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Most people assume that if they hire an architect and engineer, the plans they get will “just work.” This episode explains why that’s often not true — and how Landmark avoids the trap of unbuildable, disjointed plans by handling architecture, structural engineering, energy codes, and site planning as one unified process. Steve walks through real-world examples where independently created drawings clash: roof framing that won’t accommodate required insulation, beams that block plumbing and HVAC runs, flat‑land stock plans dropped onto steep sites, and window schedules that don’t match actual rough openings or energy‑code needs. He shows how Landmark’s integrated design approach aligns everything — structure, energy performance, grading, setbacks, and aesthetics — before you ever break ground, significantly reducing on‑site “to be determined” surprises, change orders, budget creep, and schedule headaches. You’ll also hear why Landmark’s guaranteed pricing, custom‑at‑no‑penalty floor plans, and owner‑builder‑friendly panelized system give you a clear, buildable set of plans and a predictable path from permits to a finished home that actually matches your lifestyle and your lot.Transcript:
Steve Tuma: And what I find when I talk to customers is they don’t believe that you can pay someone to get a set of plans that isn’t buildable. And sometimes those unbuildable plans even get approved by building departments.
Interviewer: Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 84 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.
With me today, as he always is, 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 — Mr. Steve Tuma.
Steve, how are you, man?
Steve Tuma: It’s a great day. I guess I always say that.
Interviewer: It is always a great day.
Steve Tuma: You know, we’ve got new projects, different projects, working on delivering homes — and you know, it’s just cool when a family gets a new home. They send pictures — “Look at this, look at what happened the first day.” You know, a couple days — we’re half framed. It’s an amazing time and, you know, we’re lucky we’re able to help customers build their new homes.
Interviewer: It’s always good to make people happy, I would think.
Steve Tuma: That’s what the game’s about. That’s what it is.
Interviewer: So today I thought we would talk about the total shebang when it comes to panelized home building. And I’m talking from design to delivery and the entire building of a panelized home from start‑to‑finish project.
Are you up for that?
Steve Tuma: Yeah. It’s a lot to cover, so we’ll probably have to condense a few points here, but get to the major overview of how we can help.
Interviewer: Right. Well let’s start with something fairly basic. How does Landmark Home & Land Company help with a seamless and unified design and build process — not fragmented building?
Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about that is not a lot of people understand what that is. Because we’ve had customers — they’ll go get an architect, they’ll go get another structural engineer, they’ll get an energy‑calc person, and then they’ll be like, “Steve, I turned these plans in and I didn’t get permits.”
I’m like, “Well, because they weren’t done right.” And they say, “Well, it was an architect,” or, “It was an engineer.” It’s like, well that’s great, but you’ve got to put this together to make sure that everything matches up for your building site:
- The home
- The structural components
- The architectural components
- The energy efficiency
- Green codes, if they apply
- And then other concerns that come along in building
And that’s what we’re able to do — have a unified plan set so that they’re complete and thorough and make sense for a building department to understand. And then our plans aren’t just for the building department — they’re also meant for the actual building phases.
I’ve had people say, “Hey, I got a set of plans that’s meant for permits.” I’m like, “Well, sorry — is your intent just to get permits, or is your intent to also build a house?” You know, it doesn’t make sense just to get permits just to get them.
So I think that sometimes there’s different methods that people work. But at Landmark Home and Land Company, we work to make sure that the plans are unified.
What people may not understand is — let’s just take a roof of a home: a part of a home that’s made with a beam and a rafter, architecturally, for a certain look. A customer may want a 12‑inch fascia just to give a certain look to the house. The structural engineer may say, “Hey, you only need 2x8s or 2x10s for the rafters.”
So right there — let’s just go with 2×10. There’s a 2×10 structurally, a 2×12 architecturally. But maybe you’re in an area that needs more insulation and you need 16 inches of space. So if you have:
- The architectural design
- The structural design
- The energy calculations
…all done independently, and no one works together, you might end up with everyone doing their work — but it doesn’t match.
