Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show

A: Being a successful owner-builder requires an honest self-assessment of your organizational skills, stress tolerance, and willingness to manage subcontractors. Rather than physically performing specialized construction trades yourself, managing the build as a project coordinator with clear plans and realistic schedules allows you to control the timeline without overwhelming your daily life.

A: Decision fatigue is minimized by making the vast majority of choices—such as structural designs, window specifications, siding, and mechanical layouts—during the initial architectural design phase. Having a complete, well-engineered set of blueprints upfront spreads your decision-making over time, leaving you only to execute a well-thought-out plan during active construction.

A: Bank draw schedules dictate when funds are released during construction, which can impact your cash flow if a lender’s arbitrary “percentage of completion” metrics do not align with actual job-site costs. You must review bank draw terms early to ensure funds cover upfront deposits for long-lead items like custom windows or cabinetry before work begins.

A: Subcontractors prioritize owner-builders who present complete, permit-ready blueprints, a clear building site, verified financing, and a realistic construction timeline. Demonstrating that you are organized and prepared proves there is a clear path to getting the job done and getting paid, leading to faster bids and reliable scheduling.

A: The final 10 percent of construction feels slow because major visual milestones like excavation and framing are replaced by subtle detail work like trim, painting, and fixture installation. High anticipation near the finish line distorts perception, making fine-detail punch-list items feel longer even though significant progress is occurring.

Steve Tuma: You just have to methodically put it into a process that’s realistic so that you can achieve the milestones and, and move forward.

Host: Hey everyone, and welcome to Episode 91 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today, as he has been for the past 91 straight episodes of the podcast, is the President and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a 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 you doing, buddy?

Steve Tuma: I’m doing great. You know, it’s another time to do another podcast, and I think we’ve got a variety of different topics that we’ve never really even gone over before. So this should be a, should be a good one. 91 of them. A lot of cool information, and now we’ve got even more information.

Host: We have, um, we have gone over a few of these briefly in the past, but I, I still think that the, this, these are, uh, these are concerns and questions that I don’t think have we’ve brought up nearly enough. Questions that no one ever thinks to ask when it comes to home owner builders show. So if you’re good with that, why don’t we just get started?

Steve Tuma: Sounds good. Let’s do it.

Host: Fantastic. Okay, let’s start with a fairly obvious let, yet rarely addressed question, one that should be obvious, of course, but for some reason, even though it’s of utmost importance in my opinion, and that is, uh, do I actually have the temperament for this? In other words, should people thinking of building their own, uh, their own home do, do an honest self-assessment of the time involved, the stress tolerance that they’ll need, the decision-making stamina, all that stuff? Should, should that, um, self-assessment happen before anyone even orders a package or looks at plans? And would doing, would doing all that, and answering those questions within one’s own mind, um, predict a, a project outcome as, as, you know, like plans or say the budget even? Would that predict, predict, uh, any sort of success if you dig deep and look inward to yourself before starting a project?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s interesting, um, our, our customers are very successful in building their home, and I think a lot of them think about it. It’s not something where they just wake up some morning and say, “Hey, I want to be an owner-builder.” It’s been in their mind for a while. They’ve researched it. Maybe it’s been in their mind their whole adult life, that it’s something that they want to do. So a, lot of, a lot of people, uh, they’ll come to us and they’re, they’re pretty much ready to go, but sometimes I sense something in people where they’re trying to sort things out or figure out a path on how to make something like this work. And they’ll say, “Hey, what work do I have to do? What work don’t, don’t I have to do?” And it really gets varied by someone’s skill.

So if someone wants to be very involved, and we’ve had families that do that, you know, they’ve got friends and relatives in all the trades, and they could literally do everything, you know, a direct relationships they have. And other people are more managers of the process. Uh, so then they hire other people to do it. So my, my opinion on something like that is people should just be honest with themselves and understand what they choose to do. We never suggest that someone does, you know, a trade that they’re not familiar with. It just, it, you know, the trades, there’s a skill to it, there’s experience that’s involved, and a certain aptitude to do it.

So my suggestion to control the stress and understand what’s going on with home building is, is to be honest with yourself and say, “Hey, I’m good at managing, so let’s leave it at that. I’ll get a bunch of subcontractors and coordinate it.” Or other people say, “Hey, I’m good at managing, but I can do drywall, painting, and trim.” So they, they do the part that’s there. Um, so I would th, I, I believe, and this is kind of just a life thing, if, if you’re honest with yourself and schedule things properly and have a, a good schedule on how you’re going to build, have the finances in line, it greatly limits the, uh, the, the, the stress.

Now, obviously, you’re making a lot of decisions, you’re building a home, so things can be stressful at times, but, you know, to a certain degree, that’s life. You know, you get up in the morning, you go out and your car’s a flat tire, it’s kind of a little bit of a curveball. So what, what I always tell people is just understand the process. And that’s how working with us to, to really work through your project, understand your project, get a real set of plans from us so that you can then go through and have a strong understanding of your project, that really helps control the stress, because people have a thought-out plan, they know what they’re going to build, they work on their budget, they work on the schedule, and it comes together better.

The people that kind of haphazardly do things, um, yeah, it gets a little more stressful. Luckily, we don’t have a lot of people like that, because the process we work with the customers is thinking the, the, the project through, thinking the plans through, thinking the scheduling through. So a lot of it, just the nature of our process at Landmark, uh, with our panelized homes, is sets people up for it. So I’m sure there’s times where things get a little funky, and people are always welcome to call us and say, “Hey, Steve, I just got this call,” or, “Hey, we excavated and it rained,” or, “Hey, you know, something happened in the schedule, the HVAC guy can’t show up when he, when he scheduled. Um, you know, how does this affect the rest of my, the, you know, the domino effect of the follow-up people?”

So we’re always available to help, but yes, people, you know, to answer the question, yes, people should have an understanding of what they do, what they’re planning on doing, the, the what’s necessary to build a house. It’s not for everyone, but the ones that do it, it’s, it’s very rewarding, and I, I think they’re, they’re happy to do it. Um, but yes, you have to understand what you’re doing. It’s a big project. It’s kind of a long-haul project, you know, it takes a little while to design it, then there’s actual building phases, and some people build a house in 3 to 6 months, other people take 6 to 9 months, other people intentionally choose to spread it over a little bit of time just because they want to avoid banks, and they want to do it out of pocket, or, you know, as, as money comes in.

So to me, the management of the stress is understanding and acknowledging what you’re doing, developing a solid and realistic plan, and then executing it, and then dealing with it, you know, step by step. Um, you know, and if, if, if there are one of those days where, hey, you know, things just aren’t coming into play, you know, like I joke with people, how do you eat an elephant? It’s, it’s one bite at a time. It’s not one big gulp. So prioritize the situations, move forward and, and go with it, and what I’ve found is the customers that understand it, you know, take the time to think it through, and then work with good subcontractors and suppliers, uh, there, there are ups and downs in the process, but they enjoy it, and the end result is, is a beautiful home.

So it’s just like anything else, if, if you said, “Hey, I’m, I’m going to drive from New York to Los Angeles,” and you just randomly pick a road, yeah, it’s going to be a little more stressful than if you said, “Hey, I’m going to take this highway to that highway to this highway,” and go through. So, uh, it, it can be done, and, and we’re here to help people. If, if someone has questions of how to do things, we’re, we’re always available to talk to the people to, to review items of their project so that they have something that makes a lot of sense. So, uh, no. But it, it’s cool, it’s rewarding.

Host: Yeah, I mean, if you’re not careful with, you know, your own, uh, ability to, to handle stress and to handle timelines and everything, it can take a relationship on you, but also on your family, you know? It’s just the way it is.

Steve Tuma: Right, but, uh, a lot of people when they manage it, they, they understand it. Getting a home, you know, it’s not, it’s not like they woke up one day and said, “Hey, let’s just do it.” They’ve been thinking about it. They’ve been planning through it. They’ve been getting the financing, the schedules. They’re, they’re working around it, so our customer base, we’ve got a, a great group of customers, and they understand the process, and they, they work with it. It’s like, hey, they, they have their job, their regular life, their family, their hobbies, whatever, and they, they navigate through it. So yes, for a certain amount of time, building a house is going to be a, a big part of their, their life. But then when you consider when it’s done, you know, the enjoyment out of it for as long as they live at the home is, is exceptional.

So I, I think it’s just like anything in life, you know, hey, you get a, a new puppy. That sounds exciting, but it’s a puppy. You know, you got to train it, you got to, you know, do all the things. So, um, you know, you have to understand what you’re, what you’re dealing with, and it’s a kind of the same situation with a home, and if you have a plan that’s sensible, you’re honest with yourself, and you methodically work through the processes, I think it’s a situation where the, the family can enjoy it. We just delivered a house, um, a day ago, and, and, um, the grandfather’s putting an ADU on there so when the family comes over, it’s there. So he’s out there with his grandkids, you know, seeing the delivery, getting the contractors out there, getting it going. So you, you can say, “Hey, it’s a lot of work to do it,” but what’s the value of your kids seeing this? You know, whether your kid’s 5, just, you know, the enjoyment of big trucks and sounds, or, or it’s someone 12, 14, 20, you know, seeing the management of a, of a process like this. It’s kind of a cool life event, but yes, it has to be managed properly and understood what you’re doing.

Host: Yeah. But even when you get, uh, when you’re able to handle, we keep talking about stress, and, you know, that can be a thing, but I mean, it’s, you know, like you just said, if somebody, somebody’s been thinking about building a house, they’ve, they’ve already put a lot of the, the stress management in, into slotted it into the project. But there’s, you know, lots of decisions to be made in the whole, uh, that, um, you know, catch phrase “decision fatigue” can really happen. And, and what do you recommend to people, how they deal with that?

Steve Tuma: Well, what I look at decision fatigue, it’s, you know, people can make decisions, they’re making decisions every day, what coffee to have, you know, what side of the bed they’re waking up on, are they going to exercise, are they going to eat popcorn, what movie are they going to watch. So it’s more of a situation I think of the stressors, maybe a few things hitting at one time, where it’s like, “Oh, which way do I go? What do I have to do with this?” Or maybe not understanding the process. So somehow it makes a typical decision a, a little bit more, uh, a little harder to go through. So what we tell people, just like I mentioned about eating an elephant, you don’t do it in one gulp, you do it in, in bites, you, you prioritize the situation.

So if there are situations where suddenly you, you see, “Hey, this happened, this happened, and something else happened,” you got to prioritize how to deal with that. And I’m sure that people do that every single day in their own life. This is just the application of that same thought process for a house instead of your job or your family life or your hobby or your second job, or whatever it might be. So, um, you know, and sometimes I tell people, hey, if it’s one of those days, just like in your regular life, if it’s just one of those days, maybe take the afternoon off, get a good night’s sleep, hit it fresh and rock and roll in the morning, and, and it goes through.

So what, what’s interesting about this is a lot of people have asked me about this, but if, if people were to hear the, the conversations, the customers are actually energized because they’re choosing to do this and there’s a great benefit to them building their house. You know, it’s, it’s a personal choice, the financial gains out of it, the quality of it, the getting the house that they want. So this isn’t, I don’t want to put like a negative spin to this. It’s, it’s a lot of, a lot of stuff going on because there’s a very positive end to this. You get a new home, you know, with equity in there.

Host: That’s a bit of a perk.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, yeah, so, so in a sense, it, you know, I, I kind of look at it as a kid in a candy store thing. “Hey, do I get the chocolate bar, the caramel bar, the peanut butter bar?” You know, it’s kind of like, so at a certain point, you’ve got to make decisions and, and properly, uh, move forward. But what I, what I think happens is, uh, during our planning phases, uh, there’s a lot of decisions that are made. “Hey, do you want a recess shower? Do you want a tub-shower combo? Do you want a tub with a separate shower?” You know, what, what kind of siding, what kind of roofing, what kind of heating system, what kind of flooring?

So a lot of those during the design phase, those decisions are being made. So once you have a clear set of plans and you’re, you’re accurate with yourself, you, you spread the decisions over time, you know, mainly in the design phase, and then when you’re actually building, then you’re just executing your well-thought-out process. So that’s one of the benefits of our, our process, is working with customers to understand their project. This isn’t something like you would just go to lumberyard and say, “Hey, let’s go buy a bunch of wood and nail it together and hope it turns into a house.” We’re spending a lot of time with people, as I’m sure they’ve heard in our prior podcast, going through the process of designing the home, make sure it fits on the land, make sure structurally it’s sound, energy codes are right, it’s the design the customer wants, it’s, it’s a sensible design.

So through that process, I think people get pretty energized to say, “Hey, I’ve, I’ve done, I got this.” You know, I’m, let, let’s, let’s get building. So it’s, uh, it, it’s a lot going on, and if it is a customer’s first time, well, we’re always available, but it’s, it’s kind of interesting, the people call and say, “Hey, Steve, this is great.” Compliment to us is they’re like, “Hey, we really appreciate it. We thought we were just buying a panelized home, but it’s really been the relationship and the knowledge and the support we supply that has really made life a lot easier for them.” So at Landmark, we supply a lot more than just the panelized home package, it’s customer support, customer service, answering questions, providing guidance, and that is, is the, uh, the very important part of what we do, and I think why customers really enjoy working with us. It’s, it’s a lot more than just buying material.

Host: You know, and people get in the middle of a project, and, and money can become tight, or it can become, you know, just problematic. Cash flow timing, that’s, that’s something that I think people run into a lot. What, what would be your advice on how to, to manage your cash flow, um, and how it comes into the project, because it’s, it’s definitely not just financing we’re talking about.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, the, the interesting thing about that is, um, when customers work with us for the plans, they have a good set of plans, they’ve thought about these issues, so they’re able to get accurate budget numbers to create an accurate budget and move forward. Now, sometimes things happen, but the point that you’re bringing up here is cash flow, which is basically the timing of the money, it’s not just the availability of the money. Right.

So where this really comes into play, and people don’t realize, is when they work with banks. Uh, banks, each of them might be a little different, in general, they’re the same, they give a construction loan, which is when they put money out to you to build the house. The end mortgage is when you pay that back over, over whatever time you’ve worked with them. So where sometimes I tell people when they’re working with a bank, it’s not just, “Hey,” you know, “get a draw when they choose to give it to you,” have an understanding of what those draws are to cover.

And the main reason being, is some banks do a quote “percentage of completion,” where somehow the banks think that they can go through and say, “Hey, the foundation’s 20%, the framing’s 25%,” whatever it is, they have these arbitrary percentages which may or may not line up with your project. Right. So what I tell people is you have to have an understanding if they are going to do a percentage of completion, actually look at that to see what they expect to cover within a percentage of completion. So for easy money, easy calculations, if you had $100,000 project, and they say 20, 20% is for excavation and foundation, in theory, your excavation foundation should be $20,000. Now, hey, if it’s only 14, maybe you’re a little money ahead, but if it’s 23, you’re 3,000 behind.

So that’s, that’s what I tell people what it is, because a lot of banks are very flexible, some of them just give people the money as they need it, they disperse it, others there’s, um, a percentage of completion, others it’s by line item.

So with a line item, they’re able to go through and say, “Hey, we did these five processes according to our budget, these five processes are a certain amount of money, that money gets dispersed and it goes forward.” So that’s one of those things that people don’t think about, because a lot of banks will say, “Oh, we’ll get you money when you need it,” and I’m like, “Well, that’s great. What does that mean?” Right. What does that mean? Is it the, the money that’s necessary? So getting you money, you say, “Hey, I need money to pay for the foundation,” you want to make sure it’s the right amount of money.

So, so those, those are things that if someone’s working with a bank, I always have a little heart-to-heart talk with them so that they can understand. It’s not just the bank giving money, it’s making sure that the cash flow is right to do it. And, and one of the key points is, um, like if you go get cabinets, they could take 6 to 8 weeks, just as windows, you know, custom windows maybe, and those people will want a deposit to order. Will the bank put, you know, give you the money to put that deposit in? Some will, most do, but the point is you should understand it so you can work through the process to, to get it taken care of. And those are, you know, kind of specific things, you know, bank by bank, customer by customer, that I could review with a customer just so that they have an understanding of, uh, you know, how the, how the, how to structure the financing so it makes sense and it’s, it’s helping them through the process. It, it sounds complicated, it, it really isn’t, it might just be a little perspective, you know, shift to, to understand the process.

Host: Well, I think you brought something up that we, we had briefly hit upon on a podcast way, way back, but I think it holds true now and especially in this conversation that the, vagueness, vagaries can be a real red flag and make sure you’re getting solid information no matter who you’re working with seems like a good rule of thumb.

