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Show Notes:
If you’re planning to build a custom panelized home, this episode dives straight into the common pitfalls of the planning and budgeting stages and exactly how you can avoid them. You will learn why relying on cheap, incomplete floor plans often leads to massive schedule delays and budget blowouts when dealing with building departments and unpredicted site challenges. By listening, you will discover the crucial importance of site-specific research—like paying for geotechnical soil reports and verifying fire department access—and how securing a comprehensive, customized structural and architectural design upfront is the ultimate key to staying on budget, keeping on schedule, and successfully building a home that can be passed down for generations.Transcript:
Steve Tuma: We are a company that wants to give our customers um a very clear perspective on the realities of building. It takes a lot of time, it’s a second job in in a sense, and there’s there’s always something to work with.
Host: Greetings everyone and welcome to episode 87 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today as always 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, sir?
Steve Tuma: Doing great. Another great day for building homes. It’s always a good day to build a house. To design it.
Host: It’s never a bad day to build the house is what you’re saying.
Steve Tuma: Ah, it’s good, it takes a little time to plan it out, think it through, get it taken care of, then you get the shovels and start digging a hole. It’s a lot of fun.
Host: And who worries about all the planning? You know, today I thought we’d jump into um I don’t know if we’ve ever touched on anything like this before. We do kind of talk sometimes about the ups and downs of of being a homeowner builder, but today I thought we’d discuss the pitfalls of homeownership and homeowner building in general. Are you good with that?
Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. This is an interesting, it’s an interesting angle.
Host: I hope so because uh I’m gonna throw some stuff at you that that may surprise you a little bit, but let’s just start off with an easy one. No curve balls. Just what would you say are the pitfalls if there are any of owner buildership?
Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of an interesting thing. There’s a couple perspectives on that, but I think a pitfall is that people have to be honest with themselves in the situation of what they want to do.
So um you you can save a lot of money, you can make sure that your house is built right, you can be involved, there’s a personal gratification of it um to say, hey I did this, I learned it, I planned it, I built it, you know, maybe they did some work themselves. But people have to understand it is a lot of work.
You know, at the beginning kind of honeymoon stage when you’re doing plans, everything’s like, oh this is cool, what kitchen do we want, what windows, how big is the garage going to be? It’s a lot of fun. But then there’s the reality of hey we got to make sure the plans work well, make sure it fits on your lot, make sure the energy codes work, make sure the design’s right, and then in that there’s the reality of how much does it cost. And does does it work within the budget and and how do you go through and budget it, but also there’s the idea of the schedule.
We work with a lot of owner builders and a lot of them do a some of the work themselves or a lot of the work. We’ve actually had families where other friends and family are in the trades and they literally build a house themselves. We have some people that are on the other end of the spectrum where they they hire a general contractor to manage it. And then we we’ve had people in between.
So I think a lot of the situations is is really having a true understanding of what’s sensible to build. And amazingly, a lot of the customers that call us, they they’ve thought this through, they’ve looked at their land, they’ve talked to the building department, they’ve talked to their banker or they already have the cash or whatever, they’ve thought it through what we’re doing is is helping them tie it together.
But but we are a company that wants to give our customers um a very clear perspective on the realities of building. It takes a lot of time, it’s a second job in in a sense, and there’s there’s always something to work with. We always say hey work with the best people possible. We provide an excellent service, excellent plans, excellent support, excellent panelized home, but there’s also a lot of other people involved. And the better quality and more responsive people that you have, say doing the excavation, the foundation, the framing, you know mechanicals continuing on through it, it it’ll be more successful.
So sometimes people say well, you know, my my uncle’s gonna fly in from five states away and do the plumbing for free. It’s like, well, that’s great, is he really gonna do it? You know, sometimes you have to have the conversation or or this situation on a budget where people will say, hey it’s only another thousand you know to put a to put a a steam room in or some steam function on a shower. But you gotta watch it because a thousand here and a thousand here suddenly becomes ten thousand. Yeah. No joke.
So so what we try to do is, you know, give a very sharp and real perspective of the reality of building the home. And we are here to to help people so if people don’t understand or they need a little bit deeper perspective on it, we’re fully capable of uh spending the time and and we desire to spend the time so that people have a successful build.
Um our our customers understand the process, but it’s all it’s always good just to have other little conversations through the design phase, the building phase to to help people understand what it’s really about. But what what’s interesting in this age of the internet and all these TV shows, a lot of people have some decent perspective of what it is, but I do have to caution them. A lot of these TV shows are just there to get advertising money, not necessarily you know, put the reality of what it’s like to build and the reality of the decision, what ifs, you know, things that that come into play.
