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Show Notes: The discussion explores the process of building panelized homes, addressing logistical details from design to delivery, common construction challenges, and effective solutions. It covers the efficiency and precision of panelized construction, the comprehensive support available for customers, and the economic impact of home building. Additionally, the conversation provides practical advice on preparing the build site, coordinating deliveries, and ensuring smooth communication between all parties involved.
Transcript:
Steve Tuma: I’m a believer if you’re going to work hard to build your own home, you should pull up to it every day and go, “This is great. I really like it,” instead of, “Oh, I should have.” And that’s what we’re able to do when we customize a home and get everything put together for your house, your land, your family. It’s kind of cool. It’s fulfilling.
Interviewer: Hello everybody. Thanks for joining us for Episode 57 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me as always is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993. Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how’s it going, buddy?
Steve Tuma: Doing great! As always, it’s a great day to start designing a home and building a home.
Interviewer: Oh yeah, always good for that.
Steve Tuma: It is. Just one of those days.
Interviewer: That’s right. For today’s episode, I wanted to go back to a formula we’ve been playing with here on the podcast for the past few episodes, and that’s simply to go point by point on the process of designing and building a kit home, and permitting and regulations surrounding a kit home build, and just what it takes and how easy it truly is to become an owner-builder. So Steve, are you ready to dive into once again to some of the talking points and walking us through the kit home building process?
Steve Tuma: Yeah. I guess we’re going to talk about modular homes, manufactured homes, stick-built, panelized homes, kind of the differences, the ins and outs of each one of those systems, because people don’t always understand what the difference is.
Interviewer: Yeah, well that’s where we’re going to start. And I know you’re very patient about this, but sometimes I ask you obvious questions, and they may seem like dumb questions, but you never make myself or any of the customers feel dumb. You always have a way of explaining things that makes it, you know, levels out whatever topic we’re talking about. So this is nonetheless a very important topic for this discussion. So just what is a modular home, Steve?
Steve Tuma: Yeah, well that’s the situation like you’re bringing up. People don’t know. So they hear it’s like, “Hey, I’m building a modular, I’m building a manufactured, I’m building a new home, I’m stick-building.” And after a while, people kind of—it blends together. And what’s the definition or how’s the way to differentiate, you know, if you see one on the road or see one getting built or whatever. But basically, I think there’s basically modular homes, manufactured homes, stick-built homes, and then our panelized homes. There’s also other, you know, way deep things, you know, some people build them out of hay bales or use tires or something, but that’s a little more obscure. But I would say these are the more typical ones.
So a modular home is kind of like its name says—they’re building modules in a production facility. So that production facility may have a capability of making a unit eight feet wide or 10 feet wide by however tall. And they’re basically—I shouldn’t really say the word cubed, but they’re long rectangular boxes. And you’ve probably seen them going down the highway. Generally, they’re in groups of twos. The trucks will go in like if it’s a ranch home, there might be two halves that are delivered. Then a crane sets them and puts them on an existing or on a foundation that was installed. And what that is, is basically the code that it’s built to. It’s kind of built to a stick-built code but it’s built on a production facility.
So the advantage of the—or sorry, production line—the advantage of the production line is that you can kind of cookie-cutter things out. The disadvantage is they generally don’t like to do complete custom different sizes. It’s more limited by, you know, sizes of homes and designs of homes that you can do. And basically, they can make a modular unit. The siding could be on it, windows could be on it. Generally, carpeting isn’t in, but cabinets might be in, drywall might be done, and portions of plumbing, electric, and HVAC systems may be included as well, depending on the manufacturer. So it’s basically the modular. So it’s built on a production line to say 80-90 percent complete and then it’s delivered to the site. So that, I think, is the quick kind of understanding of the modular home.
Now, where it’s different is generally they can’t be customized as much due to the production line. Generally, there’s limitations on the sides of these modules. But over the last years, there are companies that get a little more, a little more unique. They might make a variety of smaller modules that can be stacked together to get a little more custom. But I think from what I understand of those, those are for, you know, kind of very high-end situations where maybe areas have a limited building season, you know. So sometimes people do stuff like that in places where you only have three, four months to build because of weather or whatever. But I think for the regular use, the modular home is what people will typically see going down the highway in two halves or if it’s a two-story, maybe it’s four quarters and then they’re assembled on site.