Steve Tuma: Well, that, that’s it. I mean, and if, if you’re working with a bank or a subcontractor and you can’t have the discussion of, “Hey, how do you get paid? How much is this? What are the specifications?” You know, the, it’s going to just lead to an issue down the road, so these are, you know, conversations that you have to have. It’s not hard and it’s not unreasonable to go through and do it, you just have to understand the process and, and to be able to go through. So we, we can help, uh, customers, you know, kind of get into position, so when they’re talking to a bank or subcontractors, they, they have a strong sense of the, the position that they’re in and why they need to understand it.

But again, a lot of our customers, you know, they, they’ve already talked to banks, they’ve kind of worked it through, but if they need a little brush up or a little change, you know, perspective or just ideas to let it settle in their mind, we’re more than happy to, to help a customer understand, you know, the, the ins and outs of financing.

Host: So I’m going to bump the subject here a little bit and talk about, um, well, overall people that you’re working with who, who come on to, uh, your project, any subcontractor, let’s say. What are your recommendations that people do, how you handle a subcontractor who walks off a project at some point for any reason, could be a million things, or just doesn’t show up, and that happens a lot? Give some advice to people on how best to deal with that.

Steve Tuma: The best way to deal that, with that is upfront, okay? Um, just, just like everyone’s got friends that they can rely on and then they got friends and family that they can’t rely on, and then there’s people that, you know, are there, it’s like, like clockwork they show up. So I tell people, “Hey, we need to get your plans going and detailed to the right point so that you can approach contractors.”

So you don’t want to cry wolf with people, just like people don’t like crying wolf on them, so you want to have a good set of plans to say, “Hey, here are the plans, here’s the land, we’re financed, and here’s my schedule.” The contractor will take you more seriously because they know there’s a chance to make money. Subcontractors and contractors don’t make money talking to you, they don’t take, make money, you know, changing bids 30 times, and there is a balance to this. There’s, getting good labor is hard, you want to work with good people, but those good people also want to work with a good customer, and part of being a good customer is being prepared and knowledgeable and understanding of what needs to be done. So with our plan sets, someone’s able to say, “Hey, these are plans, they’re pretty much finalized, they’re in, you know, this, we’re going to be building on this piece of land at this location, and we’re starting at, at whatever date.” The subcontractor will understand it, so by going through that process, there’s a relationship built up where, um, subcontractor respects the customer, customer respects the subcontractor, so chances of situations like that happening are, are minimized.

Um, you know, things happen in people’s lives, kids get sick, whatever, you know, rain happens and pushes a subcontractor’s schedule back or something, but, you know, what the, the, working with a good subcontractor, um, they want to work with a good customer. Even though they’re busy, they still want to be selective on getting the good customer and making sure that it’s a reasonable deal for them. So again, like working with the bank and pre-planning, working with your own project and pre-planning, it’s making sure you’re prepared when you go to a subcontractor, that you have all your ducks in a row. Um, subcontractors are busy, some call back right away, some don’t call back right away, but it’s the nature of, of, of the business, but they’re obviously working and busy, and they’re working with people that respect their time, respect their understanding of the project, and are prepared to move forward.

So, uh, I found that if customers like henpeck a contractor, you know, call them Saturday morning at 6:00 or Friday, you know, or just, “Hey, what about this? What color nail are you using?” You know, just stuff that’s ridiculous, it’s like, “Hey, you’re hiring a pro, let him do his job.” Yeah. Um, and then the subcontractor also wants to know that you’re serious about building, that, like I mentioned, they, they don’t make money talking to you. They make money, you know, getting a bid together and scheduling the project, and then executing the project. So, um, I’m sure it happens here and there, I hear about it every once in a while where stuff happens, but it, again, with a well-thought-out process, a schedule, and an understanding of it, the sub, a good subcontractor wants to work with you because he or she knows that they can get the job done, get paid, and move on.

Yeah. It’s being organized. I think that’s what we’re, you know, on all these things, the subcontractors, banks, stress, it’s be organized, understand what you’re doing, and move forward.

Host: Yeah, common sense, a lot of times this is all just common sense, but, you know, people get into a big project, especially if they’ve never done it before, I, I would imagine all this stuff can…

Steve Tuma: We’re reframing it. We’re reframing how they deal with their life, their kids, their grandkids, their job, we’re just putting it in the sense of a house. You know, it’s the same thing.

Host: Yeah, and let’s face it, that’s why we have this podcast, because you’re able to put things in perspective and, uh, again, it can, things like this can be daunting, but luckily if they’re dealing with Landmark, they’ve got, uh, they’ve got some solid support. What do you, um, what are your opinions, and you’ve said this before, but, uh, building relationships with building departments and building inspectors and how important is that again, if you don’t mind going through that again? I think it’s a, a question to really re-address because those relationships are important.

Steve Tuma: Well, you want to have a good relationship with everyone in the project, it just makes it easier. If, if someone’s being abrasive or pushy, it just becomes uncomfortable. You know, look at, “Hey, treat people the way you want to be treated.” Most building departments are just people that want to get paid and do their job, you know, maybe they’re a little disorganized, maybe some are very organized, maybe some are super nitpicky, but the reality is is they’re there to do the job for what they find to be important. So again, it’s, it’s a well-thought-out project. If you have a good set of plans, you submit a good set of plans, the details are taken care of, you’ll move forward.

Um, the building department’s there, sometimes they’ll kick back a little if they ask a customer for something and the customer doesn’t do it, you know, at a certain point, it’s, you know, ev, everyone’s, it’s the two-way street. So again, it’s be organized, and that’s part of our process is when a customer starts working with us, we, actually before they start working with us, we look at their building department details, find out what they need, get them a list of questions, and say, “Hey, we need this, you’re going to need that. Let’s get it all put together so that, so that you can approach it.”

And I think what, you know, once customers see this, again, just like the financing, the sub,, you know, the subcontractors, family situations, once they understand the process, they, they understand, they understand it’s on a winning team and a procedure that’s going to make sense. Um, now, you can’t expect a customer that’s never built before, maybe only built two or three or four or five homes to understand the newest codes or the newest nuances that a building department may just come up with, um, but that’s why we’re here, you know, to help it through, so someone doesn’t have to completely understand the building department, they just have to work with us and, and the building department, get the plans submitted, when they get a permit they can move forward, or if there’s a checklist of items saying, “Hey, we need clarification on a few items,” get us the list, we’ll, we’ll work through it.

But most building departments are, yeah, they’re just people doing their job, you know. I would say 80-85% of them are just, you know, just building departments doing their thing, and then, you know, 5 or 10% of them get a little, a little more specific, and those are generally, you know, in certain communities, you know, like you get by the oceans, you get in some of the very high-end, um, communities, or places where there’s extreme hurricane situations or, uh, you know, earthquake or super high snow loads where, where it just takes a little bit more double-checking.

So I, I would say in my 32 years, I could probably count on one hand the number of building departments that we’ve dealt with that are just purely unreasonable, but you know what’s cool about it? We’ve gotten through every single one. You just work through it, we figure out what they want and, and, uh, you know, get through it, and but general, generally, you know, when, when a building department asks for something strange, it’s, you know, usually they have some reason for it, whether it’s logical, you know, we could debate that, but, um, you know, we, we get the information, move on, and, and go from there, and we’ve been doing this for over three decades, so the chances of your building department coming up with something we’ve never heard about is probably extremely limiting, limited, but our ability, even if they do, to take care of it, we, we’ve got all the people necessary to get it taken care of, and most building departments will communicate to some degree to say, “Hey,, you know, what do, what are you asking here? You asked a question, it’s not clear, can we clarify this?”

Um, and, but I, we’ve actually gotten compliments from building departments. There’s a couple around the country that said they’re using our plans as examples because they were so well done. So when someone knows that it’s an organized project, that’s it, and I know in other, another, uh, another podcast I’ve, I’ve kind of talked about this a lot, but if you walk in a building department with bad plans, they, they’re kind of like, “What are you doing?” You know, so they’re going to give a little kickback, which is the reason you want to work with a company like us where you have a clear and accurate set of plans of what’s actually going to be built. It’ll avoid problems. A lot of people for some reason think, “Oh, I’ll go, you know, some guy down the road will do plans for $500, he’s the best guy on the bowling team,” and, you know, they go through, well, if the details aren’t on the plans, you’re just going to have problems going through building, going, going through the inspection processes because there’s too many unknowns. So in our case, we’ve got a very accurate and complete set of plans, so it just makes it easier. The building department wants to process plans and give permits. They don’t want to babysit people along the way that aren’t paying attention, and that’s, that’s why customers work with us to make it a lot easier on them.

Host: Yeah, I think that, uh, I think one thing about Landmark is, you know, in any, any kind of big project or anything that you take on where, you know, there’s a lot of, a lot at stake, um, mostly money and time, but I, I think it’s, uh, the customers that keep coming back to you guys or leave you guys such great reviews, which is, you know, everybody virtually, but, uh, I think it has to do with the fact that you don’t leave anybody out there just to the wolves. You guys are, once you start a project, Landmark is there the whole, it’s like a little kid all of a sudden they look up in a department store and they were holding their mom’s hand and then the mom’s gone, that’s a freaky situation. So, you know, Landmark has just, I think you guys have built this reputation to, to, you know, where people know that you don’t, you’re not, uh, bailing on them halfway through. You’re there every step of the way and it’s like they do have a, uh, they do have a safety net and that’s their relationship with Landmark.

Steve Tuma: Right, and that, that’s the point as to why we work with owner-builders. We understand the, our customer’s position, we understand they may or may not have a lot of experience in building, but we’ve, we’ve likely seen any problem they’re going to run into, so we can forecast it or say, “Hey, there’s a possibility of this, there’s a possibility of this, let’s, let’s manage through it to, uh, to get it taken care of.” So, you know, the, the thing about it is there, there’s, you know, life is just like that. You can go out one day and you have a flat tire, and then you’re low on gas, and then your air conditioner’s not working in your car, I mean, you get, you, you manage it and you get through it. So, so that, that’s what we’re able to help.

I don’t want to make it like a big downer, like, “Hey, this is, you know, the end of the world.” It’s, it’s just, it’s just a, a lot of, uh, thinking and processing and, and working through it, but, um, you know, I, I had a customer, uh, Cheryl, she just talked, she goes, “Steve, it’s like you’re my friend. I just call up and I ask you stuff, and we give answers, and we laugh a little bit, and then we move on, and then I call you back two hours later with another funny question.” And I’m like, “That’s what we’re here for.” And in that process, um, because the way we’re set up, we hear every single customer’s question and that, that, that puts us in position to be able to help them better.

So, it’s, uh, it’s pretty cool. We listen to our customers, we value our customers, we have a lot of fun working with our customers, so the support things, um, just, just, just part of it. It’s, it’s actually really enjoyable to help people understand, and, and the customers are really proud when they’re like, “Wow, I learned this, I got this, look at what we did.” Then I get pictures of them and it’s, it’s kind of cool, you know, the, the family dog going in the house for the first time, you know, or kids outside in front digging a hole or whatever it may be. So it, it’s kind of cool. Very cool, actually.

Host: Here’s something that we haven’t talked about in a while, if we’ve talked about it at all, I can’t remember, probably, but let’s go over it again. There’s, uh, builder’s risk insurance and owner-builder liability when acting as, you know, when you’re acting as your own general contractor. Can you go over that a little bit, exactly what that all entails with the builder’s risk insurance?

Steve Tuma: Yes, I’m not an insurance genius, but you should go to your insurance company and tell them you’re building a home, because while building a home, there’s different risks as than if you, if it was raw land or if it was an existing home. And what it basically covers, you know, situations that, that may happen on a building site, and it, it gives protection in case, um, you know, someone got hurt or something strange happened there. So you, you definitely want to be covered, and it’s, it’s just a different version of the property insurance that, that someone would have. You know, if, if you are a, a renter or homeowner, you probably have some type of liability insurance, so if someone, you know, walks up your driveway and a tree falls on them or something, you know, you’re, you’re covered. So that is something that people should get, and they should talk to their insurance agent to make sure that it’s, uh, they have the right coverage for what they’re doing on their property.

Host: Um, let’s, we have touched on this, I remember, um, at least once, but let’s talk about where you live as, as, you know, in comparison to where you’re actually building. And, uh, does that affect cost, or, or during the build, or how, how important is where you live to in comp, in comparison to where you’re building?

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about it is, uh, you know, some people live in different states while they’re building the home, and they, they visit every once in a while, they get a general contractor, but a lot of our owner-builder customers will, um, they’ll, they’ll have an existing home that they haven’t sold, they got a bridge loan on it, so when the new house is done they can just move into the new house. Other people rent an apartment, other people put a motorhome on the property, and live in the motorhome while, while they’re building it to, to save that extra money and living expenses during, during the process. So depending on someone’s personal lifestyle and how they choose to live, they, they could, you know, maybe rent another home, keep their existing home, live in a motorhome, move in with in-laws. I think all of it’s probably a little bit different for people, you know, it might not be optimal, but again, it’s one of those things. If you can save the money and, and control your living expenses during the build, that, it’s just more equity and lower cost that, that you’ve gotten in the home.

So, ev, every customer has a, a different, uh, scenario. We’ve had some people, if it’s a retirement home, they have an existing home, maybe they pulled a HELOC out of their main home to pay for the, uh, the, the new home, others they get bridge loans, others, you know, rent a place, move in with in-laws, live in a motorhome, get, get short-term housing, you know, to, to do it. So every family’s a little different, it all depends on how far it is from where they want to live. We’ve also had people that say, “Hey, I got to start building in a certain time to make sure my kids are registered in the school district.” So we’re able to work with them on, on the schedule. So that’s something that, you know, there isn’t really the tried and true direct answer for everyone, it’s just, you know, different options, and, uh, customers sort it out. They figure out what’s good for them. They, they move in with different family members, they rent a place, they stay at their place, they live in a motorhome, whatever it is. But, uh, amazingly, a lot of customers already have that in gear, they don’t really ask me about it. You know, as I talk to them, I find out what they’re doing, you know, just in passing conversation, but, uh, that, that’s basically what they do.

Host: Well, it’s like you said, there’s probably been a lot of preparation on the owner-builder’s part before they even start this. So, yeah, they’ve probably thought about 90% of this. Um, let’s go back to our, sort of our original, uh, thought during this podcast, and that was the, you know, just dealing with the, uh, overall issues, problems, stresses of, of being a homeowner builder. Um, let’s talk about the last 10% of the build. Uh, projects, they race to get to that dried-in and framed, uh, portion of the build, then call, they crawl through the, uh, you know, like a, their own personal punch list, you know? The finish drag, the trim, the touch-ups, the one missing part of the build is where, you know, momentum and morale can get, really be very low, and, and nobody asks how to power through that, and I’d like to know your opinion on how to get past that last, that final 10%.

Steve Tuma: Well, that final 10% is kind of an interesting thing. As I watch customers over three decades and talk to them and see how their projects come along, I think a lot of that last 10% is the anticipation, much like a little kid going, “Hey, my birthday’s next week.” That’s the longest week he’s, he or she’s ever lived through. Right. So when you start a project, there’s kind of big movements where you see stuff, excavating the land, installing the foundation, those are big things. It’s like every day there’s big movements, then the house package gets delivered, and the home gets framed, so those are all, you know, a lot of big things happening. Well, when you get to that final stage, you know, the 10%, 15% to finish it up, there’s a lot of stuff happening, but it’s not big movements. You don’t necessarily see light switches being put in, you don’t see door knobs being put in, I mean, you see it, but it’s not a big move. Right.

So there’s always this anticipation of, “Oh, when’s it going to be done? When’s it going to be done?” And I think it’s one of those things that because of the mental anticipation saying, “Hey, we’re two weeks away,” when in reality it might be four just because of all the little things that have to go into place. You know, the final stages, installing trim, putting carpeting down, you know, putting door knobs on, just little stuff, it just, it just doesn’t seem, you know, visually like as much is going on, but if you actually looked at the, the amount of stuff happening, there’s a lot going on, so, um, I think that’s something that once people realize that, and I always talk to them if they bring it up, it’s like, “Steve, it just, doesn’t seem to end.” It’s like, well, it does seem to end, you just don’t realize the amount of stuff that you’re getting done. Right. And then one day they call up and set, “Steve, we’re moving in.”

