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Show Notes:
Celebrating the 100th episode milestone, you will learn how thirty-three years of specialized panelized engineering, whole-house plan coordination, and dedicated owner-builder project support transform complex architectural visions into structural reality across all 50 states and international jurisdictions. Discover how integrating structural engineering, civil plot reviews, and Title 24 energy calculations under a unified design model prevents the jobsite miscommunications and municipal plan check delays common when working with independent architects. We analyze real-world case studies demonstrating how precise factory fabrication protects structural integrity—including a custom Virginia home that survived three hurricanes and an F4 tornado with only three damaged shingles while surrounding conventional structures collapsed. Explore how multi-generational families in the building trades leverage sweat equity to fund three-bedroom homes outright, and see how seasoned commercial developers resolve strict European metric standards. Whether designing high-end custom retreats or cost-efficient starter floor plans, discover how partnering with professional custom architectural drafting services and utilizing complete home building kits gives owner-builders total financial and structural control.Key Q&A Highlights from Episode 100
Q: How does a unified design and engineering model prevent conflicts between architects and engineers?
A: Independent architects often draft custom floor plans without running simultaneous structural shear or energy code calculations, resulting in blueprint clashes during municipal plan review. By coordinating architectural layouts, civil site constraints, truss profiles, and MEP requirements in-house, every calculation is reconciled before lumber is cut, eliminating conflicting engineer change orders on the jobsite.
Q: Why do panelized framing packages withstand severe weather events like F4 tornadoes and hurricanes better than site-built homes?
A: Panelized components are assembled on precision factory jigs utilizing engineered fastening schedules, continuous hold-downs, and structural sheathing nailed under strict quality controls. This continuous engineered load path ties the roof trusses directly to the foundation, preventing the structural racking, uplift, and wall failures common in uninspected on-site hand framing during extreme storms.
Q: How can multi-generational families design and fund a custom owner-builder home together?
A: Multi-generational owner-builders frequently design floor plans with zoned bedroom wings or dual suites to support grandparents, parents, and children under one roof. By acting as their own general contractors and contributing personal trade labor, family members eliminate commercial contractor markups, pooling equity and savings to complete homes without high-interest construction debt.
Q: What architectural and engineering adjustments are required when building panelized homes internationally?
A: International projects require converting imperial dimensioning to metric standards while adapting structural calculations to local building standards like Eurocodes. While administrative procedures and inspection checkpoints differ across international borders, the foundational engineering principles—accounting for seismic activity, wind speeds, and alpine snow loads—remain structurally identical to demanding domestic jurisdictions.
Q: How does early structural pre-planning support extreme custom lifestyle features like aircraft hangars or underground car vaults?
A: Specialty lifestyle elements introduce massive clear spans and concentrated point loads that traditional prescriptive residential codes cannot accommodate. Engineering these spaces requires calculating commercial-grade steel or LVL transfer beams, reinforced foundation slabs, and dedicated fire separation assemblies during initial blueprint drafting to satisfy local municipal zoning and building codes.
Transcript:
Steve Tuma: Well, Landmark Home and Land Company is the best panelized home company for design, customer service, engineering, plans for permits. I don’t know, I don’t think anyone out there is doing it. Just, it’s a very big undertaking.
Host: How’s it going, everybody? And welcome to episode, believe it or not, 100 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show, celebrating the 100th edition of this podcast that answers any and all of your questions regarding panelized home building. Ever since I’ve been on board with this thing, I’ve found it valuable, and I know that our listeners do as well. So, with me today, as he usually 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, and that would be Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, congratulations, my friend, on 100 episodes of the podcast.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, isn’t that amazing? It’s pretty cool to think that we still have a lot of cool things to talk about, different situations, customers’ experiences, and then just as, you know, the world gets a little more intricate, there’s more stuff on codes, more stuff on designs. And, part of it, this morning I woke up and go, “Oh, 100 episodes,” and I was like, “Is he going to ask me 100 questions on the 100th episode?”
Host: We haven’t even scratched the surface, so I probably could!
