Give Your Home Builder Your Budget
At the right time And you will save a lot of wasted time and effort
As a consumer like the rest of you, we understand that when making purchases and getting quotes for work you usually rely on the company or vendor to providing pricing for the product or service. This allows you to obtain multiple quotes and try to figure out which option will be the best suited for your needs. Usually these purchases or quotes are for products and services that you can afford but want to make sure you are getting the best value possible.
Why you Should Give your Budget to a Home builder or General Contractor
Now with that in mind, why is the same process above followed for large home renovations, home additions, and custom home building projects?
There is a lot of wasted time when home owners and real estate investors come to us with drawings and/or permits for their construction project but are unwilling to let us know what their budget is. At this point in time you should have already been given a realistic budget for your project, figured out your financing, and consulted with companies that could accurately gauge the costs of your project, even with the most preliminary of information.
Withholding your renovation or home building budget stifles a Home Builder’s ability to answer the most important question which is, “Can I afford my renovations or home building project?”.
Giving Home Builders your budget gets you a long way by allow you to fail fast (in the case that you cannot afford your project) with minimal activation energy on the home owner or real estate investor’s side of things, and also allows your home builder to recommend the correct cost-saving mechanisms in order to fit within your budget, or at the very least get a value that is close to your total budget. Note though that the following advice should be followed in order to ensure you are following the right process when coming up with a budget amount.
When Should I give a General Contractor or Home Builder my Budget?
It is important to differentiate that you should not feel like it is your responsibility to come up with a budget for your residential construction project when you first start reaching out to companies. The General Contractors and Home Builders should be providing you estimated budget ranges as they gather preliminary information about your project. This allows you to do the following:
Seek out the proper amount of financing/money for the project
Discuss your proposed plans with a BCIN designer or an architect, giving them a budget to work from.
Ensure that you will be able to afford the proposed work before sinking a ton of money into designs and permitting.
The best time to give a home builder your budget is once the drawings are created and there is a tangible amount of information to start drafting a scope of work for the project. This will allow you to work with a Home Builder or Renovation Contractor to fine tune the scope/drawings before submitting the drawings for permit. It is valuable to know the budget at this stage so we can identify ways to reduce costs where possible, or entirely change the scope to fit your budget.
A Home Builder’s involvment during the Design stage to save you money
If you know friends and family who have done substantial renovation or home building work, ask them about this! The ones that had consistent communication with their home builder during the design stage likely had a better executed project that was within budget.
At BVM Contracting, we operate similarly to a design-build firm, without the overhead and premature commitments that a lot of design-build firms are known for. We allow you to pick your own architect or designer (depending on your needs we refer you to some of our trusted partners), and then we work with you during the design process to ensure that the design does not blow your budget. Sometimes designers and architects tend to focus more on design versus cost implications, so it is the role of the home builder to reign your design in and give you a realistic gauge of budget and cost.
Conclusion
Do not shy away from the cost and budget discussion, at the point that you have drawings and are ready to move forward it is important to make sure that your home builder is on the same page as you and can make the recommendations to fit within your budget.
To avoid the risk of blowing your budget during the design phase it is recommended to partner with a home builder that can help you fine-tune the cost and scope of work to fit within your budget. If your project doesn’t fit within your budget your builder will let you know as soon as possible if you follow our advice so you can fail fast and not waste as much of your time!
About BVM COntracting
BVM Contracting is a full-service General Contractor or Home Builder located in Toronto. We provide home renovation and building services for major home renovations (kitchen renovations, bathroom renovations, basement renovations, full interior renovations, home additions, lot severances, and new home construction). Our goal is to help guide our clients through the process of renovating their home, from concept to completion.
Further than providing General Contracting and Project Management for major home renovations, we also offer value-added services such as renovation financing, renovation rebate consultations and services, building permit and design services, smart home installation services, and real estate investor services.
To learn more about our offering by visiting our services page.