Conceptual design is now ready. I really enjoy the work the architect studio did on the concept drawing. Let’s see how the floor plan will look like.
You can see the hint of the hangar on the left, that’s where it will be. On top of the hangar there will be a large , walk out deck, with observation platform, so I could do some armchair flying and critique other people’s takeoffs.
An obvious place was to search online. I scoured Houzz, Google and Yelp for local companies with solid recommendations. I also called the companies recommended to me by my neighbor, and the realtor.
Ultimately, I settled down on four companies, all local, with good recommendations. One company had a scathing, negative review on Yelp, but that review was so overboard that I did not take it seriously. The author was criticizing the company for a “mistake” that costed them $1,000 more to build a house. That’s a pocket change when you are building. I also liked the well thought out reply the company posted.
I shared my requirements document with each of the companies selected during the previous step. I met with most of them at the property. Only one company said it wouldn’t be necessary. That was because the architect actually lives in the subdivision, and knows exactly which property it is.
I got the bids from each of the architects. As expected, nobody was actually familiar with building a home with a hangar. The bids were in $19k to $40k range.
I was looking at several criteria during the selection process. The price was an obvious one, of course. Enthusiasm was hard to gauge, but I wanted the architect to be enthusiastic about the project.
The first architect came to the lot and was listing potential problems with the lot, and was not quite sure about the hangar. The enthusiasm gauge was low, and the offer I got from them was definitely the highest of the four.
Another architect responded very quickly, promising me a quote in two days. I waited two weeks, and finally asked for the quote again. Of course I got it then. The price was not as bad as the first one, but a bit on the higher side. I met with the architect at the property, and they were visibly excited about the prospect. They also brought a builder with them to help me gauge prices. They had many great ideas about hangar placement, strong and reasonable opinions on where the house should be located on the lot, generally a positive experience.
The third company just sent a low quote but they appeared to be uninterested in the project. No followup questions, no contact.
The fourth company was responding quickly to my questions. I met with the architect on the property, and they also were quite excited at the prospect. The architect even brought a sketchbook to draw some concepts right there and then. Their offer came in as the second lowest of the batch.
I chose the fourth company. The single, main reason was their responsiveness to my questions. Their willingness to visualize on the spot what they were talking about, high enthusiasm, and price were also small factors, in that order.
The second company countered the offer, matching the price of the fourth. Even then, I remembered the two weeks I needed to wait for their initial offer, and declined their offer.
The point is: be responsive to your potential customers 🙂