Steve Tuma: Yeah, so I think we’ve got—it’s amazing. But, hey, let’s get some good stuff going, and eventually we’ll be at 200 episodes.
Host: That’s right. And you’re right, the word is amazing. It’s been an amazing journey, and I’ve been honored to be a part of it. But you and your company, Landmark Home and Land Company, are the stars of the show, and I think that our listeners have found a lot of, well, as I said, useful information and valuable insights into panelized home building, and I think house construction and owner-buildership in general. So if you’re good to go, let’s just talk about the company a little bit, and I’ll get into a few questions that I’ve put together just for this occasion, the 100th edition. So are you buckled in and ready to go?
Steve Tuma: Yeah, let’s do it.
Host: Cool. So let’s start off with the beginnings of the company, and if you don’t mind, give us some background on just how Landmark Home and Land Company came about. It’s been, ladies and gentlemen, 33 years and counting, and in that time, you guys at Landmark have made a lot of owner-builders happy in their new homes. And I won’t ask you to go too deep into the past, but what was the first inkling that you wanted to go into home design, you, Steve Tuma, in the first place, and how panelized home kits became, well, became your stock-in-trade?
Steve Tuma: Well, I think way back when I was a little kid, we lived in an interesting house, and it’s just something you see. Maybe it was imprinted in me or something like that, and I’ve just always been interested in what houses were like and why were some cool, and some were okay, and some weren’t. And then, as you get older, you see different things. You live in different places, your friends live in different places, you see different things on the cost of houses, you see different things on expenses, financing, design, usability of land. And just one day, it was one of those things, it’s like, hey, we’ve got a—there’s a spot here where people aren’t being addressed properly. Their solutions aren’t there, and there might be pieces of a solution that never come together as one.
So we started Landmark, my brother and I, in 1993, just started it, built some homes. And a customer came in and said, “Hey, we understand you have the financing to help owner-builders.” And I said, “Yeah.” And he was a good person, and I figured, hey, let’s try it. Let’s see how it goes.
And what we saw was the actual reward of the customer building their own home and having control, and understanding what goes in and wanting to know how their money is being spent, and making sure that they get what they want. The contracting world is kind of interesting, and there’s always a question of, hey, how do I know what I’m going to get? How do I know that I can or can’t get something in a home?
So what we did at Landmark Home and Land Company over some time is evolve into really being a full-service, one-stop shop for an owner-builder to design and contract their own home. Now, a lot of people sit back and say, “Well, you know, I can go to an architect, I can go to a structural engineer, I can go to a site planner, I can go to an energy code person, and it’ll come together.” And even though that sounds good, they’re professionals, that’s kind of like going to a grocery store thinking that the hamburger is going to jump on the hamburger bun, and the cheese is going to jump on it, and the pickle and the lettuce and tomato are going to jump on, and everyone’s just going to be happy and make you the best hamburger. The theory is there, but the reality is the intricacy of making sure all the details come together.
And as we saw this and working, it was actually the customer saying, “Hey, Steve, can you help with this?” or “Hey, my land is like this,” where we started seeing repeat requests, and we’re like, that’s what we call a demand, that’s something that a customer may need. So what we found over working with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of customers, even thousands, of customers, that the concepts are there, but how do you bridge the gap to say, “Hey, I want this house on this piece of land here?”
So we evolved into the design to really take care of the customer, and we also still keep on listening because there’s different challenges in sites, different building code applications, different customer needs or requirements. So it’s a constant evolution; it’s not something where you become a master and, you know, there you are. It’s a continual situation.
So I think, you asked how we got into it, it was just a desire to help people get cool homes. I’ve lived in some pretty interesting places, and it’s always been one of these situations of do the 100 percent, not the 80 percent. And the industry is full of people that supply some information, but who’s really helping the customer get everything across the line in a proper way with full support? So it was the desire to help people achieve the building more than it was necessarily the design.
