Legacy Custom Homes takes a highly personalized approach to building. In fact, we are often working with our client’s months before we break ground to ensure the end product is everything that our customer desires. We recognize the stress of building a house, That’s why Legacy Custom Homes offers a turn-key construction service. It’s our responsibility that everything goes smoothly. Along with your builder, Randy Arndt, your building team will include Georgia’s best architects, designers, and subcontractors so that you’re the construction of your home proceeds smoothly and efficiently.
Building Process
The building process goes like this:
1) Lot acquisition: We work closely with you to find a lot that suits your needs. Because we build in urban areas the best most affordable lots on which to build usually contain an existing homes. We evaluate the lot for its future potential, knowing that we will build a new structure.
Key questions we ask when selecting a lot:
• How costly will it be to build on this lot?
• Are there any issues with the property that might make the lot unbuildable once the existing house is removed?
• Is it suitable for our customer’s needs (e.g., pool site, walk out lot, basement lot, yard for the kids, etc)?
• Are there any building limitations on the lot due to zoning, easement, Home Owner Associations, stream buffers, soil conditions, etc.?
Lot selection tip: When purchasing a lot it usually makes more sense to pay more for a better lot than to try to overcome building challenges of a so-called bargain lot. A real example was a lot with a steep slope, I evaluated. The lot price was cheap but it was no bargain. The construction costs skyrocketed when you added the costs of large retaining walls, excessive fill dirt, and foundation piers. Pay now or pay later.
2) House Plans: We have relationships with several of the leading architects in Atlanta. Whether we start with a predesigned plan and modify it for your needs or start from scratch; we work closely with the architect to make sure the house can be built within your budget.
Additionally, we can serve as another resource on your design team, for no additional cost. We can work with your architect to bring a builder’s perspective and our proven best practices to the design. We’ve found that the customer, architect and builder all need to work as a team to deliver a truly exceptional home.
Architecture tip: It’s never too early to plan for furniture placement, artwork placement, etc. Have the architect draw furniture on your floor plan. This will make sure that everything you need fits and helps greatly with lighting placement and traffic flow through the house. Most architects will add this service free of charge and it makes a world of difference.
3) Construction: We take great pride in building the best home for the money in Atlanta. Our company is run by a builder who is also a trained and experience engineer. This means you get a very conservatively, well engineered home, but it also means that you get someone that can evaluate and implement new technologies and building practices well before other area builders.
Every home we build carries our three point promise:
• Quality Craftsmanship. First, your builder is the owner of the company and he is onsite every day to make sure the house is built to our conservative engineering standards.
• Responsible Building. Second, we only build highly energy efficient, comfortable homes. Some of the enhancements you’ll enjoy are no drafts, fresh air, and lower utilities bills.
• On-Time Completion. We offer a promise to work on the house every single day, weather permitting. In fact, we offer a promise to deliver the house on time or we’ll pay you for every day that it is late.
Construction tip: When evaluating energy efficiency, see if the builder is certified with any of the energy programs like LEED or EarthCraft. It’s not enough to upgrade the air conditioning system to a high efficiency unit. Overall efficiency is key. A well built home designed for energy efficiency with standard equipment will outperform a poorly built house with efficient equipment every time.
4) Post Construction and Warranty: You’ve probably heard the horror stories by now about all the “bank owned” new homes that were sold with no warranty. Homeowner’s thought they were getting a deal, but it quickly became a nightmare when they found the bankrupt builder cut corners and properties weren’t properly cared for while they sat vacant. These factors led to costly and inconvenient repairs. Not with Legacy Custom Homes. Our service doesn’t stop when the house is complete. It continues on into your warranty period.
A new home is a complex interlocking series of systems that must work together for a house to perform well and last a lifetime. We spend a lot of time before the customer moves in to make sure all these systems are working exceptionally. After you move in, we also make sure repairs are undertaken quickly and we make sure that the house is performing as designed.
We use the Greater Atlanta Home Building Warranty program as our minimum guideline. As an added benefit, we help our customers gain familiarity with their new homes—everything from helping them monitor humidity levels to changing kitchen exhaust filters. We’ve even changed a few light bulbs.
Warranty tip: A warranty is worthless if your builder goes out of business. Check them out financially before you sign a contract. Do they have good credit, good bank references, and cash reserves? Have they honored warranty claims with previous customers? Are they in good standing with the local Home Building Association?