They can be, I should say, personalized. There might be some options, but generally they’re a little restricted on—they’re very restricted on changes, but also they’re generally restricted on, you know, types of siding, types of cabinets. You know, it’s a production line thing. So it’s meant to be—have a lower cost, although we’re being told it’s not necessarily the case by the time it’s done right. So that’s a basic…
Interviewer: It’s funny, you’ve just brought up something and people don’t even think about this stuff. But there are regions of the country and around the globe, I guess, where the actual season where you can build, where the time frame is different. And that’s something that you guys help with. I would have no idea. I’m going to go build a house and I want to build it in Minnesota. And can I start building in December?
Steve Tuma: Right.
Interviewer: How much of that stuff do you get?
Steve Tuma: Right. Well, that happens, you know. So yeah, you go into the ski areas in Colorado, the Sierras, yeah, even way up north in like Minnesota, the Dakotas, there’s a limited time to build. Sometimes it’s people’s restrictions. It’s like, “Hey, I bought the land, I want to be in by the holidays,” or “Hey, I want to be there for springtime,” or whatever it is. So that, that, that’s, that’s something that we’re able to help with is people understand this—the timelines, what it takes to get something done so we can, you know, put a reality check to what needs to be done.
Yeah, that’s, that’s part of it. Like in our situation, people probably heard us talk about this on another podcast, but there’s a variety of different situations—code issues, weather issues, financing issues, zoning issues, and does a house fit on the land. But we can generally help people through the ideas.
Interviewer: Yeah, it’s just—I kind of got off subject there, but I just thought that was when you mentioned—and I’m going to—you guys at Landmark, you’re able to, to feel so many different kinds of problems and not even problems with just issues people might find when building their home.
Steve Tuma: But well, that’s what you’ll find because a lot of these, like whether it’s modular, manufactured, or whatever, there—people will find it’s like, yeah, I could find the modular unit, but how do I know if it’s on the land? What about my foundation? What about zoning? What about height restrictions? What about, you know, grading plans? What about energy calculations? What about all these things? So even though the modular company might be able to help them with a component, meaning, you know, the modular unit, what about the rest to, to, to get the building permits? There’s also something, it’s, it’s kind of a something that people should consider. A lot of modular and manufactured homes require special financing. The banks have put them in a separate category that from my understanding can be more or very restrictive on how they can do it because sometimes they’re appraised differently. It’s got to be disclosed. It’s a—from what I understand, it’s got to be disclosed that it’s a modular manufactured home. So even though someone might have a perception of a lower cost when they go to banks and finance, and not every customer wants one, just, just kind of interesting. There’s, there’s at times there’s a stigma to it.
Interviewer: Right. Well, I’m sorry I got off topic, but I’m actually glad we did.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, we never got off topic and just started talking about cool stuff.
Interviewer: That’s right. So we talked about modular homes. Let’s, let’s talk about manufactured homes and exactly what is a manufactured home?
Steve Tuma: Yeah. So a manufactured home is kind of a same thing as modular except it’s on a metal frame. So people will see that and sometimes they can be put in parks. Sometimes, you know, there are some areas won’t allow them. It’s the same with modular. There’s some areas that won’t allow that type of building. But generally manufactured are less expensive for the size that you get. They can still cost a lot of money but less expensive for the size. But generally it’s on a metal frame and the axles are kept on there. So they install it on a foundation, the metal frames are, and it goes from there. So again, it’s made on a production line. It’s generally limited, very limited in changes. They might like have an option, you know, optional master suite bathroom, optional kitchen or laundry room setup. But generally they’re pretty, they’re planned. They’ve got some cool designs but people have to look at, hey, how does it affect financing? How does it affect appraisal? How does it affect resale value?
So to a certain part of the market that wants a lower cost and a lot of space and just wants the use for their family, they can work out well, but they should check on financing because not all banks will finance them. And there’s just sometimes disclosures and different situations that come up. Overall, people will consider the quality to be considerably different. You know, the types of cabinets, the types of windows that are in there, since it’s more of a price-pointed product, you know, sometimes items in there are less expensive. So it’s a kind of a little subsection. And it’s also built to the HUD code, a federal code.