And, you know, everyone’s excited, you know, you start seeing pictures of the first time the kids run in the house, the dogs running around the yard, whatever it may be, and it’s a, a whole, you know, level of excitement of moving in, you know, the first holidays, the first birthdays, people text me pictures, and it’s kind of an amazing thing, so, yeah, there, there is a lot of, uh, excitement and emotion in building a home, and it’s, you think about it, a family’s kind of starting a brand new chapter, and it gets to be very exciting for them. And we’re always here to help them through, so, yeah, it’s, it’s kind of cool, actually.

Reminds me of the, when you see your, a kid every day, you’re raising a kid and you see him and you don’t really notice the growth, but the uncle comes around and goes, “Man, you’ve grown so much.” Really? It’s just hard to see sometimes from the outside. What about the other thing, uh, the, the part of being your own contractor, owner-builder, knowing what not to do yourself, what things that you should probably stay away from, which I think would be, uh, is probably good advice to, to kind of assess what your strengths are and not try to do things that, uh, that really aren’t your forte?

Steve Tuma: Right, well, the situation with that is kind of like being honest with the budget, being honest with the schedule, being honest with the reality of coordinating your project, it’s the same thing on what you do. You know, if people ask me saying, “Steve, you know, is it hard to do drywall, or is it hard,” I’m like, well, it, I don’t know if that it’s hard once you know how to do it, but there’s definitely a skill in a lot of these projects. So people really have to focus to say, “Hey, yes, I can do this, no, I can’t,” or, “Hey, my friend can help me, and, you know, I could be the labor.” So people have to be real honest with them on, on what they’re going to do, because you don’t want to go through and then plan something and find out you can’t do it. And that also ties into being honest about the budgeting, the scheduling, to make sure that everything’s there.

Sometimes when people sharpen their pencil too much to make something work, I kind of tell them, “Hey, hold back from that.” You know, you, you might be bending reality, we want to make sure that you’re putting a process together to build a home that makes sense, because you don’t want to convince yourself of something now and halfway through the build realize, “Hey, I’m not a pro drywaller, I can’t just go to YouTube and learn how to drywall.” You know, there’s, there’s an, there’s an art, and, uh, and a process and a skill to a lot of it. But amazingly within that, it’s, it’s pretty rare that someone convinces themselves to do something that they don’t,, you know, want to, want to do. I mean, not too many people are going to convince themselves to go walk in a 12/12 roof pitch. It’s steep, you got to have a, so I think when, when people come to us and through our processes of designing the home, thinking about the different stages, the different changes, the different processes of designing and getting the project going, I think a lot of people filter out the, the reality of it. So I get into discussions with customers about this here and there when they’re asking me more out of curiosity of how should they approach a project.

And, and that, that’s what I tell them, I’m like, “Be honest with yourself, it’s your project, it’s your house, you want it done right. Don’t, don’t convince yourself of something. If you’ve got to push yourself that much, you, you know your answer. You know, stay, stay in your lane on what you know how to do, or you can get qualified people that may be family and friends to help you with other stuff, hire it out to people that know what’s going on, it’ll be done quicker, it’ll be done right, and you won’t be paying for it twice.”

Host: Yeah, you save money in the long run, even when you think you’re saving pennies, you’re throwing dollars out the window.

Steve Tuma: Right, right, and that’s, that’s, that’s the thing. You know, so we’re able to help people on situations like this, you know, just to understand the project, what it takes, how, how to navigate the situations. And I think when you, when you look at the, or listen to this podcast, and you see the different topics, it’s all really just frame it in reality. You know, what’s the reality of your time? You got your family, you got your job. What’s the reality of the time you can put into this? And we have a lot of extremely busy people building houses, and they do a great job, but you just have to methodically put it into a process that’s realistic so that you can achieve the milestones, and, and move forward. And, uh, the people that do that, put the reality check on it, frame it properly, they enjoy the process. They might be like, “Steve, this is a lot of work, but you know what? Our foundation’s in. Here’s a picture of me and the kids in the foundation.”

You know, so it’s, it’s enjoy the wins as, as you move along the process, and a lot of people are building this home for a life experience, so they want to see the ins and outs of it. It’s, it’s kind of amazing. It’s part of, part of the journey for sure. Yeah.

Host: Well, that’s going to wrap it up for this, this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. But before we let you go, Steve, let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and all that you guys are doing over there.

Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check out our website at LHLC.com. That’s kind of the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company, but it’s LHLC.com. And on our website, there’s thousands of plans, there’s videos, there’s these podcasts, there’s different descriptions of what we do, what we include in the package, and people can get real familiar with it. They can, uh, also look at the plans, and then send an inquiry and saying, “Hey, I like this plan, I’m, you know, I’m, I’m Joe Customer, I’m going to build here, and can someone contact us?” Or they can call at 800-830-9788, at 800-830-9788, and, uh, Mike will answer the phone, and we can talk, they can discuss the project.

Um, we’re very proactive in answering the phone and being very responsive, so if for some reason you do get a voicemail, someone will call you back right away. We are here to help you, and we do want to, you know, introduce ourselves and get to know each other in the process. At a certain stage then, it would be passed off to me where I would then work to, to finalize the details. And then we’re on all the, the main platforms: Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest, you know, Landmark Home and Land Company, you could search it and, and find us. So that, that’s it. And then if someone wanted to call me directly, my direct cell phone is 708-205-2043, so we’re looking forward to people contacting us to see how we can help them, and have some fun along the way.

Host: And fun is what it’s all about, well, that and building a good home, you know. All right then. Thanks again, Steve, and thanks to all of our listeners to, uh, for tuning in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time. Thanks again, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, this was an interesting, a lot of topics that weren’t covered in other, podcasts. It’s a, it’s an important set of details. I hope people enjoy it.

Host: I agree. Thanks again.

Steve Tuma: Thanks.

A: Determining land buildability requires checking zoning classifications, property line setbacks, soil conditions, and utility locations. You must confirm whether water, electricity, cable, and sewage connections are readily available at the front of your lot rather than a block away, and whether special requirements like geotechnical soil reports or flood plain elevation certificates apply.

A: Converting a rough visual concept or napkin sketch into a buildable home starts with refining the layout’s dimensions, room sizes, and rooflines against local zoning limits. Experienced designers then translate these concepts into formalized floor plans, structural framing drawings, and site plans so local subcontractors can price out specific trade bids.

A: Essential structural “guts” are frequently overlooked during early planning, including foundation footers, rebar, electrical wiring layouts, plumbing runs, and heating or cooling systems. Evaluating these non-decorative structural components upfront during the blueprint design phase prevents budget overruns and ensures accurate subcontractor quotes.

A: A home is considered dried-in when the complete exterior framing shell is assembled, the roof deck is installed, windows and doors are secured, and a moisture barrier surrounds the structure. Once dried-in, the home’s interior is fully protected from rain and snow, allowing interior trades and framing crews to continue work regardless of weather conditions.

A: An heirloom home is designed to accommodate a family’s changing lifestyle needs across multiple decades or generations. These floor plans incorporate flexible spaces like walkout basements, convertible dens, guest suites over garages, and accessible “aging-in-place” features—such as wider doorways and zero-threshold roll-in showers—allowing families to remain in one equity-rich home long-term.

Steve Tuma: So a lot of our customers really enjoy the process and they appreciate the help that we add on top of it to make it easier for them to move along.

Host: How you doing everybody and welcome to Episode 90 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today as usual is the President and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and even around the globe since 1993. Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how’s it going, my friend?

Steve Tuma: It’s going great. You know, here we are doing another podcast and I think we got some good topics and good stories to tell people about the excitement and challenges and interesting things in building their own home. Which is really cool. People always want to know, can I do it? Can I build my own home? How do I know I can do it? Where can I do it? So think it’s a good topic.

Host: With you and Landmark at their side, they can do anything.

Steve Tuma: You know what’s interesting about that is you say that and it’s actually a lot of customers will come through and say, Steve, I came to Landmark Home and Land Company to buy a panelized home package, but it’s the support, the help, the navigating it, how does land work, how do we make my house fit on there, how do I budget, how do I do this. That’s almost just as important or more important than the actual panelized home because it’s the understanding of what it takes to build a home that people also need help with. It’s kind of cool. We’re able to help all the way around.

Host: If anybody be able to help it’s you. And just in case you let that pass over your head, we are pushing toward that one hundredth episode. Pretty quick actually.

Steve Tuma: Well hey, let’s get these questions going. What kind of stuff do you have here?

Host: Well I thought we’d continue with another of our top 10 lists of homeowner builder discussion topics which we found on the internet. And these are highly searched questions and inquiries about panelized prefab home building. So if you’re ready to go, why don’t we just jump into our pseudo list here.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, let’s do it.

Host: What’s the first one? All right, so first off, let’s go through the ins and outs of vetting your land because a lot of people are inquiring about the actual building process and how it begins. And how do you go about from the beginning choosing a plot of land in the first place to suit your needs?

Steve Tuma: Well that’s an interesting process because that’s the angle of where does your family want to live, but it’s also the secondary part of how buildable is the piece of land. So, you know, generally what people will do is they’ll find a neighborhood they like, a community they like, maybe schools, access to work or whatever it may be, and they narrow it down from there, but then finding the kind of mechanics of it of hey, is it reasonable and easy to build on the piece of land.

And generally most pieces of land you can build on, it’s just really how can you control the costs. So in general if you’re on a flat piece of land, it’s less expensive and easier to build on than if you’re on the side of a hill. But in some communities we work with a lot of customers in the mountain ranges, along the east coast, northeast the Rockies, the Sierras, the Cascades, you know whatever it may be. There just isn’t flat land in mountain ranges. So sometimes it’s you got to figure out the best of what’s available. So there’s a lot of things to consider on land.

And you know, this is a topic that can get pretty deep. But what I consider to be one of the most important things is just find out the buildability of it. So there’s a zoning department which will say, hey, it’s zoned for a single family home or duplex or whatever it is, you got to make sure it’s there. Then there’s generally setbacks, make sure the house that you want will fit on the land. So that’s one place is the zoning, but then there’s also the actual buildability of it. You know what are the soils like? Can you put a foundation there? Is there access to water? Is it a municipal water service or is it your own private well? Is there sewage? Are there utilities, you know cable, electric, different things like that that service the property. And one thing which I always tell people is someone might be selling you a piece of property and say something’s available. Well that’s nice. Where is it available? Is it at the front of your lot or is it available a block away? Kind of important.

Host: Yeah, and that’s the thing of just kind of do your due diligence and just kind of understand the situation with your land. So, and then also flood plain situations. Now a lot of this stuff is readily available, it might take a little bit of work and research you know to find the right department that will give you that information, but the important thing about this is it’s kind of a deep subject. It’s not something where you can just have your checklist like shopping. Hey, get a gallon of milk, get a pound of cheese. You know, one question can lead to another question and that’s why you know we’re always available.

Steve Tuma: If a customer serious and moving forward, we’ll spend a lot of time with them, you know helping them through the nuances of each situation like how do you know if the house will fit on the land. So if you’ve got a lot that’s 50 feet wide and there’s 5 foot side setbacks that gives you 40 feet to build on. So you know, 50 feet wide, 5 feet setbacks each side times two is 10, 50 less 10 is 40 feet wide. Well there’ll be a front and back and then we could see if the footprint can work there.

So that’s the main thing that I would look at when people are looking at the land is initially if they can just find out what utilities are there, you know is it a well, septic, water, different situation like that. And then we can help them through the deeper processes of you know what the soils are like. If they have questions exactly maybe how zoning works with their house or how to position the house on their land or where to set a grade or do different things. Will they need a grading plan, will they need a geotechnical report? We can help them through that as we get deeper in discussions. But that’s the key element. I think is find a place where you want to live you know that works in the budget range that you are and then make sure in general that it’s buildable and we can help people through the deeper points.

Because sometimes people come to us and say I want this house. I need to make it fit. Other times people say hey I want a ranch that’s three bedrooms two bath, should it be wide or should it be skinny and deep or can it be more square, how do we make this work. So what we can do is work with people to come up with a design that makes sense and then more help them target the budget as well. Which is a key thing. So there’s a lot of variables that go on into it and sometimes it can get pretty deep depending on the nature of the land and the building department’s requirements for the land.

So I wish I could give like the easy 1 2 3 list of how to know your land works. But I think I could give the initial point so that people start selecting something that makes sense. And then we can work deep with them on the deeper points to make sure that the house fits on their property properly and it’s a sensible build. There’s always a way to make it work. So if someone already has a piece of land, you know we can work with that and we’d go through the same process to make sure that the house fits on the land. And works with the land as well. That’s actually one of the more important things that we need to take care of in the preliminary parts of the design just to make sure that you know we’re starting off on the right step.

Host: Yeah and it’s like people shouldn’t be afraid to ask you questions. That’s why they’re calling you. And I think it starts with the land and if I bought a piece of land right now I’d instantly have a thousand questions on how buildable is that land. Makes sense to me.

Steve Tuma: Right. And the thing about it I’m sure you’re joking a little on the thousand questions, but we’ll have a thousand answers that might lead to another 20 questions that really help in doing it. So the situation that comes up is we could have a great conversation understanding and helping people understand the process of building. Our customers aren’t just people that say hey get me a house I need a place for my car and my dog. They’re like no I want to do this, it’s something I’ve wanted to do, I want to learn, I want to know where my budget’s going, I want to know the details of my house. So a lot of our customers really enjoy the process and they appreciate the help that we add on top of it to make it easier for them to move along.

Host: After somebody’s picked their land, there’s still the planning phase. I mean that’s next, you know, and how do you take a let’s say I had an idea and I sketched it out on a napkin. I showed that to you. So how does a rough idea or a napkin idea become well supplied engineered drawings and how much can you push a design before the costs balloons. So my napkin sketch all of a sudden starts looking like a house in real plans, but you know how far can I push that napkin sketch into a real design?

Steve Tuma: Well what’s interesting about that is that situation has literally happened where people have been out, you know, they’re out by themselves having dinner, they sketched something up, and they’re like, Steve, how do I get it to you? And I’m like, take a picture and text it to me.

Host: Right.

Steve Tuma: So literally that situation has happened where people just take a napkin sketch, put it together, or they see different pictures or they’re going down the street and say, Steve, I like this house, I want this roof, I want this porch. And then we put it together. So what we’re able to do based on our knowledge, our ability to design and sort things out and kind of project where the project is going, is kind of refine that down to something that we can review with the customer verbally to review to say, hey, what you’ve shown me is a 1500 square foot ranch home or a 3000 square foot two story home, and this is how we can do it. And then we would take those ideas and once they start working with us, we would draw the plans out to get it more of a formalized drawing. So that we can go through and they can see the exact footprint of the house, the sizes of the rooms, where windows and doors are, ceiling heights, the exterior look of the home, and the roof. And that’s how we do it to go through and work on it. And during these phases, they can then review the costs to make sure that it’s a sensible project for them.

So a lot of people will say, hey, I went online, you know, AI is the big cool thing now, which it is an amazing technology, but there is some hallucinating there. So you don’t necessarily want to go to AI and say, how much is it to build a house in Los Angeles? I’ve done it myself and the answers you get are sometimes completely wrong, mainly completely wrong. So what you want to do is make sure that when you’re working on getting a budget together, you convey to your contractors and suppliers what you’re building. Which is the purpose for the preliminary plan set. We draw them up so that people understand themselves what they want to build. We’ve gone back and forth and tuned it. And then they can take it to their contractors and say, hey, how much is electric, how much is drywall, and then develop their budget. So that’s kind of the process.

And we work with a lot of owner builders and developers where we’re able to help them navigate the product that makes sense for them. The product being their end home. So a lot of this is in the design phase and this is part of our service. We’re not like architects and lawyers where hey it’s so much an hour to talk to us. This is just part of the service that when a customer signs up with us, we’ll work with them to design the home, fine tune things to make sure that it works. And what’s interesting about this is a lot of people, they might come in with a more modest budget and be embarrassed about it saying, oh gee I wish I was rich. Well we’ve done mega million dollar houses, and those people watch the dollars just like anyone else. So whether someone’s doing an ADU at a lower cost, a more mid-range home or an extremely high end home, it’s the same thing of navigating the design to make sure it works with the land, the family’s desires, the building departments, and then also the budget. And that I think is where people really find value in us is that we will take the time to help them and guide them through the level of help that they need to make their process going. We’re not like other panel companies where we’re just a supplier saying, hey, we’ll send you something. We’re like, hey, let’s help you understand what you’re doing so you can build your house, better control the budget, understand what’s going on and get the quality home you want.

So, yeah, take taking the their rough idea from a napkin sketch, a visual concept, where we work with them to get a complete set of buildable plans, that’s what we do every day. It’s it’s actually a lot of fun. It’s really interesting.

