How to Be a Great Client

The most important member of the Home Building Team is not the builder or the designer— it’s you, the client. You’re responsible for building the vision, making hundreds of key decisions, and financing the project. Here are a few ways to be the best you can be.

1. Do Your Homework

Read contracts thoroughly, research different approaches, take your own notes during meetings, and follow through on your to-do items. While professional builders will do their best to make the process clear and straightforward, there are thousands of decisions to be made along the way and the client is essential to completing the job.

2. Hire for Personality (and Experience)

A good personality fit among team members is just as important as a high-level of skill and experience. Take the time to interview a few designers and builders and think about who you want to spend the next year or two working with. Remember: the snazziest architect may not educate you on the cost of building; the cheapest builder may take on too many clients.

3. Understand the Process is Not Linear

As much as we’d like every project to follow a straightforward path, every custom home is a prototype— you’re not buying a car with a few options and colors. There are always surprises, even for the most experienced builders. (And if you’re doing a renovation project, this goes double!)

There can be delays in the delivery of building materials, confusion about the ideal order of operations for assembling something, dimensions that aren’t quite what they should be. Mistakes are simply part of building any custom home.

4. Don’t Focus Entirely on Price

The designer or builder with the lowest rates may not have the skills of a more expensive builder, may not understand things, or may be too busy to give you their full attention because they take on too many clients at once. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the most expensive professionals will be better to work with, either. Rather, remember that price is one factor to consider when hiring your team— but not the only factor.

Final Thought

You— the client— have a key role in the trinity of client, builder, and designer. Building a home requires you to work hard and engage. By doing your homework, hiring professionals for their personality— not just their price or appearance— and understanding the process won’t be linear, you can be an exceptional member of the Building Team.

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This article is adapted from Pretty Good House, an exceptional book on building high-performance, budget-conscious homes. Many thanks!