Well sort of!
At Landen Design Build used to build show homes and staff them every year, and we did this for
many years and every year we paid the extra expenses.
Carrying cost of maintaining a fully furnished show home, after which we would then build that extra show home carrying cost factor into our net quoted building cost, with this “extra cost” spread out over the expected number of home sales per year! (Back then it worked out to about $4,500 per sale that was effectively added to the hard cost of each custom home that we built).
However, that was way back when a show home would cost us all-in say about $500,000. Nowadays, a show home of any substance, that would represent the quality and market that Landen now builds in, would now cost us on average about $1,500,000 or more (including the land)!
Based on that new reality we would effectively now have to build-in 3-times what we used to “pad” the net quoted build cost in order to cover off these “extra” show home cost!
And simply put, we now think it is much better for us to simply pass the cost-saving (of not having a
furnished show home) directly back to you our client! Meaning, because we no longer have any
expensive show homes to carry, we no longer need to build in/pad that “hidden show home cost factor”
into our new home or renovation quotes! Meaning the net result is that you the client get better
custom-built home pricing from us!
Put another way, it is kind of like shopping on Amazon, you either can pay for product shopping in
person at the BIG box store “retail” which includes the seller’s mark-up to cover off their retailer’s “hard
store sq. footage space”, where they need to build in such cost as rent/lease payments, property taxes,
utilities, staffing, etc. OR, you can buy direct and bypass this extra retail cost! Having a show home is
the same thing; someone has to pay to cover that “extra cost”! So you can buy a new custom home at
full “retail cost” from a show home builder, or contract with a builder that has no show home, cutting
out a bit of middle man cost, and deal with a quality builder that has no need to pass this extra show
home carrying cost onto their client!
What’s better than having a Show Home?
However, on a side note, we think we at Landen Design Build has something better than having a
nice show home; we have many hundreds of very satisfied clients that are usually very happy to show
off their home “for us with no cost or fee to do so”! Meaning, many of our clients are happy to book a
viewing of their own private home (with a bit of notice) for our new clients to have a tour of and look at.
And we think that speaks volumes about our quality and commitment to customer satisfaction,
compared to having a simple show home, where other builders may go the extra mile dressing up their
show home with all the extra goodies to make it “look better”, but fall short on delivering the same
show home quality promise in their actual client’s new home or renovation build!
Added Cost Savings!
To further add to the custom home cost savings, that’s why we also have our own Cabinet Making and Millwork Shop, where we hand make all of our kitchen cabinets and millwork so that we can once again
cut-out the middle-man, and pass these custom-made savings directly to our client.
And furthermore, that’s why we also have our own in house custom home and renovation state of the
art 3-D CAD Architectural Design service that we provide as a complimentary no charge service if you
also build with Landen, again we cut out the middle-man and pass these architectural design savings
directly to our client! Whereas other custom builders send you to an outside architect or custom home
designer “that you end up paying for”!
So if you think builders should have a show home, then you might be paying too much for your new
custom home design or build!
LET us at Landen Design Build
SHOW YOU “What we can do for you”!
NOTE: We do however have many quality set-up Show Rooms, that we can send you to for your plumbing fixture selection, electrical and light fixture selections, appliance selections, granite and quartz
countertop selections, and cabinet door showrooms, that we at Landen Design Build have dealt with
for many years and where the founder of Landen in many cases has dealt with for more than 35 years.
And the excellent news! We pass on all of our contractor discounts at these same showrooms
directly to our client, where we once again cut out the middle-man and cut-out any commission mark-
up and pass these builder discount cost savings on to you the client!
