Is it a basement, a crawlspace, slab? Is it on pilings? Is it some combination? You know, whatever it is. And sometimes the people say, “Hey, it’s cement.”

And so — just to work with them on the understanding of why a different foundation would be used in different areas — and helping them understand.

So we’ll take the time so people understand.

We’re not sitting here saying, “Hey, here’s a panelized home — figure it out.”

We’re saying, “Hey — let’s work together to understand your home, to make sure you get the house you want.”

And that leads into the second part of the question — where you’re saying, “Hey, where does the architectural and structural part of the house kind of come into play — or potential conflict?”

And this happens, generally, on more complex homes — some of the very modern designs that we do — where the engineers will say, “You need an 18-inch beam to span across…” say, a big living room, you know — big open space, big great room in a house.

But the floor system is 14-inch floor trusses.

Or — I’m sorry — open-web floor trusses.

And the customer will say, “Hey — but I want flat ceilings. I don’t want any beams hanging down.”

So that’s when we have to work the architectural design, the customer’s requirements, the structural engineers — to figure out, “Hey, how can we embed the complete beam in there?”

Is there a way to get more plies of a beam that are 14 inches tall, instead of having less plies at 18 inches tall? And then working through all these different details and working the load paths.

So yeah — there are situations where people’s requests kind of conflict a little with the structural design.

But that’s why we take the time to go over this. I just did this today on a house going to Wisconsin. Jake — hi Jake, if you’re out there listening!

But it’s a big house. He’s got a unique design, where a second level — kind of a bonus room level — is a future in-law living space.

And the way we originally structured the roof, it was a beam and rafter system, but he wanted a flat ceiling at 9 feet.

So suddenly that was a little different than our initial drawings.

We went through to change it. I had to work with the architectural designers, the customer, the structural engineer, and the truss designer.

To make sure that structurally the house was put together properly, to make sure the customer’s designs were there, and make sure that it’s something that would also pass the codes.

And that’s something we have the capability to do.

Since we have our own design team, engineering team, and truss design systems, we’re able to go through and tie these things together — to know that the plans we’re drawing up will actually work.

That — it sounds weird — but not all plans are the same. A lot of people say, “Hey, I bought my plans from the best architect in town. He wins awards. I met him at the fish fry.” laughs

And then we look at it, and we’re like — “What’s going on with your wall-to-roof connection? How is this floor system beamed up?”

And some of the people’s responses are, “Well, you figure that out on site.”

And I’m like, “Well… do you want real-time design and building to be happening at the same time?”

I mean, the contractors are going to do what’s there — but at some point, you might be cornered.

So it’s better to take the time to design it right.

We’ve probably talked a lot about this and the different aspects, but I can’t emphasize this enough — the time it takes to do a proper design is well worth it in the long run — for your sanity, your budget, your inspections, your schedule — everything like that. So — let’s loop back to where you asked about surprises. Surprises are in the things that aren’t thought through.

Which is why we take the time up front to think through a design and help someone understand it — because that also affects their budget, their schedule, and, you know, sometimes the subcontractors they want to use.

Interviewer: Well, speaking of subcontractors — that brings us to the question of how to best utilize a design that you pick — let’s say off the Landmark website.

Can you use plans to get better bids? Like subcontractor bids, things like that?

Steve Tuma: Oh, definitely.

And, you know, a lot of people have their own design ideas. They’ll sketch it up and text it to us or email it to us — or they’ll get a plan off our website and then we’ll draw it up.

But what ends up happening is a lot of people will just say, “Hey, I talked to my foundation guy, you know, I see him around town — and I asked him how much a 2,000-square-foot foundation is.”

And the guy — wanting to help and give an answer and be courteous — throws out a number.

Well, then he gets the plans and — hey, there’s 20 corners. It’s got this. It’s got that. It’s got a variety of different things — and the price changes.

So some contractors will lowball it to keep you interested. Others will go a little higher, just saying, “Hey, I’m not really sure what this foundation looks like.”

