Home building company wanted Part 1: Property seeks builder

A lot is being built in Cape Coral – a lot now. 1069 building applications for new residential homes (single-family homes) were approved by the city in 2015. There are a correspondingly large number of builders – just over 100 of them. How on earth are you supposed to find the right builder? Just writing down the experience of searching for one puts you in the position of not knowing where to start.

Three paths lead to the goal

The first step is to look around the various homepages . The better these are prepared, the more the individual companies will be remembered. Then you talk to the people you know. They in turn know someone themselves or someone who knows someone. You have to realize that here in America, companies spring up like mushrooms as soon as the economy picks up. They disappear just as quickly when it goes downhill. At the moment, we have a whole forest full of mushrooms. I would say there are three ways to find the right builder:

Three paths lead to the goal

You look at the individual floor plans that each builder has and choose a suitable one. There is also a specification list, which describes exactly which materials will be used. If these match the respective ideas, you can quickly get a price because the house has already been built.

After the contract is signed, a so-called color session takes place, at which the colors of the materials are determined and construction can begin. After the completion of such a house, the American likes to go to “Rooms to go” and choose the room furnishings down to the last picture on the wall, the furniture store sets them up at home and they can move in.

The usual “custom home” route

You look at the individual floor plans of the builders and choose a suitable one – nothing new so far. Then you move a few walls and make a few upgrades in the specification list, such as roof tiles instead of roof shingles or a salt water pool instead of a chlorinated water pool. In the color session, you decide on the level 3 instead of level 1 granite slab and so on. The builder knows exactly what he has to add to his standard program in terms of price and you quickly get a quote. Rooms to go, “U-Haul” (rental transporter) are ready.

The unusual custom home route

This is us. We want a modern home that fits on a non-standard lot and is neither a typical vacation home nor a typical residential home. Until around mid-2015, there was a builder in Cape Coral who built modern European houses, especially for Germans. He was our builder of choice long before we even had the plot. Unfortunately, or rather thankfully, he filed for bankruptcy shortly before we re-entered the country and left several – I’ll call them – white box houses unfinished.

White boxes because they all looked the same: painted white with a dark roof. Even though we really like the style of the building itself, we find the choice of colors a little boring. But, as we all know, there’s no accounting for taste. The problem for many of those who were left in the lurch by the builder with unfinished houses was that they had signed contracts with him with a large suitcase full of money and now had to commission work they had already paid for again. Not only did this result in double the costs, but the poor first had to find someone to complete the work. We remember: there is a lot of building going on in Cape Coral.

The builder is the owner

So we wanted a modern house in a new guise, namely in a Caribbean style – something individual, so to speak. First of all, we visited four model homes from well-known custom home builders. In the first model home, the boss’s mother listed all the advantages of her very busy children in great detail.

In the second, we were informed about the company philosophy and familiarized with the floor plans, which we had already studied. At the third, the estate agent spoke German, as she did at the second. She immediately recommended a few other builders because their price range would probably not suit us. (We seem to have a poor appearance). And anyway, German quality was very important here, after all, we were from there (eh… so were we).

The picture on the business card of the lady in the fourth house was from the seventies. If the builder is also from that era, the modern house will certainly not be a success. The conclusion of all four visits: none and the knowledge that we know nothing. Nobody took us by the hand. So what do we have?

A promised call back from the daughter-in-law to make an appointment. The announcement that we first have to have a plan drawn for 1500 dollars before we can get a quote – cool business idea. We have too little money, or if you look at it nicely: You’re too nice to be ripped off. And last but not least, we didn’t want to take the risk of having the last house built before we retire.

The cat bites its own tail

The appointment call followed a few days later, voluntarily but not immediately, we had to follow up a few times beforehand. The boss was very interested in us and wanted to know exactly which rooms were where, how big, how high, how much budget….. When we arrived for our appointment, we were first given comprehensive information about the delicacies and treats that the current customers always bring with them from Germany. There was everything from German beer to delicious Baumkuchen. She also showed us a floor plan on which our answers from the phone call had already been practically implemented and a fairly detailed price list.

From now on, a plan would be needed, which could only be made with a deposit. It would be better to organize the pool and seawall yourself, then you would save the 3000 dollars each that she would charge for this service. Oh yes, and her husband was the first person far and wide to work with CAD. That this new technology had already arrived in southwest Florida. We were to find out much later that this really does seem to be an innovation. At least after this appointment we had a rough idea of where the journey was heading.

Now we needed counter-offers. We laboriously searched the Internet for other providers. We changed the floor plan, which had already been created in CAD but which we didn’t like at all, so that at least the layout of the rooms and the total area met our expectations. In the meantime, we also came across a tool that not only rates the individual builders, but also lists current building projects with prices and all the bells and whistles.

We visited other selected model homes and construction companies. But most of them said: “We have to draw a proper plan first, otherwise we can’t calculate.” And that costs money. It’s like the cat and its tail or the hen and the egg: without a professional floor plan, there is no offer and without an offer, there is no contract and therefore no professional floor plan. If you want to go down our arduous path, here’s a tip: find an independent architect, get a plan drawn up and then get quotes. If you’re lucky, you’ll get some, but not from everyone.

While we were considering whether this route would not be more successful, an acquaintance recommended a stranger to us. This building contractor had built his own house to our great satisfaction. All you had to do was tell him everything and he would do the same. So we met with him at his kitchen table at home. He has been in the construction business for 25 years and now wants to establish himself.

He made a serious, professional impression on us. The lack of a Model Home and the absence of a water head gave us hope of a good price/performance ratio. The offer that arrived a week later confirmed this. Overjoyed, we boarded the plane back to Germany. We had found our builder. Or so we thought.