Main Selection Room at Newmark Homes Houston Design Center
Building a home is quite different than buying a completed one. Although there are some strategies and priorities that overlap (size, price range, location), building a home is as much process as it is about product. There is old saying that circulates in and through the industry that states that “if your marriage can survive the building of a home, it can survive anything.” I would imagine the same thing can be said about raising children, and anecdotal parallels can be drawn between the two.
Process: a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. Clients are preview to the steps in between as their concept goes from implicit to explicit. Can you think of other purchases where there is this level of transparency from purchase, manufacturing to delivery? There are some of course, but not at this financial and emotional level combined.
I understand the level of stress. Most sales people contract more homes in a month that most will build in their lifetime. We see the pretty stages and the messy ones. As the new HGTV show “Tough as Nails” calls it, “this is construction, we are not making dolls.”
But there is a part of construction that is attuned to making dolls: design. And the ability to create something unique, personal, lush, and what I tend to call delicious is directly related to the design facilities and selections available. I have seen the same home sell for $280K and for $800K. The difference, obviously location (although both in Houston), size of property, and exterior/interior design selections. Same square footage, different appeal, different client.
Design smarts has to do with balancing personal taste, timeless appeal, and smart budgeting. Designing exclusively around personal taste may narrow your resale clientele. Picking every upgrade available may satisfy your personal taste, but may not yield value for the next buyer. With Houston’s steady and conservative real estate appreciation, it is wise to be design prudent.
This is how we do it:
