HomeCare Program
The average homeowner spends somewhere between 1 to 4 percent of their home’s value each year on routine maintenance and repair costs. For older homes, that amount can be even higher. For a million-dollar home, homeowners can expect to be paying a significant amount in repairs and maintenance per year to ensure that their home continues to operate as it did the day that they first moved in. Those costs are often a minor consideration for homeowners, as they are essential in order to maintain and even increase the value of their sizable investment. The time spent on home maintenance and repairs, and the headaches that these can cause, are often much more cause for concern and frustration.
Nobody wants to deal with a front door that will not lock properly when they’re already late for their daughter´s piano recital or take time away from a yearly vacation because a smart water leak detector has alerted them to a serious leak in their basement. Unfortunately, many home maintenance issues come with a sense of urgency that simply cannot be ignored. When the central air conditioning unit goes out during a triple digit heat wave in the thick of summer, getting it fixed as quickly as possible inevitably becomes the first item on many homeowner’s “to-do” list.
Conrado Takes Home Maintenances Off To-Do Lists
What if there were a way to contract out the wearisome tasks and responsibilities that come with regular home maintenance and repairs? What if, instead of spending hours searching Google and making phone calls to find a plumber who might be able to help them fix that leaky bathtub on a Sunday afternoon, they had a “one-stop shop” for all their repair and maintenance needs?
The vast majority of custom home builders end their relationship with their clients once the home is finished and the keys are handed over. Once the new homeowner moves into their custom-built house, they are off to their next project. At Conrado Home Builders, however, we believe that the relationships we build with our clients should continue on even after a happy homeowner has moved into their new custom home.
We care intimately about the homes that we build and the people who live in them. For that reason, we offer an innovative HomeCare Program to all our clients who work with us for a new home build or an extensive home remodel. Our HomeCare department remodels, services, repairs, and offers an ongoing home maintenance program.
The Foundation of Enduring Relationships
For Conrado Home Builders, our business model is founded on enduring relationships. Simply put, we are committed to an ongoing relationship with our clients and believe that relationship should continue even after the home is finished. When a client hires Conrado to build a new custom home or remodel, we are committed to not only building them the home of their dreams, but also on building a lasting and enduring relationship with them and their home.
We care about the homes that we build and the people who live in them. As a team, we also feel that we “know” the homes intimately, and can offer the best advice and guidance on how to keep it performing as efficiently and effectively as the day our client moved in. Once we´ve built a home, we are committed to standing behind it, and our HomeCare Program is dedicated to maintaining the home and keeping it in optimal condition.
What is the HomeCare Program?
Our HomeCare Program is completely customizable and allows our clients to decide which aspects of home maintenance and repairs they want to include in the program. The Maintenance Program is a comprehensive service providing on-going, quarterly maintenance for our clients’ homes, its systems and equipment. We know that with busy lives and hectic schedules, it can be easy to forget to arrange the yearly HVAC maintenance. Neglecting this yearly task, can prove to be costly, as the average HVAC replacement cost can range from $6000 and up. Conrado´s Maintenance Program is designed to eliminate large, costly problems that often occur when home maintenance is deferred.
When signing up for the HomeCare Program, our Maintenance Program begins with a comprehensive walk-through and evaluation of the home. We will send homeowners an initial home condition report and walk them through a series of suggestions to help them develop a customized Maintenance Program. Depending on the particularities of the home and their own wants/needs, the plan may include electrical, plumbing, home appliances, specialty items like sump pumps, central vacuums and other home systems that need periodic attention.
Our HomeCare Program also offers regular service and repair for different systems, elements, and building components of the structure. Appliances, heating and cooling systems, windows, gutters, roofs, and more occasionally need service, repair and replacement during the home’s lifetime. With Conrado´s HomeCare service, we help our clients get the needed service and repairs taken care of in a timely manner, offering the best quality possible. If a homeowner doesn’t have the time to replace a broken gutter system damaged by a windstorm, or doesn’t have the know-how to spend hours balancing on a high ladder to do it themselves, our HomeCare Program will schedule, supervise, monitor completion and quality of the work to get our clients’ home’s systems functioning properly.