Host: You know, these questions bounce around a little bit, but I didn’t put them in any kind of category because mostly they’re not, they’re just kind of all over the map, but I think people are, these are things that people are searching online and that’s the reason I came up with this list. So, forgive me if it bounces around a little bit, but you did mention budgeting just a second ago. People are interested and curious about the budgeting for the stuff that nobody quotes them prices for. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s like there’s a, there’s a lot of budgeting that’s going on that isn’t exactly in your overall budget, but it’s, they can, they can run into overcosts if you’re not care, careful. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, this is an interesting thing, because, you know, when a lot of people are designing their home, um, some people will look at the complete project, other people look at the what I’ll call, the fun stuff. The guy’s like, hey, I want my garage, I want my workshop here, you know, the family might be like, hey, we need a kitchen like this, we want a big island for when the family’s getting together and playing a game or, you know, watching a show or just laughing about the day’s events. So, there’s always those kind of cool, fun things, you know, the man cave, the, the theater, the, the family room, the basement, the master suite, the primary suite, I guess they’re called now. But primary suites, all these different things.

But, that’s all kind of the glitzy, kind of cool stuff that people talk about. What about the super exciting stuff like your foundation footer? You know, your electrical wire, your heating and cooling systems, you know, your, your plumbing? You know, and those are the things that sometimes people aren’t as up to speed with. Uh, just because it’s, it’s not something that you typically talk about. If you’re, if you’re getting together with your friends talking about your house, you know, guys might be like, oh, man, I got this great recreation room, I’m going to put a pool table down there, or hey, I got a garage where I’m going to work on the cars with my kids, you know, or hey, the wife may see, hey, we, we got a kitchen or we got a family room for everyone to get together on the holidays and enjoy family time. But how many people sit there and go, you know, my rebar is just the coolest thing in my house? Like, you’ve never heard that.

But that’s, that’s actually an important part of, of understanding that. That, by going through the plan phases with people, we bring that out to say, hey, this, here’s your foundation design, here’s a plumbing layout, here’s an electrical layout, now you have something solid to talk about when you’re approaching your contractors. So, that, those are the things that we work with.

Now, amazingly, all customers know that they have to do this, it just have they emphasized it or have they gotten to that point. So, we can help people, like if they say, hey, you know, what do I need to show an electrical contractor? We can show them, we can develop an electrical layout for their house plans for them to review with their electrical contractor. We can develop the plumbing layout, you know, we, we can develop, uh, details for HVAC design, so that when they’re going, they’re in a knowledge position to understand what they need so they can talk intelligently with their contractors, or if they need, the contractors can call us, and we’ll, we’ll walk through it with them.

But, um, you know, so that, that’s the thing. There’s always the glitzy fun things, oh, I got this great front door, hey, we have this back porch overlooking the yard, but what about the internal guts that maybe aren’t as flashy or sexy, like, hey, what type of insulation are we putting in our house? You know, and those are the things that we can work through people, or work with people, and the important thing is we’ll give them the, on our plans, the details that are there, we’ll review it with them so they understand, so that when they’re working with a subcontractor or contractor, they actually have a direction of what’s actually going to be made and built into the home.

And the cool thing about this is that when you have a real set of plans with real details, these contractors take them seriously. If you call a contractor up and say, how much is it to heat a 3000 square foot home, the contractor’s probably sitting there going, and like I joke with people, that’s like calling a grocery store and saying, how much is a bag of groceries? So, what we do is we give them the details to say, hey, here’s the plan, here’s the electrical layout, here’s the plumbing layout, you know, they can figure out the amount of siding, the amount of roofing, the amount of windows, so then they can work intelligently with their, uh, their suppliers and get it done.

So, um, they may, to answer your question, how do people budget for the things that people don’t quote or don’t completely understand, well, we’ll help them through the process so that they do understand it, so that they’re in position to, to work with the best contractors at the right price.

Host: Well, that makes sense. Um, a lot of, a lot of funny things where people are just not sure about the, uh, the terminology, they don’t have the lingo when it comes to building a house and, uh, and the construction and all that, that’s involved with that. And there’s, uh, a phrase that goes around the internet I’ve noticed called a, “a dry in day.” Explain what that is, what it actually looks like, and, uh, what’s involved in the dry in day.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, there’s a little bit of variation in what people might perceive as dry in, but in general, it’s where the wood structure is up, the roof is on, windows and doors are in, and maybe a moisture barrier around it. So, it’s dried in, so if it rains, the structure and the inside aren’t getting soaked. Got it. That, that’s, that’s basically what it is, and it’s, it’s kind of considered to be like a milestone in building of, hey, it’s dried in, maybe you still have to put the exterior siding, but then you could work inside, um, you know, on, you know, when, without the, the effects of weather.

What’s really cool, if, if I can digress a little, is this is also a situation of people that choose to build through winter, you know, in areas where, you know, the weather’s bad in winter, um, where, where they can go through and then get their pick of contractors, because generally in winter, the contractors slow down. So, we have a lot of customers that want to get their house framed in late fall so that in winter, they can work in when the house is dried in. Right.

So, um, but, yeah, dried in is basically where you could go inside the house and if it rains or snows or whatever, you’re, you’re protected from the elements. The windows are on, the doors are on, you know, everything’s lockable, um, and the roof is on. The interpretation I’ve had, some people say dry in is when the moisture barrier’s on, other people say when the siding’s on, you know, so that it’s, it’s fully, you know, weatherproofed.

Host: And I, you know, you don’t think about it, but like say California or Florida, your, your building season as, as it may be called, is, uh, is a lot longer than in other places, so that seems like an important, uh, aspect to have that dry in day.

Steve Tuma: Well, well, it is, but what, what’s interesting, parts of California that we work in, you know, we’ve done projects in like Joshua Tree in the deserts, it gets hot, and people don’t want to work when it’s 120 degrees, so, so, hey, or northern Minnesota, they’re freezing, you know, 1500, 1800 miles away, they’re cooking. So, that, that, our understanding of, of, you know, different parts of the country and how, um, you know, the effect of dry in or certain schedule is, is, is very important.

There are parts of the country where they have moratoriums on building during rainy seasons, you know, and we have to work around it or, or, uh, you know, just, you know, what, what’s reasonable. There are some more temperate parts of the country where they kind of go year round, like South Florida, sometimes it just gets really hot and people don’t want to work there, you know, it’s hot and humid, so.

Host: And the deserts, you might be praying for a wet in day then as opposed to a dry in day.

Steve Tuma: Right, right, right, so.

Host: Let’s, let’s talk a little bit about building off grid, that’s a big thing now. Everybody’s going from building little vans that they live in and travel around into to building houses in the middle of nowhere that with using a lot of solar and, and propane and, you know, putting in access roads where there’s no city hookups at the property line. Uh, let me talk about building remote or off grid, and what, are there pros and cons to that, and what’s your opinion on overall on that?

Steve Tuma: I think people should build where they want to, where it makes sense, you know, they should follow the rules, you know, sometimes there’s reasons you don’t want to build in certain areas like in swamps. But, but the, the point is, you know, building remote and off grid could be two different things. Remote could be you still have access to electric and, you know, you can get a well and a, you know, maybe some type of a septic, but maybe there’s still a road. And then there’s like off grid where you have no utilities. You’re, you’re working off solar, battery systems, maybe bringing water in and people fill up tanks or whatever types of, you know, uh, sewage systems they have.

But the concept is, is kind of the same. It’s really access to utilities. So, the, the idea of saying, hey, I want to go build and, you know, where my, my closest neighbor’s 70 miles away, the concept is still the same as if you were building in places that might be more populated, just more the, you know, what are you going to rely on for power.

And then also some places, um, zoning, like certain areas, you know, if, if you went in the middle of a populated city and say, I want to be total solar with compost toilets and stuff like that, their codes may not allow it, so there are areas that do allow off-grid building, generally more in the west, the western states where you can literally be off grid and have a, a self-contained home.

But the process for us is very similar. It’s the design, what house do you want, um, what type of foundation, what type of insulation, um, you know, different details on the structure. But what we’ve found on the remote properties or the off-grid properties, the people kind of start sliding into organic design. Because with off grid, there’s limited power, okay? So, with the solar systems, now there’s a lot of power, but they, they want to be, you know, conserve it, so they might have lot bigger overhangs to keep sun out in the heat of the day. They might have the orientation of the house advantageous to, you know, warm in winter, cool in summer.

So, there, there’s a lot more thinking of what, where you’re going to put the house and the design of the home. Generally people that are doing off-grid homes are not doing the same design of the house in, in a suburb. You know, it’s just different, you know, they’re, they’re doing something that might be a little more modern design with different roof pitches, different glass to, to uh, allow for uh, the use of natural energy, but also keep, you know, the heat or the cool out.

So, we’re, we’re completely capable of, of working with people on this, this uh, the whole process, um, you know, whether it’s in a highly populated area with, you know, lot line, you know, building setbacks that are zero right on the lot line, or if it’s off grid where, you know, people can see for miles and miles and not see a neighbor. So, the process is the same. It’s more the understanding of, of, of energy where whether it’s solar, you know, they’re gaining solar or they’re protecting the house from solar heating the house, so there could be different types of roof systems, roof designs, roof coverings, windows, orientation, um, and also sometimes drainage systems like, do people want to keep the gray water for the yard?

So, we’re, we’re fully capable of, of helping people like that, and it’s, those projects are really, really interesting. The people that want to do it have generally researched things and have an idea, they just need someone to, to put it together, and, and even though some of these might be off grid, um, most of them are still under some type of control on the building permit, and we’re able to, to help the people uh, um, navigate that. And if they’re in an area that doesn’t need or has very limited building department uh, access, you know, we’re, we’re still there to help them make sure it’s built right, just because, you know, the building department isn’t there doesn’t mean you still, you don’t want to build cheap, you, you want to build it right. There’s, you still want the protection from snow loads and wind loads and different things like that, so, we’re able, we’re able to help someone uh, through, through that process, and some of those projects are, you know, really dazzling. They, they may not be huge mega-dollar houses, but the achievement of the design and the minimization of reliance on power, you know, grid power is, is pretty amazing. So, it’s uh, it’s pretty cool.

Host: You know, I’ve been, I’ve been seeing a lot of people in a lot of these search engines, uh, people who are thinking of building a house, they’re talking about multi-generational house building, um, and I didn’t even think about it until I started seeing this, and it’s uh, you know, people are, are used to be a lot of, you know, build a house and turn it over and then build another house and turn it around, but now people are designing their homes for the long haul, they, they, they’re expecting their, their kids and their grandkids to be in these same houses. What, what are your thoughts on that uh, multi-generational uh, build, building uh, design?

Steve Tuma: Well, I, I think it’s pretty interesting, because sometimes it’s multi-generational in that, you know, three generations can live there, but then it’s also, you know, as someone passes through the generations, you know, okay, they, they started as a kid, then they, then they get married, they have kids, then maybe they’re the, the grandparents, and where do they live? So, I think that, that cuts into some of this affordability detail, the reasonableness of the cost of living, but also the support of living, because, you know, cost of housing’s getting higher, we’re able to help people control the cost to something that works with them, but if someone’s going to work with uh, you know, a certain pay scale, how can they afford child care?

So, it’s kind of cool they have the grandparents or, you know, kids there.

Host: Well, yeah, it’s to me it’s definitely pro-family for sure, but it’s like, you know, if your kid grows up and he gets married, in the past it was like, well, this house is too small for two wives and you got the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law and they’re not getting along, but now it looks like people are looking to build for having multiple families live in one house and then the younger generation takes over from the older generation, but maybe the olders stay around and they, and they are taken care of in the same house and it keeps people from having to be moved into homes and things like that. I like it.

Steve Tuma: That, that’s what we’re seeing more and more of is, is taking care of mom and dad or the, the in-laws or something like that. So, what we’re seeing is the desire for people to maintain a quality of life. Um, so sometimes it’s the financial thing of hey, if, if you lived in Los Angeles where you can afford houses are ridiculous, but hey, if you go out a little and have a multi-generational home, your family can live in a more affordable place closer to work. So, that’s one sense of multi-generational, and then the other sense is, I got to take care of mom and dad or brother and sister or, or whoever, whoever it, it may be. We’ve, we’ve had families that have autistic, uh, family members, so, they’ll, they’ll have like a separate unit in the house, whether it’s a big bonus room, an ADU, or a separate room, and that in a sense acts as the same thing as if it were a grandparent or a, a younger family member that, that needed help moving along with, with life.

So, we’re seeing a lot of that. Sometimes it’s in the form of uh, a home with a walkout basement where the walkout basement is made to be very livable. Sometimes it’s a big bonus room over the garage that in a sense becomes its own apartment. Sometimes it’s its own separate actual ADU, casita, granny flat, whatever you may call it, where it’s literally a, a set, a separate building, and then we’ve also had people do things to design things for what may happen in the future, the aging in place situations, where sometimes people say, hey, I’m going to build a four-car garage because I know in 10 years someone’s going to need help and part of that garage is going to become a separate apartment, or they’ve done it for, for, for rental or short-term rentals that then maybe a family member would move into.

So, there’s that sense, but then there’s also aging in place on just the consideration of the width of doorways, kind of an ADA-type thing of hey, have, have easily accessible uh, bathrooms, you know, turnaround space, space to go there. We’re having more and more people doing the sunken showers, so instead of, you know, walking into a, a bathroom with a flat floor, you know, then stepping over a ridge to get into a shower, it’s literally a, a no, no, no difference in elevation where they can roll into a shower.

So, there’s a lot of people that are considering this, and I think what’s happening is they’re using their home to gain massive equity and wealth over time, and what they’re finding is if they build a quality home now when they’re 20, 30, 40, 50, whatever it may be, when they’re at the 60, 70, 80 range, they have a huge equity position and a house that makes sense for them. Right. You know, so they’re, they’re, they’re not saying, hey, I’m going to live in this house for five years and move, um, they’re saying, hey, I’m going to be here for 30 years, let’s, let’s look about where I may or may not be in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and sometimes people uh, do that for, you know, any health concerns or maneuverability issues, but sometimes they also do it to say, hey, you know, this, this is kind of going down a separate path to say, hey, I could build this house and then later I could call Landmark and we could add this other wing on. You know, so, sometimes there’s, there’s, there’s long range plans and how to do it.

And here, here’s another thing which is kind of a, a deeper spin on aging in place. I’ll call it what I’ve determined is the, the kind of heirloom home where people are like, hey, I’ve got a few families doing this now, it’s like, I’m a grandparent now, I want to see my family. So, they’re developing houses where the family can come in and live, convertible spaces, a den that becomes an extra bedroom, you know, a walkout basement that’s a, a rec room that could easily be a suite for a, a family with a few kids.

So, a lot of people are going back to the, hey, let’s keep my family together, let’s know who we are. We’re, we’re living in this digital age where everyone’s connected, but less and less people know each other. So, there, there’s a, there’s a concern of people to say, hey, when the family’s here for the holidays, birthdays, any other special events, let’s make sure everyone’s comfortable. So, sometimes a lot of people think aging in place is the simplification, other people say, hey, I want to keep my family together, you know, whether someone needs to come back for whatever reasons or whether, hey, we want to make sure that we do the, the big holidays together so our family knows each other.

Um, we’ve actually had houses, um, you know, 1200 square foot ranches where walls and doors were put together so that people can open up a walkout basement or main living room and have 30 people over for the holidays. In a, in a relatively modest home, so, it just takes a little bit of thinking and design time and we get it taken care of, and that, that’s the cool thing about it is not just helping someone build a home, but helping someone build a home for what makes sense in their life today, tomorrow, and a little bit down the road. I guess that’s the long answer about aging in place.

Host: I really like that phrase, that turn of phrase, heirloom home, that’s really nice, pro-family.

Steve Tuma: Well, we, we’ve got a lot of people doing that, it’s like, you know, I’ve dreamed about this in my, my whole life, I’m leaving this to my kids so they have a place to get together. We did a, a big house in Northern Michigan, we have one in, uh, West Virginia where the guy had a vision when he’s 15 that he wants to retire in a certain place and have his family there, he found 300 acres, contiguous acres, and he’s, he’s putting a house up, uh, couple in New Mexico that we’re doing, like Angel Fire, New Mexico in the mountains, Santa Fe area, where people are, uh, are having these kind of spots to say, hey, we’re, we’re getting together.

