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Show Notes: Exploring the concept of a “one-stop shop” for building a home tailored to individual preferences, providing a comprehensive overview from a customer point of view. It addresses common questions and concerns prospective home builders might have, emphasizing the importance of detailed planning, effective management, and adaptability. The discussion highlights the benefits of working with an integrated design and build team, ensuring clear communication, realistic expectations, and a smooth construction process. Through engaging anecdotes and practical insights, the conversation offers valuable guidance on navigating challenges and achieving a successful, personalized home-building experience.
Transcript:
Steve Tuma: Well, I think the interesting thing is building departments, although some people sometimes they might be a little interesting in their attitudes or their lack of desire to help, or sometimes they just don’t help as much, others are very helpful. But the bottom line is, whatever their attitude is, there’s typically a detail as to what they want for permit application.
Interviewer: Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 60 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me in studio, as he normally 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. And that would be Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how’s it going, pal?
Steve Tuma: It’s very good, like always. It’s always a good day to build a house. It’s always a good day. I was just listening to your introduction—nationwide. Yeah, all the states, and we’ve done international projects as well. So it’s kind of cool. You get a lot of experience, just different perspectives, and, you know, all those experiences help us help new customers.
Interviewer: Well, I don’t want to make you feel old, but in case you didn’t hear it, this is Episode 60 of the podcast.
Steve Tuma: Sixty. That’s pretty cool.
Interviewer: It’s, yeah, that’s impressive and pushing toward our hundredth episode, which is going to be a big celebration. We’ll have fun. But yeah, congratulations. Sixty episodes. That’s good stuff.
Steve Tuma: And I think more on their way.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And 30 years, 30 years plus of Landmark Home and Land Company. So you’re to be congratulated on that as well.
Steve Tuma: Thanks. And going strong, you know, getting a whole different variety of different customers building in different places, different types of homes, more complex designs, simpler designs. It’s kind of interesting, the mix of customers that we get, the different types of people, different backgrounds, different family situations, different building sites, different house designs. It’s kind of cool. It’s kind of like build a house you want where you want it.
Interviewer: Yeah, that’s the way we look at it. The one-stop shop where you can build your house the way you want it. Why not? I figured today we might jump into a sort of customer point of view episode and go through and try to, well, allow you to answer some of the typical questions you get when speaking with people who are thinking of building a new home. So if you’re good with that, let’s get started.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, let’s do it.
Interviewer: Great. What are the main items to consider? And let’s just say, you know, I’m calling you guys up. It’s my first home. What are the main items to consider when starting a new home building project?
Steve Tuma: Well, it’s actually something on the overall plan. It’s not necessarily the plan for the house. It’s an important part. So you need to know the type of house you want to build, the general idea, although that can change. But there’s also an understanding of land. Where are you building? What’s the land like? Is it flat? Is it a city lot? Is it acreage? Is it on the side of a hill? Is it waterfront? You know, whatever it may be. And then also financing or money sources, you know, kind of the budget are things that people need to deal with. So basically, you know, what is the house going to look like? What type of design? How big? Bedrooms, garages, basements, things like that. Where are they going to build it? And then also what budget they want to stay within. And we can help them with different ideas. So if someone’s saying, “Hey, I want to build this, you know, 10,000 square foot home for $400,000,” it might be a little hard to do it. But amazingly, our customers don’t really fall into that. They’ve kind of thought it through. But by us helping them get the right set of plans, they’re able to go through and understand their project more in the budgeting. And we also work with them to fit it on the land. But those are the three main elements, kind of, you know, step one. Start thinking about those. It’s not that you have to have your financing or have to have your land to call us. But at some point, you’ve got to put all those things together to really make the project go. You can’t really build a house without the land. You know, it takes money to do so. So sometimes they’re intertwined. And we can help the customer through the process.
Interviewer: What do they say? “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.” So, something like that. That was the old NASA thing. But, so basic question again that a customer might call and ask, and I’m sure they have over the 30 years. But how does one go about budgeting a new panelized home? Is it different than budgeting a regular—I don’t want to say regular stick home—because basically panelized homes are that. But I mean, is there a different process to budgeting a panelized home build?