The HomeCare Program is Fully Customizable
We understand that every home is different, and every homeowner has different interests, skills, and time constraints. If a client wants to enjoy customizing the landscaping around their home but has no desire to get involved with any of the more complex building components and systems, that is completely understandable. They can simply choose which elements to include in the HomeCare Program plan they want. Just as with our custom home construction, we know that every house is different, and every client’s needs are also going to be different.
To get started, we offer our clients a customized checklist that is catered to their specific house. Our intimate knowledge of homes allows us to provide our clients with a detailed list of recommendations that can ensure the best maintenance possible. For example, whereas some HPAC systems only require yearly maintenance, others require being maintained three or four times a year for the most efficient operation.
We look at every system in the house and create a custom list for our clients. We believe that every homeowner knows what is best for them, and we let our clients have the final word on what gets included in the HomeCare Program and what gets left out. The HomeCare program is a year-long program, and after the first year of participation, our clients can reevaluate and determine what sort of routine maintenance things that they want to continue to have as part of their HomeCare plan.
An Expert Opinion and Highest Quality Service
Another benefit of signing up for the Conrado HomeCare Program is that, instead of having to deal with a plumber for water issues, an electrician for a smart home lighting system, an HVAC specialist for home heating and cooling systems, and dozens of other contractors that specialize in different elements of a custom home, our client’s get one company that will deal with all the other entities. The HomeCare Program is essentially a “one-stop shop” for all our clients’ home maintenance, service, and repair needs.
Not only does this free up valuable time for them, but it also reduces their concerns and anxieties about hiring a contractor with whom they have no prior experience. With Conrado´s HomeCare Program, our clients can rest assured that the people who repair and offer maintenance on their home will have knowledge about how the home was built and offer the highest quality. In many cases, the subcontractor that comes in to fix a problem might be the same one who originally installed the system.
We know that some clients may not understand why their equipment needs to be upgraded, or the importance of systems to improve indoor air quality without sacrificing the energy efficiency of the structure. Our building teams have hundreds of years of collective experience in building the best custom homes, and we make every effort to continually learn about the latest technologies, best building practices, and energy efficiency upgrades that are available to homeowners.
Our HomeCare team patiently explain to our clients the benefits that come with maintaining certain home systems, and which elements of a home might benefit from an upgrade. However, we also understand that nobody understands their home better than those who live in it day in and day out. For that reason, our clients are always in the driver’s seat when they sign up for our HomeCare Program. The program is completely customizable to each client’s own interests and needs. Our checklist allows clients to pick and choose “a la carte” which types of maintenance services they want included.
As Close to 24/7 Service as Our Clients Can Get
No one knows when an air conditioning unit might suddenly decide to go out or when a leaky pipe might suddenly decide to burst. We understand that our clients EXPECT their homes to function as perfectly and seamlessly as they did from the day that they first walked into the home. Thus, participants in our HomeCare Program can benefit from personalized, quick attention. Instead of spending hours searching for a local plumber on Google, one phone call or text message to our HomeCare team will ensure that our clients get the fastest and best service available. If we can’t get the plumber out there immediately, we can ensure that our clients will be the first in line the next morning.
When an emergency situation occurs (think HVAC going out during a heat wave), our HomeCare team will make every effort to get out to the client’s home to help alleviate the immediate crisis.
Personalized Retrofits and Remodels
When we say that the HomeCare Program is 100 percent customizable, we mean it. Alongside the regular maintenance elements, we are also there to help our clients with any type of retrofit or renovation that they need. Whether they want to change their landscaping to lower their outdoor water use, add an outdoor kitchen with a built-in barbecue, or simply remodel a bathroom, our HomeCare Program goes beyond simple maintenance, service, and repairs.