Now, wanting to help people achieve the end goal of building a good, quality home on the budget they want and the home their family needs, that’s what goes back to the proper design, the proper panelized process, and then, most importantly, the full customer support. So it’s the achievement of customers getting the home they want that we kind of reverse-engineered the process to make sure we’re fully ready to go.
So, I don’t know what people are kind of thinking, maybe something a little more glamorous or interesting, but that’s really the meat and potatoes of it is we listened to the customer, and the customer would ask, tell us, or end up in a situation, we’d be like, “We can do that. We can do that.” And before you know it, we end up being an exceptional owner-builder one-stop shop for people wanting to design and build their own homes in any of the 50 states and even internationally.
So we do a lot of work in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, Illinois, Florida, the Carolinas, New York, the Plains states as well, Nebraska, Texas. So we’re able to—I can’t name all 50 states, but we do work in all 50 states, and that’s the interesting thing. So as we grow through this and help all the people in different situations, in different states, and different needs for their home, we’re able to compile a very solid process to help a customer build their home, and we make it sound simple, and to us it is simple, because we do have a very strong process that’s been proven over time, over decades, 33 years, over projects all over the country.
And it’s just really satisfying. It’s just really cool when someone says, “Hey, I have the worst building department,” or “My building site’s just really challenging,” or “Hey, I’m trying to figure this out, how can we—” and we can be like, “We’ve already done this. Let’s show you how we helped customers in other situations, let’s see how it works with yours.” And that’s the coolest thing when the customer comes back and says, “Hey, it worked,” and then we start getting pictures of a house being built that initially they thought might have been a little bit beyond their capabilities. So we wrap it up to give the customer the power to understand and control their own owner-builder home project. It’s pretty cool.
Host: I was only chuckling because you had said that you hoped nobody listening was looking for a big glamorous answer, and I was thinking anybody who’s listened to you and I on this program for any length of time knows they’re not going to get any glam. It’s pretty much just straightforward, from-the-hip stuff; that’s what you do.
Steve Tuma: Well, that’s what we do, and that’s what we want to be with home building, help people get what they need to solve the situation, get the home they want. That’s the most important thing about it, is getting the home they want, and making sure it’s a reasonable design and sensible and achievable.
Host: Right.
Steve Tuma: It’s pretty cool.
Host: It just seems when I hear you talk, I just know the answer to this already, but how satisfying has it been for you to see the company you started grow into one of the leading panelized home design companies in the US? That’s got to be pretty amazing for you.
Steve Tuma: Well, Landmark Home and Land Company is the best panelized home company for design, customer service, engineering, plans for permits. I don’t know, I don’t think anyone out there is doing it. Just, it’s a very big undertaking.
It’s extremely satisfying, because we get repeat customers, we get customers that have their kids, uncles, relatives, mom and dad, friends build a house. And some of the most amazing things about all of this is that sometimes people will call 20 years later and say, “Hey, Steve, remember me? I did something here, we’re retiring down south, can you help us with the house, or the kids are grown and they need their own house?”
So the idea that we’re going to, you know, have kind of come full circle, there’s no bigger satisfaction than someone remembering you and thanking you 20 years later, a fifth of a century. The longest we’ve had is someone 24 years after we helped them, they called us again to build. And there’s just something cool about that, to get it taken care of.
And here’s what the people have said, the Allen family in Virginia, it was last fall, they sent an email and they said, “Steve, I just wanted to reach out. We were showing our friends the home you helped us build 20 years ago. We were bragging about how all the work we did.” And then they went on to say it went through three hurricanes, an F4 tornado went through town, they had other buildings on their land, they were literally blown away, they told me, and they said the Landmark house was solid, and they lost three roof shingles.
Host: Wow!
Steve Tuma: Yeah, neighbors’ houses were blown over, everything was there. And the reason being for that is we’re not here to say, hey, we have the cheapest house, you know, save two cents and buy it from us. We’re here to say let’s do it right the first time. Let’s make sure it’s designed right, let’s make sure all the engineering’s right, all the energy efficiency’s right, all the mechanical systems are right, let’s make sure the customer understands it so they can build it, control the schedule, and control the cost.
