Custom Home Construction
Building a custom-designed house is a once-in-a-lifetime undertaking that comes with an enormous amount of responsibility, a bit of apprehension, and the possibility to create a home that will house the memories of a lifetime. Choosing the right builder is one of the most critical aspects of the equation.
Most people equate custom home construction with the process of having a house designed and built specifically for them by a hired architect and a building team. Though having a house built to their specifications is undoubtedly part of the custom home process, many custom home builders fall back on inflexible building approaches that leave little space for homeowner involvement.
At Conrado Home Builders, we believe that custom home construction goes beyond drawing up a blueprint that is nominally distinct from the millions of homes flooding the housing market today. For us, building a custom home starts with getting to know our clients, understanding their vision for a home that is uniquely their own, and offering our team’s collective expertise and attention to detail to help bring that home into reality.
A Holistic Approach to Custom Home Construction
Conrado Home Builders can help clients build the home of their dreams. More importantly, we believe that as a custom home builder, we should be able to work with the specific needs of every one of our clients. Our custom home construction process begins by assessing where our clients are in the process of bringing into existence the home of their dreams, and then building a program around that need.
Communication Is Key, and Conrado Listens
Even before our clients own the land where they hope to build their custom home, and before an architect is hired, Conrado Home Builders can bring a holistic approach to the custom home construction process. We are eager to get involved in their vision for a custom home at whatever stage they may be at. We bring over 30 years of experience to help assess the next best steps. When our clients decide to work with Conrado, they benefit from a team-centric approach with hundreds of years of accumulated experience in custom home construction. Our construction team utilizes our expertise to communicate the relevant information and choices available to each client individually. This includes discussing known associated costs well in advance of when these decisions are needed, so that clients can avoid impulsive decisions that might be costly in the end.
We understand that most of our clients have never gone through the process of building a custom home or doing a major home renovation. We also know that building a custom home will most likely be the largest investment of their lifetime and can certainly be an intimidating endeavor. Instead of losing sleep over a budget that seems to be going through the roof or fretting over a contractor who doesn’t show up on a crucial building day, our goal is to create a process and program that allows for maximum transparency, efficiency, and ease of mind for our clients.
Custom Home Building Starts with the Pre-Construction Phase
Abraham Lincoln reportedly said: “If I only had an hour to cut down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening an axe.” We know that there is nothing easy about building a big custom home. To avoid pitfalls in the future, we take the pre-construction planning phase seriously. We feel that if we don’t have that time to plan, then nobody can gauge the outcome with predictability. Our job is to look ahead for our client and create a thorough plan that prepares for the unexpected.
For Conrado, the pre-construction relationship that we build with our clients is fundamental for building trust, transparency, and an overall smooth building process. We meet as a team to share our ideas, anticipate difficulties before they appear, and brainstorm potential solutions and strategies. After months of careful preparation, dialogue, and planning, by the time we get to building their home, we’ve essentially already built it in our heads. We have carefully assembled the right team and delegated responsibilities, resulting in fewer surprises throughout the actual building process.
We believe wholeheartedly that we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients. Building a multi-million-dollar home is most likely going to be the most significant expenditure our clients are going to make in their life. Our determined focus on the pre-construction phase ensures that every last cent is meaningfully spent.
Knowledge Is Power and We Want to Empower You
During the pre-construction phase of our custom home construction process, we also take the time to share with our clients the newest developments, products, techniques, and technologies that are available. Maybe they have not heard of the energy efficiency advantages of heat pumps, the comforts of smart lighting control systems, or how home automation can fundamentally transform the way they inhabit their house. Instead of learning about these options halfway through the build, we take the time and effort to carefully explain all the different options that are available to them. For a home to truly be uniquely their own, learning about all the possibilities is empowering.
A Team Centric Approach
At Conrado Home Builders, we also believe that building the perfect custom home for our clients requires the assembly of the most capable team. Before we can even begin to think about building the house, we need to make sure that we can put together the right team that has good synergy, interaction, and can confidently accompany the client wherever they may be in the process. Our team-centric approach is focused on tailoring a program to help our clients achieve their dream home.
Understanding The Conrado Team Dynamic
Depending on the individual project, the custom home construction team might include a project coordinator, a project manager, the field operations manager, project executive, an architect, an interior design team, lighting specialists, energy efficiency experts, and more. We believe that the architect is the artist, and the builder is the mechanic. The mechanic can’t work without a design, and the artist’s vision can’t be realized if there’s nobody to build it. In this sense, every member of the custom home building team contributes their expertise to ensure the smoothest and most comprehensive building process.
A Wealth of Experience
When a client decides to hire Conrado Home Builders, the custom home construction team that we assemble for them will have several hundred years of cumulative construction experience. With that amount of experience, there are not a lot of problems that we haven’t already seen, experienced, and found solutions for with previous clients. Though every build is unique, our teams’ accrued experience allows us to confidently confront every obstacle that may come up throughout the build. Throughout the building process, different members of the construction team will be there until the day our client finally moves into the home of their dreams.
