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Introduction to Garabedian Properties and the Garabedian Family

One of the largest hurdles families face in the search for a new home is what to do about the home they are currently living in.  We hope this three part series helps illustrate how trading a home can benefit a family.

The first of this series discusses the most common hurdles families face when seeking to move to a new home.  The second part discussed how a new home builder offering a Trade In Your Home program can help overcome these challenges.  This third part of the series will discuss how the steps of a trade program work.

Where to start

As not all builders are able or willing to trade homes, it would be wise to research which builders do offer this option and then review their program and available homes.  Once you have determined which builder, set a time to meet with him or her to discuss what you are seeking to accomplish.

What you will need to know

Your builder will want to know some information from you to do a preliminary evaluation.  Here is a list of some of the items you should know;

The address and a description of your home including the room count, lot size, square footages and special features. 

Condition of the major systems of the house such as your water heaters, appliances, heaters, air conditioners, roof, etc…

Disclosure of any items requiring attention such as leaks, foundation problems, etc…  Remember you are legally obligated to disclose such items and being upfront will minimize these issues becoming a problem later in the process.

Your asking price on what you would list your home for with a Realtor and what you would expect to sell it for.

He will also need to know how much do you owe on your home as well as if you have any other resources you are able to use for a down payment.

Please be upfront with your builder.  Every family I have worked with who has tried to be coy or not be upfront about their circumstances has had their trade fall through and they ended up not getting the house they wanted.  This must be a win-win to work.

Can I Negotiate

Yes you can negotiate; however, take a step back and look at the big picture.

You are asking the builder to pay top dollar for your home but you want to buy the new home for a discount.  The reality is the builder is doing you a favor in taking your home.  If the builder was going to discount his new home to sell it, he could do that and not have to bother with taking a used home in trade.

The net effect is that if you want the builder to give you a fair price for your home on a net basis, you will need to use his asking price as the benchmark.

Another reason this is important is the builder will need to utilize his proceeds from the sale of his new home to use as the down payment on your old home.  If he were to discount the price of the new home he may not have enough cash to move forward with the trade.

This has to be a win-win, if you are looking for a discounted price on a new home you will need to be ready to move forward without trading in your existing home.

The Evaluation

The builder will take your information and begin to research your home.

This will involve a host of different steps including; ordering a Comparative Market Analysis of your home, reviewing sales of similar homes in the area, physically inspecting your home, hiring a licensed inspector to inspect your home and other such similar items.  This will give him the information he needs to assign a trade value for your home.

Next Step

Once you and the builder have come to an understanding, contracts will be executed.  There will be two contracts, one for each transaction, which will both be contingent on the other contract being executed and closed.

The contracts will be delivered to the title company and the respective lenders.  Once the lenders have completed their paperwork a closing date will be finalized.

During this time the builder will proceed with his traditional new homeowner orientation and walk through on your new home.  He will also work to have his crews assemble resources for any needed repairs for your old home.

At Closing

On the closing day, all parties will meet at the title company and sign their respective papers.  As most families will want some time to move, it is very common for a short term lease to be executed on the traded in home allowing time for the family to move out and clean up the house.

While this transition is in place the builder will often begin to work on scheduling the repairs and marketing of the traded in home.

Thank You

During down markets, trading home is a great means of moving without taking the risks and hassles associated with attempting to sell your old home.  In a hot market, trading may offer a great means of being able to purchase the house you want before someone else beats you to it while you try to sell your old home. 

Either way, if you are considering a move, look at all your options including trading.  This concludes the three part series on trading in your home.  To see the entire series visit our blog.

If you have a question on how to a trade program works, please feel free to email your questions to our offices.  Garabedian Properties is a full service building firm serving the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.  We offer new luxury homes, premium remodels, green building/remodeling, home care services, storm/roof repairs and commercial building contracting.

Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669. I also encourage you to visit http://www.garabedianproperties.com to see movies on our homes, hundreds of pictures and information on how we can be of service to your family or clients.  Or become a fan on Facebook.

If your family is not quite ready for us at this time, we will be at your service when you are in need or wish to request our assistance.  If you know a family or client who may be in need of our services, we welcome and honor your referrals.

Thank you to everyone who frequents our blog. If you would like to stay in touch with us in between posts. The links are on the menu to your right or you can become a fan on Facebook.

Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669. I also encourage you to visit http://www.garabedianproperties.com to see movies on our homes, hundreds of pictures and information on how we can be of service to your family or clients.  If your family is not quite ready for us at this time, we will be at your service when you are in need or wish to request our assistance.  If you know a family or client who may be in need of our services, we welcome and honor your referrals.

How can a builder have intellectual property? Ok, I can hear some of you asking how can a builder have intellect? I will pretend I did not hear that. However, I might suggest if you are questioning your builder’s intellect, maybe it is because you hired the wrong builder and are getting what you paid for. But I won’t because that would be for another post.

Intellectual property is the processes and knowledge a builder develops to create his signature homes. By utilizing the same materials and resources (paint, lumber, trim, etc…) everyone else uses and has access to and incorporate them into his own specific recipe.

This recipe is developed by the builder investing time and resources (ie. money) into researching products, interviewing trades, experimenting with processes and working with designers. This work is on the design, creation and finish out of their homes. For every hour a builder spends at a job site, he can spend many more hours working on products, scheduling and research.

Finishes are the visible accents of a home such as paint, tile and moldings. Paint colors can take hours of research, multiple samples and repainting to get the perfect hue. Other considerations include how certain colors work with architectural elements, surrounding finishes and design materials. It is not uncommon to repaint cabinets or an entire room to perfect a look.

Design is the artistic creation of a home’s elements. If you see an interesting cabinet or ceiling detail, it is the end result of someone’s investment of time and resources to develop the feature. An examplie is decorative raised ceilings, which can take thousands of dollars in time and material to develop and create. Moldings, mantles, and cabinets are other design elements who’s creation requires a depth of knowledge and efforts.

Trade partners are subcontractors who a builder has developed and nurtured in an ongoing relationship. These relationships are strengthened by the investment of time, resources and education to help the trades develop their professions.

By using coaching, sharing feedback, discussing alternatives, and working alongside of them in the field helps foster a team effort to create innovative homes.  Builders also invest in knowing who the good trades are and observing the performance of their workers as well as how they respond to warranty requests.

In short intellectual property is the sum knowledge base a builder has developed on how to build and who to use to design and build a home. Another way to look at it is has a builder’s secret recipe.

You are not paying for the individual ingredients when you go to a restaurant you are paying for the chef’s knowledge and expertise on how to put them all together to create a meal.

Just as you can’t tell a chef’s recipe by tasting the sauce, you can’t just tell how a home is built by taking a picture or getting an appliance model number. By using the same ingredients everyone else has access to, a builder can formulate his signature style and “recipe” to create a one of a kind new home experience.

So please understand the next time you ask a builder to share his secrets, they may be hesitant to do so. Just as a chef won’t give away his recipes, why would you expect a builder to give away all his secrets for building a home.

Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669. I also encourage you to visit http://www.garabedianproperties.com to see movies on our homes, hundreds of pictures and information on how we can be of service to your family or clients.  Or become a fan on Facebook.

If your family is not quite ready for us at this time, we will be at your service when you are in need or wish to request our assistance.  If you know a family or client who may be in need of our services, we welcome and honor your referrals.

There are only two ways to build a home.  We previously discussed the; “Tell me what you want and I will tell you how much it costs” method.  Now I would like to discuss the; “Tell me what you want to spend and I will tell you what you are going to get” method.

Previously we compared building a home to grocery shopping.  You choose the store, the brands, the quantities and when you’re cart is full you pay the cashier.  Your actions and decisions determine what you end up spending.