There’s a lot of thinking into it, and what people don’t always realize that, they’ll call us saying, “Hey, I want a panelized home.” Well, you really need a lot of help to make sure it’s designed right, delivered properly, the customer support’s there, so it’s the whole package.
And the most amazing thing is how many people say the same thing: “I came to you for a panelized home, but not realizing that I really needed the help in understanding my project, to make sure it’s designed and built right.” A couple of them actually have gone through to say, “You’re like the project manager. I can call you, you can help me even what I need to do, where I’m at, if I run into a problem, there’s something there.” One customer, a big house in Phoenix, he said, “You’re like the engine of my project; you make sure it happens,” which is kind of interesting because we’re here to help people if they need help, it’s there.
So the satisfaction and growing the company is actually a result of taking care of customers, and they come back and buy another one, or tell a friend, or give us a great review, which then leads to it. So it’s making sure the customers’ goals are met, that then in turn meet our goals of having a good, solid company that’s just a lot of fun to work in and do it.
We have customers from all over the country, sometimes around the world, building in different types of homes for different reasons, and it’s just really cool to look into the why of are they building. And sometimes the why of the building is the interesting story itself. So to help someone achieve what’s important to them, the why of why they want to build a home is really the thing where we’re adding a new chapter to a customer’s life.
We’re helping them, you know, they’re getting married, their new life is starting for different reasons, they’re going through retirement, the family’s growing, it’s a weekend home, it’s a fifth home, it’s a home for their airplane, whatever it may be. It’s kind of interesting of how you’re really working with a customer to open a brand-new chapter to their life.
Host: That’s a great way to put it, man, amazing.
Steve Tuma: Well, it’s cool. It’s great to say, hey, we got a sale, but the reality is that someone’s life was improved, and we were instrumental in getting them to that point. That’s the cool thing about it.
Host: And it’s just that passion that you guys have for the work, it goes into—well, you had mentioned customer service before, you know, Landmark’s well-known for its excellent customer service, and I’m sure that comes from your passion for helping people get into homes, and the satisfaction that you personally feel. But was that a goal of yours from day one, to make the act of customer care a top priority for the company?
Steve Tuma: Yeah, it was the main one. The main reason why is that’s the type of people we are. We’re consumers as well. When we go somewhere, a restaurant, or you need some help, service on your car, it’s understanding what’s going on, and communication, and the help. All of us have been in a position where someone says, “Hey, I’m going to order a hamburger,” and the server knows there’s a better hamburger, but they don’t tell you. You know, and then you see it go by or your friend orders it.
So sometimes even something as simple as going to a restaurant, if you say, “Hey, I’m trying to decide between this sandwich and that sandwich,” and they say, “Ah, you know, they’re both good,” that’s cool, but if someone were to say, “Hey, this sandwich is good if you like cheese and spice, but this sandwich is good if you want more vegetables on it.” So getting that guidance makes for a better experience.
And the reality is that experience is a two-way street. We are here to help people. We work hard, we work every single day to help customers through it for 33 years. We’re energized because of the feedback. And when someone says, “Hey, I did this, you saved us money, you helped us with the right design, or hey, I had this problem and you got me through it,” it’s extremely energizing.
So it’s kind of one of these things, if you like what you do, you never work a day in your life. And we’re lucky enough to be in that position where we enjoy what we do, and we get very positive feedback from our customers, so that we’re able to continue on and just do cooler homes.
Like I tell people, it’s like, what do you do? It’s like, I help great people get cool homes. And that’s what it is. Someone has to be a great person to say, “Hey, I want to do something for my family, or my life, or my parents, and I want to do it right.” It’s a big commitment, but the end result is extremely rewarding.
So that, I think, is the way it is. What’s wrong with having a good day? What’s wrong with having a good life? And I think that’s what it is, it’s the pursuit of a passion.
Host: You never seem to be thinking of yourselves as, “Oh, we’re doing a noble thing.” With you, it just seems like it’s pure fun to help people get into a house. Yeah, there’s a lot of hard work, but you just seem to have a good time doing it.
