I’m sitting in my driveway for 30 minutes with the car on, talking on the phone and I walk in to greet the family, kiss my wife and kids and act normal. After a moment I see my wife acting a little funny and I say “what’s wrong”? She says back to me, “who were you talking to in the driveway for so song?” I tell her one of my customers and she says “Oh thank God I thought it was another woman.” The people we build for are busy. So my phone typically starts lighting up around 5pm when they are on their way home. It’s not uncommon that I’m talking to them from my driveway, my garage, a culdesac, the woods or some other random spot. Some call just to say hi and check-in but most of the time it’s a concern they have about their build. To be a good builder there are so many things that are important, but mostly what I find invaluable is a sympathetic ear to listen and problem-solve so that my homeowners can sleep at night. This is something that I enjoy teaching my guys, and actually doing myself because oftentimes people just have a hard time visualizing a particular phase and need to be calmed down. They’re not yelling (most of the time) or anything like that, it’s mostly just helping them understand that a particular situation is under control and if it’s brought to our attention for the first time, that we will be all over it. I’ve taken calls on Thanksgiving Day and they’re shocked when I call them back. Sometimes I try so hard to honor my families time because our business starts early and ends late, but more often than not I want people to feel at ease and let them know that everything is going to be all right. I don’t know if I really have a point to all of this other than to say that building can be one of the most stressful things you ever do in life so I think it’s important that when you’re evaluating a builder at some point of your life that you look for that “X” factor which is someone who cares about your project as much as you do.