It’s always interesting to me how you can take a HUD code home and stick it in a hurricane zone. But then if you do a stick-built home, put it in that exact hurricane zone, it’s got to be considerably, you know, beefed up considerably in the structure. It’s just interesting how these codes work and certain things slide through other things. So someone should really check it out. There is a definite part of the market where modular and manufactured homes work out, but people should also understand the nuances of the financing, the resale, the maintenance, and how they’re made. And then also in a lot of places, it’s restricted. They won’t let you put the homes in there.
Interviewer: Oh, that’s another reason they need Landmark. When you’re building, somebody like you knows all these things. Half of the stuff we talk about I never think about it until just the moment you talk about it. To me, it’s like, “OK, well, I got some land. Let me design a house and I’ll put it up.”
Steve Tuma: Well, what’s happening is as both of these industries, you know, the modular and manufactured home industries grow and mature and get better. You know, the modulars of today are likely way better than the ones of 20 years ago. Well, then that comes in cost. So what I’ve been told by customers that were shopping is there isn’t necessarily a cost advantage. There’s a theoretical schedule advantage. But to me, if you’re going to live in a house for 20 years or 10 years or whatever it is, do you want to build a custom home that you have and get in an eight, nine, 10 months? Or do you want to move into a home that someone else has designed in three, four, or five months? So there’s a lot of different nuances on, you know, really being able to boil it down to how—where is the cost advantage if it’s even there? And then also is the design you want? Is it the features that you want? Can you even build it in the community? Is your financing going to cost you more if you can even get it? So that’s just something to look at. They have a spot in the market. There’s a lot of them being built, but it’s a different type of buyer.
Interviewer: So we’ve gone now through modular homes, you explained everything really well, manufactured homes, but Landmark does panelized homes. What’s—how does a panelized home differ from modular and manufactured homes?
Steve Tuma: Well, the basic difference is the code that it’s built to. We can completely customize it. And we haven’t found anywhere that doesn’t allow them. So a panelized home, someone could literally draw a house up on a piece of paper, text a picture of their sketch to us, and they don’t have to be pro architect. This could be like a child-like scribble. Right? Send it to us. We could draw it up, get all the details put together and get that home built. So if they have particular needs for their lifestyle, particular hobbies, you know, in-law apartments, basements, slabs, crawl spaces, you know, three-car garage, one-car garage, whatever it is, restrictions for homeowners associations or just special needs for the really unique land that they’re buying, we can design that exact house to take advantage of the situation. Now that being said, we also have a lot of customers just building regular ranch homes on flat land. It’s a relatively simple process, but they just want to know that they can see it built. They can control the cost. They can make sure that their money is being spent on what they want. And then when they’re there, and when they’re the general contractors, our owner-builders, they’re the ones coordinating it. They can make sure that everything’s installed right, the energy calculations are right, and different details are put together. So I think that that’s where it is. It’s kind of the bang for the buck and not just the pride of knowing what you’re building.
That’s nice. You get to design it. You get to do this. I think in prior podcasts we’ve spoken about people that want a particular view of a mountain or the water or a tree or a field or the city or whatever it is. And they want to have windows certain sizes, you know, or they want to have this or that or a kitchen because they entertain a lot or maybe a kitchen. We’ve had a couple of people—hey, my husband’s into football, wife’s into cooking. We need—we want to be together but we need separate walls with sound barriers between them so that, you know, when he’s yelling at the football game, it’s not bothering her in the classical music she’s listening to while she’s, you know, making a gourmet meal. So there’s things like that that we can work with to get it taken care of. And bottom line on everything I think is the service and customer service that we provide where people can call and say, “Hey, I was thinking about this. Hey, can I make my garage door like this? Or hey, I just remembered we’re going to put our boat in the garage.” So they’re like, “Well, I have a 22-foot boat.” It’s like, “Well, 22-foot boats are nice, but what about the tongue on the trailer? Are you going to walk around this?” Yeah, so sometimes people say, “Well, I got a 22-foot boat. The garage is 24 feet. This works.” I’m like, “Not really. You know, we got to think about these things.” And we’re able to put it together and consider the zoning considerations, the homeowners association, historical committees, or in a lot of places just, you know, the people’s desires of what they want, you know, kind of help them think it through. Sure. Since we’ve already done it a bunch of times, we’re able to kind of help them think through the process to make sure something’s designed right. That’s the really important part of it.