Steve Tuma: It is, and like the opening comments here where for customers to call 20 and 24 years later, almost a quarter of a century later, and say, “Hey, Steve, how are you doing?” Just last week, I was sitting here working away, and a customer called. They finished framing their house about two years ago, and he goes, “Steve, I was just thinking about you, I wanted to call and say hi, you’re my friend.”
So we talked about the house, what they’re doing, this and that. Their family owns a couple homes, they might sell one, their main home, and rebuild it as they downsize for life’s events. And it’s just extremely rewarding to see that you help someone in the right way where they, on their own, choose to call and say, “Hi, how are you doing?” It’s an amazing thing.
And we do that with our suppliers as well. They’re all good people that work hard to do their job to make sure that the end goal of the customer getting the best home possible is achieved. And that to me is the ultimate thing, and the growth of a company is to be here to make sure a customer gets what they want. Yes, we have company goals, but the reality is all those goals are met only through taking care of customers properly. That’s the way it is.
Host: Well, there’s something to be said for all that you just said, but you say it all in such a humble way. There just doesn’t seem to be any ego behind what you guys do, and you’ve grown into a big company.
In the 33 years since you started the company, I don’t know if you’ll know this answer right off the top of your head, but how many states have you built homes in, and what have you learned by doing projects overseas? I know you’ve done a bit of overseas things as well, so I’m sure there’s much different experience building in other countries. So what have you learned from your 33 years as a United States-based building company, and what have you learned from working overseas?
Steve Tuma: Well, we’ve worked in all the states in different capacities, whether designing or supplying the panelized homes or helping people get through the process. Because different states have different restrictions, you know, like Hawaii and Alaska, there’s shipping issues, but we always take care of them or work within our supplier networks to get people taken care of. So we have a capability of designing pretty much anywhere.
And sometimes those states, each state has different situations. Sometimes they’re relatively easy, sometimes they’re challenging, but we’ve overtaken them.
And then you say, hey, what’s it like doing a project overseas? And the interesting thing about the overseas, we’ve done some stuff in Europe, some developments and different projects, and what we found is that the customers come to us for the exact same thing. They need to know how to navigate through a problem.
And some of these people have been seasoned developers that have been in the trades, they’ve been in building for a while, they just need to know how to get more competitive, how to supply a better product, how to make sure things can be done differently as materials evolve or theories evolve or codes evolve.
So the reality is it’s the customer service knowledge base, accessibility, and proactiveness that we supply as to why something like this works. So we’re able to understand the different situations because we’ve built or designed and helped people build in so many different places, we have the open mind to understand it.
So, even though a mountain in Italy is theoretically different than a mountain in Colorado or a mountain in California, it’s still a mountain. So there’s typical concerns, and you have to go through and figure out how it’s applied.
So when you get to the United States, we’re able to understand all the codes, building conditions, and get the right information to do it. When you work overseas, there’s funny little things: we’re on imperial, they’re on metric. The building departments look at inspections different ways, they look at plan checks in different ways.
So bottom line, they all want a cool house that stands up; it’s just how is it approached. So working internationally is really not much different than going from a building department that’s very simple and less sophisticated to going to one that is way more sophisticated.
So if you took a typical rural building department in the Midwest and compared their requirements compared to the plans that we have to do for a more challenging building department, say around San Francisco, California, say by Newport Beach, California, say by Miami, Florida, parts of Chicago, different parts of New York, different parts of Colorado, it’s really just a scale of how deep you have to justify and make sure a design is put together for the specific requests.
So once we have the mindset of, hey, how do we do this, we’re able to put it together. And tell you the truth, it’s just fun. It’s like if someone was into hiking, and they hiked 10 miles, doing a 15-mile hike is cool, doing a 100-mile hike is cool, doing a 2,000-mile hike is cool. So to us, it’s just a growing challenge and understanding to be able to support these different projects.
And to us, that’s what makes it easy, is doing the more extreme things makes the more challenging for other people very easy for us.