Steve Tuma: Well, we have a process that we found to be valuable. Some customers will have their own budgeting methods. They’ll get general ideas of foundation costs, material costs, you know, heating, air conditioning, electric, and work with that. And what we look at is, you know, there’s just different parts of the country. You could even go across town in the same town and get different costs. Just different neighborhoods, different things going on. So what we suggest is people get a set of plans from us that we drop that work on their land for their house. Now initially, they’ll probably do a target budget to say, “Hey, I want to do a house $400,000,” and target something to say, “Hey, I think this will work,” from their preliminary review. But once they’re really trying to nail the budget down, we should get into some plans so that they can actually go through and get an exact cost. It’s really the only way to do it.
Sometimes people tell me they found a book or a website or an app that tells them how to price stuff out, and I’m like, “I don’t know. Is that really true?” Because there’s just so many variables. So even though that might be a guideline just to target something, I think it’s always good to actually make contact with the contractors, say, “Hey, do you have an interest in this project?” Get something going. So the nature of going through the budget also helps people understand and kind of project out what they have to do, who they need to work with, the types of contractors, contractors that are responsive, knowledgeable, helpful, and also at a fair price. So the budgeting kind of gets them at a point where they preview the project to do it. And then as we work with them on the home design, different questions will come up and we can help them navigate those issues as well.
So even though there’s a lot of websites and books and people selling information, I still tell people, check it on your own. It’s your budget. When the book’s wrong, the book’s not going to make the difference. So you want to get an accurate set of plans, and that’s what we do, is go through and get a set of plans that’s actually usable for that because the details are on there. And not just that, we’re here to help. If someone says, “Hey, you know, should I, you know, the contractor said I should have a six-foot crawl space,” I might say a six-foot crawl space, how much more is an eight-foot basement? You know, sometimes it amazingly could be very similar in cost, and it just adds tremendously to the value. So, you know, it’d be a sounding board to help people through the process. That I think the customers will find to be very, very, very helpful because the budget’s very important. It’s something that, you know, sometimes might be a sticking point for people, but it’s—you don’t want to fool yourself, you know, you don’t want to convince yourself on paper that you’re going to get something done and all your friends are going to show up and work for free and, you know, bring parts over for free as well. You have to have a reality check of, “Hey, who—if you’re working with friends and family—who’s really going to show up?” Not just that, who actually has the knowledge, because you want the home to be built right. Chances are there’s going to be an inspector that goes through, and whether you did it or a contractor did it, it’s got to be done right.
Interviewer: Yeah, your nephew’s showing up with a brand new tool bag.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, you know, there’s a place for that, but yeah, I wouldn’t have him doing a roof on a 12/12 pitch chalet hanging off a cliff. But, you know, there’s different ways that people—you know, you bring the nephew thing up—I’ve had a couple of customers like in the last 10 years that have younger kids, like eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. And those kids are actually part of the planning and understanding because they’re like, “Hey, isn’t it cool for a kid to understand a budget and hey, how much nails cost, how much doors cost,” you know, just have the ability to break it out and think through the process.
Interviewer: And they’re going to grow up in that home.
Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. But then also see it being built. So you’re planning it and then the excavation. So there are different places where, you know, there’s a spot for someone that’s well-intentioned and wanting to help.
Interviewer: So putting back on my customer point of view hat, let’s just say I’m just starting out to build a panelized home. Where do I start with building departments? What do I need to know before going in and dealing with a building department in my area?
Steve Tuma: I think the interesting thing is, you know, building departments, although some people, you know, sometimes they might be a little interesting in their attitudes or their lack of desire to help, or sometimes they just don’t help as much, others are very helpful. But the bottom line is, whatever their attitude is, there’s typically a detail as to what they want for permit application. Some of them might say, “Just give me plans.” You know, “plans,” I’ve heard that. And I’m like, “Okay, so what are plans?” You know, do you need this? Do you need engineering? Do you need electrical layouts? Do you need HVAC design? And usually when they say something like that, our basic plans are more than enough. But others get extremely detailed, you know, with a PDF that might be 50, 100, 200 items with even sub-items of what needs to be taken care of. And that’s basically what we need to do is find out what the building department wants so we can be sure that all the items are addressed. And some building departments are extremely picky. Some are very easygoing. Some I wonder if they even look at the plans, you know, so it’s kind of an interesting situation.