What’s interesting is some of these are new land purchases, but what’s really cool is sometimes grandpa bought it 70 years ago and then no one’s built on it, and the family’s coming together. Right. So, there, there’s something really, really cool there. So, you know, I’m a guy that wants to be as healthy as I can, and when you see aging in place, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re degrading, it maybe it means that everyone’s coming together, you got the kitchen for everyone to make their food, the garage for people to tinker, the backyard for people to run around and barbecue or whatever it is, so. It’s, uh, it, it’s, it’s pretty cool.

Um, someone out there saying, hey, how do you deal with that if there’s 20 family members? How do you deal with that to design a home? Generally, they, they appoint one or two people and then we work with them to, to get the design. So,

Host: You know, that all of that leads into another, uh, sort of inquiry that people are making online, and that’s, uh, non-traditional builds, and people are, you know, using phrases like barndominiums and, of course, the, uh, ADUs and guest cottages, and, and, in most interesting to me is people building sort of shops with, uh, with living quarters above them or attached to them as panelized projects, that’s a, that’s interesting. How much of that are you guys doing now? Do you find it’s, it’s, it’s higher than it used to be, or what do you think?

Steve Tuma: Well, what I’m finding is all of those processes as far as our internal process, we can take care of all of those. Sometimes there’s just, you know, the phrase of the year, you know, a while back after the economic crash, it was tiny homes. Everyone was tiny homing it. Now people are saying barndominiums, you know, someone came up with that little rage, and there’s TV shows and a whole bunch of stuff about it.

There’s nothing different about it that we can’t do, because it’s still you’re designing a home for a particular customer’s need. You’re engineering it, supplying all the details so that they can go build it. So whether someone says big boxy home with tall ceilings or barndominiums, it’s kind of the same thing. Barndominiums just has a certain bite to it or certain pizzazz where I think it is.

But yeah, we’ve done a bunch of barndominiums. I would just call them just big, space-efficient, large homes. But what they are is it’s sometimes a support of a lifestyle. We helped a family in Colorado do it on land that they’ve owned, that’s been in the family, and as a family goes out, they don’t have as much time, but this family was all centered in motorhomes. So they had the grandparents with this, the center family this, the younger family had a smaller one. So what they did on this land that someone bought 60 or 70 years ago, is they built a house—big barndominium, big open living room with a view of the mountain range, tall ceilings—and then a variety of suites in it. And then in the back was a big garage where you could put three or four motorhomes. So they can put them in there, maybe have to live in them if there’s extra guests there, but they can maintain them, clean them, get them all set up, and then open the door and hit the road.

So, yeah, barndominiums to me has been a buzzword that someone developed up here, but they’re not true barns. I mean, it might be that look. I think eventually where that came from is there’s probably a barn that someone said, “Hey, we can make it in a living space,” or use barn-type construction, which a lot of places will not allow, so it’s become a buzzword. But before barndominiums came up, they were just big houses with huge attached garages and big wrap-around porches.

Host: I’ve noticed that most of the people inquiring about barndominiums are artist types—people who are living upstairs, but they’ve got an open space below to create, to build a gallery, a paint studio, or welding artists, things like that.

Steve Tuma: The ones we’ve worked on have been kind of tied to a lifestyle, whether it’s equestrians—you know, horses—ranching, being in nature, big family get-togethers, whatever it may be. So that’s what I look at.

But yeah, you brought up ADUs, guest cottages, kind of the same thing. ADU, additional dwelling unit. In some places with high populations, that’s to make more affordable housing. There’s incentives or things that make it easier for people to build it so that you could put up a little house, say in a place that’s more expensive to live in, so that a variety of people can live in the community. That in a sense could be a guest cottage, so it could be a 400, 500, 600, 700 square-foot home that in a sense is self-contained. It’s maybe two bedrooms, a bath, bath and a half, kitchen, living room, maybe its own garage, so that people can live individually.

And then the other thing is the shops with living quarters above. We have a lot of people doing that. Sometimes on bigger projects, if someone’s like, “Hey, this is my house, I’ve got to do this for whatever reasons—financials, personal life situations, whatever—I want to build my first one as a house with a garage under it,” living space, the old-time coach house someone might say, where there was space for the vehicles below and then living space above, and then down the road, they’re going to go put their big house behind it. So sometimes it’s a stepping stone. Other times, in today’s work-from-home situations or self-employment, artists, or whatever it may be, or hobbyists, people want to have a shop there with additional living space for guests, themselves, whatever it is.

But the thing about it is, this was labeled non-traditional builds or different, or the buzzwords of tiny homes, barndominiums. We have a very flexible process. If someone wants to design a 200 square-foot home, we could do it. If someone wants to design a 20,000 square-foot home, we can do it. Whether you call it a house, a barndominium, an ADU, whatever it is, the process for us is there. So, yes, Landmark can do barndominiums, ADUs, mansions, tiny homes, homes with airplane hangars on them. We can do homes with big man caves, she-sheds, whatever it is, because it’s really just the designing of a structure around a particular use.

We’ve had people where their concern was the kitchen. Just give me three bedrooms, but this is my kitchen, and they’re going to detail it out to the nth degree. We have some families that have airplanes, so they want their airplane in a hangar under the house or to the side of the house. We have people that build houses by water areas where they want a boat house there. We have people that are into car restoration or antique cars. We have people that are artists that have their own shops, studios there. We have people in audio-visual that have their own little places there where they can run a business, and sometimes it’s hobby and sometimes it’s business.

So we’re able to do this. The concept of, “Hey, we can’t do a barndominium”—well, barndominium is just a word for a certain design. So if someone wants to come to us and do an 1880s Victorian, we can do it. If they want to do a ’50s mid-century modern, we can do it. If they want to do the after-the-war affordable house, we can do it. We’ve done stuff like this. We did some in Leadville, Colorado, where it’s a mining town, where the miners had designs of a certain way, certain simple worker cottage designs. We’ve had people do that, and then we’ve done some extreme modern designs and very custom designs.

The key to it is we have a full design team where people can come up with the idea, we can draw it so that they can understand it, and we work together to fine-tune it and do it. So whether it’s called a guest house, a mansion, a tiny home, a barndominium, or whatever word someone comes up with next year for a house, we can do it because we’re designing a living space using the efficiency of the panelized system and our ability to make sure it’s energy-efficient and structurally sound. So it’s very flexible.

Host: Well, if you’re good to go, we’ve got one more question in our top 10 online inquiries list here, so let me throw that at you. That’s people are wondering about the importance of reading the fine print of any panelized home package or basically any kind of a build package. I guess you at Landmark do a lot of coaching?

Steve Tuma: Well, what we do is we work with people. What you’re getting at there is how do you know that your house is getting designed right? How do you know you’re going to get what you want? Because a lot of people look at panelized homes like a gallon of milk. They think that they’re all the same: just go get it, get a cheap price, and hope it shows up. But the reality of it is they’re not all the same.

You could say a 2×6 is a 2×6. To a certain degree that’s right; there’s different grades, different species, but how is it used? So, not specifically on just the 2×6, but the overall design of the house. All of us have been in houses where it’s like, “Yeah, it’s a nice house,” and then all of us have been in homes where you go, “You know, this is just comfortable. It flows well, the windows are cool, the kitchen works, the bathroom works.” That’s because someone designed it right.

So that could be for the enjoyment of being in the home, but it can also be for the actual efficiency—energy efficiency, the flow of it, the use of materials, hitting the budget right. And that’s one of those things that people will go through and say, “I got the best this, I got the best that.” Well, sometimes that’s a result of experience, recommendations, or reviews.

And I think what someone has to do if they’re looking around saying, “How do I know on a panelized home package, how do I know I’m getting taken care of?” What’s interesting is people will call me, they’ll talk to us and say, “Hey, Steve, we really like your panel package here, this and that.” This just happened to me where a person came and said, “Hey, this other company is a little cheaper.” It was like 2% cheaper on a very expensive home. At first, I was like, what’s the point? Pick the company that’ll take care of you, but with the amount of money it was, this 2% was a reasonable amount of money, and we went through and said, “Hey, who’s designing it? What about this? What about this? Your floor system’s missing.”

So you’ve got to have an understanding of what it is that you need, and it’s not necessarily just the panel package as itself, it’s the design, the support, making sure someone’s paying attention to the design as it applies for your family’s need and the location that you’re building. Because there’s always ways to brush through and say, “Oh, that’s good enough,” and then there’s ways to say, “Hey, let’s sit back, let’s take a look at this, and make sure that it’s right for what this family wants.”

We had a situation just today on a person building in New York where they wanted a heated floor system on a house. They’re building kind of a barndominium-type of a home. There’s living space to the side, it’s two stories, it’s all on a slab, and then there’s a garage area that’s about 1,400 square feet. He’s got his collector cars and a big motorhome there. Something came up on the energy calculations that just the nature of the design, it wasn’t working with the energy calculations. So we could have done something to make it pass—it would have been very expensive for the customer, but it would have passed. Instead, we’re like, “Hey, wait a second. Let’s work with the different types of insulation on the slab, the type of heating and cooling systems, the different types of roof structures so that we could put better insulation in certain places, insulate the walls.” So we were able to have the house pass the energy efficiency standards, but still keep it in a price range that was sensible.

So what I’m trying to differentiate is when people say, “Hey, my house is energy efficient,” compared to “It was designed right so it’s not just energy efficient, it’s affordable, and it makes sense today, tomorrow, and in the future.” So those are the things that nine out of ten customers don’t ask us; we bring it up, because it’s not just a matter of saying, “Hey, give me a kitchen, give me a window, give me a garage.” It’s like, “Hey, let me put this together.”

Now, we don’t go so deep that it’s analysis paralysis, but we do go to a point of saying, “Hey, this is sensible. If we can take a little time to go through and do things a certain way, we can.” So in this particular case I was bringing up about the project in New York, we probably spent an extra couple hours working with the energy calculations, some structural design, some insulation details, and my estimation is it probably saved the customer about $10,000. We didn’t charge extra for it. No, $10,000 no matter what your budget is is appreciated, and so people can put it into something—you know, they can save the money or they can put it into something that really adds a little extra to their home.

And I think that’s the point that not all people understand is panelized homes are not all the same. It’s not like a gallon of milk. These are all different homes. It’s how you design it, it’s how you use it. Is the consideration of energy efficiency there? Is the consideration of ease of building there? Is the consideration of overall reasonableness in construction and affordability?

So that I think is where we really stand out—is we’re able to get deep into the design to explain to people, “Hey, you want this type of a roof rafter.” I’m going through that right now. Again, this project is in New York. This is a different one than I just spoke about, but there’s a big, sweeping roofline. Well, do you do that sweeping roofline with a 2×12, an I-joist, or a parallel chord roof truss? So in the process, we’re working with the truss designers, the I-joist designers, the structural engineers, the architectural designers, and the energy code people to see which the best balance is to make sure the design is met, the structure’s met, but also the energy efficiencies met.

It’s pretty neat to see this all come together, and because we have these resources and experience and knowledge, and most importantly, desire to do it this way, the customer ends up with a better home at a great price. And they understand it, they see the value of it, and it’s a home that they designed with our help.

Host: Back to my original observation though, you guys do a lot of coaching for your customers. Some people say, “Well, you know, I’ve got my Uncle Bob, he’s been a contractor for years, he knows how to build,” but most people don’t have that readily available, and I think it’s cool that Landmark provides as just a no-cost extra service. You guys are really good at coaching people through a building process.

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s also just our passion and desire. It’s the type of people we are to help our customers go through, because I’m not the type of person—all of us have had it where someone says, “Just do it, it’s the right thing.” Well, who’s determined it’s the right thing? So I’d rather spend the time to go, “Hey, customers, we have these options, this is what I’m thinking, this is what makes sense, does it work for you?” And invariably, they always say, “Yeah, thanks for taking the time to do this, we didn’t even think about it.”

Because who thinks about it? When you talk to your friends about building a home, it’s always, “Oh, we got this great kitchen,” or “My garage is this,” or “We got a rec room in the basement.” Whoever sat there and said, “You know, the structure of my roof is optimized for energy efficiency in my budget?” No one. But that’s the business we’re in—to help people take care of things like that. So, yeah, it’s coaching, but it’s also just good old basic do the right thing. That’s the cool thing about it.

Host: What I’m getting to is that when people buy from Landmark, they’re not on a meter. You know, the clock’s not running.

Steve Tuma: That’s a reflection of the passion about it. It’s like, take a little time now to work through all those things so that when the customer’s in the house, they appreciate it.

Did I tell you that we got a—this happened last summer. It was like a Saturday afternoon, I was just relaxing, and I’m like, “Oh, I’ll check emails, see if anyone needs something,” and I got an email from a customer we helped about 20 years ago. They said, “Steve, you may not remember us”—and I did, because I’ve worked with every single customer in 32 years. I remember their project. They said, “We built with you 20 years ago. Friends came here and we’re still bragging about our house. It’s been hit by three hurricanes and a tornado went by where the town steeple was blown away. I think they said two miles away they found the steeple of the church. And they said, ‘It’s a beautiful home. You always told us it’s a good home, but after what we’ve experienced, we are now really appreciative of all the work that you did, and we wanted to reach out.'”

You know what that feels like after 20 years for someone to contact you out of nowhere and say thank you?

Host: It’s got to be a good feeling.

Steve Tuma: That’s the ultimate thing, and when that happens, it’s like, hey, I want to make sure that happens 20 years from now. Let’s get better every day and help people work on their design so that they understand what’s going on and that they’re building a viable home. There’s a lot of places to sort out how to build a house, but are you doing it right? Is it right for now, the long term? Are people working with you to get the house that you want if your budget’s tight, which pretty much everyone’s is? What’s being done to navigate it to get you the most of what’s available for the house that’s there so that you spend your money on a house that you’re proud of? My belief is you should drive up to your house after a hard day’s work and go, “Yeah, this is it, this is cool.” That’s what’s amazing about it. We’re here to help people and have a lot of fun.

Host: And that’s what it’s all about. That’s going to about wrap it up for today’s edition, Episode 90 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. But before we let you go, Steve, as we usually like to do, let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys are doing over there.

Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check us out on our website at LHLC.com. The company name is Landmark Home and Land Company, but LHLC.com, they can find it. On our website, there’s discussions of what we do, there’s pictures, there’s videos, there’s these podcasts. I think we have 6,000 plans—it only says 1,600 or something, but we have 6,000 plans where people can go through, pick a plan out, and then send an inquiry and say, “Hey, I want to build this house. My name’s Joe Smith, I want to build in Las Cruces, New Mexico,” or wherever it may be, and then we’ll get back with them and work with them.

They can also call 800-830-9788, and Mike will answer the phone. We’re very good at answering phones. If you do get voicemail, leave a message; we will call you back right away. Mike will initially work with customers up front, just sorting out the details, what needs to be done, kind of getting a feel, hey, do they have land, where is it, what type of design, and then at a certain point, I’ll start working with them to finalize the details and really get the plans going and make their project happen.

So that’s the best thing to do, and then we’re also on social medias—all the main outlets: X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. So people can check us out there, but I think the most important thing is check out the website and then give us a call, and then we could have a one-on-one conversation of exactly what it is that they want to build and how it applies to them. That’s what we want to do—is get specific on this family, this house, this piece of land, and what they’re trying to achieve.

And then people are always welcome to call me. My direct cell phone is 708-205-2043, and it’d be fun to talk to people, see how they like the podcasts, see what we can do to help them. Whether someone wants to start building today or it’s a project a year or two or longer out, we’re here to help them. We’ll be here. We’ve been here 33 years; we’re looking forward to the next 33.

Host: Not going anywhere. That’s a good thing.

Steve Tuma: We’re having too much fun. There’s too many cool houses and great people out there to help.

Host: Yeah, and there’s so much on that website too, LHLC.com, including many, many more archived versions of these episodes of this podcast, and a lot of cool videos and stuff, too, so I encourage everybody to check out the website.

Steve Tuma: Yes. Well, hey, this was a really interesting one, a lot of little twists and turns in the conversation, but I hope a lot of important, valuable information that people think about, but don’t necessarily always—you know, it’s not always the forefront of conversation.

Host: Yeah, well, we bounced around a lot, but I really appreciate the fact that you have so much knowledge that you’re able to field questions coming from all over the place and make them listener-friendly, which is great.

Steve Tuma: Well, we’re coming from a point of real-life experience, too, so we’ve helped so many people in different situations that if we haven’t seen it, it’ll be a surprise, but I think we can help almost anyone, so we’d love them to contact us. Thanks.

Host: There you go. Thanks again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. Bye.