So it’s not just the states, it’s the building conditions, the requirements of the building department, the soil conditions, the wind speeds, the snow loads, the zoning restrictions, the historic department restrictions, the homeowners associations, architectural review boards, taking all those and then putting it into a sensible set of plans and panelized home package. That’s where we’re at.
So whether we’re doing it in Italy, or Czech Republic, or California, or Colorado, it’s the same solid process that we have, it’s just a different set of inputs and a different set of outputs. But our process is solid and built off of decades of experience.
Host: Makes sense.
Steve Tuma: Amazing!
Host: Over the episodes, I should say, I love when you talk about some of the more elaborate homes you’ve built over the years. That’s just me, you know, the places with indoor pools, elevators, huge garages, etc. But it seems to me from talking to you in these past podcasts that you have just as much passion, or even more so, for the simpler homes, the far less elaborate home projects. Am I reading that right?
Steve Tuma: Well, sometimes it’s not how elaborate or less elaborate it is, it’s the story behind the home build that’s interesting.
So we’ve worked with families that have been in the position to build very elaborate, complex homes, really cool homes, in some of the high-rent zip codes of America, beautiful sites overlooking oceans or the city or mountain ranges. And those are amazing just in the feat of working with the customer to achieve their goals and work on the big details, the medium details, and the smaller details.
So it’s kind of cool to say, hey, we did a house with an airplane hangar, or someone had an exotic car collection that they had to have in their basement, the ultimate man cave-type of thing. It’s pretty cool to work with someone to say they entertained a lot, so they wanted to have big areas for family gatherings, or maybe it’s entertainment for work. We’ve also had people that are doing that in a different sense: “Hey, the family’s smaller, but I need to know that we have expanding room, so if they do all show up, they each have their spot, the kids, the grandkids, the grandparents, they can all live in it.”
So sometimes it’s the goal, whether it’s a $200,000 project or a $10 million project, it’s the ability to make sure that someone is taken care of properly.
And one of the more interesting ones that we see that I still remember some 20 years later, is we got a call from a family, and they said, “Hey, you helped one of our friends,” which was one of our customers, they said we could help. And they wanted a very simple 1,000-square-foot house. And I was like, “Okay, let’s do it.”
So we worked it out, and as I was talking to them, I’m like, these bedrooms are a little different, the bath, just the layout they wanted. It made sense, but it was different, and I asked them why. And they said, “This is the first home anyone in our family has ever had. We’ve had to save every penny to get three generations to live here.” The three bedrooms were grandparents, the main kids, and then the grandkids, so that they could each live in a place. And together they were able to get the money and the elbow grease, because they were all in the trades, so they all worked to build this house so that they can afford it and live in a place that made sense for their jobs, made sense for their kids in school, and that they can be proud of.
So you hear a story like that and you’re actually involved with it, it’s heartwarming to see that this is really just a business of helping people get to the next chapter of their life. Whether it’s the person that financially has done extremely well, just needing their house for their family or their get-together or their ski lodge, or it’s someone else just really building their life, getting to another place so that they could be in a better school district, so they can be in a safer community, so that they can do something to enhance their life.
We’ve had some people, and it’s kind of interesting, they were all from the Northeast, generally the New York area, and they were building out west. And I was like, okay, well that’s kind of an interesting jump, you’re a New York banker going to Kanab, Utah. It just seemed like the opposite ends of the spectrum. And the guy said, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, it’s time to take care of me.” He goes, “I love hiking. I’m going to build in Kanab, Utah, where I can’t drive more than 100 miles in every direction without being in a national park that’s exceptional for what they do.”
So when you see things like that of how someone’s worked hard, no matter where they’re at in the financial spectrum, where they’ve worked hard to achieve something that gives them a better life, I mean, how much happier can you be than to help someone like that? You know, sometimes people are getting back on their feet from some unfortunate life event, sometimes they’re just taking a step up to get to that next spot.