But bottom line, we don’t just do the plans for the purpose of the building department. That’s great. They check them for their concerns. We want to know that the house is built right, you know, so that’s why we have an accurate and clear and detailed set of plans so that the actual assembly and construction of the home can go smoother and the people on site have the information that they need. But to ask your question, you know, building departments—and I’m using the word “building department” kind of generically—there’s also zoning. Make sure your setbacks are right. You know, if you want to build a fourplex in a single-family home community, it’s not going to happen. You know, there’s different setbacks. Where can you have your driveway? Sometimes there’s lot coverage issues, building height issues. If you’re in an area of well and septic, you might have to have a soil test done for your septic system. You’d have to get maybe a permit for the well or will-serve letters for water and sewer details. So there’s a variety of details. But in general, once a customer understands this, a lot of these are available right on the website. Sometimes building departments, the customer would have to go in and get some details. But either way, we’re right there with them to, you know, on the phone, talk through the process and help them understand what’s there. Or if they get confused saying, “Hey, the building department said I need a soil report.” And what sometimes will happen is they might have a soil report for a septic thinking it’s the same soil report, you know, the generic term of soil report for a structural engineer. It’s different. So that’s where we can help people and we’re happy.
Interviewer: Sometimes we can get the information from a building department. Other customers that have done a little upfront homework have the list and they just email it to us. And then we can go through and say, “Hey, we can do these items. You have to get those items,” and work along. And our customers do it. They’re excited to do it. They’re the type of people that understand the benefits of building your home, designing it. And not just that, the pride.
Steve Tuma: Sure.
Interviewer: You know, the sense of accomplishment. Money savings is also pretty cool too.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, that’s kind of an important thing. Save a buck.
Interviewer: Yeah, exactly. Without skimping too many corners. We keep talking about plans though. I want to get your expert opinion. I’m a new homeowner, our new home builder. Where the heck do I get the plans to start my new home build?
Steve Tuma: You know, there’s a lot of sources of plans. And this is something that is an interesting kind of button for me because I’ve seen a lot of people spend exceptional amounts of money, over $100,000, and they just don’t work or the details aren’t there. And they’re stamped by someone or they might do this or they might do that. Or there’s something where hey, there’s a local person in town that’s just the plan person and they do it and everyone uses it. And then we see the plans and it’s just missing details. And they’ll be like, “Well, this guy’s been doing it for 20 years.” And I’m like, “I’m sure he has, but the details aren’t there.” Right. You know, so those lack of details just lead to decisions being made on site that might be by a contractor that can lead to change orders, overruns, and delays. So it’s better to have the plans detailed out.
So what we have is a method of working with people where we can do preliminary plans to get their ideas together, you know, take the ideas of the house that they want. Maybe they pick something off our website or they sketch something up themselves or have different ideas. And then what we can do is go through and draw the plans up, and they could use those plans for budgeting, you know, preliminary reviews with contractors and details like that to see if it works. And then if they have to make adjustments, we can do all that in the preliminary plan stage. That’s a very key element that we have our own design team. So the architectural designer, structural designers, green codes, energy codes, site plans, everything’s right there in what we call our one-stop shop so that everything can be put together. It’s not a situation where someone calls and says, “Hey, what about this?” And it’s like, “Well, we’ve got to wait a week for the structural engineer to get back to us and then a week for the site plan guy.” We have it all right there, like we can get into the conversation, work things through, and get people the answers quickly so that they could get the understanding and confidence that their project can become a reality.
So because of that, if we do the plans, we’re able to control it, know that it’s done for the codes, know that it’s done for the structural concerns, the energy calculations, all these details, and make sure that everything’s there because there’s a difference in plans that someone does compared to plans that we do. People that sell plans do that. They do a great job at selling plans. We’re here at making sure that the panelized package goes up well. So we have to make sure the plans are right and accurate so that we can manufacture the panelized system, the roof trusses, the floor systems, get everything set out and know that it’s going to go together at your building site. So there’s a different level of—I’ll call it consciousness and understanding—of what leads to less errors, less overruns, less annoyances, less scheduling issues on site because everything’s thought out. Right. So that’s why we suggest people go with us.