I’m a believer if you’re going to work hard to build your own home you should pull up to it every day and go, “This is great.” Yeah, I really like it. Yeah. Instead of, “Oh, I should have.” And that’s what we’re able to do when we customize a home and get everything put together for your house, your land, your family. It’s kind of cool. It’s fulfilling. Yeah. When people get the house they want..
Interviewer: The satisfaction is amazing. Yeah. So let’s talk about something that’s obviously of interest to all potential homeowners, especially in this day and age. Let’s talk about the cost. How much is a modular home compared to the price of what Landmark does, panelized homes? And what are the areas where that price difference may come into play? Let’s just say in the U.S.
Steve Tuma: Well, what we’re finding out is that I touched on this a little just a few minutes ago, that as modular homes get better, their prices increase. So the modular home of 20 some years ago was in a, I’d say, beginning stage of the industry. Now it’s come along. But by the time they get better windows, better this and their labor costs and shipping costs and details from what customers that are considering have told me, they actually cost the same or more. But the design is restrictive. They can’t design their own home. So that’s what I’m being told. I haven’t gone through to do it because these modular companies generally don’t do chalets like we do. They don’t do the custom designs. But if you took a standard ranch, just a boxy 1,500 square foot home, from what people are telling me, the end cost is about the same. The panelized might be a little bit less expensive. But when you consider the work that they’re doing, they’re able to control the cost more but also get the features they want. So when you go to a modular unit, say the kitchen, they kind of have a layout. Well, if you’re going to build an equivalent kind of, say, ranch home, you can design your own kitchen, your own TV room, your own bedrooms, where the closets are, and get it taken care of. And that’s what I’m told.
But then there’s also situations, say, if you go get into a space that’s a little more challenging, the side of a hill—you know, we help a lot of customers in Colorado, the Sierras, mountain areas in the Northeast. You can’t always get them in there. You know, there’s just restrictions to build it. But ultimately, I think what it is, is when people compare the cost, they’re like, “Hey, wait a second. You know, say it’s relatively close, you know, close enough that you say they’re the same.” People are like, “What am I getting? I’d rather get my house.” The only people that I’ve seen and I don’t agree with the decision, they’re like, “I want to get in faster.” It’s like, “OK, so you might have this theory of getting in faster depending on their house for the next 20 years.”
Interviewer: Sure.
Steve Tuma: So is the perception of a month or two or three faster necessarily worth your enjoyment over the 20 years? That’s the only difference I’ve seen where some people are like, “I got to be in it six months.” I’m like, “OK, are you going to enjoy the house in two years?” And usually those timelines are self-imposed. It’s not like something’s going on. Right. They don’t want to move twice or something like that. I myself wouldn’t personally, you know, take a short term advantage for a long term negative.
Interviewer: Yeah, a house is a pretty important thing, you know.
Steve Tuma: Right.
Interviewer: Good things come to those who wait for sure.
Steve Tuma: Right. And then also a lot of times on the timelines, when I see most of our customers build, they build, they’re done six, seven, eight, nine months, sometimes 10, 11, depending on the details and how committed their schedule is. That’s from like when they put a shovel in the ground till they move in. Sometimes in the modular manufactured areas, they’re like, “Oh, we can deliver in three months or six months.” But hey, you still have to get the septic in, the foundation. So I’m not quite sure how the timelines actually shake out. It’s something someone should check with their local situations. But bottom line, the way it is, the customers that buy from us, they want their house. You know, they want to move a window where it is to take advantage of the view. They want the utility room to have a dog bath in it. You know, they want a garage for the boat or to put bikes or lawnmowers or man caves or whatever it is. And we could design that, you know, attic space above the garage, you know, cathedral ceilings of certain ways or adding attic space in there. And with us that I think is what it is because it’s kind of dollar to dollar about being the same. It’s want to get what you want. Yeah and tune it up. You’re actually getting more.