So we talk about a lot of details and big stuff and big houses and more complex places, but we also help a lot of people build very sensible, modest homes that work in their price range to make sure that they can take the step. So we do a lot of simple ranches, a lot of bigger simple ranches, some simple ranches with a little feature here and there, so that people can afford the house that they live in. And sometimes the people building those simpler houses are likely to be financially in a very solid position; they just want to have a house so that they can go travel, have life’s experiences, save, and invest.
So the story behind the house is really one of these things that’s amazing. So we’ve helped people that had to work to save every penny to build a house cash, and then we’ve worked with people that said, “Yeah, I’ve got an exotic 1950s Ferrari collection, I need a place to put it.” And you know what? They’re all fun and interesting and exceptional people to get to the position that they’re at, and then we feel honored that they call us and we’re able to work with them to put a house together to get them to the next stage in life. It’s the best thing on Earth, I don’t know what better feeling you can get other than helping good people achieve a goal. That’s really cool.
Host: It all comes back to the same thing we’ve been talking about for this whole episode, it’s a noble pursuit. It’s not just a house, it’s a home, and that’s pretty spectacular.
Steve Tuma: Right, but our customers understand by building new, they’re spending the money that they want to spend, but they’re getting a house that’s energy-efficient, set up for their family, meets their family’s goals, helps the lifestyle, is in a community that they want to be. So it’s not just spending the money on the house, it’s making sure you spend your money right.
That’s where we’re able to do it, and we’re happy that customers see the attitude that we have at Landmark, and the way we’re able to help people that this isn’t just, hey, let’s get a sale. This is a lot about what is it you’re looking for, what’s your vision, how do we need to get there, and then we fill in the blanks to help through the process. That’s one of the most amazing things, and I’m kind of convinced that most people work in an area where maybe they’re not exactly happiest with their job. We’re lucky people to have a cool company that helps people achieve a life dream. And that’s what it’s about.
Host: How much has the panelized home design and build business changed over the past three decades-plus that you guys have been in business? Is it a lot different, or do you find the business is more or less the same as it was in the beginning?
Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about it is a lot of it’s the same, but it’s always changed.
Host: The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?
Steve Tuma: Yeah, or the only constant is change. So some of this is a situation of home building has changed: there’s new materials, different methods, different codes, different engineering, different ways of looking at solving the same problem, different ways of letting customers know about us, different ways of customers finding out about us, different ways of getting information to customers, different ways of applying for permits.
Way back, I was just talking to one of our customers’ contractors out in Silicon Valley, and they said, “Yeah, it’s kind of cool, everything’s electronic now. I can submit plans on my phone, where before you had to go into the building department with 50 pounds of paper, give it to them, and hope they don’t lose it.”
Host: Hope they’re even open!
Steve Tuma: Right! Yeah, so the process is you still have to draw plans, you still have to get permits, you still have to build, but how that has happened, I would say the sophistication of Landmark in 30 years has gone up a thousandfold. There’s no way for me to really quantify that, but in my mind, what everything that we did compared to what we do now to make sure it’s taken care of, make sure customers understand their project, make sure we provide the proper support and documentation for what we’re doing, I think is there.
Way back, it wasn’t as typical to do HVAC design, or in-depth electrical engineering, or do a lot of snow load calculations. They were there, but now it gets to a bigger degree, and then wrapping that in with all the energy calculations, architectural designs, structural designs, there’s just a lot more sophistication to make sure that everything goes together well. And that is the part that is absolutely intriguing, because every day there’s a new and very interesting challenge that makes us stronger.
And that’s what feeds our soul, to sit here and go, “Hey, let’s go look at this. Hey, this customer came back from 10 years ago, they built in North Dakota, now they’re going to build in Sarasota, Florida, let’s help them.” Different situations like that, or someone finds out that, hey, they bought a piece of land that’s in a flood zone, how do we adjust it? We already know how to do it, we have the process in place, so it makes it easier for the customer to understand and then move forward.