Today we will look at the opposite approach.  Most families want to stick to their budget.  However it is difficult to fully appreciate how small variances and overages can add up quickly and escalate the costs of their home.

There are 34 accounting subsections in a home construction budget.  If you go over by $1,500 in each budget category, you bust your budget by over $50,000.  Small overages add up quickly and you can get into budget trouble very quickly if no one is watching the project’s accounting.

An example is requesting a wood window upgrade.  Not only do the windows cost more for each unit, there are several other costs that you will incur that are not readily evident.  There will be additional costs for window installation, trimming out the windows, painting the windows and cleaning.  These are all above and beyond costs associated with other window products and can add thousands if not tens of thousands to the cost of a home.

By developing a budget with your builder, he can give you a road map on the decisions you need to make to stay on target.  A builder can give you options in the design, floor plan and amenities of your new home that will help keep you on budget.  By guiding your selections based upon your builder’s guidance, you can minimize the stressful surprises of budget busting change orders.

Another aspect of the building experience is the sales representative (lighting, tile, granite, appliances, etc…) who will encourage you to spend just a little more to “get what you want” of their products.  They will assure you that you can save money on something else further down the line. 

In almost 20 years of building, I have NEVER seen a family cut back their budget in any significant manner to pay for these extras.  Your builder acts as a buffer when you have the urge or are being urged to go over budget.  His motivation is not to sell you an extra light or a more expensive tile but to guide you through the process and keep you as close to your budget as possible.

Building a home is not much different than other large purchases.  You either pick what you want and pay what it costs or stick to your budget and choose from what is in your price point.  With an understanding of these concepts, building your new home can be fun and exciting instead of stressful and confusing.

Thank you for visiting with us at Garabedian Properties.  Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669.  I also encourage you to visit www.garabedianproperties.com to see our entire website.

Over the past few weeks, the ever shrinking pool of builders in our area have visited. As we compare notes on our industry we are noticing a dramatic disappearance of subcontractors. We are also hearing about homeowners having to wait weeks for simple handyman services.

What this will mean is that once building starts to  up tick there will be fewer workers to service the industry. The ones that are still in business will quickly escalate their charges and only show up to the builders who are willing to pay. During past boom cycles, it was not uncommon for a subcontractor to pull of a job or never show up because he got a better offer somewhere else.

What this means is that building costs will move up quickly as will home prices.

I mention this because another common denominator the building community is aware of is how many families want to build but are sitting on the side just waiting. In some cases they need to sell a home, in other cases they are just waiting.

The fear is that once homebuilding picks up, all the families who were waiting will rush back in and will overwhelm the best builders. This will lead to the fly by night builders coming back into the market and many families will get hurt.

An example of this is when everyone at a football game waits for half time to go to the concession stand.  They rush to get in line, spend the entire half time in line and those at the back will either miss part of the third quarter or go back to their seats hungry.  If some of the fans got an early start and went to the concession stand in the 2nd quarter, they would have no lines, get their food fast and leave a shorter line for those who come after them.

If you are considering building but are just not quite ready to pull the trigger, get with your builder now and get all the preliminary items out of the way. This will cut off months from the process when you are ready to start and give you the ability to jump when the timing is just right.  Another benefit is that you will be first in line with your chosen builder as well as have a shot of getting your home built before the costs start to jump up.

Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669.  I also encourage you to visit www.garabedianproperties.com to see our entire website.

The Rage

For decades, media rooms have been the rage.  They started as bonus space above the garage and morphed into massive spaces with a dozen speakers, multiple seating levels, 120″ screens, $5,000 leather seats, wet bars, popcorn machines and much more. 

The desire to recreate the theater experience at home was a powerful motivation for families to pour money into these rooms and for audio/video companies to develop entire lines of premium equipment, lighting and furniture to fill up these spaces.