Sometimes we have people, like I say, they didn’t know of us and they bought plans somewhere else. And, you know, we just figure out a way to help them through, likely redraw them so that the details are there. We’re doing a set of plans now for a family, a couple that’s building in Pennsylvania. And the amount of conflicts, inconsistencies, and just flat out wrong details are there. Now if you looked at the plans, you’d be like, “Oh, it’s a good looking set of plans.” But until you really get into it, you don’t realize that, hey, there’s a lot of stuff missing. So we don’t want to work off of plans that aren’t done right, which is why we do it. And I work directly with the customer, the architectural people, the structural engineers, and anyone else involved with the design process. And the set of plans is like the most important thing. It’s like your roadmap to success for scheduling, budgeting, reducing stress, enjoying the process, making sure that your money’s spent right, you know, and avoiding issues with building departments, things like that.
Interviewer: It’s got to be kind of interesting for you to deal with customers and they pick, let’s say they go onto the Landmark website and they find some plans that they like and they talk to you about it and then they start making the changes. And for you, it must be kind of fun to see those processes take place where people are really getting excited. But then I guess you have to go back and bring them to reality also and say, “Well, you know, you can’t really have a 15-foot window in that wall.”
Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, there’s a lot of people understand it, which is kind of interesting. But yeah, you’re right. So the question is more like, “Hey, can I do this? How do I do it?” So there aren’t that many totally unreasonable expectations. It’s more like, “Hey, we’ve got a view of a lake, you know, and then there’s a big tree or something.” And, you know, so they’re like, “We got to have as big of a window.” They might say, “Hey, I want a glass wall 20 feet tall.” But hey, if the roof of your house is 17 feet, we can’t really do that. Or maybe we have to change a roof system. We’re doing a house like that right now where the customer wants you to walk in the front door. The glass around the front door where you could see through the house into a like an 18-foot glass wall looking out the back so you can like see through the house and then if you’re in there, it’s just light everywhere. So what was interesting is everyone’s got a budget so they wanted to stay in a certain budget. So we simplified certain structural things that then allowed them to have this. Then we’re like, “Hey, the way this roof structure is coming together, we could put a cathedral ceiling in here relatively easily at a very low cost proportionally and really open it up, put a catwalk across the second level.” And it’s going to be a magical type of situation. So it’s kind of interesting how when people are like, “Hey, I’ve thought it out,” and they have. But then we get a conversation going and go, “Hey, you know, if we do this or if we do this,” and then they get going into it. It’s pretty interesting, especially when people are like, “Oh, I’ve thought this through. We’re never going to make any changes.” And then 20 changes later, you know, you’re working on stuff and they start thinking about stuff. First, it’s the overall form, you know, the big things, the windows, the roof. But it’s like, “Hey, wait a second. Do I want a peninsula or do I want an island? Hey, these big windows or hey, do I want a catwalk or do I really need a cathedral ceiling? Do I want it?” You know, different things like that. And that’s what we’re able to help the people with. So as they get into it, they understand the support we supply and also that we’re very open to them designing the home. You know, they shouldn’t be embarrassed to say, “Hey, Steve, I told you no more changes. But my family and I were talking about something and we’d really like to add…” We’re all up for, you know, tuning the house up so it’s the way that they want it to be.
Interviewer: We’re getting more people with elevators.
Steve Tuma: Wow, that’s interesting. Yeah. Elevators, easy access homes, aging in place situations. Some communities have visitability guidelines, meaning that if you pull up to the front of the house, the numbers are there and you can tell where the front door is and you can tell where it’s easy to park, you know, so it’s not confusing. And some of these get down to the detail of where are you putting the doorbell? And you can’t just say to the right of the door; you have to say where is the doorbell going.
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: You know, so there are a lot of little details that people don’t think about, and we’re able to help them. So if they’ve never thought about it or it’s something new to them, we can kind of guide them, give them the ins and outs of the different options, and then they decide and move forward. So it’s that planning stage so that someone understands their project and believes in it is there. And every once in a while, you’ve got to say, “Hey, you know, you said you’re trying to stay at a certain budget. You might want to check some of these details you’re adding because people shouldn’t fool themselves.”
