How to Avoid Costly Mistakes When Designing and Building a New Home

Show Notes:

Thinking about building your first home as an owner‑builder and worried about making expensive mistakes? This episode walks through the most common traps first‑timers fall into and how to avoid them with smart planning. Steve explains that most “mistakes” are really just lack of upfront thinking: not understanding soil and septic realities, misjudging slopes, ignoring flood zones, assuming utilities are cheap and close, or choosing complex rooflines, too many corners, and tall ceilings that quietly drive costs way up. He shows how a complete, well‑thought‑out plan set forces you to decide on things like heating system, window types, electrical layout and deck size before you build, which prevents change orders, delays, and budget blowouts later. You’ll hear why picking the right partners (engineers, surveyors, subs, material suppliers) matters more than chasing the cheapest bid, how to approach permits when zoning, building, planning, public works and HOAs all have different requirements, and how Landmark helps owner‑builders identify site‑specific issues like geotechnical needs and base flood elevations early so the home is designed right for the land from day one. into a confident, funded, line‑item budget.

Transcript:

Steve Tuma: So in a sense, what could be considered a mistake is really lack of planning or understanding. You minimize those mistakes by thinking things through.

Interviewer: Hi everyone, and welcome to Episode 77 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

With me today, as expected, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company — the company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993 — Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you doing, sir?

Steve Tuma: Doing great. Again, another great homebuilding day.

Interviewer: That’s good.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, and another one expected tomorrow.

Interviewer: I thought we’d do a slight curveball here and talk about first‑time homeowner‑builders and the mistakes that they make — and exactly how Landmark can kind of help them get past those mistakes.

And I would imagine that’s usually people who have done a lot of work toward their house before they give you guys a call — but maybe afterwards, after they’ve talked to you.

What are some of the first‑time homeowner‑builder mistakes that people make?

Steve Tuma: Well, fortunately, we’re able to catch them before they really happen.

One thing that we do is we spend a lot of time making sure that our plans are drawn right. So we avoid the issues and minimize mistakes — or just things where you go, “Uh oh” — by making sure that the house is planned properly. Not just the floor plan and the bathrooms and stuff, but:

The look of the house
The roof design
The foundation design
How it sits on the actual property they’re building on
Driveways and other concerns like that

Because what this does — by talking about it up front — is it leads you to a point where you think about it.

So in a sense, what could be considered a mistake is really lack of planning or understanding. So if we work up front to say:

“Hey, what kind of a heating system?”
“Are you going to go mini‑split?”
“Are you going to have a wood burner in there?”
“Are you going to have a conventional HVAC?”
“Are you going to have heat pumps?”

It leads people to think about it. So when you think about the different items, you can then go through and plan it into the home properly.

And since our main thrust is to have a complete and accurate set of plans, you minimize those mistakes by:

Thinking things through
Understanding the ground condition
Understanding the right foundation
Understanding the right roofing system
Understanding the right kitchen cabinets

You minimize the risk of something not being thought out.

So that’s what we always tell people. It’s kind of an education system of working together with people, where we can go through and bring topics up that people don’t think about.

Because in general, when people are thinking about their house, it’s always the fun stuff:

“Hey, what’s the kitchen going to look like?”
“What’s the garage like? I want to put my hot rod in there.”
“Hey, what are we doing in the family room?”

Well, there are some things that are exciting, but maybe not as exciting as figuring out your family room or your rec room, but:

“Hey, where do you want electric sockets?”
“Do you want ceiling fans?”
“How big do you want your deck?”

Different things like that.

So by going through the planning stages, and our support through there, I think it gets people where they think about it.

I think owner‑builders in general are just naturally curious people that want to build their house. Part of doing it is just the life experience — and also learning about it and building the house that you want. That’s the key thing to it.

And that’s the part that’s really, really important and valuable — taking the time to enjoy the process of properly designing a home.

We’ve done some homes that are very simple that still need some thought. We’ve done some extremely complex homes where the level of thinking for the design or the features of it just get to be a little bit deeper.

So I don’t necessarily want to say that there are big mistakes — it’s just lack of planning.

Interviewer: Yeah, but you’re talking about one of the things you guys do at Landmark — you help a customer understand the overall project. And people can go into a project and think they understand the overall, but there’s really a lot that they don’t quite get yet.

Steve Tuma: Right. And that’s the thing, because in general, if you go somewhere and say, “Hey, I need windows,” they’ll be like, “Well, we suggest this manufacturer, this model,” but you don’t necessarily know why. Is it:

A cost thing?
Availability?
The salesman gets a bigger commission?

What’s the reason?

So it’s always good to have an understanding of what’s going on. Now, customers can get as deep as they choose, but we’re here if they need a little guidance on, “Hey, where do I start?”

And by us having a good, well‑thought‑out set of plans, that’s the information that they need to then go to suppliers and get the accurate information so they can make a decision for themselves.

It’s actually pretty cool. We work with all different types of customers. People can look at our reviews and see that there are excellent, A‑plus reviews of people saying that our level of support is exceptional. And I think that that’s just as important as the plans and the actual panelized home package. It’s a one‑stop shop.

Interviewer: So I’m thinking back on what you just said, and it’s understanding the overall — but people aren’t going to understand that.

I mean, are there any pitfalls that you want people to know about? When you first talk to somebody and you hear about what their ideas are, do you see pitfalls as well as the positives in everything?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. And generally what I tell people — in my own projects, it’s kind of funny — the biggest “uh‑oh” moments have always had to do with something that touches dirt.

Because just by walking on a piece of land, if it’s a situation where you have a septic, you can’t just say, “Hey, I’m going to put it here.” By chance it may go there, but generally you have to have a soils test done for the septic to see where it’ll be put.

So someone could say, “Hey, I want my septic over here,” but for some reason the ground conditions might be different and it needs to be put over there.

Different things like: where are the utilities? Just because someone tells you that the utilities are available doesn’t mean that they’re right in front of y...