How to Regulate Construction Options for your Clients

Your client wants caviar on a fish stick budget and you don’t know where to draw the line. It is your job to keep your clients expectations reasonable and your job on budget.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

How to Regulate Design Options in Construction

1. Whether you are building one house or one hundred, you should have a list of standard fixtures, appliances and hardware, also known as specifications. This will be your baseline for the options you intend to offer.

2. The choices can become overwhelming even for an experienced general contractor. The best solution is to always offer a Good, Better, Best list to your client. You are able to do a couple of things by proceeding this way. You are controlling the purchase, allowing your company to price the options out in advance and you are presenting boundaries to your client, helping them avoid chaotic and confusing details for both them and your company.

3. Start with obvious upgrade choices such as plumbing fixtures and appliances, and then build the list as requests are presented by the buyer. Always tell them you have a list of upgrades they can review. Anything outside of that list gets marked up to the point the buyer most likely will not be interested.Architectural changes need to be addressed prior to construction so that the city has the opportunity to sign off on the changes without delays to the job. You will want an in house draft person or a freelance architect to assist you in making hard changes like this. Offering these types of upgrades is a difficult call, it can really help you move your product, but you have to know what you are doing.

4. Be sure to work with your trade contractors on hard deadlines and keep abreast of where the home is in construction at all times. Demand that the office and the superintendent work out a way to communicate the option upgrade immediately, avoiding costly tear outs and incorrect orders.One good way to convey this information is to keep a binder for the superintendents that they drop off to the office every afternoon and pick up every morning, with updated information when applicable.

5. The best thing you can do for your client is minimize needless choices and keep them focused on the end result. The best thing you can do for your employees is to have a comprehensive system of specific options, certain cut-off dates and excellent communication between the field and office.