What should you look for in a Custom Home Designer or a Design - Build Firm when building your custom home?
In this article, we will guide you through what it looks like to find a good home designer or even better, a design + build firm.
Our goal in this article is to equip you to make an educated decision when you hire a company to design + build your dream home. We know this process can feel overwhelming, but we want you to be ready to ask the right questions and hire the right company when the time comes to build. Here's why its so important to us:
Read about Why We Build if you'd like to know why we care so much about building the perfect home for you...
Here is the TLDR of this article...
What is a Custom Home Designer? A custom home designer is a combination of architectural design, interior design, value engineering, and structural design. Essentially, a custom home designer specializes in designing all aspects that go into building a new single family home.
The best + most beautiful homes being built today are designed intentionally with a designer or design + build firm. This is important to making sure your new home is as beautiful as it can be.
When you design your custom home, you want to make sure you are thinking about the build throughout the design process. Many designers design houses that end up being much more expensive and take more time to build than even what high-end custom home clients are expecting.
This is because the designer is considered about beauty at the expense of other things such as value, timeline, and the overall scope of the build itself. This is why we prefer Design + Build, because one unified team handles all of the steps to make sure the design doesn't exceed the budget you want to spend on your home build.
On the other hand, a design build firm does the same thing as a custom home designer. They do the same level of design work, landscaping, architecture, interior, and overall design of the home. The key difference is the process looks slightly different and a little bit more detailed.
A Design + Build Firm will guide you not only through design, but also through value engineering and feasibility. This means that your beautifully designed home will be buildable, within a certain budget range, and will give you a clearer picture of what the overall scope of the project and investment will be before you ever break ground.
The design build team can be a huge benefit to you if a unified team with one vision is something you value. Here's a list of the features/benefits of a Design-Build Custom Home Firm:
A design + build firm has clear advantages when deciding to build your home that will make your life easier and less stressful during the construction of your home.
If you know anything about those who have abundant wealth, you know that they value their time more than anything else.
Building a home is a stressful and time-consuming process to manage. When you are represented by a design + build firm for your home build, all that weight comes off of your shoulders during construction. You have to be present and make decisions throughout design, but after that the firm takes care of the rest.
This also appeals to higher-end homes being built due to the level of intentionality and detail involved in the design process. This level of care creates a really magnificent home, and if you care about timeless beauty then this is going to be really important to you.
When you can save time, get more value, and have less stress, it makes sense why design + build being integrated makes the most sense for your high-end home build.
Sometimes a successful person will work with an architect and then hire a builder separately, and that works as well. This often happens as these clients will have a favorite architect they have followed for years and are absolutely certain that the architect is the only one they want to design their home.
Design + Build is certainly not the only option. It is a great path if you're building a home anywhere over $1M and beauty is as or more important to you than function in your home.
How do you know which design + build firm to hire to build your home?
The simple truth is that reputation is everything in building. Check their reviews, ask for referrals, look at their past work. If their reputation is good, that is a great start. Also make sure they are the type of firm that designs + builds the type of home that you want.
They might have a great reputation, but be a bad fit due to the type of home not aligning with their expertise.
Make sure that this firm values their own time and is charging appropriately for design. A reputable Design +Build Firm will charge anywhere from 3% to 10% of total Build Price as the design fee.
Anything less than this may not be truly custom home design. Anything over 10% is likely not going to provide much value to justify the extra expense.
Ask other people who have homes like the one you want to build. See who they used, see what they liked about the process, and try to network with others who have similar tastes and caliber of home as what you want to build.
Also remember that you have to like the team you are working with since you will be spending so much time communicating with them over the next 18-24 months. Trust your gut with people you meet. If you like them and trust them, it is probably a good sign you and them will be a great fit to design + build your home.
This is an outline of our design process that we use to help clients build estate + legacy homes in Lebanon, Cookeville, Murfreesboro, and other surrounding areas.
Our comprehensive design + preconstruction process was created to bring clarity to our clients to make sure the home we build for them exceeds their expectations in beauty and longevity.
Our role as a design-build firm is to help guide you between the guardrails of architecture to make sure your custom home is more beautiful than you ever dreamed of. We guide you through every detail of home design so that you build a home that is timeless and transcends modern architecture.
We manage the entire process to save you time and energy as you can focus on the high value tasks and important things in your life.
A home that is well designed and crafted is a testament to the love that you have for your home, your family, and your community. This is why we care so much about design + build being integrated. It gives our clients the best outcomes for their high-end homes.
Here is a quick TLDR version of what questions you should ask yourself and the firm before choosing a design + build firm to build your home:
1. Do I like the owner/manager and would I want to work with them for 18-24 months?
2. Do I believe this company has expertise and experience to design + build a home I will love forever?
3. Do I like the houses they have designed + built? Are they like what I am looking to build?
4. Does their design + build process seem like it will actually save me time and stress?
5. Do other people respect + trust this company to build high-end custom homes?
This 5 question framework will help you make sure you are thinking clearly when you hire a design + build firm for your custom home build.
These questions are meant to be meditated upon with a clear mind. Try writing down answers to these after thinking on them during a long walk outside. A little mental clarity goes a long way to knowing which design build firm is the best fit for you.
We believe that Design + Build is the best way to create your dream home with the most value and the least amount of stress.
Our vision for our clients is to take classical home designs, build them to modern comfort and luxury standards, and make them last 100 years or longer like these classical homes used to last. We want to design + build homes in Tennessee that bless the community with more beautiful homes that will be passed down through generations.
The most important thing is that you design a home that you are proud to live in, one that is built for you and makes you feel loved and excited to live there. Home is beauty, home is safety, home is comfort. Your home is something you will steward and its easier to do that well if you the home is truly lovely and exciting.
In Cookeville, Lebanon, + Murfreesboro, we have a good mix of different types of builders and designers. The question you have to decide for yourself is "Which type fits me and my home the best?". A truly custom home built to last 100 years requires more detail in planning to execute well.
If you’re dreaming about a home that is built to last 100 years or more, our team at Doxa Custom Homes is ready to guide you through every step of the design and build experience. We believe this is the best option for those looking to build family legacy homes in Cookeville, Sparta, Crossville, Lebanon, and Murfreesboro.
Reach out today to begin the design process for your dream home build.