Interviewer: Are panelized homes allowed in every area in the U.S.? Is there any area where you can’t build a certain type, like a modular home or a panelized home? Are there places where they’re not allowed?
Steve Tuma: We haven’t run into that in all the projects in 30 years. We haven’t run into it. We have run into situations where some places will say, you know, they’re essentially saying you can’t do modular or manufactured. They may not say that directly, but they’ll say things like you have to have certain overhangs or you have to have certain roof pitches or certain situations which typically may exclude a manufactured or modular home. But we’ve worked in all different types of places: rural, city, PUDs, homeowners association-controlled places with very stringent guidelines, and some extremely high-end homes in the multi-multi millions. And we’ve never run into the problem. So it’s worked up, and it’s basically because it’s a stick-built home. You know, our panel, whether it’s built in a plant efficiently and delivered, you know, easy to assemble, is the same thing as if you built it right on-site.
Interviewer: Sure.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. So it’s not something that they can really discriminate against. So we haven’t run into a problem. And we’ve done it. And I’ve worked with every single customer since day one of this company. So I would know if we’ve had issues, and we haven’t.
Interviewer: You guys must run into a million different issues with home building and with your customers in different areas of the country. I mean, I know. Can you give us some anecdotes about what are some of—just give me like even one. What is something strange that’s happened when you have been working on a home, on a panelized home for someone, like the truck arrives and something is just not right. Have you guys run into anything like that?
Steve Tuma: Well, with the panel thing, we’ve got a lot of quality control, double-checking, qualified people doing the work, computer-controlled saws, laser systems to make sure everything’s built. So, you know, occasionally something weird happens, but it’s so rare you can almost say never. But it does. But if something comes up, we always answer our phone and we always take care of it and we work through.
Now that being said, we could have a perfectly designed home that went through the building department great and something weird happens on-site. The foundation isn’t poured right. The foundation’s in a different spot than it should have been. Even that is rare or just, you know, I’ll call it just stupid human mistakes.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Steve Tuma: You know, some something, you know, one of those like you scratch your head saying, “How did this happen?” But what’s interesting about it is we’ve gotten through every single one of them. And the weirdest one yet—the weirdest one yet—it was an exceptionally nice family in Arkansas. We sent them the plans. They did the plans. They gave it to their foundation guy. The foundation guy decided that he wanted more copies of the paper plans, even though we sent him PDFs where he can send them to the office stores, and they can print them off. He gave them paper copies to make huge photo—you know, the two-foot by three-foot plans.
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: Somehow someone hits the, like, reverse mirror image. So this guy gets three or four copies of mirror set images. So the foundation plan is backward. No one knows about this. And then the customers tell me, “Oh Steve, it’s taking a little longer.” I’m like, “What’s going on? Something’s not right here.”
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: And they told me what happened. And I’m like, “So the contractor didn’t see that a two was backward or a three was backward or a five was backward?” Right. So he put the foundation backward. Amazingly, we helped them with the panel system to adjust it to fit on the backward foundation. Now that’s only happened once. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. But the point is, you know, someone orders the plans, and something weird happens that now—I wouldn’t, you know, I wouldn’t make that sound like even that even happens once.
You know, it’ll probably only happen once in a lifetime. It’s not common, but that’s a way extreme for the purpose of, “How did this happen?” You know, it’s kind of a head-scratcher. But, you know, other little stuff that’ll happen. Someone will sign off on plans. They’ll build the house. They’ll look at it. And then they may go through and say, “Hey, you know, something came up. We didn’t realize we had a really nice view. Could we add a window?” So generally, what we have to do is go back to the engineers, see if a window could be added because it affects the sheer strength of a wall. And then we can go through and say, “Hey, if you’re going to add this window, it’s got to be done in this way.” And then we get a note for the building department and move forward. So generally, stuff is pretty smooth. Every once in a while, something weird happens. I’d say once a year something happens where we deliver trusses.