Interviewer: Right. Yeah. It seems like you’d have to just remain realistic going into something like this. But, you know, when you’re dreaming about something, you get a little excited and you probably have to play psychologist a little sometimes when you’re, you know, bringing people into a certain reality. I know there’s got to be a certain way to bring people into that reality. And I would imagine after 30 years, you’re getting pretty good at it.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. Most people actually have a pretty decent grasp of reality. And it’s—I’m actually surprised myself because, you know, with all these TV shows and magazines, it’s like when’s the last time you saw a, you know, Architectural Digest showing a 1300 square foot ranch? You know, it’s always these big palaces with mega this and super cool this and crazy expensive that. So I think a lot of people, as they’re going through the process, they’re walking through building centers or the big box stores getting ideas saying, “Why is there a toilet for seventy dollars? But there’s also a toilet for a thousand.” Right. Or, “Hey, a custom window is a thousand dollars. But the off the shelf that does the same thing relatively the same size is 250.” So people have an understanding of putting it together. So it’s actually pretty rare that someone comes up with such a pie in the sky, like what were you thinking, type of thing. Most people are in range and—and—but we’re fully supportive. If you have someone that wants more details or is just going to figure out a way to get that extra something, you know, we will review it with them and, you know, figure out a way to do it. And sometimes it’s a step back. Sometimes you can’t have a 20-foot glass wall, but the 15 is pretty cool. And sometimes there’s things we can do just within the structure of the home.
We did a house for a family in Iowa—sorry, Idaho. It was on family land. The father bought it way back. It was a little town, and the daughter inherited it and she wanted to put in—she said, “Hey, we have a certain amount of money. My dad always wanted to have a 16-foot Christmas tree. How do we do it?” So what I did is I worked with our engineers and figured out a different type of roof system that would still give an exceptional, dramatic roof with the glass wall she wanted and a tall ceiling where we were able to get it set up. You know, having had a 16-foot Christmas tree, the ceiling’s one thing—it’s how do you get it in the house? So you also need a door, you know, that’s that big. You can’t—you know, you’ll shred it going through a three-foot man door. So that’s where everything is like, “Hey, wait a second, where’s this tree coming in? And is it a fake tree? Is it a real tree? You know, what’s going on?” and help the people put it together.
And then sometimes, you know, sometimes this stuff doesn’t cost more; it just takes a little thinking. Like there was this one family that—they were doing a house in Utah and they wanted a little fire pit to overlook, you know, this valley that they overlooked. So do you put it off to the side? Do you put it in the front? It’s just more the thought, “Hey, how does the driveway come in? You know, are you trying to have a privacy spot or do you want a spot like if a neighbor drives by, they see you and then they stop in and you get a conversation going?” So there could be different situations like that. And that really doesn’t cost anything. It’s just, “Hey, let’s get to know each other. And what are you trying to achieve?” Because I’m a person that believes a house is great. The environment you live in is what makes it the home—the “Oh, wow, this is cool. I’m glad I did it. I got a great bang for the buck for my money.” That’s what it’s about. But it doesn’t seem like overall you’ve had to talk people off the roof getting into a project and freaking out.
Right. It’s actually pretty rare. People are in touch. You know, the Internet can provide a lot of disinformation, but it can also give people guidelines. You know, they can go through a community and say, “Hey, land here costs fifty thousand, twenty thousand, two hundred thousand, whatever it is.” They can go through and, you know, go through our website, look at different plans and say, “Hey, Steve, can you price, you know, these five plans out to give me an idea?” And we’ll gladly get it priced out and then let them know and talk about the ins and outs of things. And if they say, “Hey, I like this design but it’s just, you know, just right at the edge of my fingertips,” it’s like, “Hey, wait a second, let’s figure out what we can do to do it.” And invariably what you find is there’s something on design that they really like, but then there’s also items that aren’t that important.
Interviewer: Sure.
Steve Tuma: Yeah. So sometimes you cut some of that out and then they get what’s important to them or there’s a different way to do it. And I’ve also been known to go into the back room, twist a couple of people’s arms and say, “Hey, we’re getting this family this yoga loft or kids’ little loft.” A lot of grandparents want that. They want like a little loft where the kids could sleep up there.
Steve Tuma: Right.