Over The Garage

In the first generation, media rooms stared out over the garages as it was cost effective to finish out and helped isolate the sound from the rest of the home.  They were first referred to as bonus rooms; however we quickly started to wire them up for all the audio/video goodies, then added equipment closets and some builders even installed the projectors and screens to sell with the homes.

Over time, we started moving the rooms into other areas of the upstairs in search of larger spaces and more architectural elements.  This helped with the space but it added costs to the home and moved the “noise” further into the home’s interior space.

Dirty Little Secret

As more of these rooms were built to accommodate all the new media equipment that was being offered, a dirty little secret was starting to become known.  If a media room was upstairs, the adults almost NEVER used the space.  Even more interesting is that younger children were still preferring to watch movies/TV with their parents in the family room so they seldom used the rooms either (accept for slumber parties but that is a whole other story).

Our experience is that about the only folks who routinely use media rooms are teenagers.  Now maybe I am just an old fuddy duddy but teenagers in a dark room designed to keep sound isolated from the outside located away from the rest of the family is not the best idea.

Move It On Down

As families started to realize the limitations of upstairs media rooms, they requested builders to move these rooms downstairs.  This did make them more accessible however a whole host of new issues was created.

Space Utilization– Unless you have an acre to work with, most home sites are modest in size, which can create some serious flow issues for a home.  Trying to get every room in a logical location and trying to isolate the media room sound can be a challenge, add costs and crowd out space from other living areas.

Placement– Locating a media room in a floor plan is complicated.  If you move it away from the main living spaces, the room’s isolation can leave it unused.  You must also account for bathrooms, refreshment centers, bedrooms, guest access, hallways, wet bars, etc…  In EVERY  case that I have worked with a family, a downstairs media room has dramatically increased the size and cost of a home.  My rule of thumb is that you add a total of 300 square feet to a home for every 100 square feet in size of a media room on the first floor.

Costs – It is more expensive to put rooms on the first floor and these added costs are not often realized by families until the later stages of the design process.  Other hidden costs include foundationn costs, exterior walls and mitigation of the sound from the other living spaces.

Noise – Media rooms are designed to create a theater experience including louder sounds than typical TV watching.  This noise will travel through the house as few families can or will pay for a true media room sound mitigation system and/or the kids will leave the door open.

Complex & Costly To Maintain

Another challenge with these rooms is our very motivated audio video sales reps have been selling us systems that are so temperamental and difficult to operate that if one thing goes wrong you have to pay a $400 trip charge to get someone to tell you why its broke.  Adding a new DVD player could require 3 hours or programming.  If Direct TV swaps out your boxes, it will cost you to have your wires and programming repaired (yes it happened to me).

To this day I still can’t get my Graphic Eye lights to work the way I want and my remote does not fully operate all functions.  Even if money is no object, having a programmer camped out in your house for a week at a time gets old really fast.

The cool one touch controls you see in the show rooms or during the “perfect” demo at another customer’s house are not always that perfect in your own home.  All it takes is an incorrect battery change of a remote, your RF broadcaster to zonk out or a power surge that requires swapping out an amp and you may have to start all over with programming.

Out Of Date

Another aspect we have discovered is just like computers, these media systems are outdated before the install is finished.  Even if a newer product comes out before your install (or the price drops) you have to order the equipment so early in the building process you are stuck with last year’s model and last year’s prices.

Kids Love Their Parents

If our family is typical, we find that most movies are watched in the family room on the main TV.  Our media room has become a ghost town.  As a home builder, I hear similar stories from other families.  I can also witness the reality when I am at their home (yes we can tell how a room is used/not used by looking at it, kind of like a spooky esp thing they teach you).

Our daughters, even the 13 year old, like to watch movies with us in the family room.  They can goof off, play with their younger sister, learn from their wise parents and camp out with the refrigerator door wide open all while watching the movie.   When we give them a choice, 8 times out of 10 they prefer to be in the family room over the media room.  We hear similar stories from other families.