So if the structural person says, “Hey, let’s put a 2×10 roof rafter up,” and then you need 16 inches for your insulation, you have a problem. So the structure doesn’t match up.
That’s the point I’m getting at: we work to look to make sure that the details are all put together and match throughout the design.
Now, I took a fairly simple example there in roof insulation on a beam‑and‑rafter type of roof system, but there’s a lot of other situations where that aligns with:
- Grading plans
- Structural engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Plumbing issues
- Green‑code issues
…and a lot more. And also, sometimes just the customer’s concern on what they want the house to look like. So being able to wrap all those together so it makes sense is there.
What’s interesting to me is a lot of people say, “Oh, Steve, the changes on site…” And I’m like, well, to me a “change” is if someone goes through and says, “Hey, I want something different than planned.” But if there’s a change on site because something wasn’t designed right, the designers didn’t design it right.
So you don’t want to work in a system where it’s inherently set up to have changes on site. You don’t want to deal with:
- All the change orders
- The costs
- The headache
- The schedule changes
It’s just stressful. So it’s better to work to have a full set of plans that are completely designed up front. And we do our best to make sure that:
- The site‑plan details match the architectural
- The structural
- The energy codes
- The green codes
- The grading plan or any terrain issues that are there
So it’s a lot of details. And that’s how we work with people to avoid the on‑site changes. It’s a lot of work, but it’s what we do as our project, and why we’re able to give a set price, give someone a set of plans that’s good for permits and building. And then when they’re assembling the home package, everything goes together as planned.
We’ve seen a lot of plans where, you know, there’s some details there — to someone that doesn’t understand it, it might seem to be complete, but in reality they’re not complete. For some reason, a lot of designers think that a lot of stuff gets worked out on site. I don’t understand that, because the nature of their job is to design it so it goes together right.
So it takes us, you know, a little extra effort to make sure we have all the components for a proper design.
Again, that might sound a little weird to people — to say, “But I paid my architect or I paid my engineer; shouldn’t they do that?” It’s like, well, they do their part — but who’s looking at the overall situation to make sure it all comes together right?
And that’s what we do at Landmark Home & Land Company. It’s a design situation to make sure that you get the house you want — but also make sure:
- The applying for permits
- And also the execution of actually building the home
…is smooth and controlled. The smoother it is, the more controlled it is, the more you’re going to be able to stick to your budget — and the fewer issues you’re going to have with your budget.
It’s a pretty cool process that we have, but not everyone realizes how beneficial it is until they get to the planning stages and building stages.
Interviewer: Well, help us understand that a little better then. How does this — what you’re calling a seamless and unified design process — how does that actually help the owner‑builder in the building process?
Steve Tuma: Well, there’s a lot of components to building a house. Owner‑builders maybe have done a house, maybe they’ve done two or three. Even some of the professional contractors we work with, and smaller developers we work with — knowing that all the details are there, you’re hiring a pro to do the job; we make sure the job’s done. Or if you need extra help, we supply the details.
So what it does is it allows a person to go through and properly plan and execute the home and avoid pitfalls.
A situation like I ran into — something where someone said, “Hey, I don’t need to figure out window sizes — I’ll just buy standard windows.” And I’m like, “Well that’s interesting.”
I could understand a standard gallon of milk — comes in a container, it’s a gallon of milk. You can say it’s kind of standardized to a certain degree. But windows are not standardized.
I’ll tell people why. It’s an interesting thing. If you take some window companies, they’ll say their window is three feet by five feet — that’s the actual window size. You have to make the rough opening a little bigger. Other companies — the three feet by five feet is the rough opening, and the window’s actually a little bit smaller.
So you end up in situations there where people think that you just go buy a standard window. Well, the size that is in your plans may or may not work.