A: To build a custom home, you typically need a main building permit, which requires detailed architectural floor plans, elevations, structural engineering, foundation designs, and site plans. Depending on your location, you may also need separate approvals for zoning, water connections, septic systems, and local review boards. During construction, standard inspections include foundation footers, structural framing, rough mechanicals (HVAC, plumbing, and electrical), and final occupancy inspections.

A: Never rely solely on a seller’s word or basic zoning footprint rules. A piece of land may fit a building footprint, but lack access to utilities, septic suitability, or proper soil conditions. Before purchasing, check with both the zoning and building departments, verify water and sewer connections at the lot line, review setback requirements, and inspect the land’s slope and soil stability to ensure unexpected site preparation costs don’t ruin your budget.

A: Site-specific engineering ensures your home is structurally designed to handle the exact environmental conditions of your specific property—not just a generic zip code. Snow loads, wind speeds, seismic activity, and soil bearing capacities can vary drastically even within the same county or mountain elevation. Having your plans engineered specifically for your lot prevents structural failures and avoids costly plan re-submissions at the building department.

A: Guaranteed package pricing locks in the cost of your preliminary designs, detailed permit plans, structural engineering, and delivered panelized home materials in your purchase agreement. This hedges against sudden spikes in lumber prices, inflation, or unexpected drafting fees, giving you full control over your construction budget from day one.

A: Yes. Because every wall panel, roof truss, and structural beam is pre-designed and engineered in a factory setting, the components arrive at your site ready for immediate assembly. Framing crews can assemble a complex, multi-story panelized home in as little as five days, reducing labor costs, limiting jobsite weather exposure, and keeping your overall schedule on track.

A: Successful owner-builders need continuous, direct access to expert technical support before, during, and after their materials ship. Rather than navigating building department questions, subcontractor inquiries, or site adjustments on your own, having direct access to experienced home designers ensures that issues are resolved quickly without delaying construction or creating costly change orders.

Steve Tuma: With our system, everything’s pre-planned, it’s thought through, and it’s the exact house the customer wants. It’s just easier for everyone, and it controls costs and it controls headaches. That’s the nicest thing—it controls headaches.

Host: Howdy friends, and welcome to episode 89 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today, as he never fails to be, is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a 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 go the battles, buddy?

Steve Tuma: Oh, it’s actually great. It was a very interesting day today. It’s… a lot of people are starting to build. You know, sometimes our calls come in, there’s waves where sometimes it’s a little slower, sometimes it’s a little busier. But it’s building up again, and I think what’s happening is people are looking at different interest rates, land, how they really want to build. We’re getting a customer base of people that are very interested in working with a very knowledgeable group of people, people that respond, understand the right design, understand how to work with the land to develop a complete set of plans. So it’s pretty cool to see that the people that are contacting us take an interest. They each have different levels of information or knowledge that they have, but they’ve taken an interest in really knowing how to build it. They’re just not like buying a gallon of milk off a shelf. This is their home. It’s an heirloom for their family, it’s a place for birthdays and stuff. So today it was just amazing to hear all the different inquiries that came in. It’s really cool.

Host: Another beautiful day in Landmark Paradise.

Steve Tuma: Exactly. Well, it’s just neat because over 32 years of helping people, we’d like to say, hey, we are the best panelized home company, not just because of the product of the panelized home, but I think three times I heard today that people say, “Steve, it’s the design. It’s the help upfront. It’s the what-ifs. It’s that question that you get, you know, you’re sitting there scratching your head saying, ‘How does this affect that?'” We give a call, we help our customers, we design the home so it works. And they’re saying it’s our knowledge base, responsiveness, understanding. What’s cool about it is we’ve worked with… you know, our company, Mike and I founded it, and it’s a lifelong pursuit of experience, and we work directly with the customers on each and every project, so it’s firsthand information. It’s very helpful for customers on navigating permits, how to build, and just general questions of what if, what if, how does this work, can you clarify this for me? So it was a really interesting day. It’s kind of amazing.

Host: Well, that’s good. I always like your enthusiasm, man. I came into this podcast, the years we’ve been doing it, and I knew nothing about home building. Now I consider myself something of… well, less than a dunce in the corner, you know, just from listening to you and getting all these questions together and researching everything so I make sure that I’m on top and I can ask you the questions that I think are relative to the listeners. So, always good. Today I want to get into some Landmark Home and Land Company business specifics, but first off, we ran a little short on time during the last episode, and there were still a few questions I wanted to ask in our topic of the top 10 searches on the internet concerning panelized home building and other aspects of homeowner buildership in general. So would you mind indulging us and just picking up a few remaining points before we get into other things?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, let’s get… Last time it was amazing, and I think it was one of the longer podcasts because it was just… I think we were able to give customers a lot of information that helped them understand the process of what it takes to be an owner-builder.

Host: Right, and there were so many… there were so many aspects of this top 10 sort of thing we wanted to do, you know, going onto the internet and just seeing what the searches were, what people were searching out to find more about panelized homes and home building in general. So, yeah, well, let’s get into it. One of those top 10 remaining search questions regards permits, and that is, people are asking: what permits and inspections do I need and in what order?

Steve Tuma: That’s a really interesting one because we work nationwide and also have some international projects. So each building department is a little different. There are still places, amazingly, in the country that don’t have building departments, and others that are very sophisticated. So the permits that you will need for building are the actual building permit, where they’re actually looking at, you know, what does the house look like: floor plans, elevations, roof plans, foundation plans, plumbing, and electric. And sometimes they get more sophisticated. Generally there’s also a zoning department, maybe you have a water department, a sewage department, whether it’s septic or an actual sewer connection. We’ve had where there’s homeowners associations, architectural review departments, historic committees. So I don’t want to confuse it that much because it can get deep and overwhelming, but the reality is we’ll take care of the details on the plans for the building permit so that someone could go into the building department and do it. The best thing to do is contact us, because there is a variance between building departments on what they need. Sometimes these building departments don’t always give a complete list. So if you call one of these agencies, they might be like, “Yeah, this is what you need for a building permit,” but they may not tell you that, hey, you also need a water connection or a septic or zoning approval or any other types. So since we have this experience, we could work with the customers on the range of what they’re possibly looking for, help them search it, and then help them understand what applies to them, and then how we help them make sure that those items are taken care of. Now, we’ve been doing this for almost 33 years, so we have a strong understanding. Even customers that have built four, five, six homes with us, ten homes with us, sometimes they’re in a different jurisdiction and different building departments will ask different questions. The nice thing is we can help them through it. So I’d say the best thing to do is find out where you’re building your land, find out what the name of the building department is. We can help get through it and kind of take it from there. The actual inspections, generally there’ll be inspections for the foundation, generally the footers, the foundation rebar and different things before they pour it. They’ll ask for a framing. Then after framing, you can move on with roofing and mechanicals. Generally there’s an HVAC, plumbing, and electric inspection, and then some building departments might do additional inspections beyond that as it goes along. But the key to it is the plans that Landmark Home and Land Company supplies will be good for permitting and building, and there’s a big importance to that because everything will line up, and our panelized home package will be built to the exact set of plans that are approved. That’s a key element, that’s very important, because it makes the process easy for you, makes it much easier, and also cleaner for the inspections. It’s just cleaner overall, helps you stay to budget, helps you stay to schedule.

Host: Yeah, that’s pretty concise. I don’t know what else you could add to answer that question. Let me follow that up with another one of these searches. People are wondering what questions they should even be asking before they get started as a new owner-builder. That’s kind of a broad statement, but I’m guessing you have an answer to that.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s a very broad scope, because there’s questions as far as, “Hey, how do you design, how do you build?” What we’re finding in the market, and I think what people really appreciate, is—I could tell you why people appreciate working with us at Landmark Home and Land Company—they initially look for a panelized home. That’s the product that they believe that they’re looking for: “Hey, how do I get the panelized home system? How do I know my trusses are designed right? How do I know the structure’s right? How do I know that my home’s going to be built right and then get inspected and approved?” The thing that we always point out to people is it’s the homework that you do upfront that really puts you in that position. There are options in the panelized world, as well as other building methods. The first is, what questions… you should ask yourself, what do you want? Do you want a simple, inexpensive house? Do you want something big, a big mansion? Where are you building, and then what type of building system works? So in the owner-builder world, you can always go places and buy things, but where do you get the customer support? When you’re sitting here going, “Hey, this showed up,” or “Hey, I have a question about this,” or “Hey, the building department’s asking about some structural engineering details, how do I get it done?” Because there’s a lot of theories out there. There’s a lot of stuff floating around on the internet. Sometimes I look at it, and it’s kind of humorous to see the tales that are out there online and people perpetuate them. But the reality is, how does it apply to me? If I was building a weekend home in the Colorado mountains, it’s going to be a little different than if you’re building maybe your main home in the Midwest, or your winter home in Florida, whatever it may be. So the key to it is, how do I know this is getting designed right? Because the reality is, you can buy a 2×6 anywhere, okay? They’re anywhere. It’s how are the materials used right to achieve the goal that you want. So my answer to what should an owner-builder be asking… my answer is, how do I get support? How do I know I’m doing this right? What if there’s a question that comes up? What if my foundation guy has a question about something, how do I answer it? I think that’s the key thing, because an owner-builder, some of them are very, very knowledgeable, they’ve built multiple homes, and some of them have never built. So the situation is, where’s the real support so you can get answers? Because I know a lot of people go online and they look for answers, and I’ve done it myself just to humor myself, and it’s amazing how much conflicting information is out there. So how does it apply? What I think is you need to know that there’s a quality panelized home package that’s designed exactly for your building site, to the requirements of your building department, and also to the design that your family wants. But also, the biggest component of what an owner-builder needs to know is: how do I get help to make sure that this moves along? In a sense, the assistance that Landmark Home and Land Company supplies, I think is the most valuable support system out there. It’s the best support system as far as I’ve been told and I understand. So we’re able to help a customer navigate the building process. It’s not just like one of the big box stores where you buy materials and you’re on your own. With us, we’re helping you through the process, and you know what? That’s free, part of our process, part of our package. That’s just the pride that we take in our own company. This may sound kind of weird, but even though it’s another family’s home, I still kind of consider it to be ours. It’s a representation of us, it’s a representation of our work, it’s a representation of the effort that we put in to make sure that someone’s got a very high-quality home. I call it kind of doing the homework upfront. It’s actually an extremely fun part of the business.

Host: I can imagine. A lot of people when they’re in business say that one of the worst things is having to deal with the public, but your public’s coming looking for you, and they have a definite plan about… they’re building their home. Like you said, it’s not just a house, it’s their future, it’s birthdays, it’s family gatherings, it’s breakfast around the table kind of thing.

Steve Tuma: It’s an investment, it’s part of their retirement plan, it’s quality of life. That’s the thing about it, and that’s what we’re able to help people with. Where if you go buy a standardized product or something off a shelf, yeah, it might work, but do you have the plans for permits, do you have all these details, does it actually work together? A lot of people have the opinion you just go buy a set of plans. They’re like, “Well, I’ll just go buy this set of plans cheap at, you know, whatever.” And they don’t realize that the details are missing. So we’re here to fill in the details that they don’t understand and help them through the process.

Host: And we have one more of these top 10 search engine inquiries, and that is: people are wondering how do they find land that’s actually buildable? And that’s something we’ve talked about a little bit on the show, but finding the land and knowing that it’s going to suit your needs, that’s a big deal.

Steve Tuma: That’s a very interesting question. The question of how do you know that your land is actually buildable? So I had an interesting situation… this is a live situation that’s going on right now with a person in Southern California, a referral from a family member that’s built… from his family member, a brother that’s built with us three or four homes. So he calls the zoning department… this kind of ties back to the building department and what’s required for permits… he calls the zoning department and says, “Hey, what can I build here?” And they said, “You can build an X, you know, 3,000 square foot home here.” Well, they were working off the available footprint, but they didn’t actually check to make sure it’s buildable for other concerns. So he bought this piece of land off of what the zoning department said. Well, the zoning department’s concerned with like setbacks, how tall your home is. They’re not sitting here looking at geotechnical reports: is there water service there, is there sewer service there, is the slope of the land there? So you can end up in a relatively tricky situation on if it’s buildable. So sometimes you have to check with zoning, sometimes you have to check with building requirements, sometimes you have to check with details that they can’t answer, but you have to check yourself, like if it’s an area with septic, is there septic there? Or is the soil condition right so septic can be installed? In some areas, like Colorado, with a well, can you actually get water? And sometimes there’s a little bit of the roll of the dice with it. In areas with water and sewer, you want to check to make sure that it’s a connection in front of the lot. People will say water is available. Well, what does available mean? Does that mean it’s in front of the lot, or does that mean it’s at the end of the block?

Host: Carrying buckets on your head.

Steve Tuma: Right, right, exactly! And those are sometimes the games that are played when people are selling you a piece of land saying, “Hey, it’s available.” And someone might say, “Well, available’s free connection in front of my lot.” Well, that may not be true. So there’s a lot of details there that you’ve got to take a look at. Generally if you’re building on flat land, it’s a little bit easier. If you’re building on sloped land or the sides of hills, it can get a little more complex. The key thing to this is, you know, contact us. We’re here to help our customers understand what it takes to find out if a piece of land is buildable. So we can work with them on the guidance of: check with their zoning department, find out the details from the building department. Do you need a grading plan, do you need a drainage plan? What are the setbacks, access to the land, access to utilities, different things like that. It’s a very important situation. What people should realize is: yes, people will sell you land that is unbuildable and represent that it’s buildable. You just have to find out how expensive it is, and if those expenses can work within the budget that you are. So just like we work with plans for the house, you want to do your homework upfront to make sure that the house you’re building makes sense for your budget, schedule, and needs. You have to do the same thing with a piece of land to make sure that the piece of land is usable for what you want to build and the price range that you want to stay within. Again, I don’t want to scare people by it, I’m just trying to say, hey, these are things that we can help people guide through. But amazingly, it’s pretty cool. A lot of our customers already check this out. They’re researching the land, they’re looking at it, they understand. They’re already owner-builders, but they’ve gotten themselves to step two. But if for some reason someone needs a little additional help or understanding how or why or something applies to them, we’re always available to help them sort out the possibilities of buildable land.

Host: You know, there’s that old saying “buyer beware,” but I think that’s a little negative. But there’s another saying that I’ve heard you say: it’s “trust but verify.” And I think that’s the way to go through life.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s exactly it, because a lot of places will sell you a piece of land and, you know, make a representation, but it’s always good to know. Because in some places there’s just limited land, so with limited land, sometimes you have to take what’s available, and maybe that piece of land has a few more challenges. But if you want to live in that area, it’s an important part. We’ve done a lot of houses in like Silicon Valley, near San Francisco Bay, Colorado in the mountain areas, or where there’s just beautiful views, and there’s only so many lots with beautiful views, or access to the right school or right job, or whatever it may be. Sometimes you have to work with what’s available for your family’s goals.

Host: Well, that was painless. Thanks for clearing up those last few questions. I’m really sorry to the listeners that we didn’t get them in before, but I’m glad we managed to make it work this time. So thanks for doing that, and we can move on to what I actually wanted to start with today. I’d like to get to some other top 10 searches, but they’re searches that are Landmark Home and Land Company specific, so just questions about the company. So if you’re all set for that, let me get going.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, yeah, I should be pretty good at answering these.

Host: I was just going to say, if anybody can answer these questions, it’s you! So to start off with, let’s go over what Landmark is always talking… not always, but Landmark talks about the panelized package guaranteed pricing, and I think people are interested in knowing exactly what that means.

Steve Tuma: Well, the guaranteed pricing that we supply is for the preliminary plans and the customer changes, you know, the little detail changes that they want on plans, the final plans for permits, and delivery of the panelized home package. We do supply a price lock in the purchase agreement, and what that does is it hedges price increases and other details so a customer can have a better control of their budget. And I think people will greatly appreciate that. At first, some people don’t realize that lumber price changes, inflation, different things happen, but it can fluctuate considerably. But the key point again, where people don’t realize the cost it can go, is if you go to an architect, they might charge you like a lawyer: you call them, you talk to them for 5 minutes, they send you a bill for 15 minutes or a half hour, and that all racks up. Where we have a system set up to get you taken care of where we can lock the price in, so it’s controlled. So if you call me with 20 questions, 100 questions, whatever it is, it’s all the pride that we take in making sure that our customers understand the project. We want to work with good customers. So that’s why we have the guaranteed price, so that customers can get the help they need for the house they want to build on the land that they want, but they can also work through the permitting, any other of the processes of building, and still know that the price of their home package is the same. It’s not something where you’re going to go down two or three months down the road and suddenly there’s a big spike in the lumber market and suddenly your package price goes up. So we want to add the stability and just good feeling that our package price is locked in so people can control their budget and know how they’re spending the money. We work with a good customer base of people that want to know what’s going on in their life, what’s going on with their house, what’s going on with the schedule of the house, what features are in the house, what the budget is. So we return that favor by giving a guaranteed price, and I think knowledgeable buyers will greatly appreciate that.

