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.