Deciding to build a granny flat is simple, designing and building the extension can be a lot harder. You'll have a lot of questions to answer along the way. Can you use a general contractor or is is better to use one who has built a lot of granny flats before? Is a template design better than a customised one? Should you let the person who'll live in the flat have a say in what it looks like? Luckily, I'm here to help. My name is Maria. We moved my Mum into a purpose-built granny flat last year, so I've had to answer all these questions and more. I thought it'd be useful for other people to see how we managed the process, so here we are — get reading!
Benefits of Hiring New Homebuilders as General Contractors
Today, potential homeowners are looking for homes that represent their unique tastes and preferences. If it for this reason that more homeowners are opting to hire homebuilders rather than buy already developed homes. It is good news for general contractors because of the favourable business prospects. When hiring a home builder, it is understandable to go with an established firm. The experience that established homebuilders bring to the table cannot be underestimated. However, if you have worked with most of them before, it is good to try out new entrants. While new home builders do not have the experience that their established counterparts do, they come with certain advantages. Read on to find out more.
Genuine Drive -- As a general contractor, it is good to work with a home builder that exhibits the level of drive you expect for a given home building project. While established homebuilders are effective, new homebuilders want to prove their worth. It might be easy for general contractors to assume that new home builders have very little to lose. However, such an assumption is misguided because a team of qualified builders can beat any competition with the right motivation and drive. The genuine drive that is exhibited by new home builders will benefit your general contracting business.
Offer a Different Perspective -- Homebuilders are expected to be creative and provide solutions to design problems to attract new business. For instance, it is common for general contractors to get clients that insist on sophisticated home designs. That said, some home designs are too complicated to achieve, even for an established homebuilder. In such cases, it is good to try out new homebuilders. The reason is most new homebuilders have a flexible in-house design department. Therefore, it is easy for new homebuilding entrants to brainstorm on contemporary house designs and offer creative design solutions. Established homebuilders tend to use standard procedures that tend to limit the scope of creativity.
Specialisation -- With rising energy costs and environmental concerns, homeowners have become cautious with home designs. That is why there is an increased demand for energy-efficient and self-sustaining homes. Consequently, new home builders have noticed this trend and a number are specialising in specific niches. For example, new homebuilders are specialising in building energy-efficient homes while others have made small homes their niche. Notably, most established homebuilders are general practitioners. Therefore, if you have a client that wants an energy-efficient home, then you will get the best service from a specialised homebuilder compared to a general practitioner.