The way it works is I get the dimmensions of the house, some “as is” pictures for referrence, generate the house on my computer, input the “new look” materials and changes, and present the renderings to the buyer/tenant.  This way, they can see what they will be getting before the rehab is complete.

Now, being able to present the house in this way also means I can get the tenant to commit to a lease before the rehab is done.  I can also get the buyer to put down an option payment to hold the house for them.  This means I have a tenant in place and/or an end buyer in place before I have the rehab finished…what a great relief to know this ahead of time.

I also use this a great tool when I do my Real Estate Turnkey Program.  My turnkey Program is where I put a tenant in place and sell it to an end investor looking for cash flow.  Since the tenant is already in place, the end investor knows what their cash flow will be (this is always at least $300/month).

I’ve started offering this to other investors in my area to assist them in the same way it helps me.  I see no reason why I can’t do this for any area of the country.  I just need the dimmensions, a few pictures, and the specs on the rehab changes/improvements.

If interested just let me know.

First Step is to Analyze the Numbers

So how does this end up working out?  First, you need to price out the entire home.  This is BEFORE you start construction.  You are going to compare the cost of construction not using energy efficient methods to using energy efficient methods.  As an example, let’s compare using blown-in or sprayed in insulation (the good stuff) to regular rolls or batts (the not so good stuff).  I explain the differences between the two in a previous post, but for now let’s discuss the cost difference.  The spray in insulation will give you the same R-factor as the rolled insulation, but you can install the spray in insulation in a 2 x 4 wall…the rolled insulation must go in a 2 x 6 wall.  Now your first reaction might be that the difference in cost between 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 construction, considering the only place you would be using this comparison would be for the exterior walls (since you would not typically insulate interior walls), is negligible.  You would be correct…but that isn’t the only place this decision has a cost effect.  Remember the idea of a system.  In this case, since you would not need to place the more expensive product in a 2 x 6 wall, you would also not need to install extension jambs for all the doors and windows like you would in a 2 x 6 wall.  If you know anything about construction costs, and if you don’t you will learn quickly, the extra cost of the better insulation is far less than the extra cost of the extension jambs.  Thus, the more expensive product, is actually the less expensive decision. 

This is but one of many examples of decisions to be made that can greatly influence the cost of the home both now (construction) and later (operating).  Not all have an immediate savings like this.  Some are exclusively long term savings in the form of lower energy bills, but the end result is the same…savings.

Now if you added up all the construction costs, and had an energy consultant calculate your projected energy bills based on the design of the home and cost of energy in your area, you would end up with two numbers.  Both result in monthly expenses,  your projected energy bill and your mortgage payment.  Remember to do this for both methods of building your home…the energy efficient way and the not so energy efficient way.  Now compare the two.  If you did your homework, and you did your job properly making cost effective decisions along the way, you should see that the energy efficient construction should have a net monthly total that is less than the non so energy efficient construction.  Thus, you are losing the difference between the two every month if you don’t build your home using energy efficient construction methods.

Also, if you find, and you will, that the total cost of energy efficient construction is actually more than no energy efficient construction, the logic still holds.  Since you are paying your mortgage off by the month, the increase in your monthly payment should be less than the savings on your energy bill.

Oh, and as a bonus, you get to live in a warmer (cooler in the summer) and healthier home. Now isn’t that special?  As an extra bonus, the added savings can either go towards another expense, an investment, or savings.  You can even put it back into the house as an upgrade towards something you had to give up so you could stay within your budget.  In a way, if your monthly payment dictates your budget, and your overall monthly payment went down, you would have more money to spend each month on your finishes in your home.  Upgrade your kitchen, add the whirlpool tub to your Master Bath, put in a more expensive floor or convert the bedroom to a library right now…instead of later.

You can’t, can you.  Energy efficient design, unlike the days when you added solar collectors, or thermal mass walls of some type are a thing of the past.  You can build one house next to another house using the same design and not be able to tell the one that is constructed using energy efficient techniques…until you went inside and experienced the difference in air and temperature quality, and took a look at the energy bills.

Air infiltration is the key to making a house energy-efficient.  You can add all the 21st century inventions and ideas you want, and most likely you will only be adding cost to the project.  Once you eliminate, or at least dramatically reduce the air infiltration in the house…you win.  It really is that simple.  Heat will follow the course of least resistance, so when you allow air to leak through you house, you are allowing the heat to go along for the ride.  Leaking in or out, it’s all the same thing…a problem, that costs you over and over again.  I refer to it as paying for the same heat, or the removal of the same heat, more than once.  Why?

Seal up your house so you are living in a thermos bottle (later I’ll get to the next most important item once you have this condition…control) and your utility bills will drop like a rock.  And NO, it doesn’t have to cost more in construction costs to do this.  The answer to this is not to simply add energy-efficient things to the house and call it a day.  The answer is substituting what works for what doesn’t, and the net result in cost is usually a wash.  One of the reasons for this is because, if you really take the system approach, your substitutions should not only address the immediate decision, but also affect other systems as well.

