A New Custom "Design to Build" Home

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Choosing to design and build  your custom, dream home - is an exciting and adventurous undertaking.  It provides you with the unique  opportunity to have our company build you a fabulous custom  home – one that "precisely meets" your individualized life style wants, needs and desires - in contrast to purchasing an existing home and having to attempt to “force-fit” it to your requirements.

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At the same time, a new design and build project can easily become a complicated, burdensome, and complex maze of decision-making that you may not be familiar or comfortable with. 

 

One of the key objectives of Virginia Luxury Homes is to simplify the building process by helping you achieve your complete list of new home wants, needs and desires – while making this process an enjoyable journey - whereby YOUR DREAM HOME is comfortably designed and built with our guidance and assistance!

 

Economic Value of Your Home

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We are extremely sensitive to the economic value of each home we design and build since it will likely be the single most valuable asset most families ever purchase.  Accordingly, we work to ensure that each home built by us is designed to maintain, and hopefully increase in value, in the event that you ever choose to relocate, which research demonstrates happens every five years on average in our geographical area.  Based on our background of value engineering, coupled with our knowledge of the local real estate market, we are able to help you focus on maximizing the value of your investment.  We do so while working closely with you during each step of the build process.  Our return on investment (ROI) philosophy is enhanced by the knowledge that a LEED certified green home build generates a premium resale value 8 to 10% higher than comparable homes in similar markets; plus, they sell faster than their traditional counterparts. Our company is one of the few build companies in the U.S. able to provide LEED build standards and certifications for our clients (only 1% of new builds in the U.S. are LEED certified). Building green becomes one of many options provided to our discerning customers.

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How We Work to Help You as a Team

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Our Virginia Luxury Homes team will ensure a comfortable and enjoyable journey while helping you design your new home. For example, our home design team is very well qualified/experienced with a thorough understanding of the home build process as well as  various styles and kinds of house builds including traditional, arts and craft, and contemporary.  Regardless of the house style you choose, we assist you in a step-by-step manner through every phrase of your new home build process. Our president is well schooled in value added concepts and will work diligently to help you stretch your build budget. All of this will be done through a very professional process in which you will be able to comfortably make timely, efficient and cost effective design choices, ones that will consistently compliment and reinforce your unique life style, while marrying requirements associated with a new home build.

 

 

Differences - Typical Builders and Virginia Luxury Homes
 

The manner in which we build is fundamentally different than the typical or traditional builder.  Illustratively, it is our philosophy to use the best grades of materials and workmanship in our builds which includes weather resistant materials which are sustainable in contrast to non-weather resistant materials which are designed to last through the warranty period, but will have to be replaced after that. It also includes our extensive use of insulation which has a direct correlation to energy efficiency, and the use of other high grade sustainable materials many of which are required for LEED and Energy Star Green Certification.  The following chart depicts additional distinctions between VLH and other builders.

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Competitive Advantage

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We at Virginia Luxury Homes believe that we provide distinctive competitive advantages as a builder over traditional builders.  While every builder has certain attributes in their build model, we believe we provide numerous unique reasons why you should consider our company for your design to build custom home project:
 

• We are a unique builder in that we have advanced degrees in economics and value engineering as well as administration, management, technology, design, and education.  This means we are able to comfortably communicate with you while bringing you our expertise in building healthier, value engineered homes at cost competitive prices, together with continued focus on your return on investment.

• We are certified to build large, green LEED custom homes - and we have been doing so since 2010.  Only a small handful of builders in Northern Virginia are able to build LEED and Energy Star homes inspected and certified by third party, independent, inspectors.

• We specialize in building healthier, green certified custom homes that are 5,500 square feet or larger including the basement. This means that each of our homes are built with exacting standards backed by thorough and extensive testing for LEED and Energy Star certification standards throughout the entire build process.  The exhausting process consists of on-site inspections, detailed documentation review, and “as-built performance testing” by independent, third party professionally qualified examiners – which assures you that you will own a home with far greater quality and build standards than a traditionally built home.

• We provide you with extensive design options throughout the build.  We have discovered that most builders limit the number of choices, vendors, and selections provided to the home buyer.  We do not!

• We provide a design specialist if desired; whose principle role and responsibility is to work with you and assist you to comfortably make design selection choices that will help make your dream home a living reality! 

• We have the expertise to deconstruct existing homes that have to be demolished for a new home build providing you with the tax credit.  Most builder do not possess this capability or expertise.

• We have the capability and experience to build small or large custom green homes that range from arts and crafts to contemporary.

• We are highly sensitive to the fact that even a new home after a number of years can grow obsolete.  This is the reason why we build smart technologies into each of our new custom homes that can be added to in the future to accommodate new technologies - so the home will not grow outdated and lose economic value.

• We can build on your land - or ours.

• We provide realtor services so in addition to designing and building new custom homes we are also able to assist you to find the precise piece of land you would like to build on; to help you sell your existing home if desired; to build on land you already own; or to build on ground that we already own.

• We consistently provide you with services that exceed your expectations during what is traditionally the most significant purchase of your life.

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New Home Design and Build Process

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We have a unique process to help you design your new home.  We sit with you in the quiet of your home and assist you to identify your unique life style and needs, and then comfortably transition that set of life style needs into the design and build of your new home.

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Budget and Cost

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We work closely with our new home buyers to help you with every aspect of the new home design and build process.  This means being highly sensitive to your budgetary concerns as we proceed through every step of the process ensuring that your budgetary considerations are honored. This means providing you with methods and recommendations to stretch your budget while helping you reduce monetary considerations in other areas.  

 

New Home Build Components

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There are four entities who perform an essential role in the design, build, decision-making and alignment of a new custom home build.  They are as follows:
 

1. New Home Buyer – The home owner is the most important component of the house build process.  However, they are also likely the least knowledgeable regarding the build process.  They can easily become overwhelmed with the myriad of decisions required to be made in the new home build process since they have likely never previously been involved with such a project.  Accordingly, it is relatively easy for the customer to become confused and not end up making design choice decisions that truly reflect and consistently compliment their unique lifestyle wants, needs and requirements.
    

2. Builder - The builder is the professional who generally brings the new home owner to the table, takes them to the architect, and then follows the architectural blueprints to build the new home.  The builder takes the completed house build plans to the county and other regulatory bodies to receive approval for the build process and then undergoes on-site inspections which occur at various intervals throughout the build process by both county and independent, third party LEED inspectors. The builder, with his project manager and team of subcontractors and vendors, works closely with the new home buyer throughout the entire build process. Illustratively, it is not unusual that 200+ different people are involved in working on the house at various stages.  This work continues until the day the county provides the final permit designating that the build has officially been satisfactorily completed.
    

3. Architect – The architect is the professional who listens to the new home buyer and based upon what they “hear” the home buyer requesting, they begin to design the new home.  They do this by translating that information into an architectural rendering (blueprint) which provides the standards for the structural and ascetic direction the new house build will take.
    

4. County, VDOT, and Leeds inspectors – A new home cannot be built without successfully completing the county and Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) requirements.  Once the submitted architectural, structural and site blueprints are officially approved by these organizational bodies, the new home can begin to be built. Once the process begins, on-going inspections are performed at various build stages by governmental and LEED inspectors (if the home is a green LEED certified build).  The process of inspections continues until the entire home is constructed and approved by all applicable inspectors and inspections. The completed home is then provided with a Final Occupancy Permit which officially designates that the home build has been successfully completed according to county and state standards.