And because of our real life experience over over three decades, we got a great perspective of of how we can provide answers to a customer for how it applies to them specifically. And I think I think that’s one point is you know, building a house, say if you were building a house in the in the Rockies and you took that exact home and put it into suburban New York or you put it on an ocean front uh Florida, even though it’s the same house, it’s a different experience.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: So that that I think is where we’ll be um very helpful is people asking us questions and we can give answers particular to their exact project. Um with the advent of AI coming along, a lot of people are referring to AI to get answers and it’s it might be a good guideline, but it’s not a definite path.
Host: Sure.
Steve Tuma: Um so so we want to, you know, kind of explain to people how things work for for their situation, their house, their land, for for the home that their family wants to build. So it’s it’s it’s basically, you know, I have a couple conversations, work things through in the design phase to to get things figured out and and we’ll we’ll take the time that a customer needs to understand their project so they get a, you know, a focused vision of of how to be successful in building a home.
That’s the thing. It’s a little bit of a reality check for some people. Other people catch onto it right away and I would say over 90 percent of our customers are pretty pretty much on top of it, but we’re still here to uh to really help them through.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: It’s fun. That that’s actually the very interesting part because even though we’ve been doing this for over three decades, every once in a while a customer comes up and says, hey what about this under this condition? And uh we’re able to help them. It’s pretty cool.
Host: You know everybody wants to save a buck these days. Everybody. Myself included. Um but when it comes to to buying plans let’s just start there. Um is it is it ever a good idea to just say oh these are cheaper so this is going to work as well or is there more research that needs to be involved with uh some a homeowner builder um deciding if cheaper really is a good idea?
Steve Tuma: Well it’s interesting because it’s not with just cheap plans, it’s also the flip side of overly expensive plans.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: The the idea is you need plans that are accurate. In general, um I’ve never seen inexpensive plans have all the details that are necessary for a sophisticated building department, not just to supply the permits, but also for the building phases.
A lot of people are of the opinion that well the building department took it, it’s like great, they’re looking for their little hot buttons. They’re not looking to make sure the house stands. To make sure it goes together right, to make sure the homes are complete for energy codes and everything else. So the idea of of cheap plans, it’s it’s kind of I don’t I don’t want to say that it’s a dollar amount that does it, but people have to understand that it’s garbage in garbage out.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: So if your plans aren’t clear, the details aren’t there for the building department, the professionals building your home, um you’re you’re just going to have problems all the way through. So in our position, we believe take the time to do the plans up front. In a sense, do your homework up front.
So um I I may be proven wrong tomorrow, now now that I say it, but I’ve never seen a cheap set of plans that were clear enough, complete, and accurate enough to to accurately build a home and understand what’s to be built. There’s always situations where I mean I I’ve had plans from different people that have won awards and it doesn’t say how tall the ceilings are, are there cathedral ceilings, or you know, what dimensions are, you know, what type of windows here and different stuff. So you really want to have the content there.
And that that’s what we’re able to do and our our concern about having accurate plans, you know, especially structural design, which is what holds the house up, is because we’re supplying a panelized package that will go together accurately on site in a remote location. So we take a lot of time to make sure that the plans are drawn right with the consideration of what the customers want in their house and then we follow through with the structural engineering, architectural details, etc. to make sure that that’s supplied.
You don’t want a lot of decisions being made on site. I’ve actually gotten plans from architects where they’ll say, well they’ll figure it out on site. And my point is, what are you here for if they’re figuring it out on site? Because sometimes people get kind of stuck where you’re youre in a problem figuring out on site. Figure it out on figure it out on site to me interprets you just killed your schedule and your budget’s probably blown apart too.
Figure it out up front to control your costs and schedules so that you know what you’re building, it’ll be a lot more enjoyable, it’ll go smoother and you’ll probably end up with a better house that actually fits in your budget. You know that that that’s a key thing so. The the planning um
Host: Yeah it sounds like what you’re saying is just properly research and and basically understand the entire scope of the project up front. That just seems like the way to go. And I think that’s one of the things Landmark does is help the customer understand the the full scope of a building project.
Steve Tuma: And that that’s exactly the case is is how we go through and discuss these details. So sometimes people will say, hey put a big window you know, we we got a big backyard I want to see the grandkids playing. Well what does big window mean? Do you want a big picture window? Do you want a bay of three foot by five foot windows? Do you want awning windows? Do you want one of those big accordion patio doors? And a lot of this can affect affect the energy calculations and the structural designs. And and as well as your budget.