Host: Of course they will. I mean, people like to be told the truth, especially when they find out that the truth actually happens! Makes sense. The other thing is, Landmark has always been careful to say that building a panelized home will surprise you how fast a home would come up, but you guys always make sure you say, “Hey, speed is not the thing we’re looking for.” But there are people out there talking about companies like Landmark and the framing speed. It’s hard to believe it until you see it. How do you address that, people asking about how fast will my Landmark Home and Land Company panelized home go up?

Steve Tuma: Well, this is the interesting thing, because a lot of the framing speed is determined by how we design this. So our better design, our understanding of the process, the way we deliver, we put the customer in the best position to make sure they get the materials when they need it, they can unload it off the truck, start framing, and move along. So it’s in the efficiency of the design that we put together, the panel design, the truss designs, and the clarity in the plans and the assembly plans in the structural design that we supply, where it’s easy and sensible for someone to put together. So it’s all the work and knowledge that we’ve put into making it easy. It’s kind of weird: we know it’s a good home when we’ve simplified even a very complex home so people understand it. And what’s kind of interesting about it is I take care of all the customer service calls. So if someone calls saying, “Hey, how does this beam need to go here?”, it’s on the plans, we can help them find it, put it together, but it’s because we have a good set of plans, it allows people to frame the house quicker, the framing crews understand it, and it moves along quicker. So that’s it. So, for example, we have a house being framed right now, it’s a very complex about 3,000 square foot home, big walkout basement, floor trusses, big huge wrap-around porch, second floor, complex design, a lot of beams, a lot of details going on to do this, and the framing crew is saying that they’re going to have it completely done in 5 days, which for this type of home is exceptionally fast! Now, our customer hires the framing crew, and every framing crew works at a different speed, but we put our customers and their framing crew in the best position so our package is the one helping them move along quickly.

Host: Yeah, that’s amazing when you think about it. I mean, how long does it… I’ve seen houses, I’ve driven by houses even in my own area, and you go, “Man, that’s taking forever to get that house up!” It’s noticeable.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, chances are they’re making a lot of decisions on site, saying, “What goes on here? What’s happening here? Oh, I didn’t know that,” and it creates problems. Where with our system, everything’s pre-planned, it’s thought through, and it’s the exact house the customer wants. It’s just easier for everyone, and it controls costs and it controls headaches. That’s the nicest thing—it controls headaches.

Host: Yeah. Let me talk about the website library of plans. There are something like over 1,600 plans, and most of them are fully, you know, easily customizable. How did you guys come… how long did it take you to build that library, and how does one navigate that when they go onto the website?

Steve Tuma: Well, we work with a really quality plan service. And it’s actually interesting, the 1,600 plans, I actually think it’s over 6,000 plans! And yes, every single one is customizable. So if someone sees a house and it’s got a two-car garage, we can likely make it a three-car. If they say, “Hey, I like the floor plan, but we want a wrap-around porch, or a different front elevation, or add a gable,” or whatever it may be, we’re able to do that. And that is part of our service and the pricing that we supply. So that’s the key element, and it’s not like a lot of designers where they’re just drawing a plan, we’re actually checking the structural design, the energy efficiency, and other concerns when we’re doing those changes so that we’re not backstepping. We’re doing the design so it can flow through so a customer can understand it as we go through, and we’re always available if they have questions. But yeah, we’ve got a good base of plans there. What’s amazing is we have a lot of these plans, and people always change them. I think in 32 years, we’ve had one person say, “I want that exact house.” Everyone does changes, and we’re a believer you should live in the house you want, you know? And sometimes it’s little changes, sometimes it’s a lot of changes. So the plan options are there so people can get ideas, and they can email us and say, “Hey, what’s up with this plan? How much does this cost? Is this a good house for Florida, is this a good house for Colorado?”, whatever it may be, and we can help them.

Host: And we should explain to people that it seems daunting, that there’s such a lot of plans, but really the website is not all that hard to navigate. It’s pretty easy to get around that design library.

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah, yeah! That was a question. You just hit the plan button, a little dropdown, it’ll go over our Special Select, our plan choices, plans for mountains, lake areas, but you can go through the plan search and just put in there and say, “Hey, I want a two-story, I want three bedroom, two bath, I want two-car garage,” and it’ll give you a selection. And then someone could send an inquiry in and ask about it, or they can call us directly and find out how that house would work for them.

Host: There are a lot of inquiries about when you guys talk about things like unified architecture and structural engineering and energy design. That’s a big thing these days. Can you go through that and how that applies with Landmark’s missions and goals in helping customers?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, what we realized way back is that a lot of people were of the opinion that you could just go get a set of plans, or have some designer or architect put a set of plans, and then if you need structural engineering, take it to a structural engineer and this person will come up with a design, then you can go do your energy calculations, your site plan, and they don’t realize that someone has to put that all together. So just because someone drew something doesn’t mean it matches. So let’s say, for example, just because someone drew an architectural set of plans doesn’t mean it works structurally, doesn’t mean it works with the energy codes, doesn’t mean it works with your site plan. So we get a lot of people that have worked with a local designer or whoever it may be in their community, or they bought a set of plans offline, and they’re like, “Yeah, they told me I could take them to the building department.” I’m like, yeah, I’m sure you can take them there. Is the building department going to give you a permit? That’s the question you should be asking! Because in a lot of these plans, there’s big disclosures saying, hey, you’ve got to get it checked, you’ve got to make sure of codes, you’ve got to make sure, you know, your building department will do it. Well, that’s what we wrap up by us having the full design, engineering, energy calculation, and site plan capabilities to make sure that those plans actually work. A lot of people think that just because you pay for a plan, all plans are the same. They are not the same. You know, that’s like saying every hamburger in the world is the same. They’re not. It might be a piece of beef on a bun, but there’s a whole range as to why a hamburger is different. And that’s what we try to do… well, I should say that is what we do and we’re very good at, is making sure that the plans match up. So the structural design matches the architectural design, as does the energy calculation, as does the foundation design, as does the site plan. And people don’t always realize of how those are all intertwined. So to do it right, you have to design it right, turn it into the building department, have them review and approve it, and then make sure it gets built that way. So again, it’s doing the homework upfront and making sure that all the details are put together. You can’t assume that if someone goes to an outside designer, structural engineer, energy code person, site plan person, that they’re magically all communicating and taking care of issues. I’ve never seen it happen, but we do it every day. It’s part of the overall service. And then in addition, we make sure that our panelized package is built exactly to the approved plans, which makes it easier for assembly and makes it much easier for the inspections. It’s very cool. It’s one fluid overall process.

Host: Stickin’ with engineering a little bit, so Landmark’s known for its ability to perform site-specific engineering for wherever you’re building. What exactly does site-specific engineering mean, and how does Landmark help you through that process?

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s the interesting thing, because a lot of people will say, “Hey, isn’t there a canned plan of a house that’s pre-engineered?” And I’m like, well, that’s kind of interesting, because way back, and I think even currently, there’s people saying, “Oh, this house is engineered,” or they represent it’s engineered, but it’s engineered for one town in America. Well, I don’t know how many towns there are in America, but all of them have different requirements. So what we do is make sure that the design is for their site, just for their specific building department, but also their site. So if you have a sloped piece of land, a flat piece of land, a very steep piece of land, a piece of land that has septic or sewer systems, or whatever it may be, we work to make sure that the house is designed for that exact building site. And what’s kind of interesting is we work in a lot of areas where there’s mountain ranges. So some people will say, “Hey, you know, I’m building in this zip code, I’ve got my roof design for this zip code which is 30 pounds.” Well, if you’re in a mountain area in the same zip code, you could have a 3,000, 4,000 foot elevation change, and your snow loads can go way up. So if you build in a lower valley in a mountain range, your snow load may be way less than if you’re a few thousand feet up. So that’s the importance, and in a lot of these places, the different wind speeds, seismic conditions can change considerably. Soil conditions can change considerably. And by doing all the work upfront, we’re able to design your house for your exact building site, so you don’t get the surprises later to say, “Hey, someone else designed my home for a zip code, not to realize that there could be a considerable change in snow loading or other conditions.” That’s what helps people control their project, control their budget, control their schedule, and most importantly, control their sanity!

Host: Right! All right, there was another thing I wanted to ask about, and that is… people say a lot of things about a lot of companies, but when it comes right down to it, I want everyone to know that Landmark doesn’t just put out sound bites and stuff. You guys stand by everything you say. So explain to me what it means when you guys talk about support that doesn’t disappear after the kit ships.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, what happens… I’m a consumer as well, you know, like you go buy something, the salesman’s all interested, but the reality is if you have a question afterwards, no one’s there. It’s just the way some businesses run. Landmark does not run that way. We look at a customer as someone that we want to work with, you know, help them before, during, and after our package is shipped to make sure that the house comes out well, make sure the customer has the support that they need, and help them move along. And a lot of times customers will come back or they’ll recommend a friend years later to build. So we realize that owner-builders, and that whole process, there’s always situations that can arise. So we want to help people as they move along through the process. Say even after the house is framed, and theoretically we’re not really involved anymore, we still want to be there just in case they have questions. If they’re sitting, you know, they’ve got a question about mechanicals or processes or occupancy permits or whatever it may be, that we can be there for support. So we’re supplying much more than just a panelized home package. We’re helping with the design, as we’ve talked about a lot, but also just the support and knowledge base and help so that customers can understand what it is that’s going on with their project, and if they need help, we’re here. We’re proud of what we do. We want to help customers, we choose to be in this business, so we want to be available to help someone build their house.

Host: Yeah, Landmark’s always been known for its customer service, but I think the word “support” really hits with you guys. I mean, it’s more than just customer service. You guys, you’re hanging with your clients and customers all the way.

Steve Tuma: Right, and that’s the key thing. I mean, I talk to the customers a lot, we communicate a lot. It’s kind of like your friends, you’re helping through. You want to know how the project’s coming along. We want to know that the house is built right. We want to know if a customer has a question that we can help them through it so they can keep their project moving. And sometimes these questions are about financing, or permits, or, you know, other things that may come up along the process. We just had a situation right now, a real situation where the building department approved the septic, they’re about to start excavation, and the building department came up last minute and said, “No, we need to change it,” even after they approved something! So it’s like, “Hey, what’s going on?” So I was able to talk to them about the situation and help them understand what was going on so that we can… you know, the project can keep moving forward. And I think that’s just because we’ve helped so many people in so many places around the country, we have the knowledge to help people, and we choose to help them. It’s the fun part of this, helping people move along. It’s the relationship, the support. That’s very important to owner-builders. They may not realize it upfront when they’re calling saying, “Hey, tell me about a panelized home.” It’s really the process of helping an owner-builder use our panelized plans and home packages that’s important. Very important, people don’t think of it until they need the help.

Host: The phrase “personalized and project-specific support,” it’s more than just a passing word for you guys. You guys live it.

Steve Tuma: Right! The perfect example is if you have a problem on your computer, you go online, you search, you say, “How do I do this and that?” You get some answer, but it’s like you go through the steps, it just never works! It’s like there’s always something missing, or you watch a video of, “Hey, how do you do this and how do you do that?”, and it just doesn’t work. So when someone calls up and says, “Hey, I’m Joe Smith, I’m building in Ames, Iowa,” and I understand their project, I’ve worked with them, it’s easier to understand the situation, give them an answer as to how it applies for their project, instead of a generic answer that may not really hit the answer that they need. And by understanding the project, helping them with the design, we’re able to help them. The reality is, by good design, working with the customers, a lot of customers understand the situation, and they’re able to move along on their own because of the support we supply. It’s pretty cool.

Host: And I want people to know that Landmark Home and Land Company has an absolute proven nationwide and international reach. You guys are everywhere, you’re everywhere!

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah, we’ve built all over the US. The interesting thing is, you know, the geographic reach is important, but the conditions of the geographic… you know, below sea level, the highest… I think Leadville, Colorado is the highest populated town in the United States at 11,000-some-odd feet. You know, we’ve helped with waterfront, we’ve helped in the cities, we’ve helped on mountainside, we’ve helped in open fields, we’ve worked with infill lots, and that’s the thing where we’re able to help people through the process. So we’ve worked in building departments that are very simple, we’ve worked in some that are extremely complex. It’s just our forte and the enjoyment we get out of helping anyone in the country. And yeah, we have done international projects, and that’s as cool as well. So it’s kind of neat. We’ve also helped people that live in one city and build in, you know, two, three, four states over. So we’re able to help people with the process, and that’s just something that, you know, we’ve evolved over time to understand how the different code applications are for different building sites, different designs, and it’s just knowledge that we’ve acquired over time. I think it’s extremely unique, and that’s why I think Landmark Home and Land Company is the best panelized home package company, the best designers as well, because of our real experience with customers over more than three decades. That’s the cool thing. Customer service is part of what we help people with.

Host: That’s right, and I think people who’ve worked with you guys in the past know that to be true. There’s no call center when you reach out to Landmark! You guys are actually on the phone! It’s funny, but in this day and age, it’s such a rarity.

Steve Tuma: Right, there’s no dial 1 for this, dial 2 for that. When I work with customers, they have direct cell phone. It’s the same number my 80-some-year-old mom and dad and my family members call on. They call me, they text me, they email me, and I work with them directly. Like I say, I’m a customer myself, I don’t like sitting on hold for days or people telling me they’re getting back with me and they don’t, or, you know… it’s like, hey, if I want help, I’d like to get it right away. And that is what we provide to our customers. And since we’re on top of the projects, we’re very capable of providing answers right away, or if it’s something deeper, getting the answers and helping people move ahead. So we’re in a very good position to help people and make it convenient. Our customer base is a very broad slice of people: on the types of jobs, what they want to do, their backgrounds, their understanding, how busy they are, how available they are, and, you know, we’re able to work with them. So we’ve had customers that have jobs where they can’t answer a phone for 8 hours, they’re in secure areas or they’re just in areas where cell phones don’t work. We’ve had other customers that travel the world on their yachts and they’re calling us on satellite phones floating around the Mediterranean. So we make ourselves available because it’s very important. And a lot of customers, there’s limited time where the husband and wife or the family are together, so they call when they can, and we make ourselves available to help the people. The communication, the knowledge, the direct support for every customer and their exact design and their piece of land is unmatched. I think we’re the best at it. I don’t think anyone else even does it. But we’re the ones that take the pride in our work and we like to share it with customers. It just makes it a lot more fun and a better home for our customers, and it’s just what we do. We’re here to help our customers and make the best possible house. I think we’re the best panelized home company because of that. It’s… the panels are important, the design is important, the caring, the attitude, the knowledge, the proactiveness, that’s the important part, and that’s why people buy from us at Landmark Home and Land Company. It’s pretty cool, it’s a lot of fun.

Host: Enough said, I think! And there it is!

Steve Tuma: That’s a lot of stuff we went over!

Host: That’s right! I love when a podcast like this ends and we’ve covered so much ground, but it doesn’t ever seem boring. And I got to hand it to you, you have a way of explaining this whole process of building, especially panelized homes, that’s so accessible, even to a bonehead like me. So there it is, everyone.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s what it is, and we’ve worked with all different types of people, and, you know, some people understand it, some people need a little more help, some people think they understand it and they don’t. You know, so we’re able to get something put together and kind of take all the noise of the opinions and focus it on how it applies to a customer, and that’s what we’re able to do. And I think that’s the most important part is really helping a customer achieve the goal they want. It’s pretty cool, it’s amazing.

Host: Excellent! So that’s going to do it for this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show, but before we let you go, Steve, as we always do, let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company.

Steve Tuma: I think the best thing to do is check out our website at lhlc.com. That’s kind of the initials of Landmark Home Land Company: lhlc.com. And on our website there’s pictures, there’s videos, there’s these podcasts, there’s discussions on how we help, what we supply, and a lot of plans that people can look at. They can email us and check out… you know, say, “Hey, what about this house? I’m building in, you know, Rapid City, Iowa,” or whatever it might be, and we can kind of communicate with them and see how it goes. And then they’re also always welcome to call us at 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. And they’ll work with Mike just to kind of sort ideas out, see what it is that they need, and then we can get the process going. And then at a certain stage, after they’re ready to go, Mike will transfer them over to me, and then I’ll work with them on the designs, the engineering, the building department details, and get it all wrapped up so that they’ve got a clean set of plans. I always invite people if they want to call me direct just to say, “Hey, I’ve got a couple ideas, can we review them?”, I’ll gladly help. My direct cell phone is 708-205-2043, and I’m Steve Tuma with Landmark Home and Land Company. We’re here to help and enjoy the process of helping our customers get a really cool home. That’s what we’re about.

