The Development Company knows how crucial the harmony of the project pro-forma, budget allowances, ability to execute on the budget allowances and timing durations, are to the success of the project’s profitability. We understand how impactful design and construction are to development projects given the magnitude their impacts have on the success of the project and the pro-forma. This is the key driver in the creation of our sister companies/strategic trade partners ‘The Design Company’ and ‘The Custom Home Company’ along with their processes. Our sister companies’ process infrastructure was designed to benefit our clients. Clients measure success by the ability to deliver on commitments, which in development, is the ability to hit budget and timing goals. The Development Company considered these factors when creating the mainframe of our overall process.

 

Once a project pro-forma is created, we have our contractors generate a detailed construction budget based off the square footages of our homes, along with the quantities of materials inside them, to ensure we can build the home for the costing and time durations allotted in the overall project pro-forma. Having this amount of detail upfront allows our construction budgets and build schedules to be updated several times, at key milestones, as the project’s design is developed by our design teams, as opposed to waiting to get the price to build and timing feedback after plans are already developed. This process helps prevent wasted time and the expense that comes along with ‘re-designing’ if the price of the build were to come in higher than originally forecasted.

 

Experience shows construction costs are generally the most impactful component to a project making or losing money. What often drives the cost of construction is the architecture and design, and not the builder. Therefore, the communication, process, and relationship between the design team with the construction team is especially important.  Most design firms do not have the construction knowledge needed to understand the cost impacts of their designs and how the cost of their design impacts a project’s ability to be profitable. To control this communication and process, we utilize ‘The Design Company’ to create our designs and ‘The Custom Home Company’ to execute the sub-contracting and actual construction on our projects.

 

Our construction team works side by side with the design team every step of the way as the design evolves to provide financial feedback and build time impacts the design has on the construction budget and schedule. The project budgets and schedules are updated in real time as design develops to ensure we can achieve the costing and scheduling aspects represented on the overall project pro-forma.

 

We have our design and construction teams work closely with the purchasing department to generate the sub-contractor/vendor ‘Scopes of Work’.  Given the familiarity the design and construction teams have with the plans they ensure the ‘Scopes of Work’ fully capture the design intent and encompass all material and labor allowances needed to complete each trade completely, the first time. This is a key process that greatly helps reduce unexpected sub-contractor/vendor change orders.