Where do you start when you want to build?
You can ask a builder but really don’t need them until after planning which might be a year away. Is this really fair to them to guide you and work for free? Are they guiding you to the easiest path for them or not the right one for you? Will they be available, or worse insolvent in a years time? What happens if they put months and months of work into helping you navigate your costs and scope and then you find a better builder, or a better price, or a higher recommendation for your project? What do you do?
An architect is a great start, but how do you find the right fit? How do you know if their design will match your style and your budget? What happens if they go wild with your design and you absolutely love it to then lodge with council planning to get a planning approval a year later to only then find out that the design is well over budget or doesn’t align with your needs anymore. This feeling can be absolutely deflating, expensive and feel like an absolute waste of time.
Unfortunately we see this happen all the time at Build Fresh. Our clients often don’t feel that they need a project manager when they first start to plan their building journey. It sounds expensive and unnecessary as a builder or architect can do this right? The truth is that a large portion of our clients have embarked on the journey alone to find that they came out with drawings they didn’t love, an architect that didn’t stick to brief or budget or worse, a large portion of time lost and not going anywhere as no one was driving the project. We also hear all the time “oh, I wish we knew you when we built, our build was a shitshow”. When asked if they would build again the answer mostly is a firm “NO!” I imagine a wonderful world of families and busy professionals building their dream homes without issues, without stress, without separating due to the anxiety of working together and without worrying about costs. Imagine if people could confidently build without their builder overcharging, without builders going under during the process, without having to take hours and hours of owner’s time to attend site meet and without having to spend evenings on Google educating themselves of building processes, alternative materials or how to manage communications in a world they know nothing about. This world exists. It is a beautiful world where clients say “that was easy, we had a Build Fresh project manager and we didn’t have problems”. The cost of a project manager is worth every cent and far outweighs the cost of a failed build or losing months and months of your spare time.
If you are feeling lost, unsure where to begin, or would like to streamline the preliminary processes so you can get to building stage as soon as possible, consider hiring a private project manager such as Build Fresh to project manage your project. It really is a game changer. Get in touch today to learn more of how Build Fresh can make your next build a success.