My favorite example is something as simple as a choice in insulation products.  Do you go with a much better product in some type of blown-in or sprayed on product (this type of system eliminates drafts/leaks because it fits tight to the frame) or a poor product (bats/rolls don’t fit tight and they WILL leak) even though the better product costs more when you are comparing “apples to apples”?  Does it really cost more though?  Let’s look at this taking the System Approach.  The same R-Factor for both systems will have the blown/spray products costing more…for the product, but the effect of that decision will save money elsewhere.  Here’s how.

You can install the blown/spray product in a 2×4 wall, while you need to install the batt/roll product in a 2×6 wall to get the same R-factor.  Now you say the cost savings of going with a 2×4 wall vs. a 2×6 wall,  is negligable…and you’d be correct…but it gets better.  First, since the blown/spray product is tight and eliminates the air infiltration, it will also eliminate the need for the “paper air barrier”…which never gets put on correctly anyway so I’m not sure if it ever really functions the way it is supposed to.  Plus, and here’s the big one, since you don’t have 2×6 walls, there is no need fo extension jambs on all your openings.

This is only one of many examples, including the use of your basement as usable square footage (see previous post), of how by treating the house design as a system, instead of making one-on-one decisions, you can actually build an energy-efficient home and make it very cost-effective.  Not all of these examples will work for every design, but enough of them will to make this a very real objective.

I’ll tell you why.  It doesn’t feel as comfortable as the rest of the house.  Your basement is usually cold, dark, damp and smelly.  The only people who live down there are the kids when they play, or the teenagers when they want to rebel and don’t want to live with the rest of the family.  They’re now independent, or at least they are until it’s time to eat.

It doesn’t need to be this way.  With energy-efficient systems like ICF’s, PWF’s, concrete stud basements, light gauge steel framing and more, you can build a basement that feels as good, if not better, than the floors above it…and, save you money as well.  If you are building a foundation (basement) anyway, why not build it energy-efficient and eliminate part or all of your second floor?  The added cost to improve the basement is far less than the savings of an entire floor.  I’ve seen designs where this thought process has cut the overall cost per square foot by as much as 50%.  That’s not a typo.

One of my favorite examples involved a single lady that decided to build her own home.  The design was a 1400 sq ft 2 bedroom ranch on a lake that had a partial walkout.  What I mean by that is the grade really didn’t slope enough for a true walkout, but since she was only building one floor, I was able to elevate that 1st floor enough to get her about 8 ft to grade…thus a full walkout.  Now, her cost (this was back around 1995) to build the entire house was around $115/sq ft.  This included everything except finishing the basement.  If this is where she stopped, she would have had a 1400 sq ft 2 bedroom, 2 bath house with an unfinished walkout basement.

Here’s where the fun begins.  She then finished her basement, or about 1000 sq ft of her basement (the rest was for the furnace, etc…), which gave her 2400 sq ft of useable/livable space.  When you add the cost to finish the basement to the cost of the upstairs, the cost per sq ft dropped all the way to $70/sq ft.  This is the best way I know to make a home more cost-effective to build…and when you build your home with energy efficiency in mind, you win on all fronts.

So, what to do with this new found money?  Well, you can upgrade other areas of the house…like the kitchen or master bath, or add a fireplace or hardwood floors.  You could always just not spend it or invest it too.  The choices are your’s, but you now will have choices that you wouldn’t have had before.  You see, energy efficiency can be very cost-effective, with the right design decisions.

The Hand Drawn Problems

Hand drawn plans look great, right up to the time you start using them.  Once you start changing them, the condition of the plans begin to deteriorate…rapidly.  Between the smudges, double lines, fading, etc…, reading them becomes more than a challenge.  Add to this, the “mental math” that is used to calculate dimensions on the original drawing as well as after changes are made (make sure you catch all of the dimensions that need to be changed), and you have a set of drawings in the field that can cause more problems than you can handle.

Here is something else to consider.  When you use hand drawn plans, all distribution will be in the form of printed blueprints.  This adds to the overall cost of the project (it adds up fast) and time delays getting the revised plans to the field…in time…and, time is money too.

Now think about changes as they are made…and missed on the plans.  How many times have you made changes, big or small, and didn’t catch all of the drawings where these changes occurred?  I bet you missed just one, and that was the one that was followed in the field costing you all kinds of money and time to correct.

These are just a few of the problems that most builders encounter using hand drawn plans.  I’m sure you can add more to the list.  Now, how can we solve these problems?

The Digital Solution

Changes are not an issue.  Changed plans look just like the original in quality and readability.  The mental math that was brought up earlier is also not an issue since the software calculates all the dimensions for you…all of them.  No more missing a changed dimension and having that one used in the field by mistake.

Since the plans are all digital, you can print as many as you want/need, but also can e-mail .pdf files to the contractors and let them print them as needed.  In fact, you can send the digital file to you printer instead of having to hand deliver the originals to them for printing.  This is what I do.  Saves time and money.  This also allows you to keep as many originals as needed, this includes originals from previous dates.  Think about the possibilities.  For a developer that builds the same base plan over and over again in a subdivision, but for each house, the owner has chosen a different set of available options, you can have a complete set for each site.  No more using one master with partial drawings reflecting the different options, and hope the right options are built in the field.  Just deliver the complete set with the correct options drawn in for each lot and the cost overruns due to poor communication are eliminated.