$1,000 A Night

Regardless of how cool, convenient or complex a media room is, families seldom use these rooms as much as they anticipated.  If a media room adds $100,000 to the cost of a house (very easy to do with construction costs, equipment, furniture, etc…) and you spend 20 nights in there a year (about every other week), then at $1,000 a night you would take 5 years to get break even on the room.  This does not include utilities, taxes, insurance, cleaning, etc.. 

I have found that most families find their use drops off dramatically after a newness wears off.  What kind of night on the town can you have for $1,000?

Fast Forward To The Past

So, we spent two decades trying to recreate the movie experience in our homes and are now seeing that no matter how much money is spent, it is not easy to change the fundamentals on how families live.  The family room is called a family room for a reason, that is where the family congregates and watching movies together is part of that experience.

There are exceptions to every rule and I do know a few families who use their rooms weekly but they appear to be in the minority.   There will always be a place for media rooms, however, I do think many of the families who insisted on having them only to use them as closets will now pass on media rooms in their next home.   I also suspect that you will see more flexible spaces being designed so that a family can utilize it as they see fit.

The Next Trend?

The coming trend seems to be to make multi-purpose rooms where the media room is combined with a game room.  In some cases we see “media corners” where a portion of a large game room is darkened (paint, curtains, etc…) so that it can be isolated for a movie or opened up while the game room is in use.

Others Soon To Follow

Media rooms are not the only endangered rooms.  We are seeing the death of the formal living room and suspect the formal dining room is not far behind.  Other rooms that have had some popularity but are seldom used include climate controlled wine rooms, craft rooms and exercise rooms (come on, if you don’t exercise now do you really think building an entire room will be a motivator). 

The larger homes will most likely hold on to these spaces, but for families looking for value, there maybe better places to spend your money than rooms that are seldom used.  Flexible multi use spaces seem to be where many of our families are heading towards in their future home designs.

No Worries

At this point you maybe saying to yourself, dang, I want Mike to build us a house but he won’t put the rooms in we want.  Please have no fear!  I will build just about any room you want in your new home.  I only want my families and friends to know the pros and cons of every decision they make.  If after learning that you still want a media room with all the bells and whistles, I am all in.

In fact I will personally put the room through extensive testing every Sunday from August thru February to insure your satisfaction.  P.S. I like lots of butter on my popcorn.

My final thought, don’t design a house based upon what you think people expect of your.  Design and build a home that serves how your family actually lives.  If you don’t use a media room now, building a larger more expensive room probably won’t change your lifestyle.

Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669. I also encourage you to visit http://www.garabedianproperties.com to see movies on our homes, hundreds of pictures and information on how we can be of service to your family or clients.  Or become a fan on Facebook.

If your family is not quite ready for us at this time, we will be at your service when you are in need or wish to request our assistance.  If you know a family or client who may be in need of our services, we welcome and honor your referrals.

Well the brilliant minds who run our government have passed some new mandates for the installation of lawn irrigation systems.  I am not sure if these are just relevant to the State of Texas or the country, however, they did sneak up on the building industry when they were implemented.  Now, please don’t get me wrong, properly installed and MAINTAINED sprinkler systems will reduce water waste. 

Fun Fact – Every bit of water that has ever existed on the earth still exists.  It is just a matter of what form it is in now and where it is located.

We have all driven by a property and witnessed small gushers from broken heads or a sprinkler watering the street and not the lawn.  The funny thing is more often than not it is a city system not a homeowner’s that is flooding the street.  However, creating new rules that will make irrigation systems more costly, add more time to the installation, create opportunities for foundation damage and expose more of the system to damage is not the best means of addressing the waste of water by “some” homeowners.

The irrigation systems installed now require additional permitting, inspections and different types of design parameters.  All of these elements add costs to the project.  In addition the new process turns a one day job into a two to three day job.  The more times your sprinkler contractor has to drive to a job, do work, leave and then return, the more costly it is to complete the project.