Interviewer: You know, like in a roof type of a thing. So that’s fun when you’re a kid to have those little nooks and niche corners and stuff to sleep in.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s like the cherry on a sundae. It’s like just that Shazam, like that extra bite. And that’s what we’re trying to do is not just say, “Hey, here’s a pile of wood, turn it into a house.” We’re trying to say, “Hey, this is an environment your family’s going to live in.” You know, so that’s the stuff in it—you know, the thinking, the talking about it, the working through the different details, the figuring different things out. That’s what we’re here for. That’s what we do. And, you know, one of the many advantages is that we have those resources at our fingertips so we could help a customer get through it right away.
Interviewer: Sure. This is a weird question I have, but you’ve never asked a weird question before. This is it. But are there any—you’re talking about, you know, doing the research and before I’m, you know, let’s say I’m going to build a new panelized home, I should do the research, et cetera. But are there any specific skills that you would recommend that I develop to be an owner builder?
Steve Tuma: You know what’s interesting about that? If I were to take a cross-section of our customer base—and I’m doing it right now as we’re thinking—there’s been people that have never built a house and I don’t think have ever picked a hammer up. And then we’ve worked with professional contractors and developers that have done their home, people in the trades, people out of the trades, all different types of people. And what I think it really comes down to, you can’t say that, “Hey, you have to have this education or you have to have this experience.” It’s really kind of a management project. So you could have someone that doesn’t know what an HVAC system is or doesn’t know how to pour cement or doesn’t know how to determine grade, but they understand it, you know, through working with us with our plans. They understand their project as to why it’s important to understand the grade, why it’s important to know what type of foundation you want, why it’s important. So on the people that have never built before, we’re completely supportive. We’ll spend the time to talk to them. Now, we always answer the phone, we’ll return the call if for some reason they do get our voicemail. We’ll just converse with them. So some people like that are remote—what’s amazing, Steve, is we’ve had a lot of people that live states away and are managing a project. And then there’s other people that live on the same land that they’re going to build a home on. So it really comes down to it.
And at a certain point, it’s the idea of having an open mind, know how to prioritize, know how to schedule, and kind of get over issues as they come up. You know, you go through and say they’re excavating—this happened in the mid ’90s. A guy was excavating, and there was a car buried in his yard.
Interviewer: Wow.
Steve Tuma: No body in the trunk, but there was a car buried in his yard. And he was like—he called me, and I’m like, “Well, that’s a first.” Hasn’t been duplicated since. But what do you do? Well, excavate the car. You know, he made it yard art. It actually became a benefit. So it’s one of these little situations where, you know, sometimes you’re working on something, “Hey, they’re going to pour the foundation on Monday,” and then it rains or snows or something goes on, you know, so it just kind of shuffles the schedule down. So it’s kind of a resilience and understanding things. And like I tell people, how do you eat an elephant? You don’t do it one big bite. You take little bites, chew that bite, and move on to the next and move on to the next. So that’s where it comes in.
And I think that’s why people that are more like not a hands-on but management person do great as well as people that live in the business. We’ve had customers where their whole family or friend base are in the trades, and they literally build the house with their own team, and then we’ve had people that don’t know anyone in the trades, they find it, go through and manage good people, you know, the good people that do what they say, provide a fair price, are responsive, and work to keep on the schedule, and they get through it. So it’s really an understanding that, you know, it’s navigating problems, which is kind of life. You know, yeah, you get up and you, you know, you get up and you go out, and you’ve got a flat tire on your car. Well, you figure it out, right? You know, and you move on. And before you know it, you’re on to something else. So it’s more of a mindset of a management thing. And if we never tell people, “Hey, go out and do work you don’t know how to do,” right, you know, you should only do the work you know how to do when you’re confident. And don’t fool yourself that you’re going to roof—you know, going to get on a three-story chalet with a 12/12 pitch if you’re scared of heights, you know, or if you’ve never done it before.