So to be able to go in there and talk to someone and say, hey here’s the benefit of this, what is it you’re looking for? And a family will generally say I never thought of this but as you start thinking about it having a little couple minute conversation, they’re able to say, hey I’d like this type of window because you know let’s paint the picture. It’s outside of a dining room, we’re going to be eating dinner, we just need a picture window to look outside.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: Or if they said hey it’s outside of a living room, they might say hey we want an accordion door so we can bring the outside into our home on nicer evenings. So those are things that sometimes people don’t realize and that’s part of the planning process. And what people don’t always realize is just because there’s a hole in the wall doesn’t mean you could stick any window in it.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: There are structural concerns, there are energy code concerns, in some cases there’s zoning concerns as to where and how big and what your windows are doing. And that’s that’s what we’re able to uh to help people with. Kind of give them a broader scope to understand it so when theyre making a decision they they have the variables and they understand them to move forward instead of making a decision just to make a decision and then later they find out that that uh they didn’t have the full knowledge.
So that that’s part of I think we talk about design a lot but it’s it’s extremely important. A lot of people think I’ll just get cheap plans you know I’ll just go buy wood and nail a house together. It’s like good luck. You know, it’s uh it it’ll happen, but is it going to be the house you want? Is it going to be on the schedule you need? And is it going to be in the budget that you want? You know that’s the key to working with our process.
Host: Well there you know that brings us to another point is budgeting. And and if you don’t develop a proper budget it just seems to me you’re you’re setting yourself up for for failure. And uh how involved uh do you guys get when it comes to helping the customer understand how developing a proper budget is really the best idea?
Steve Tuma: Well we we suggest it to them, we review it with them, and we review the different components of the home. And they’re owner builders, so they they’d go out and you know we we get a clear and accurate set of plans to say hey here’s the foundation, here’s here are the elevations so you can figure out siding. You know we we supply window opening schedules so they know how many windows and doors of what size and specifications.
So we’re we’re always able to go through and do it, but the owner builder does get involved and then going to the window people and finding out what type of window they want. Do they want a white vinyl window? Do they want a wood window? Do they need a custom window? You know whatever it may be. And that’s that’s where they get involved to sort it out work the budget.
And what’s amazing is some people might be intimidated by that but it’s actually a pretty cool process because people start understanding that hey this is why I bought this window, this is why it makes sense to spend a thousand less or a couple thousand more to get the window that makes sense for what it is. Or the flooring or the kitchen.
Um that’s that’s the key thing to it because uh all of us want the project to be successful and it’s all the planning up front. That involves the plans, the scheduling, the budgeting. And uh you know I don’t I don’t want to make it sound like it’s a huge problem. I want to bring up that it’s something that we help with so that people can understand and move along with their project.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: And by the way, this happens with people doing $200,000 homes it also happens with people doing five and 10 million dollar homes. So no one should be embarrassed that hey I’ve only got 300,000 will you help me we we someone’s a good person wanting to get a house let’s help them.
Host: You know I I’m we’re we’ll go back to um well just the overall build I guess, but we’ll go back to plans and I’d like to ask about um some plans or plan uh issues that you can avoid or that you just don’t really even need to deal with. Like how does avoiding grading plans and geotechnical reports, how does that affect the overall build, the budget, the the time it takes and uh how important is it to make sure that you get every single plan that you need for the project?
Steve Tuma: Well it’s uh you know the better information you have up front to design the home well make good decisions, makes it easier to build when you’re actually in the building phases. It also allows you to keep to schedule and control your budget. So something um you know like a grading plan or geotechnical report.
A grading plan just basically shows how the ground will be contoured so that your house can be set on it, you have access by the driveway and sidewalks and water sheds away from your property. That’s in general.
A geotechnical report is a a you get a geotechnical scientist where they take a soil boring to find out the exact strength of the soil at your exact building site. Because there are places where soil is very consistent, there’s other places where it’s very inconsistent or it’s weaker or it’s expansive and it cracks foundations. So there’s a lot of different details.
So sometimes people want to say, oh I don’t need that, my neighbor said I don’t need it. And I’m like okay that’s that’s good but this isn’t your neighbor’s house it’s your house, it’s your budget, it’s your project. And in some cases they could slide by without some information, but I think overall it’s very important to have that information because I would say that having the right information helps 60 to 70 percent of the customers avoid problems they didn’t even realize were there.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: By getting the information up up front. So geotechnical reports are an example of this. And I we’ll talk about geotechnical reports but it’s I’m also really emphasizing the value of understanding the project, approaching the situations, and helping through with the design and how that’s important.
But in the case of geotechnical reports um they could be a few thousand dollars, maybe a little more. They could take three to six weeks to get, sometimes a little longer depending on the geotechnical engineer’s backlog. But a lot of people say I don’t need them, and and then you they go out and excavate and find out they’re on expansive soils. So there they are excavating, foundation crew is about to show up and they find out that they have very soft soil. So suddenly it’s like hey let’s take steps back to redesign the foundation, to move this forward to go through. That problem could have been avoided. Um you would have kept to schedule and you would have understood your budget a little bit better.