We believe that remodeling is the right answer for some clients and their homes. An addition to an existing home, or a complete makeover of a kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom, can completely transform a home’s layout, use of space, beauty, and value. A retrofit or remodel can offer the opportunity to drastically increase the operational efficiency of a home, thus lowering the monthly energy costs. If one of our clients has a furnace that goes out, our expert HomeCare teams can help our clients understand the environmental and cost effectiveness benefits that come with switching to a heat pump or higher efficiency furnace options. Besides laying out the potential energy savings, we can detail the payback periods that come with energy efficient retrofits. Both when we are building and when we are remodeling, we are always trying to bring everything up to the most efficient and sustainable options on the market.
As a Conrado HomeCare client, we can handle our client’s special remodeling projects. For clients in the past, we have remodeled bathrooms and kitchens, added specialty spaces like wine cellars and built outdoor kitchens, and more. Our project managers are experienced in construction techniques, city codes and permits required for remodels. Our knowledge of demolition requirements, lead and asbestos testing, retrofitting methods and integration of systems and materials, will create a seamless remodel.
How the HomeCare Program Works
The HomeCare Program is a one-year, renewable program. Upon signing up, our clients pay a one-time fee alongside an annual renewal fee. After every year of participation in the program, we send out a detailed list of every maintenance, repair, or remodeling task that has been carried out that year. After analyzing that annual report, our clients choose from the renewal checklist which maintenance items they want to continue for the next year.
Advantages of the HomeCare Program
- Quick, Efficient, Almost 24/7 Service: If one of our client’s refrigerator suddenly decides to malfunction, trying to get the retail store technician out to that home to fix it is most likely going to be a several week process. Dealing with spoiling milk and strange colors of mold growing on their favorite leftovers is certainly not an appealing side effect. For our HomeCare Program clients, the moment they call us to report a problem with the refrigerator, a member of our HomeCare team will make every effort to solve the problem. In most cases, we´ll be able to get a repair team out to the home quickly.
- Expert Quality: You might be able to Google a plumber and find a cheaper option, but the value added in quality that comes with the HomeCare Program ensures that the job will be done correctly. We know what systems and elements are in the house, and that ensures our clients efficiency. Over the years of maintaining a home, our HomeCare teams are able to identify problems that have been building up over years. A couple hours of sitting in a baking home when the AC goes out in August is painful, and we´re here to help our clients avoid that.
- Best Sub-Contractors Available: Every subcontractor we hire needs to share our primary goal of offering superior customer service, putting the client first, and building long-term relationships. Every person we hire is going to show care and respect to our clients’ homes from the time they show up, until the last bit of dust is finally cleaned up.
- Extra Attention in Emergency Situations: Our HomeCare Program clients feel that they can rely on us in an emergency when they don’t know who else to call. If one of our clients is out of town on vacation or work, and they receive an alert that their HVAC system is acting up, we will hop in our car and ride over there to figure out what’s going on so that they don’t have to worry about it.
- Protecting the Investment: We understand that a custom home is a huge investment, and our HomeCare Program allows our clients to keep, or even add value, to their home by keeping it in great shape.
- Defending Homes from Severe Weather Events: When severe weather events happen, and unfortunately it looks like those might be occurring more regularly, we make every effort to help our clients. During one recent storm, a client called Conrado´s HomeCare Program at 5:30 AM about a serious roof leak. While we began the process of calling the roofing company, one of our HomeCare advisors drove over to the home with a truck full of buckets to help avoid any long-term damage to the interior of the house. That’s what our HomeCare Program is about: going above and beyond the call of duty; offering peace of mind to our clients in even the most stressful of situations.
Conrado’s HomeCare Program
Our HomeCare Program is designed to give our clients the peace of mind they’ve come to expect when it comes to working with Conrado. We want our clients to enjoy their homes and that means helping them take care of it. We all have certain tasks or chores that we dread to do. Oftentimes, we put them off until the last minute. Sometimes, it means they get forgotten about entirely. When it comes to maintaining a home, some things simply cannot be forgotten; not if the homeowner wants to keep their home in tip-top shape. That’s what this plan was designed to do, It gives our clients the peace of mind and freedom they deserve and desire, with a builder that they’ve grown to know and trust. That is just the way we think…that is the Conrado way.