We’re saying, “Hey, you should check into this. We should know what’s going on. We should make it part of the plans so that you avoid issues down the road.” And then you should also check your windows:
- Make sure they’re designed with the features you want
- Make sure they comply with the energy codes
- And also your budget
So what all this planning does — we take the time up front. You’ve heard me say “Hey, we do our homework up front.” It allows us to make sure that we’ve avoided the pitfalls, thought out through everything during the building process, so that when a customer is building there’s less of a chance of a big “uh‑oh” moment or something bad happening.
We’ve noticed when people come to us with designs from other places, there’s a lot of pushing things off for someone else to deal with. Well at some point you’re going to have to deal with it, and it’s better not to do it at the construction site. It’s better to have it thought out.
So by having this done, people go through and they’ll have their actual windows, they’ll have the actual quotes — so they know the cost. They know what windows they need. They know what windows have tempered glass, what windows have egress features.
So there’s a couple of tricks to the trade that we help people through the process to make it work.
Another classic one is, people will say, “Hey, I don’t want any exposed beams,” meaning they want a flat ceiling; they don’t want a beam hanging down. What they don’t realize is that, if there is a beam, it’s got to go into a floor system. Well, if that’s the case, does it affect your ability to run plumbing and heating properly?
We check for things like that, to avoid it down the road, so you don’t end up moving a beam or adjusting something — and then the design of the home or the interior finishing isn’t the way you want it to be.
So by taking the time to review and understand the complete project — that’s where it helps with the seamless and unified design.
Another point is: how does your home fit on the land? If you go look at a lot of these plans that you’ll see out there online, they all assume you’re on a flat piece of land — which, I don’t know, I’m going to say half the country is kind of flat, the other half isn’t. So people figure, “Well, I’ll just adjust a foundation on the side of a mountain.” And it’s like, well, you’re really just guessing until you understand:
- The grades
- How the foundation comes together
- And the approach on the land
…and how are you going to access it with the driveway, sidewalks, things like that.
So there’s a lot of reasons to go through and really make sure that you’ve got a custom set of plans for your house on your exact piece of land, for the house that you want.
And that’s what we do at Landmark. We take the time to make sure those details are put together so that you’re not out there guessing on site. This isn’t a race to get it done as fast as you can. It’s a job to make sure it’s designed right in an efficient time at the right budget.
Interviewer: So you’re saying kicking the can down the road is not the best way to build a house.
Steve Tuma: It’s exactly not the best, in literal and figurative sense. But yeah, that’s the point — because I’ve seen a lot of situations where people come… you know, they’ve paid their own architect or someone to design a house. It’s like… and there’s stuff there, you know, “figured out.”
There’ll be comments: “To be determined.” Okay — “to be determined.” Then what’s the designer doing? The easy work? How about do the easy work? And at what point does that get determined? So a person may not realize the situation and then end up cornered during the building phase.
So that’s why it’s important to have a complete set of plans that’s properly thought through, considers your:
- Site conditions
- Energy efficiency
- Structural design
- Architectural design
- Green codes, if they come into play
…to make sure that everything comes together so that the plans are accurate to want to build and not have a bunch of potholes along the way.
So it’s what we do.
I think that a lot of customers find us to be the best panelized home system because we have a great panelized home system, but it’s also because of the planning — to make sure that the home project is designed properly.
You know, for some reason people think, “Oh, you know, panels or sticks, you know, it’s all the same — just go get it.” It’s like, no, it’s how you do it that makes it a good project, and efficient — you know, financially — stays in the budget range you want to stay within, and then the schedule.
Interviewer: You know, I’ve kind of asked you this next question quite a few times actually, but sometimes it just keeps coming back within the context of what we happen to be talking about. But explain how building a Landmark Home and Land Company panelized home differs from building a standard stick‑built home. Just kind of get into that again, because it seems in this situation, when we’re talking about unified design, this is a good question to ask again and to bring up again.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, basically the situation is: we work with you on a complete set of plans so that you get the house you want. It fits on your lot, you know — works with energy efficiency. But the end result will be about the same — it’s how you go do it.