The Retro Application

This info should help you decide to do all your new designs with digital media instead of hand drawn.  What about the plans you already have hand drawn and use regularly?  The answer is simple…Plan Conversion.  Let us take all your old hand drawn plans, and convert them to digital, and solve all the problems we’ve discussed above forever.  You’ll find the cost to convert the plans will be far less than the cost overruns resulting from the problems caused by the overused hand drawn plans you’re still using today.  We can also, as a package option, include 3D Renderings for presentation.

Instead of paying for hand drawn art to hand on the walls of your models, why not use digital art that can be generated directly from the digital plans reflecting not only the actual design, but the options offered as well.

When you consider the many uses, and cost savings you will experience using ourPlan Conversion and 3D Renderings for presentation  programs, individually or together, I think you’ll see how important is will be to make the change.  Contact us today to find out more.  I know it will be well worth your time.

These are the same techniques that are taught by Joe when he is the featured speaker at seminars focused on energy efficient home design and construction.  Keep in mind, it is very important that these techniques must be cost effective as well as energy efficient or they will never be implimented in the construction process.

Visit our Plan Catalog page on this site to review these plans, then use the form provided on that page to request information about the plan or plans that interest you.  Remember, I can customize these plans to your taste so keep that in mind as you review the plans provided.

Renderings can look like charcoal, pen & ink, watercolor or photographic.  See what the same view would look like using more than one media and chose the one that’s best for you.Change materials, colors and design and have these changes shown at little or no extra charge.Put the house right on the site using the topography provided or a background image you provide.  The more information you provide, the more detailed and exact the options that can be provided in the renderings.  Provide your clients with a better idea of what the house will look like.How frustrating is it to present a great design to your client only to have them not be able to “visualize” your concept seeing only the floor plan and elevations?  As a developer, how much easier would it be to sell a home if you could show each option, in color, on each model house?  These are only a couple of reasons I have found this technique a tool of full color renderings to be one of the best methods to get the design ideas across to my clients over the years.

What do you need to to provide?

All that is needed is an accurate dimensioned floor plan and elevations that I use to build the base that I use to generate these high quality renderings.  If you want the house placed on the actual site, as apposed to a generic “flat” site, I would need the site plan/topography with trees as needed as well…with the house located on the site.

If you are using this tool for your development, and you want to show all the material and design options, I would need those as well.  These can be in the form of any graphic file type (including samples from a supplier).  The more details you provide, the more details we can show.  As an example, changing from brick to siding on an elevation is a simple change.  I bet you never thought you’d hear someone say that before.

What would the house look like at night?

…turns into night.  Adjust the light selection and location to get better overall lighting effects.  Add lights in areas where more security might be needed.  Or, just provide something really cool that might put the client “over the top” in love with the design.  Presentation means so much…both before and after the contract is made with the client.

…and the Cost?

This is based on what is provided and what output you need.  The more information you can provide makes it easier for us to generate the end product.  The more options you need, the more work is needed…but, this doesn’t mean a big cost extra…or any at all, depending on the package.  One drawing vs. a series or package of drawings will also vary the cost.  We can generate a series of renderings using the exact same information as we would have used to generate just one rendering.  We just change the viewing angle and generate the new rendering.

What can do interiors as well.

If you want interiors done we can provide those as well.  The detailing is usually more involved so the cost is usually a little more, but you can request a package of interiors for a room and gain the same cost efficiency as mentioned above with respect to an exterior package.  Interiors are done on a room by room basis.  Since some rooms require other rooms in the background to be detailed, this may increase the cost for that series, but if that room in the background is to be part of another series request for that room, then there would be no cost increase due to the background.

 For more information you can contact Joe at joe@conceptsindesigns.com

Treat your House as a System

The cost?

Custom Plans from the Factory

As I stated above, you can have the factory build it from a custom plan too.  It can also be a great way to build a development.  Scheduling is not an issue since all the “open” construction is done in the factory. The speed factor plays a big role here too.  Order the plan, pick the elevation, send in the order and wait for it to be delivered to the site.  When it is delivered you just need to do the connections and install the hookups.  No more listening to your buyers complain about not having their house built yet, and you having to explain how the weather is affecting construction.  How about the positive impact on sales from the energy efficiency.

Size is Not an Issue

Size is not an obstacle either.  I have designed them as small as 900 square feet and as large as 6000 sq. ft.  Financing is not a problem either.  Most manufacturers have a financing source ready and willing.

Quality Controls in Place

Modular homes are highly engineered and all of the typical “rough” inspections are done in the factory.  In fact, these homes are built to meet or exceed local building codes.

Still not sure?  Go visit a factory.  Every manufacturer will allow you.. check that, will expect you to visit the factory to see the process in action.  Many will even let you watch your own home being built.

Check it out.  I know you won’t be sorry.  Just make sure you check out the manufacturers work before you have them build your homes.