So the idea of having a complete and accurate set of plans — a budget and a timeline to build — is the contractors will take you seriously.

They’ll say, “Hey, this guy’s organized. They’re on top of it. I want this job.”

Compared to just being stopped in the grocery store and someone saying, “Hey, how much is a foundation?”

So when you have a complete set of plans with all the details — the rebar, the footer sizes, all these details — a contractor can then give you a sharp price and work with it.

It eliminates problems down the road. It eliminates moments as to “why did something cost ten thousand dollars more?”

So that’s why the planning process is there — so that a customer understands it, if financing is involved the lender will understand it, the building department will understand it, we understand it, and then subcontractors will understand what they need.

Interviewer: It sounds like what you’re saying is — a detailed and complete set of home plans is kind of important.

Steve Tuma: It’s very important. It’s, you know, kind of one of these things — there might be things that are real time, like playing a video game.

You know, you’re sitting there — “Hey, do you do this? Or do you do that?” — and it’s kind of fun.

But in building a house — when you’re trying to control a budget, keep to a schedule, schedule people properly, stay sane, you know, enjoy the process — you want to know what you’re doing.

You don’t want a lot of situations where people are calling from the site going, “Hey, what’s happening at the staircase? How does this connect?” Or “Hey, this turret — how does it get framed?” Or “Hey, we’re about to pour the foundation — what rebar do we need?”

And — amazingly — a lot of the plans we get from people are missing extremely important details.

That’s why we spend the time to go up front, to make sure that everything is clear. So that when a customer goes out and uses the plans for bids or permitting or inspections — it’s there, very clear, as to what’s to be done. So someone can get accurate help.

Whether it’s permitting, getting bids — whatever it may be — we want to minimize the unknowns.

Interviewer: And the surprises.

Steve Tuma: Oh, exactly. You know what’s funny is — I know people in the trades, and they’re like, “You know Steve, how do you stop this?” They almost expect the surprises.

And I call that lack of planning. Now, you can’t predict everything — right? But the point is — if someone’s calling you up saying, “Hey, how long is the kitchen cabinet?” — someone didn’t do the plans right.

So that’s why we add those details — so people can get these details worked out, pre-plan it, pre-budget it, understand it, kind of visualize the process, so that when they’re building — they’re executing it.

And it’s amazing how many customers we have that are like, “Steve — this is fun. I want to do it again.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Because it’s planned out. You’re not sitting there, you know, shooting from the hip — you’re sitting there following a design that makes a lot of sense and is well thought out.

Interviewer: Well, that’s gonna wrap it up for us today — but before we let you go, Steve, as usual, please let our listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys are doing over there.

Steve Tuma: Yeah — well, we’re sitting here and we help customers design and build their own home nationwide.

You can contact us by checking out our website at LHLC.com — again, that’s LHLC.com. We’re Landmark Home and Land Company.

You can also call us at 800-830-9788 → again, that’s 800-830-9788.

Mike will work with you on the preliminary steps of just finding out what you need, getting you details, some pricing — and then if it’s something where you want to move forward, you and I will have a conversation and we’ll go through and get into the details of the process.

So our website’s a great place to start. There are plans, there are details on what we supply, there’s some videos explaining some of the things that we do, there’s some pictures — it’s a good place to get a feel for it.

And right there, you can find a plan and send an email and say, “Hey, how much is Plan XYZ?” And then we’ll start the conversation.

But — by email or people can call in, either way — we’re here to help people.

We’ll take the time to get to know our potential customer, understand their project, and help them through the process.

Interviewer: Perfecto. So that wraps up another great and informative talk with Landmark Home and Land Company President, Steve Tuma.

And we want to thank all of you for taking the time to listen to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. And we hope we’ve been able to help you feel a bit more confident on your path to becoming a kit home owner-builder.

So — for Steve Tuma and myself — have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time!

Steve Tuma: Thank you — this was fun.