With us, we’re able to get you a cost for the details we supply — the planning, engineering, energy codes, and the panelized package delivered. And we’ll give you a guaranteed set price, which is really, really helpful — because a lot of times you work with designers, it’s by the hour. So it’s like a lawyer — you call them, ask them a question, they send you a bill. And, you know, how much of the problem is there?
We look at it as, hey, give the customer a set cost and make sure it’s taken care of right, so the customer can rely on it for their budget.
So I think a lot of it is that — the actual design work, the control of the budget with our guaranteed cost, our ability to work on a schedule, and most importantly, our ability and desire to listen, understand what a customer needs, and then help them through to get it taken care of for the project.
Now sometimes a customer will ask for something that just isn’t possible in their budget or on the land, but we still work with them to explain the situation so that then we can work together on a solution that makes sense for them.
Interviewer: Yeah, sure.
Steve Tuma: So I think it’s the process that we supply. Because of course we are the best panelized home company on the planet — and I say that seriously. I like to have a sense of humor, but the reality is that all the details that we supply to make the house right is important.
A lot of people think, “Oh, I’ll just go get the guy down the road, who for 500 bucks he’ll draw plans.” That’s a problem.
So I think when you take the combination of:
- Our guaranteed cost
- Our ability to supply a complete and accurate set of plans for permitting
- And our ability to go through and set a panelized home for an owner‑builder
…it’s unmatched. And I don’t know that in stick‑building that there’s a method for someone to do that and make it easy and be able to have all the support and achieve the goal.
And it’s a big money savings. We have a lot of people that do two, three homes with us. Some will do one a year or two later, some will do it 10 years later. But I think that’s the basic situation of how we’re really able to differentiate ourselves and provide a service that customers appreciate.
Interviewer: You talk about custom‑designed homes as opposed to the standard design from Landmark Home and Land Company. So we’re assuming — you’re saying that there are designs that are kind of standardized, but the custom homes — are they more costly, a lot more costly, or how does that work?
Steve Tuma: Well, this is interesting, because that’s one of those things on a perspective. If you take a standard design, say from our website — a 1,200‑square‑foot, three‑bedroom, two‑bath home — there’s a price for that.
But even if someone decided to say, “Hey, I want to do a similar 1,200‑square‑foot home but change the inside or stick a little porch on there,” we don’t charge extra because it’s your own design.
So there’s something kind of different here. So if it’s feature‑for‑feature — like if you have 9‑foot ceilings and a cathedral in the living room — whether you work with one of our standard plans that we have on the website or you draw similar up, we don’t charge extra because you had your own idea.
Now the features — if you decide to put 12‑foot ceilings in there versus 9 — yeah, that extra material is going to cost more.
So I think the interesting thing about this is that sometimes people think just because a home is customized it will cost more. And there are ways to make sure that that doesn’t happen. Now, if someone comes in with an extremely high‑end custom home that’s going to have a lot of features — that ends up costing more. So someone will say it would cost more, but it’s the features.
What I’m trying to say is: just because you want to do a custom home, we don’t charge extra. We work with you. So if someone said, “Hey, I want to do an affordable 1,600‑square‑foot ranch, can I do my own design?” — it’s going to come out about the same price as if someone chose one of our 1,600‑square‑foot ranches.
So what we want to do — and we’ve set ourselves up — is to make sure that people get the house they want. I’ve seen too many times where people buy houses, and you can see this:
- In the modular
- In the prefab — the ones with the metal frame under it
- And to a certain degree also in tract homes
…where people take what they can get, but it doesn’t necessarily work for what they need. Size of bedrooms… just different uses. Different families live different ways.
So if we can work to customize the layout to get the person the home they want at the same price as if it was a standardized design, to me that’s excellent. It’s great, because people want to live in the house they want. It’s their home. They’re paying for it. They’re going to be there a while. They want to live the way they live.
Some people enjoy their kitchens. Some people want a big room for the family to get together. Other people want bedrooms and bathrooms to be laid out different ways, and we’ll spend the time to do that — whether someone just wants to do a little 400‑square‑foot, 500‑square‑foot ADU, or they want to do a 10–15,000‑square‑foot mansion.
