Owner's Ace Blog

Well maybe our heads didn't explode, but after Part 1 of our discussion, I'm confident that the fog hasn't lifted yet.  My problem is that even though I'm no financial genius (although I could play one on TV), I can only help with the financial side of analyzing the Build New vs. Renovate options...

So you have family or friends visiting and you finally hit the breaking point that you need more space in your home.  Maybe this realization happened after the holidays and New Year visits or this week during Spring Break, but if it's happened to me, I'm fairly certain it's happened to you.  This...

You hear about them all the time in the news.  It seems like you can't turn on the TV or pick up a paper without reading about some unscrupulous person taking advantage of an unsuspecting individual with some new building scam for Tampa new construction.  Although this may be reality today, it do...

After "How Much Do You Charge Per Square Foot?", this is the second most asked question we get as a Tampa builder.  It definitely takes longer to build a 6,000 square foot home than a 3,000 square foot one, so it often comes down to size and complexity.  For our discussion, lets assume we're buil...

When we ask someone who is about to build a new home, "How long do you plan on living here?"  A common response is "This is the last home that I will ever build.  They'll be burying me in the back yard."  My response is to be realistic.  Statistics show that most people live in their home an aver...

Many of my homebuilding colleagues get pretty irritated by this question.  Often they respond - "How much does a new car cost per pound?"  There may be some relationship between a car's cost and its weight, but nobody ever asks that question.  Yet the cost per square foot is common in home buildi...

Building a custom home is likely one of the biggest investments that many people will ever make.  As a custom home builder in Tampa and St. Petersburg, I think it's important that our customers put their money in the places where there is the most value.  Here are our Top 5: Location:  As if we d...

Everyone seems to love a good corner lot, but are they really as great they look?  I'll admit upfront that I'm prejudiced against them, but I've worked with many customers to design homes that they love on many wonderful corner lots.  Here's what I've learned.  Just like the old Clint Eastwood mo...

Obtaining feedback from previous customers is a key step to selecting the right builder for your custom home.  It always amazes me how many people select a builder without taking the time to call and speak with past customers to see how they performed on their project.  It's important to ask what...