What Is a Change Order?

Building a custom home means having it your way. We want you to feel as though every detail of your new custom home was constructed to fit your family’s individual needs and personality. The design process for a custom home involves making a lot of exciting decisions. But, what if you change your mind? As an award-winning custom home builder in San Antonio, Weston Dean Custom Homes has a smooth process for adapting to change orders that helps us stay flexible. More importantly, we have a thorough and careful planning process that will leave you feeling confident in every choice you make for your custom home.

• A change order is an agreement between the builder and client outlining a change being made to the original construction contract.
• Change orders will often affect the timeframe for construction and the cost of your home, sometimes significantly.
• The best way to deal with change orders is to prevent them in the first place, through a thorough and transparent design process.

Our goal from your first meeting with us to your move-in day is to run a transparent and streamlined process of design and construction. This attitude is reflected in our change order process. First of all, we can process change orders electronically. That is to say, we do it quickly. You can immediately see how the change order would affect the time and cost of your project. A quick and easy change order process is important not just for the sake of convenience, but because a design change can become a lot more costly if it’s made later in the process. Transparency is essential when it comes to change orders because as a buyer you want to understand how the change is affecting your project and to what degree. We want to be on the same page as you before that change order is set in stone because the last thing anyone wants is to regret a change order. 

Ultimately, all parties would like to minimize unexpected costs and delays. In the early stages of our service, you’ll be impressed with just how detailed our cost estimates are. Down to the smallest detail, you’ll know and understand the cost of your custom home. Similarly, there’ll be no surprises should you need to submit a change order.

To be clear, a lot of change orders can have relatively little impact on the price or timeline of your home. If you make minor design changes while the foundation is still being poured, that’s not nearly as substantial as, say, adding an additional room to the floorplan. Perhaps in a perfect world, no one would need any change orders for their home. But that’s just not realistic. And that would be a lot of pressure, trying to make dozens of design decisions, thinking that you’re stuck with them for life. 

At Weston Dean Custom Homes, we want you to be confident in the design choices you make, but also to know that we’ve got your back when you have a change in taste or a change of heart. Change orders are simply a part of the construction process, and when you handle them smoothly and transparently, everyone can be satisfied. 

Reach out to us to schedule an appointment, or learn more about the process behind designing a custom home. It’s an enjoyable journey, and Weston Dean Custom Homes is the custom home builder in San Antonio for you.