When I was working with a package company, we would take great delight in introducing prospective customers to previous clients, who took great delight in showing off their new homes. I’m surprised that this is proving to be so difficult. You don’t say which package companies you are dealing with but try the likes of Design & Materials, Potton or Oakwrights, who would have no problem with providing references and introductions to past clients and can give many examples of the beautiful new homes they have facilitated.

Mike Hardwick (Build it expert)

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply. Without being too specific, it is one of the companies you have mentioned, and they seem to divide this into 3 sections:
1 – References to talk to previous clients
2 – Opportunity to see a build in progress
3 – Opportunity to view an almost-completed / completed build

It is number 3 that seems to be the sticky point, as they have mentioned that clients don’t like to have people visiting their property, which I can understand, but it does seem the opposite to your comments. Am I being too fussy in trying to request all 3 points above?

I’ve had another company allow me to view an almost-complete build (3) but refuse to give any references of previous clients (1). I found this alarming.

P.S. I really enjoyed your taster session at the NSBRC show last month!

Hi aims,

If you’re already getting (1) and (2) from the above list and have the opportunity to speak to the owners in both cases, then you should be able to gain a good impression of how the company operates.

One of the issues with point (3) will be timing. If you’ve gone to one of the smaller package companies, for instance, they may not actually have a build at that exact stage to be able to show you. And as you’ve already mentioned, sometimes owners just don’t want other people snooping around their build. In such cases the company’s hands are tied!

I guess the big question is what do you hope to achieve with option (3) that you can’t get from a combination of (1) and (2)?

Chris (Build It editor)

Hello,

At The Wee House Company we invite customers to visit our workshop to see their house being built, this is a great experience for them to see `behind the scenes’ and to build up more trust. We prefer not to ask customers, who have moved into their homes, to show people around simply because people are busy and they possibly don’t wish the intrusion. All testimonials on our website are genuine and we have a show home (open by appointment). Some prospect customers phone and speak to people who have gone through the self-build experience with us, and are more than satisfied with the feedback they get.

We are a family owned company set-up by Jennifer Higgins in 2013 with the support of Ian Hope from Hope Homes. If you are interested, please visit The Wee House Company website

Many thanks, Louise