So I would say what’s happened in the building world is our understanding, Landmark Home and Land Company’s understanding, of building in all 50 states, especially the ones that have more stringent requirements like California, Colorado, Arizona, parts of Washington, Florida, New York, Illinois, a lot of those states that were ahead of the curve, we’ve already done it, we’ve seen it.
And you bring back what is it like building overseas, I know a lot of people say, “Hey, you know, I got the toughest building department.” I’m like, until you’ve built in parts of Europe, you haven’t seen a tough building department, because they hit you in every direction. And we’ve done it.
So to us, it’s the personal challenge to get this taken care of and the exciting part of it. So, yeah, the only constant is change, and that’s what we hang on, because it’s really cool when a customer says, “Steve, you may not have seen this before,” and I’m like, “Well, we’ve already taken care of that. We did it first 15 years ago, we’ve got three or four customers in that process right now, and it just makes it easier for the customer to understand it, sleep well, and understand how it affects their project.” So we’ve got a clear and concise method of getting to their end goal.
And that, I think, is the huge benefit of Landmark Home and Land Company, is the understanding of the building phases across the country, and especially in places that are a little more stringent. But here’s the thing about it: if someone chooses to build in an area with a building department that isn’t as picky or doesn’t do as many checks, we still do it right. Even though it’s our customer’s home, we still kind of think of it as ours in a sense, so we want to get it built so that it’s accurate and good, and it’s done right. It’s the pride of doing it right, that’s what we’re concerned about.
Host: Well, all of that well said, and that’s going to do it for this—I still can’t believe I’m saying this—100th episode of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show! You know what, congratulations again, Steve. It’s—I’m going to use your word again—quite amazing what you’ve built and kept so vibrant over these years, so truly, congratulations.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, thank you. The system feeds itself, when it’s good news and a good feeling at the end of the day, you just want to keep going. You’re ready to go get it the next day and help customers through the process. So we’re lucky that we built a company that has real value for owner-builders, contractors, and people that want to design and build a panelized home package. It’s pretty amazing. We owe the thanks to our customers, because it’s the partnership together that makes both of us stronger. It’s pretty cool.
Host: And just a little sort of semi-housekeeping here, I always do this, but before I let you go, Steve, please let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and everything, all the good things you guys are doing over there.
Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is contact us through our website. Take a look at our website, there’s a variety of plans, there’s videos, there’s these podcasts, there’s discussions on what we supply, and someone could do that on their phone or on their iPad, on their computer, however it is, and they could just kind of get an idea for what it is. And we have direct access: you could send us an email through the website, you can also go look at a plan and send an inquiry in and say, “Hey, can you tell me about this plan? I want to build here or there,” and then we will work with them to get answers to their questions.
And then, we are very proactive and responsive by telephone calls. You can call 800-830-9788, and Mike will answer the phone, and we’ll talk to you about your project, see what’s going on. If for some reason you do get a voicemail, we will call you back right away and get to know you. We want to get to know our customers just like they want to get to know us, and we need to have an understanding of what they’re looking for in a home, and what their goals are, what kind of design, where they want to build, to go through and do that.
So the best thing is take a look at our website at LHLC.com, kind of like the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company, and check it out there.
And if someone wants to call and talk to me directly, I’m available. My direct cell phone is 708-205-2043, and we invite their inquiries. We want people to call, because even though on these podcasts we talk about a lot of details, it’s important to reach out to say, “But how does this apply to me?” How does this house on this piece of land with this building department, this budget, how does this work? And those are the details that are very important. So the website will get someone started, but the conversation is what really helps move them along and understand it. So we invite people to contact us, and we’ll take the time to do what we can to help.
Host: Yeah, every Landmark home build project is different than the next. It’s easy to build a Landmark home, a panelized prefab kit home, but every project is taken by Landmark as a unique project, and I think that’s one of the things that makes you guys special.
Steve Tuma: Individual customer service, yeah, it’s tailored to our customers’ needs.
Host: Well, fantastic! Thanks again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week, and we will see you next time. Thanks again, Steve, and happy 100th podcast!
Steve Tuma: Thank you, and we’ll see everyone at 200, just keep on listening. Thank you.