Experience, Knowledge, and Education Is the Recipe for A Beautiful Custom Home
Our experienced, knowledgeable, and veteran teams not only add value to the construction process but also through helping our clients explore the vast diversity of options that are available to them. For example, whereas some home builders might not be able to explain the pros and cons of hydronic heating systems, heat pump heating and cooling options, and indoor air quality strategies, we will take the time to carefully walk our clients through a cost and comfort analysis for these innovative opportunities to incorporate these features in their custom home.
We are also continually educating ourselves on the latest smart-home technologies, energy efficiency upgrades, and home sustainability options hitting the market to discuss with our clients about the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable home construction. From heat recovery ventilation systems to advanced technologies for an airtight building enclosure, to strategies for ensuring the best indoor air quality, we make sure that our clients are aware of the options available to them to make their custom home the healthiest, most efficient, and most sustainable possible.
Reliable, Transparent, and Collaborative Cost Accounting
When designing and building the home of a client’s dreams, we know that nothing is more frustrating than being presented with a final budget that is more than double what they initially had been quoted. For that reason, we take our fiduciary responsibility to our clients very seriously. Throughout the pre-construction phase, we make every effort to clearly lay out the total costs and time for every element of their custom home, instead of sugarcoating the numbers to try and win over a client. Setting clear costs and time expectations early on in the building process leads to an enjoyable and predictable building experience.
Building a custom home is like going to the grocery store. Whatever gets put into the cart is going to get rung up on the way out. If our clients are on a budget and need to save money, taking things out of the cart is the best way to save money. Our experts give our clients clear and concise information regarding the total costs to help them make a final decision about what to include and what to leave out of the final build plans.
Sticking To a Budget Doesn’t Mean Missing Out on Options
So, what does reliable, transparent, and collaborative cost accounting look like in practice? For a client looking to completely renovate a decades-old home that needs to be brought into the 21st century, a custom home team may develop four or five different configurations with their corresponding conceptual budgets. Perhaps the renovation might focus on adding a basement, a second story, or renovating for net-zero energy use. For each scenario, we offer our clients reliable cost data. With those cost analysis studies in hand, we feel that our clients are most empowered to review the cost per square foot for each option and choose the option that best fits their budget and vision for a renovated or new home.
Instead of simply offering the most extravagant (and expensive) features for their custom home, we also ensure that our clients have all the necessary cost data to make informed decisions. By lending our expertise to the design process, our clients can see the ramifications of decisions they are making with their designer when it comes to their budget and timeline. A custom home of their dreams should also be one that is within their budget, and we are here to make that a possibility as well.
Custom Home Building Doesn’t Stop When You Move In
For most custom home builders, the client relationship ends the moment the keys are handed over. One thing that makes Conrado Home Builders unique in our niche is that we have an innovative HomeCare program that extends to the “post-construction” phase. We know that the homes we build are complex and multifaceted. From advanced mechanical systems to hydronic in-floor heating systems, to geothermal heat pumps, a whole host of complicated systems go into the unique homes we build. We can take care of those systems because we know them intimately. With our HomeCare program, our goal is to always keep the houses we build looking and operating like the day they were finished.
Legendary Customer Service
Our legendary customer service is another fundamental aspect that sets Conrado apart from other custom home builders throughout the pre-construction phase, the construction process, and the enduring HomeCare relationship. Our Founder, Paul Conrado, has built more than 100 custom estate homes for executives and entrepreneurs throughout the Peninsula and Silicon Valley. Despite this impressive portfolio of work, Paul champions our genuine commitment to offering legendary customer service to each and every customer with whom we work.
Every Customer Is Family to Conrado Home Builders
During one Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, Paul was called from his home by a client whose tub faucet would not turn off just as Paul was serving the turkey. As if making a HomeCare visit during Thanksgiving dinner wasn’t incredible enough customer service, Paul got the plumber there that night to fix the problem.
For us, legendary customer service is about doing whatever it takes so our clients know they are in good hands and will be taken care of at every stop along the road. We want our clients to understand that when a problem arises, we will show up, and we will figure out how to fix it.
We are committed to creating a collaborative, team-centric building environment where all of our disciplines of expertise help to bring into reality our clients’ vision. We judge our success by the smiles and satisfaction of our customers when they invite the construction and design team to dinner at their new dream house.
The End Result: Legendary Quality
Throughout the entire custom home construction process, our goal is to deliver legendary quality in the homes we build. What truly distinguishes Conrado Home Builders is that we care deeply about the excellence of every aspect of the structure. To this end, we take no shortcuts that might save us money or time. We rigorously vet all of our subcontractors, and if there is a part of the custom build that doesn’t meet our rigorous standards, we will gladly rework the system until it does. Legendary quality is our hallmark, and we are committed to delivering quality custom homes that will last a lifetime. There are no shortcuts for that.