So we always tell people, you know, you have to be real with yourself and go through and do it and make sure that you work with good people that are responsive. A clear and accurate set of plans will make it easy for people to communicate with you, understand the project. And, you know, through that, it falls into place. And it’s amazing how they’re like, “Steve, are you going to be there?” I’m like, “Yeah, we’re always here.” But as the project gets going, suddenly I’ll call them. They won’t call back. Two days later, they’re like, “Oh, Steve, we just got this and this, and, you know, I got this great guy that’s helping me with this. This lady’s helping me with this.” And suddenly, they’re in the rhythm of it, and it gets going to where they’re kind of on their own. It’s kind of neat. We’re always available. But I think the actual concerns that they have up front don’t necessarily end up being the issues as they work through on the project.
Interviewer: Yeah. Well, far be it from me to kind of tell you what to do with, like, merchandising, but that’d be a great T-shirt: “Landmark Home and Land Company: Be real with yourself.”
Steve Tuma: Exactly. Yeah, I like to say, “Great people building cool homes,” you know, but that’s that’s kind of the bottom line of it. I mean, yeah, it’s a challenge. It’s work. But the thing about it is that’s life. There’s challenges at your job. There’s challenges with health. There’s challenges with eating right. There’s challenges with exercising. If you’re going to do this, it’s great when you look at the end result. It’s there. This is a funny story. It was actually a lady that was just divorced. She built a house in central Michigan, and she just wanted to do this on her own. And she built this beautiful home and detailed it out and decorated it herself. And it was just—it was magnificent what she built. It was like a 1300 square foot home in the early 2000s, late 1990s. And she was concerned, but her attitude was just, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to conquer the world.” And at the end of it, you know, I was talking to my customers, see how we could have helped them more. What’s going on, you know, what did they end up doing that maybe they didn’t plan or little curveballs. And she said, “Steve, I want you to tell your clients, especially your female clients, this story.” So I listened to the story. She goes, “Steve, building a house is like having a baby. Making it, you know, thinking about it is all a lot of fun. And then you have about nine months of ‘What am I doing? What came up here?’ And then when you’re done, you look back and see it’s the most amazing thing you’ve done in your life.”
Interviewer: Yeah, that’s cool.
Steve Tuma: So that’s the situation there that I think during the building phases, there are a lot of different details that come up, little things that may change or just be with. But we’re always here to help. And that’s the key. And I got to say the success rate of our customers is exceptional. All the plans we’ve developed and people have submitted with the intent to build have been permitted, and the people finish the houses, and they’re beautiful. And a lot of them come back years later and do it again. So it’s kind of fun.
Yeah, that’s the pat on the back when they come back or recommend a friend. We’ve had people from 25 years ago contact us to build again or suggest a friend. That’s kind of a cool little badge of honor that we’re pretty proud of.
Interviewer: Yeah, I would say so. All right. Well, that’s going to wrap things up for today’s episode. But before I let you go, Steve, like we usually do, tell our listeners how they can find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company.
Steve Tuma: The best thing to do is check out our website at LHLC.com. That’s like the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company. It’s actually LHLC, not Land Company. But so LHLC.com. There’s these podcasts, there’s a variety of videos, there’s descriptions of what’s included in our package. There’s different situations on plan options. I think there’s five or six thousand. The tab says two thousand or sixteen hundred, but there’s thousands of plans, different designs where people can get ideas. So I think it’s good just to peruse that for a while and then either send an inquiry in. You can email us or send an inquiry in a specific plan or you can just give a call, and Michael will work with you initially at 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. And, you know, we can get the conversation going and see how it goes. I get involved with helping people once they get a little deeper into the process, you know, when we’re going to get the house plans going and details. But I am available if there’s something special that needs to be covered or special details or something odd about the land or just stuff that a customer needs a little extra help. We’re always available. We do answer the phone. If for some reason you do get our voicemail, we are very proactive in calling back. And, you know, we’ll spend the time that you need to understand how we can help. And also so you can understand your own specific building project. It’s a lot of fun. It’s rewarding. And we enjoy helping people.
Interviewer: Yeah. And that’s our episode, Episode 60, Steve. So congratulations again. That’s a big number and moving toward that 100th mark. So another great one with Landmark Home and Land Company president Steve Tuma. Thanks again, Steve. And thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the panelized prefab kit home building show. We hope we’ve been able to enlighten you a bit today and to feel more confident as you move forward on your path to becoming a kit home owner builder. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time.
Steve Tuma: Thanks, Steve. Thank you. Have a great day.
