If you’ve started planning the ‘remodeling project of your dreams’, and are ready to hand your plans off to a remodeling contractor our Must Read Remodeling Tips are perfect for you! Before you start on your project step back, and do a little more research. You owe it to yourself, and your home, to make sure you’re doing what’s best.

The first tip in the series was ‘Your Future Should be your Guide’ and this weeks post is ‘Work with a Professional Design / Build Company’. For the rest of the tips in advance, download our FREE resource with the total list of 8 Must Read Design Tips for Remodeling Your Home.

There is a lot to consider when you decide to start a new remodeling project, and one of the most important aspects is who you’ll choose to do the work. There’s a big difference between a professional design/build firm and the conventional method of architect and general contractor, and in this post we’ll try to convince you that a professional design/build firm is, hands down, the way to go.

Here are the top benefits of choosing to work with a professional design/build company;

• Collaborative Partnership – a professional design/build firm has the same goal as you; arrive at a finished product that meets or exceeds your expectations while remaining within budget. When something doesn’t go quite as planned there is no pointing fingers, the team will just work towards a solution.
• Accountability – When the group who designs the project is also the one who builds it, there is a lot more accountability. The cost of the project is taken into account early on in the process and there is no excuse for the end project to cost much more than the cost estimated in the design process.
• Continuity – A design build firm will be involved in the process from start to finish.
• Expertise – A design build firm has experts in both fields, this means that they understand the true costs of what they are designing, and how the design will flow into construction for a finished project that meets or exceeds the clients expectations.
• Professional guides –  Designing a new home shouldn’t be one of the most stressful projects of your life, and it doesn’t have to be! A design-build firm has the experience and knowledge to help their clients throughout the entire process.
• Involvement – When you work with a design build firm, the firm is operating under the assumption that you, the client, want to be involved in the process. They will work with you to ensure your project turns out exactly the way you want it, while guiding you in the right direction along the way.
• Time – A design build team will do everything in their power to avoid taking any steps backwards, this will lead to a better, faster, and more cost effective product. There is no need to go back and forth between architect and contractor for any changes that need to be made in the process and as such there will be no additional fees.
• Cost – Deciding to work with a design build firm means that not only will you save money by avoiding the back and forth between an architect and contractor, but you will also save money by avoiding costly mistakes.

When more people are dedicated to the end result of the work they do, rather than the prestige or the process of what they do, then they can move ahead. At that point, it is no longer about them, or their company, but about the customer.