New Home Builders, do you build custom?

Question

I'm writing a series of articles (I'm a former remodeling contractor (20 yrs) who didn't build new). Wondering if you could help me out?

How do you feel about change orders? Why?

Do you have a fair amount of them?

So, I'm not talking about increase/decrease in prices from the Allowance Schedule. I mean change orders, like more kitchen cabinets than were drawn on the plans. After the walls are in. Or different back window sizes after framing. Owners decided on an outdoor kitchen, not on plans. That sort of thing that requires real changes.

Much appreciated!

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

I was a GC who did both, more remodels (but the average remodel was $500k so almost new builds anyway).

Change orders became the big MO around 15 years ago. All of a sudden the rich folks didn't care if they changed everything or not. Didn't care about the money. I had one lady make me tear down a just-framed complicated exterior wall. Twice. Even though it was built to the plan specs exactly. I told her $35k each time to try and dissuade her from changing but she didn't care....

The average number of COs became about 40 per project, usually totaling in excess of $250k. On a couple of jobs the COs turned out to be more than the original proposal...one job started at $400k and turned into $2 million!

The clients sure cared about the time though :-) Even though I have a place on the CO for a time extension, that was always ignored and when it came close to the original completion date, I would start getting a lot of grief. That's when I would pull out the book of COs and gently remind them that they were entirely at fault. But sometimes they would threaten lawsuits anyway 😂

Funny how the general public thinks that COs are a Contractors best friend, when nothing could be further from the truth. Lost time is very expensive and cannot be regained...plus the Contractor always gets the blame for schedule over-runs...

If you'd like to discuss further or see what I used for COs, just PM me....