And someone accidentally backs up and drives over one or something and squishes it. That’s just stuff that happens. But if there is an issue like that, and I think this is the value irrespective of what you buy, is that you can call us. We can go through, help someone through the process on our product, get them back on track like right away. It’s not one of these things of, “Hey, someone will call you back in three days.” I’ll be on the phone right there. We figure out what the situation is and move forward, whether it’s maybe a mistake we did or maybe a mistake a customer did or the contractor or one of those things. But mysteriously, it happens.
And then in some places, you do have building departments that approve plans. You know, that’s plan checker number one. You know, plan checker number two does the check, and he decides to have a little different opinion on something. So if that’s the case, you know, or this guy says, “Hey, you can’t do that.” Well, we’ll work with them to figure out what can be done or justify why what we did on the plans that they approved is right and move forward. So we’re here for the support. And I think that’s what it is when people are considering, “Hey, what am I going to do?” There’s the reality of you can sit here and go, “Hey, who costs more? Who costs less? Who’s a month faster? Who’s a month slower?” The bottom line is, “What’s the reality of what will actually happen?”
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: That’s the key element. And that I think is where we really excel because we’re available. We help people understand the situations and talk through it. If our customer, potential customer, past customer has a question, we’re always here to help. It’s kind of fun. And we’ve had people call 15 years later saying, “Hey, I’m thinking of adding a door. Hey, what about this?”
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: And we take care of them. It’s the pride of our product. It’s our customer’s home, but it’s still kind of ours.
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: You know, so we want it to be done right.
Interviewer: It’s just—just out of curiosity, and this is mostly just for me, but I’m sure there are people out there who wonder. The house arrives on big trucks, big flatbed trucks just like you see on the highway.
Steve Tuma: Yeah.
Interviewer: It’s just—the house arrives and it’s like a puzzle, of course. But it’s a…
Steve Tuma: We give them the answer though.
Interviewer: Yeah. There’s a layout showing where each wall panel goes and a drawing showing what each wall panel looks like. So on average, or just a generalized view, when that truck pulls up, what does it look like on the site? What is the customer sitting there waiting for that truck when it’s coming any minute and it turns the corner and they get excited? What’s on that site, that build site when that truck arrives? Are there some homes where you need a forklift or are there some homes where you need a crane, or what’s kind of the average look of a build site when that truck arrives?
Steve Tuma: The first thing is a lot of customers text me or call me a picture of the truck. They’re like jumping. It’s like it’s happening.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Steve Tuma: You know, it’s like being a kid again. And you’re hearing this, you know, presents are showing up.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. So generally, what’s on the build site like for the actual unloading of the truck when the truck shows up? We work this out with the customer, the delivery date, and say, “Hey, it’s a morning between eight and 10,” or whatever it is. The truck driver calls, makes contact on their way just to work it out. But generally, our customer has a crew there, you know, a couple of people—two, three, four people, say three, four people—and an extended reach forklift that can unload the panels and the trusses and materials from the truck and then spread them around the lot in convenient locations for the framer.
Interviewer: Sure.
Steve Tuma: Right. And then they could use that same extended reach forklift or their framing crew just assembles it and the delivery. We also supply the assembly sheets. So in the case of the wall panels, it’s basically like a floor plan showing where each wall panel goes and then we have detail sheets explaining what each wall panel looks like. You know, so one’s a big wall, one’s a big wall with two windows in it, one’s a big wall with a patio door.
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. Whatever it is. And the actual trucks—let’s see how good I am at describing it. The wall panels will be stacked like pancakes and banded together. So the forklifts can just lift it up, pick up a bundle of, say, eight to 10 walls, put it in one spot, and then the trusses are banded together. And again, they can be picked up with a forklift and moved to place. Generally, they’re bigger. So maybe you have a guy or two at each end with a guideline to guide in place. And then the loose materials—beams, two by’s, you know, sheathing, different details like that. So it’s pretty amazing. The deliveries go well. We have a very accurate delivery process.
Interviewer: And hopefully there’s a foundation there when you get there.
Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. There should be land. There should be a foundation.
Interviewer: Yeah. All those…
Steve Tuma: Yeah. They’ll need the foundation. Every once in a while there’s a delay. But we always tell people, “Hey, get your foundation and have that crew leave.”
Interviewer: Yeah.
Steve Tuma: Have the site prepared. Then let our trucks show up and your framers go. So they’re not like stepping on each other.
