For a remodeling company based in Kirkwood, MO it is out of the ordinary to be preparing to build a 4200 square foot custom home 45 miles away in New Melle, MO.
Bill Riggs, vice president and “top gun” sales person for RIGGS Company & Design met with these potential clients that wanted to remodel their existing home. He met with them for over two hours and listened to what their dreams and desires were, did some measuring and began our process of putting together a design and rough estimate for the project. Somewhere during this process, he realized that the home they were currently living in would never suit their desires even with an extensive makeover.
That is the “out of the ordinary” part of this story. We here at RIGGS pride ourselves in our ability to design and build a project that will fulfill all of our client’s dreams. But we just couldn’t make this one work! It would have been a rather expensive project and Bill hated to give that up but he also felt that in the end, these potential clients wouldn’t have their dream home no matter what we did.
It seems that these clients had some of those same feelings and called Bill to get his opinion on the remodeling process. He felt he had to be honest and told them that it was in their best interest to build a new home that would better suit their dream.
Imagine his surprise when they decided that they would build a new home on their ten acre property and they wanted RIGGS to build it! Apparently, they were so impressed by Bill’s honesty and commitment to them as clients that they knew instinctively that he was the builder they wanted to use for this project. They established a budget range and the Design Agreement process of choosing an architect, shopping for selections, cabinet design and picking the exterior finishes such as brick, stone and windows began shortly thereafter.
Although all the decisions aren’t complete just yet, we expect that by the end of August, Glantz and Associates will start the final construction drawings. The bidding process has begun for many of the trades based on Glantz’s excellent preliminary plans and once the final construction documents are complete, the remaining trades and suppliers will be able to quote the detailed work. By mid to late September construction should begin and the project will be completed around six months from then.
It’s neither the first time this remodeling company has built a new custom home nor will it be the last. What makes this so unique is that in being honest and giving a major renovation on a home, we gained the trust from our clients necessary for them to use us on the construction of a million dollar custom home.
Kudos to Bill Riggs for keeping our mission and vision in focus even during these tough economic times. It just goes to prove that not lowering your standards and keeping your client’s interests above all else is the right business model regardless of what’s going on around you.
I’ll keep you updated on this project as things progress!
