At H.G.I. LLC, we breathe life into spaces with our unique design philosophy:

From custom home design to eclectic architecture, our world-class designers are committed to transforming your vision into beautifully designed realities.​

You are in the market for a home? Are confused regarding the changing interest rates from year to year, the amount you can afford to pay, the quality of the workmanship and materials delivered, and the processes involved in which your house gets built.

You also happen to desire a house with a specific purpose in mind: to live in, or to rent out. Do you want a large kitchen, or larger bedroom suites? 

Maybe it is a getaway house to be flipped and resold.

Regardless of the ideas of what you’d like doing so tactfully is key to delivering on that goal.

The standard process for building a home requires that one consults a design professional, gets permits, finds contractors, and then gets the logistical things taken care of from there.

Things move in a cause-and-effect relationship from one step to the next, with many sub-steps in between not listed. In many cases folks hire a team because the team/firm does everything in-house and this is done to avoid headaches, streamline operations, reduce costs and push for a more convenient experience for the client by integrating the roles of different individuals who bring with them to the table, a variety of expertise and diversity.

But what they forget is;

Each firm is different and does things quite differently. They are in different districts, with different skill levels, with different types of employees with different backgrounds all working behind the scenes to gather the materials and resources needed to deliver what you want for your house.

The problem is that for everything that you want, they must be able to skillfully deliver that to you. This means you are narrowing down your feasible candidates and this in turn might drive up your costs, headaches, disappointment levels, and have you signing on the dotted line away your future for another 30 years whilst you remain unhappy with your decision. 

How did this happen?

You weren’t truly in control of the process. And why not? Because you were told a lie: that you must find a one stop shop or a firm that’s been around forever to get anything trustworthy or good quality done. Here’s the problem though: 

Say you want to buy a house. This for many will be one of the most expensive purchases in their lifetime. Yet the irony is that people are often choosier with their car’s options, or their tv’s options, video game system’s options, furniture options, book choices, food choices, dating partner choices, school choices etc. than they are with their home or home design’s choices.​

Why?! Because it is more costly to have a firm that can give the consumer a peace of mind that they can take care of it all so that the consumer isn’t “overwhelmed” by choice.​

The problem is that the consumer sees a brochure which is the product of the corporate compromise: in this case the company has a pr or advertising budget of dedicated professionals that dress up the company to provide a certain service to the customer. This requires a portfolio of results and abilities that this full-service firm requires. And this in turn is based off the company’s vision and what it wishes to execute to pursue a profit and keep producing that service.

A company that’s been in business for awhile is dedicated to a certain market, a certain clientele, a certain pre-set number of appointments. They aren’t incognito by design, they aren’t treating the customer as a human, they throw at you many terms, bells, and whistles to distract you while they take your resources and prevent you from asking deeper questions or imploring about resources. It is built upon a system of divide and conquer.

And at the top of the traditional construction company is the notion that they are the experts and therefore are in charge. But they forget that the customer pays the bill, the customer incentivizes them to come out to work, and gives them their reputation. It isn’t the firm that comes first but the customer. How can a firm then execute the appropriate vision to its customers?

The values the firm must embody include honesty, integrity, transparency, free choice, and flexibility as best as possible. Therefore, the more a firm has its suppliers in the supply chain caught up in formal commitments, the more it is based upon certain social customs and traditions, the less it can focus its dollars on new methods, ideas, technologies that may increase the consumer’s bottom line and personal well-being, thereby treating the consumer as expendable. So, the smaller firm with fewer employees can therefore focus more time and attention to detail than a larger one with more name recognition can. And thereby are saying: it’s your hard-earned money, you deserve to be treated like royalty, not like we have the right to refuse service to anyone

In theory this sounds good, like it produces better quality. Yet if you pay for anything, shouldn’t you be in the driver’s seat?! Yes. And the more employees a firm has, the more the potential for drama and chaos that takes over, and less productive it might make that environment, the more shallow the conversations can become, and the maturity level and execution of the service may drop off into an abyss, meanwhile as a customer busy with your life they aren’t watching their contractors, stiffing them *you* and they aren’t researching the local feds to keep up with paperwork, as they have an assumed model that they stick with, not one of keeping up with change and dealing with reality. Who loses? The firm too big to care for, or you as a customer? You as a customer.