Interviewer: Sure.
Steve Tuma: Getting in each other’s way.
Interviewer: Yeah. That’s interesting. It was just for me personally. I just had—I wanted to get a visual on what a panelized home build site looks like when the truck arrives because I can only imagine how exciting that is. You’ve been dreaming about your new home and designing it and laying awake at night thinking about how it’s going to look. And then it finally arrives. That’s got to be amazing.
Steve Tuma: Well, I’ve gotten pictures. You know, I’m sitting there working away, doing something, you know, working with the engineers. And then my phone goes off—ding! And then there it is, this family sitting in front of the truck or there’s the truck coming down the road. There it is a block away. There it is a hundred feet away. There it is getting unstrapped. You know, it’s kind of cool because the situation of people building their own home, it’s not just “Hey, get me a house.” It’s the process of understanding the pride of it, the getting the house you want, knowing it’s engineered right, knowing the installation’s right, you know, so your energy bills are controlled. It’s kind of a pride in that a lot of people just want to do it. Just one of those life experiences that you want to do. And you know, I always look at the economic effect. I heard this once that the ripple effect through a community is pretty big. And each new home is like one person having a job for three years, you know, the ripple effect by the time you consider the foundation guy and the electricians and plan checkers and whoever else is involved. So it’s kind of an interesting process.
Interviewer: All right. Well, we’ve done a good job of digging into some pretty important stuff here as always on this show. Steve’s always very informative. And yeah, it’s been another interesting show. When we finish these shows, I know we do it over and over again, but I think it’s important before we let you go to tell our listeners the best way to go about finding out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and just getting general information and let us know how potential customers can find out more about you guys.
Steve Tuma: The best thing is to go to our website at LHLC.com. That’s kind of the letters for Landmark Home Land Company. They can see videos, they can listen to these podcasts, they can see plans, they can see just general conversation on how we can help and what’s generally included in our home package and those plans.
They can submit an inquiry saying, “Hey, I like this plan. Can you, you know, I want to build on a slab in South Florida. Can you get us a cost?” Or they could send questions and they can also call at 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. And that’ll go to Mike and Mike works with customers up front trying to find out what they need. You know, do they have land? What kind of help they need to get it going? Give them a preview. And then once they’re at a point where they want to get going, it gets transferred to me and I’ll work with the customers directly through the whole process. So the website LHLC.com or just call in at 800-830-9788 and we’ll help. You know, there’s not a cost to call. There’s not a cost for pricing. We want to get to know you just like you want to get to know us. We want to, you know, just kind of see what’s going on with your project and, you know, see how it’s a fit of how we can help people and give them ideas on how to move forward. And it’s a lot of fun. It’s thrilling. It’s really rewarding to help people get a new house.
Interviewer: And I think what people need to understand is the Landmark Home and Land Company website is really fun. There’s so much on there. It’s chock full of not only these podcasts but just a bunch of cool general information. There’s the design part of it. And then there’s a bunch of videos. And it’s a really cool site.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s evolved over—I think we went online in 1996, you know, when people barely knew of the Internet. They were like, “What’s that?” And it’s evolved. But the key to it is that that’s a good piece of broad information. But we are available to talk specifics about your project, your family, your land, your building department, your requirements, and how we could do it. And we can get people pricing also so that they understand how this all works. It’s a no-pressure situation. It’s not something where, you know, we don’t have like promotions, “Hey, buy today and we’ll give you a free refrigerator.” We’re more concerned about good people building cool houses, make sure it’s well thought out, make sure they understand how we can help, make sure they understand the process. And we’ve had some people have never built. We’ve had people who have built 20 houses, 30 houses. So we can help all of them.
Interviewer: I like to say that Landmark Home and Land Company is where the dreams begin, you know.
Steve Tuma: Right.
Interviewer: So let’s get them in that house.
Steve Tuma: Yeah.
Interviewer: So there you have it. Thanks again, Steve. And thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. It’s always a great pleasure to host these podcasts. It really is. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. Thanks, everyone. I enjoyed this. This is cool. You got to keep on listening. There’s more podcasts online.
Interviewer: Yeah, there’s a lot. Thanks, buddy. Bye.