Now if a customer ends up in a situation like that we are 100% there and committed to help them through it. But just like deciding, you know hey what type of furnace what do I want, what type of windows, we also have to deal with you know the site conditions. Is your is your lot accessible? In some places they want to know that your fire the fire department can get onto the lot properly.
Host: Oh yeah, sure.
Steve Tuma: People don’t think about that. They think about their kitchen, you know, the fireplace, the view out the backyard. Even though none of us really want to be in a fire, how many people think about fire access?
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: Smoke alarms. You know how how many people think about the big rain and not flooding your basement?
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: So those those are reasons why uh you know we we want to work with people to to make sure that the information’s there to go through it. Now our customers they’re the general contractor, it’s it’s up to them how they choose to proceed, but we we want to be there to give them the the potential array of situations so that they can make good decisions and understand their project. Our owner builders want to understand their home, they want to learn, they want to have a good time, it’s a life experience for them. So they’re open to doing it right.
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: That that’s what we’re interested in. We want to do it right. A good home. A lot of these homes they’re the families are intending on passing them down through the generations. It’s got to be a good home.
Host: Well yeah, that makes sense.
Steve Tuma: That that’s what we that’s what we supply.
Host: You know this has been a really in whenever I walk away and learn a lot of stuff I really like these episodes where it’s like you’ve you’ve uh you’ve told us some things that I had never even thought about. And uh I think that’s what these podcasts are good for.
Your knowledge base is even if someone doesn’t buy or build a panelized prefab home or or buy it through you, I mean it’s like anybody would it would behoove anyone who’s thinking of becoming a homeowner builder to listen to this podcast. Sorry guys, I’m not trying to just plug myself, I have nothing to do with it. But I think these podcasts, if you if you’re listening to this one and we didn’t answer certain questions, go back through the archive and Steve has given us a lot of over you know like we said this is episode what 87 I mean that’s insane.
Steve Tuma: Right.
Host: There’s a lot of info. So yeah, go back to the archives and and find out um you know see if the question you might have in your brain is actually already taken care of. And it’s there for you to listen to. And just because it’s they’re not new episodes doesn’t mean that they’ve actually you know lost their their power and their and their knowledge base. So anyway that…
Steve Tuma: Yeah, but here here’s the thing. There’s a lot of information, but how does it tie together?
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: And I would say yeah, search our website out, listen to the podcast, but people are free to call in. You know, they can call 800-830-9788, work with Mike, to you know, in a preliminary stages on the design it’ll eventually I’ll get involved. But I’m I’m available as well if people want to talk about, hey how does this apply to me?
Host: Mm-hmm.
Steve Tuma: You know, I kind of understand a geotechnical report, I kind of understand a grading plan, I kind of understand this, how how do we wrap it up together for me? And in some areas it’s not as necessary as others, but what we can do is get a customer specific answer for what they want, where they want to build it and how they want to build it. And that’s that’s the key thing is tying it together of how it’s relevant to our customer base. That’s extremely important. That’s why we’re here.
Host: Well give us that give us the website again and the phone number again and just so people have it in their in their brain.
Steve Tuma: Oh the website is lhlc.com. Basically the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company lhlc.com. Uh and on there we’ve got thousands of plans, these podcasts, some videos, some descriptions of what we supply and different types of conversations. And I think that that’s a that’s a great place to start. Um they can send an inquiry in on a plan or just an email to us, let us know what’s going on.
And like I say they can call in at 800-830-9788. Um and if they want to call me directly my my direct cell phone is 708-205-2043. And I’m happy to talk to people that are interested in getting their project going and just kind of want to get a preview of how we can help. It’s it’s it’s a lot of fun. We we enjoy working with our customers. Every customer is very enjoyable to work with. And the site conditions and making the putting the details together of how their house will work is is what we do.
And I think it’s it’s uh it’s a very unique service uh for someone to have the the one stop shop of plans, structural design, energy calculation, site plans, plan sets for the building department, and then a matching panelized home package to the approved plans. It saves a lot of headaches and problems for a customer and makes it much easier for owner builders.
Host: You really like doing this don’t ya?
Steve Tuma: Ah it’s great. It’s it’s fun. It’s uh we’re lucky people. We we get to help um we get to help people, like I say, helping good people get cool houses.
Host: That’s good. Well there you have it. Thanks again Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Um we really enjoy doing this show and that’s why I was uh telling you go back and listen to some of the uh the archived podcasts as well because there’s a lot of info on all of these podcasts. So anyway for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and for myself, we hope you have a great week and we will see you next time. And thanks as always Steve.
Steve Tuma: Thank you. This is another fun one. 87, let’s go do some more, another hundred or two.
Host: You got it. Thanks.
Steve Tuma: Thanks.