Typically, when you are shopping around for a house that isn’t already used, you try to locate a firm that will accept your credit, have designs within your budget and requirements and you try to be flexible and easy-going. However, what goes on behind the scenes is the same everywhere: the customer consults the design firm, that firm consults its in-house and out-house (contractors, including the permitting folks) to get the paperwork and project delivered, and this leaves you with a finished product: construction outcomes to then give you a price with compromising conditions.

In construction on each level, you have many variations: with customers you have those who know a lot but don’t have time, you have those with the opposite, you have those in between. Those with tighter credit and debit, and those with more.​

For firms you have them ranging from a general firm that provides a simple product, to something that can give you world-class execution, but charge you to the sky’s the limit without asking you about it, because they assume that you must be somebody to dare consult them *whatever. *

For subcontractors you have those starting out who might be the best in the business, and those who are older, you might have the opposite (more commonplace) and those who are quick learners, and those who aren’t. Some charge large fees for alternative designs, and others for basic designs. Some are established and settled, but this means they are normally slower to keep up with you, and those with more energy can continuously keep up with changes even if you wish them to slow down.

In terms of regulatory policy, you have districts which are simpler, and some which have layer upon layer of bureaucracy to them.​

And all these listed above affect construction outcomes. Not to mention weather, scheduling, delivery, manufacturing of these buildings. So how then, can you find someone who is reliable and trustworthy? 

Never look for a one-size fits all.

Find someone who can give you referrals.

Find someone or a firm who can give you comparisons to other firms in the area and beyond.

Look for passion in the eyes of whom you consult. If their body language, intonation, experience, qualifications, and ideas don’t align with what you want, then do not purchase.

Check groups if it’s a must.

Use your head, not just your heart.

Find out their mission, thought process and how their beliefs tie into their own mission to serve you as a customer your product/service.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Look for feedback.

Lastly, never, NEVER let a firm make you feel irrelevant when you buy something from them. If you do, and it isn’t an emergency purchase that is an absolute necessity atm, then do not let them make you feel guilty for being duped before. Do not let them take advantage of being ignorant about the process or what goes on behind the scenes!

If all this seems like a lot of work, it’s because it is. Homes must comply with numerous building codes and regulations, be climate/geography zone friendly (snow, rain, runoff, earthquakes, hurricanes etc.). They must deliver resale value, aesthetic appeal, be a place you want to live, and they cost lots of money (six figures plus). Why spend any time with a person who isn’t sensitive to the enormous amount of information they must be willing to learn? If they aren’t good learners or listeners, nor willing to learn as they go, just as you do, then they aren’t there with you on the journey to give you a nice home, they are there to jump to the result and move onto the next customer.​

Is this someone you want to spend six figures, or more on designing, let alone erecting a building with?

All that time, work, money, sweat, anger, sadness, perseverance needed to gather the monies to finance this and qualify to get credit for it as well. Because nobody controls it all, so pick someone who is knowledgeable, passionate, truly involved in their work and always willing to think outside the box to give you a better option, and has no personal ties to it, just is willing to be efficient for your own sake. No.​

So please, whatever you do, use context to shop around for a structure and don’t do business with anyone with a divide and conquer strategy, only do so with someone who is more holistic and open to your needs and go outside the box to get the job done. It is always worth it because you are worth it!

Services provided: 1. Drawing floorplans for customers on demand for residential and commercial. 2. Selling floorplans online.

Areas Served: 1. Online: global 2. In public: Eastern Panhandle of WV and Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area