We’ll take the time to design it and do it in a cost‑effective way.
Interviewer: I mean, what’s the breakdown of how many people come to you and get their design — even if they customize it — but get their design directly from the website, and people who come in and just want you to build a home based entirely on a design they have that, of course, you get involved with that… but what’s the percentage breakdown?
Steve Tuma: In almost 33 years, one person has had a plan saying exactly… Everyone changes.
Whether you’re building a house with a $100,000 budget altogether or 10–15 million, everyone wants their house. They need this and they need that. It’s just one of these interesting situations.
So the reality is — that’s why we do it. It’s really cool when a customer says, “Hey Steve,” two, three years later they’ll say, “Hey Steve, here we are in the big family room. Twenty‑five people are over for the holidays. We designed it right. Thank you.”
I mean, we’ve had other people to other extremes. I had a customer — great guy — but he happens to have two Harley‑Davidsons. And I guess on rainy days, you bring them in your house. You don’t leave them outside. So we made sure that the ramp up to the deck and then the floor system in the house would be able to support that weight.
So some people might look at that and say, “Hey, it’s a little bit odd,” but hey — if that’s your priority, do it.
Other people have rooms where they have different hobbies — they need extra support in the floor. Maybe a big pool table, a hot tub, or whatever it may be. And we can get that all taken care of.
And that’s the key element of going through and really making sure that people get the house.
So yes, the percentage — almost 100%, with the exception of that one person about 20 years ago. Everyone wants to do something to their home. And sometimes it’s a personal taste, sometimes it’s a big window to take advantage of a view, sometimes it’s a situation with the land if they’re building on a slope, sometimes there’s hobbies.
There’s people that, you know, they work on their car with the kids, or their garage is a big — turns into a big party room on big family weekends, or whatever.
So there’s always a special need there that’s very important to our customer base. And we believe that people should live in a house that they want, and that they enjoy.
You know, having to take what’s available, I guess, is okay. But if, for the same money or about the same money, you can get the house you want and know it’s built right — that’s why we offer this service. And that’s why we do a complete process — because owner‑builders and even the professionals, there’s always a lot of details, and we want to make sure our plans are complete and thorough for them.
Interviewer: Hmm. This has been pretty informative, I think.
Steve Tuma: It’s a lot of stuff. And what I find when I talk to customers is they don’t believe that you can pay someone and get a set of plans that isn’t buildable. And sometimes those unbuildable plans even get approved by building departments.
It’s one of these things that people don’t… you don’t believe it. You figure, hey, you’re going to go to the doctor, he’s going to help you. It’s like, well, did he really?
So you want to know that you’re getting a complete service, as well as a great panelized home. And great panelized homes — that’s what Landmark Home & Land Company does.
Interviewer: All right. Well that’s about all we have time for, for this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.
But before we let you go, Steve, as we always do, please let our listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home & Land Company and what you guys are doing and how you’re helping people over there get the house they want.
Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check out our website. The company name is Landmark Home & Land Company. You can see our website at LHLC.com — that’s kind of the initials: Landmark Home Land Company.
And on there there’s plans, there’s videos, there’s these podcasts, there’s different details on what we supply, there’s pictures — it’s pretty cool. And someone can go through there and email us directly, or they can also look at plans and send us an email asking questions about a specific plan.
And then they can also call. Mike will probably answer the phone, or he’ll get back with you if for some reason it got to his voicemail, but he answers. It’s 800‑830‑9788. Again, that’s 800‑830‑9788.
And you know, we invite people to call, submit an inquiry online. If someone wanted to call and talk to me directly — my direct cell phone is 708‑205‑2043, and I’m Steve Tuma with Landmark Home & Land Company.
Interviewer: And there you have it.
Thank you again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.
So for Landmark Home & Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week, and we will see you next time.
Thanks again, Steve.
Steve Tuma: Thank you. This is a really interesting one. It was a good one. Thanks.
