When it comes to building a new home, home buyers are discovering what professional boxers have known for years: it’s best to have someone in your corner.
While building your dream home can be exhilarating, it can also be exhausting. From consult to completion, buyers need answers from multiple contacts to hundreds of questions: Is my lender on board? Can my floor plan be modified? Is the project on schedule? What can I upgrade? And most importantly, Am I within my budget?
Now, thanks to a new process created by Rodrock Homes, home buyers can get timely answers to these questions and more from a single point of contact dedicated exclusively to their needs: a Rodrock Homes’ builder liaison.
“We are buyers’ control central,” explains Jana Goff, who recently took on the role of builder liaison after working in the company’s home warranty division.
“In new construction there are lots of decisions and parties involved. Homeowners appreciate that we’re that single point of contact coordinating things for them throughout the process,” Goff says. “It helps to keep their stress level low.”
Rodrock Homes CEO Brian Rodrock agrees. “Building your dream home makes for one of the most exciting and busy times of your life,” says Rodrock, who sees the liaisons as a natural next-step in his company’s commitment to put clients first. “They’re like personal concierges—they save our homeowners time, energy, and give them peace of mind.”
From paint colors to punch lists and floor plans to final paperwork, liaisons field questions, coordinate solutions, and deliver answers and updates to clients round the clock.
New homeowner Lynn Moddelmog credits Rodrock Homes’ liaison Karen Pritchard with making her homebuilding experience the best one yet.
“This is our fourth build job,” says Moddelmog, who, as an out-of-town buyer, appreciated the individualized attention she received from the company while building her home from a distance.
“This time building was so much easier because Rodrock Homes is really on top of things,” says the homeowner. “I felt like I could always reach someone and get an answer back, so mistakes didn’t happen and things stayed on time.”
In addition to the project managers that most builders provide their clients, the company’s dedicated liaisons work to ensure that a client’s vision translates accurately and efficiently into the home of their dreams.
Chief Operating Officer Jeff Gifford says the idea for the liaisons evolved over time as his company began building more highly customized homes than ever before.
“It’s not unusual for us to change floor plans, elevations, or build something entirely new at a homeowner’s request,” says Gifford. “The liaisons help facilitate all of these things to match our client’s vision.”
From initial consultation to closing, liaisons help homeowners navigate a myriad of tasks. They coordinate contract completion with buyers’ agents and lenders, help clients select and modify floor plans, provide pricing and documentation for upgrade requests, track change orders and construction schedules, update homeowners on budget, and chase down solutions to any issues that arise.
“Anytime we sent an email to Karen we got an answer right back,” says Courtney Talcott, a repeat client who is building her second home with Rodrock, this time in Overland Park’s Wyngate community.
“Karen has been great with helping us get pricing and place special orders,” says Talcott. “She always gets back to us quickly and lays out all the options.”
Homebuyers love that Rodrock Homes offers not only lots of options, but also an expert to help them navigate those choices.
“Our last builder wasn’t interested in modifying our house plan,” says Shefali Rouen, who will move into her new home in Overland Park’s Bluestem community early this fall. “Rodrock has given us great personal attention, taken change requests in stride, and met with us often to get our design just right.”
Liaisons also shepherd home buyers through Rodrock’s Custom Experience, an innovative program where clients can choose custom cabinetry, millwork, tile, paint and faux finishes, lighting fixtures, fabrics, and even furniture–all with the help of experts from Kansas City’s award-winning interior design firm, Twigs Interiors.
“We loved working with the Twigs’ designers,” says Rouen. “They were fantastic.”
Even after designs are chosen, liaisons follow-up to ensure that plans are executed according to budget and exactly as their clients’ envision.
“Karen was great about checking the paperwork against what was actually going on in the house,” says Moddelmog. “Carpet, trim, if anything didn’t match up, she took care of it.”
For Rodrock’s liaisons, taking care of homebuyers is what it’s all about.
“I love getting to know our clients, really spending time with them to make sure everything goes smoothly for them,” says Pritchard, who’s about to complete her seventh year working for the company.
Fellow liaison Jana Goff agrees. “It’s great at closing to see everything come to fruition. You see the happiness in the customer’s eyes because this is their home, it’s personal to them,” says Goff.
Personal too is the relationship that develops between homebuyers, the liaisons, and the rest of the Rodrock Homes team.
“We get a lot of repeat clients, so we get to share in their lives as both their families and their homes grow and change. That makes this a really great job,” says Goff.