Here are some of the challenges these new regulations will put upon homeowners.

Time

It will take several days to complete a project that used to be completed in one day.

Time is added to the process as your irrigation installer must submit a much more detailed permit package to the town.  These permit applications require review by a staff member who is usually working on other projects so he/she may not get to it immediately.  Once the permit is approved, your installer must install the system and then wait for an inspector to come out to inspect the installation.  If that inspector is behind on inspections, enjoying a holiday that city staff’s often get that we builders do not.  If it happens to rain before the inspector gets there of during the day of the inspection you could be loose even more time.  The installer cannot cover up your trenches until he gets the inspection so the landscape installer, grass installer, fence company and general clean up folks have to wait.  A typical yard that could be irrigated, landscaped and sodded in a few days may take a week or longer.

Fun Fact – A homeowner can install a mini weather station or link your sprinkler via the internet to a service that will automatically adjust your water usage based upon wind, rain, temperature, etc…  No special permit or law required.

Foundation Damage

Most builders and warranty companies require a fully irrigated foundation.  History has shown us that a majority of all foundation problems occur from unequal moisture content arround the foundation’s perimeter.   To battle this builders have placed irrigation systems completely arround their foundations.  However the new regulations may make it so that we must use different components or are not allowed to place any heads in certain areas.  One of two things will happen, different components will vary the moisture level at different areas of the foundation creating risk factors AND the cost of the system will be more as more zones and components are needed to irrigate the same area.

Future Damage

One of the components that is being mandated/utilized for many areas is a soaker system.  Now on first blush most folks say, hey that is cool and makes great sense.  However here are some problems.  The soaker hose is placed directly under the grass.  When I say directly I mean you have dirt, then they put down the hose then they put down the sod.  Why do they do that, because such little water comes out of the soaker hose that if they bury it in the dirt, the grass would die because the roots are so short.  (this post will go up early but I will be adding a picture of these hoses in a bit so please check back).

A couple of problems this presents; 1 – these hose goes down like a snake/web so if you were to dig in that general area for any reason you are pretty much sure you are going to hit it, 2 – if you ever have to service it or replace it you will have to dig up the entire section of grass to get to the hose and put a new one down.  Gone are the days of just swapping out a broken head.

Cost

These systems will cost more due to permitting, design, components and time.  Warrantying them will cost more as well.  As you can imagine, the landscaper will pass that on to the builder and the builder will pass that on to the homeowner.  There is no free lunch.  If you ever wonder why houses keep getting so expensive it is because every time we turn arround someone is passing a rule or fee that adds a few dollars here and a few dollars there.  Pretty soon it adds up to real money.  Just wait till you see what all the “climate change” laws do to your new home’s price.

So…..

 All too often in life our government (at the urging of well meaning citizens) tries to compensate for some individuals not being as cognisant of their actions but mandating rules to make everyone’s life more difficult and more costly.  Although I am sure these new regulations will cut water waste somewhat, I am not sure the lost time and additional costs to a homeowner will show these to be the most cost effective means of water reduction.

Yes I hold almost every green certification a builder can hold.  Yes I turn out the lights when I leave a room and yell ( I mean instructively remind) at my kids if they leave the sink running.  However, the most effective tool in living a “green” life and being conscious of not wasting resources is not some politician mandating special interest rules but common sense.  Well you can’t legislate common sense and politicians can’t take credit for it so we have laws that cost everyone money and may create more problems than they solve.

So please don’t be mad at your builder or landscaper when your home price edges up and takes a bit longer.  AND please remember that when you are digging in a flower bed and destroy the soaker hose that is 1″ deep, that is not a warrantable event.  Maybe you can call down to Austin and see if one of our legislatures will come fix it for you.

Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669.  I also encourage you to visit www.garabedianproperties.com to see our entire website.