Our clients hire us to build their custom dream homes. For most people, a home is the single most expensive thing they will ever buy. The stakes in these projects are very high. Fortunately, Dotty Brothers has been following our design/build process in the Brainerd Lakes area for over 30 years. And one of the things we’ve figured out over all that time is that clear, open, regular communication with our clients is critical. To make that happen, we rely on a program called Buildertrend.
When we started building and remodeling homes, there simply wasn’t a communication platform like Buildertrend. Heck, even personal email communication was just starting to gain widespread use, and what existed wasn’t very useful for our purposes. If clients wanted to know how their home was progressing, they had to call us or visit the job site in person. While we always prioritized client communication, it was a challenge, and it was limited by the available technology. Those early clients would hardly recognize the changes in how we communicate now.
Buildertrend is an all-in-one construction management software that we’ve been using since around 2014. For our clients, it’s a portal to all of their job information. They can see the construction schedule, read daily logs, even see progress photos or videos. It’s a real win-win: our clients have all the information about the job at their fingertips, and it’s easy for us to keep them in the loop, but still keep our focus on the job itself.
One big plus is that Buildertrend helps us track change orders (which is what we call it when a customer decides to change some aspect of the project). This can be small, like what color or type of switch plates to use, but it can also be large, like adding a set of French doors, or changing a floor plan, or adding a bathroom. Change orders used to be a potential source of contention or confusion, but now it’s all recorded and easy to see.
In addition to tracking the progress of each custom dream home, we use Buildertrend for internal communication and scheduling.
Building a house requires some complex scheduling: heavy equipment operators, masons, framing carpenters, HVAC installers, electricians, plumbers, drywallers, painters, finish carpenters, tile setters, etc. And some of those people have to come back to the house at different stages: rough-in plumbing and electrical, for instance, has to be done before any drywall is installed, but actually installing lights and switches and plumbing fixtures happens near the very end of the build.
Trying to manage all of these different subcontractors’ schedules across multiple projects can be daunting. But that’s all gotten easier with Buildertrend. We can schedule everyone, track progress, and more efficiently schedule the work. And a curious homeowner can log in and see what’s happening at their dream home on any given day.
We also use Buildertrend to manage payments across the project. We create bids, estimates, purchase orders, bills, invoices, even track project financing. It’s a very useful tool that collects a whole bunch of information that used to require several different processes. It also makes for a much smoother communication process for our clients, who can monitor the progress of their home from wherever they are.
Clear communication is the best way to keep everyone informed, on the same page, and manage expectations. If you’re ready to start talking about building your custom dream home and want to be able to closely monitor every aspect of the project, contact us at dottybrothers.com.