Host: Well, all right! Thanks again Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week and we will see you next time. Thanks as always, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. This was another… this was action packed! A lot of cool stuff here. One of the best. Well, thank you.

Top Q&A Highlights from Episode 88

Q: Can I legally build my own house without a contractor’s license?
A: Yes. As long as it is your own personal home, building departments across the country will generally allow you to act as your own builder without a contractor’s license. You still need to submit proper plans, obtain permits, and pass inspections, but you have the right to manage the project yourself.

Q: How much money do you save building your own home versus hiring a builder?
A: Exact savings vary based on location and design, but general contractors typically charge a 25% to 30% markup. By acting as an owner-builder, you retain that equity. You also gain the freedom to select your own high-quality materials rather than settling for standard “builder grade” finishes.

Q: What is the difference between panelized, modular, and stick-built homes?
A: “Modular” homes are pre-fabricated in box-like sections (modules) and delivered to the site, offering limited customization. “Stick-built” is the traditional method of cutting and nailing raw lumber directly on the job site. “Panelized” (what Landmark provides) is a highly efficient hybrid where wall panels, roof trusses, and structural components are perfectly engineered and framed in a factory, then shipped to the site for rapid, high-quality assembly.

Q: Does it take longer to build a house as an owner-builder?
A: In theory, a general contractor should be faster because it is their full-time business. However, in real-world custom home building, the time difference is often negligible. The true deciding factor for speed is not who manages the build, but how thoroughly the home was planned and designed before construction even started.

Q: How do I improve my chances of getting an owner-builder construction loan approved?
A: The key is preparation. Banks want to minimize risk. You must present a highly organized, professional package that includes your architectural plans, a realistic budget, a coordinated timeline, and a clear understanding of the site conditions. The more organized you appear, the more confident the bank will be in approving the loan.

Steve Tuma: You control the design, you make sure the house is built right, you know, it’s built on the land that you want. There’s a huge value there as well, which I believe increases the family’s enjoyment of not only building the home but living in the home. So it’s a great question, but I don’t think that there’s a rock-solid answer.

Host: Hi everybody, welcome to episode 88 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today as always is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company. A 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, my friend?

Steve Tuma: Doing great. It’s a great day. It’s like I always say, I don’t want to sound too cliché, but it’s always a good day. We’ve always got interesting projects, helping people through different situations that pop up along the design and building processes, and it’s always exciting. Sometimes we actually get a curveball. It’s like you got to scratch your head and say, “How does this come up?” But then we always figure it out and help a customer through it. Life is all about curveballs.

Host: You know, today I thought we’d start sort of a new series for this podcast, a top 10 edition if you will, where each week we’re going to go over a different top 10 list surrounding panelized home building and its various issues and aspects. So we can start right off today with the topic for today: the top 10 questions people are searching for over the internet to find answers. So the top 10 internet questions when it comes to home building in general and panelized home building in specific. Are you good with that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, this should be an interesting one. It’ll be interesting if this is an internet-driven thing to see how it relates to what people ask us.

Host: Well we’ve done the research, so that’s pretty much what it is. Let’s just get started and see how we get along. The single most common starting point search online regarding panelized homes is: Can I legally build my own house without a contractor’s license? And I think that’s an interesting question.

Steve Tuma: Yes you can. A lot of people wonder about that because they’re like, “Hey, a contractor has to be licensed. Do I, to build my own home?” And that’s the difference. When you hire someone, in a sense they should be licensed for certain jobs. But to build your own home, I haven’t run into a place that won’t allow you. Now, they might not let you build two homes a year or ten homes a year; they’re going to be like, “Hey, you’re a professional at that point.” But most places will let you build your own home.

Of all the projects we’ve been involved with in over three decades, we’ve never run into a situation where a building department wouldn’t allow someone to build their own home. I think it’s part of the American way that you can do your stuff yourself. I think a lot of people might get intimidated by that or say, “How do I do that? Or is the building department going to look at me differently?” But we’ve got a great set of plans, the details are there. I think they see when you’re organized and on top of it, they actually respect what you do and help through the process.

We’ve worked with building departments all over the country. Amazingly, some areas don’t have a building department. Others have a very simple building department, and then others have an extreme building department where they ask details on every single thing. It’s been a similar process. You get a list of what they want, you turn it in, they may issue permits or they may get a checklist of items of which we work on the answers until they get a permit.

So the actual building and coordination of it, as long as you follow the processes, get proper permits, get proper inspections, you’re just like a contractor. But you get the advantages of controlling your build instead of relying on someone else to build your house. So to answer your question, you can legally build your own house without a contractor’s license, if it’s truly your own home.

Host: Yeah, I think that’s something nowadays when people are sort of trying to save money, so they’re doing a lot of things themselves. I would imagine you can run into some problems both with the building departments and just all the legal stuff involved. So I think that’s a pretty good question.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it is. But what’s interesting is we have customers that will build a house every two to three years. I’m not a tax guy, I’m not going to act like one, but apparently there’s something if you live in a home for two years you can sell it and not have capital gains. You’d have to check with your own tax people. But we have customers that do that. So what they do is they build it, they live in it, they gain the equity from the work they did, and then markets generally go up, and they make some money and roll it in and do the next one and do the next one.

So while they have their regular job, they’re building a house and they’re actually increasing their net worth considerably from what they tell me. It’s kind of an amazing process because as you go through and build it, a lot of people just really enjoy building their home. They enjoy the process. You could just go through a TV guide, flip this house, do this to your house, decorate your house. There’s a huge interest in it and I think we’re a springboard to help them get in position to actually build their home.

So yeah, building your own home isn’t a problem, and Landmark does a great job helping you to get in a better position so that you can apply for your permits. So you understand the right set of plans, so you understand scheduling and coordinating the process. So I think together with a customer that wants to build their own home, we’re a great team.

Host: That was painless.

Steve Tuma: Well that’s the interesting thing about a lot of these questions because I think people are asking thinking the big bad wolf’s going to come out and give them some bad news. It’s like, no, you can build your house, you can paint it, you can remodel it, you can do stuff. So it’s more what’s built up in their mind instead of just getting the simple question. I’m glad we’re able to ask it because as simple as the answer is, it is a big concern.

Host: I mean it’s the misinformation. I mean the internet being involved, it can be like diagnosing your own illness. The internet can be a double-edged sword. So yeah, I think that’s just it, people want to make sure they’re not going to make bonehead mistakes. And so they go online and a lot of times they’re getting misinformation. So I’m glad you were able to clear that up once and for all. And we have our next most searched question on the internet. And that’s simply: how much does it cost to build your own home versus hiring a builder? What would you say is the cost breakdown between being your own builder as opposed to hiring someone?

Steve Tuma: Well that’s an interesting situation because that implies that cost is the only element of the question. A lot of people build their own home because they want to build their own design, they want to control it, they want to know how it’s built, they want to know the quality, and they want to know what’s actually going into it. No corners cut type of a situation.

So, how much does it cost to build versus hiring a builder? That’s an interesting situation because our owner-builder customers probably build to a different degree than the typical builder-grade process that people go to. But from what I understand, and I was just working with a builder that we’re working with our product to help a few customers, he says he puts a 25 to 30% markup on everything.

Host: Wow.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, so you look at that, the theory is that 25 to 30% would be different. But then it’s also what is being put in. If you go to a typical supply house and they say this is builder grade, someone might think, oh it’s a special grade. It’s typically the lowest grade because it’s the price-pointed one. Now, if someone wants to do that, that’s fine, but a lot of our customers want to personalize their home. The reason they are building their own home is so that they can pick the cabinet from the source they want. They can pick the faucet from the source they want.

The reality of it is it’s exceptionally hard to give an exact amount to say, “Hey, you will save this or you will save that.” Because I can tell you that once we get involved with our customers and we’re able to work with them, as they go through and think it through, they start understanding, “Hey I want this type of faucet, I want this toilet, I want this garage door, I want this window with these features with these colors.” And sometimes when you’re working with a builder you don’t always get those choices. Sometimes you do, maybe on the higher end.

So the theory that’s there is if a general contractor is adding 25-30%, in theory that’s the savings. Someone could say, “Hey, is the contractor getting a better deal on cement or on windows?” Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. It’s hard to say, but I am very sure that each and every one of our customers are qualified people to be able to go through and comparison shop and understand what they’re buying.

So there is an advantage, and I can also tell you that some people go through, get refinanced, pull home equity loans out to go build another home to put their kids through college. And from what they’ve told me, there are big equity positions. So that tells me that there’s a big savings in what’s going on. I don’t want to be one of these things that says, “Hey, you are going to save…” It’s hard to really predict it because of different market conditions.

If you go build a house in a rural area with very little population, it’s going to have a cost there, but it’s also going to have a resale value that’s probably lower because of less demand. If you took that exact same house and put it in a hot neighborhood in one of these towns that’s really popping—Austin, Texas; Nashville; the beach communities in California or Florida—it’s going to cost more but it’s also going to have a higher appraised value.

So what I do want to tell people is, when you’re considering are you saving the money, our customers and their appraisals show it and when they sell it, it shows that it is. But it’s not just the money, it’s what are you getting for the money that you spend. The value provided.

Host: Well let me ask you this. What about the time factor? Does it take longer in general to build a house if you act as your own general contractor, or is bringing in an outside hired contractor—do you find in your experience that that goes faster?

Steve Tuma: In theory, I would say that the general contractor should be able to get it done quicker. First of all, it’s their business. Hopefully they’re experienced, they’ve been doing it, they’ve coordinated things, they’re getting it taken care of. So in theory, it should be faster. But from what I see in some of our projects where we are working with a general contractor that’s using our product for their customers, or if we have a customer that chooses on their own to hire a general contractor even though they don’t need to, the time difference is negligible.

If you take similar design, similar conditions, weather, seasonality, different things like that, it isn’t there. But I would say in theory, if someone had a simpler home, a cookie-cutter home that that general contractor has built 50 times, they should be faster because they’ve done it. But the reality of doing a custom home with all the design, with all the details, I don’t think there’s that much of a difference. You also have to consider that we’re designing the home for you, you’re making sure it’s the right furnace, you’re making sure we help you understand the energy codes, the fitting on the land. So it’s the enjoyment of the home and making sure that the home is done right and limiting yourself to change orders.

Sometimes when you’re in the building phases with people, you can get cornered into change orders. Or if you want something changed, someone says it costs an abnormal amount. When you’re doing your own home, you have better control of that. First of all because you’re deeply involved with the design to minimize changes on site, but if there is to be a change on site, you understand it.

So again, it’s one of these balances. We don’t consider home building to be a race. We want to make sure that a customer understands the process and methodically builds a quality home. I’ve had people tell me, “My person said I could build this house in three months.” I’m like, “Really? So are you concerned about that compared to four or would you rather go four or five and know that it’s built right, you have the right windows, people aren’t rushing through, and corners aren’t cut?” So the quality of the home is there.

The people that are into the fast building, they’re buying trailers. “Hey, the trailer company said I could be in in 30 days.” Great. If you want to pay your 30-year mortgage off and get that type of a home because you move in a couple months quicker, if that’s your priority, fine, go for it. But understand what you’re doing.

Host: That seems to me like a confidence factor would be built into this as well. I personally don’t think I’d have the confidence to think I could actually build a house myself. I would want that professional help. Do you guys at Landmark run into that a lot where someone is adamant that they want to be their own contractor?

Steve Tuma: We get people that have never built homes. We get people that I’m sure have never built a birdhouse. The thing about it is, I understand what you’re saying where you could look at it and go, “Do I have to dig the hole? Do I have to connect the sewer? Do I have to run electric?” The modern-day general contractor is not like the builder of 50, 60 years ago. The builder of 50, 60 years ago probably did build. They were out there excavating, putting the foundation in, and his team, family, whatever, they would build the house. Now the general contractor is more of a white-collar manager.

Host: Got it. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: Managing the subcontractors. So in today’s world, it’s kind of an ability to understand, manage, and control the schedule. We’ve had people build complex homes and do a very good job. I remember one, he called me up, it was a customer that built a garage before or kind of understood stuff, he was in the Florida Keys. It ended up being the most expensive home built on that particular key. And he just built it on his own and coordinated the different people to do it.

So the idea, sometimes people think, “Oh, if I’m going to build my own home I have to understand how to use an excavator, I have to want to put a septic in.” No, it’s a management job. So a lot of people manage it in their own life, they’re managing their family, they’re managing their household, or they’re managing in their particular job. So a lot of it just really gets to be understand the process and do it.

We’ve had a lot of people that are not in the trades, their families are not in the trades, but they understand it. And I got to tell you, the homes are beautiful. And some of these people come from backgrounds where it isn’t exactly advantageous to them. So they’ve been able to navigate the understanding, the budgeting, the scheduling, and working with the right people. And that’s basically what a general contractor does.

So if you’ve got someone that’s rebuilding their life, needs a bigger home than their budget allows because the family’s bigger or the in-laws are moving in or mom and dad are moving in or whatever it is, they’re able to coordinate this and work to build a home and achieve a goal that they wouldn’t be able to achieve otherwise.

It’s kind of an amazing situation. If I were to look at the overall scope over three decades of us helping owner-builders at Landmark Home and Land Company, I would say that a huge portion—and I don’t have this mathematically calculated, I’m going to say 70 to 80% of our customers—have never built a house. But they understand the management, they understand learning about it, they understand working with the right people. They understand asking a question if they don’t know the answer.

To say, “Hey Steve, how do we do this? Or hey, can we design this? Is there a simpler way that we can do something?” So a lot of it is just a reality check of, “Hey, what are your weaknesses, what are your strengths?” and everyone has them, to figure out the best way to approach the project.

That’s an interesting question. It evolved from “How much longer does it take?” to “What can you do?” but we’ve had people, like I say, that have never built a home, and we’ve worked with people in all age ranges from the low 20s to the mid-80s building a house. And they’re successful. I get beautiful pictures of homes. It’s pretty cool. If you got a passion for anything you’re going to figure it out, you know.

It’s also a motivation. And to tie it into the first question, is the cost. If you’re getting a big equity position, like some of these people tell me it’s two to three years that they have gained four years of an income in equity of a home, it’s amazing how focused and excited people can be to see that gain personally for them, but also their family.

Host: Yeah, that makes sense. Let’s get back to our top 10 list though.

Steve Tuma: I guess we added one more item.

Host: That was good.  Let’s talk about construction loans, and I know a lot of people go online to look and see if it’s more difficult to get a construction loan if you’re if you’re an owner-builder who’s actually acting as your own builder, and without bringing in an an outside contractor. And when I say outside contractor, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t going out and hiring their a lot of electricians and plumbers and stuff, but I mean just to be the general builder, if you will. And let’s say you don’t have a license. Can you get a construction loan as an owner-builder?

Steve Tuma: We have customers that do that, and different banks do different things. Just like different restaurants do different things, different car dealerships sell different types of cars and trucks, banks are similar in that they’ll they’ll have certain types of loans. So, some some banks don’t do construction loans, some banks do construction loans but you need a general contractor, and some banks do construction loans for owner-builders. It’s kind of you got to go to your own own lender and find out.

Sometimes these are local credit unions. Customers love the credit unions. There’s also the GreenTrees and others that are part of the USDA for rural areas where they’ll they’ll work with owner-builders. We have customers using that right now. And then also we found some of the local or regional banks are a little more tuned in to taking care of the market. So, um sometimes it’s the bank’s attitude, sometimes it’s the financial qualifications of our of the customer as to what what a bank will choose to do.

But there are more and more of them out there. Um I think you can turn the news on any night you hear about this word affordability, and the government’s trying to loosen it up, you know, to try to make it available, and I think some of the banks are trying to do that so that they can properly support their the communities that they’re in. So, I will say it’s a little bit harder depending on where you are geographically, and and just what what the bank’s attitude is is in your community.

But we have customers, a lot that are that are working with construction loans.

Host: Yeah, and one would hope that if you’re if you have a bank that you’ve been with for quite a while, and you have trust in the banker and vice versa, that they’d be able to lead you in the right direction. I’m sure that some banks would just shut you down and say, “No, we’re not going to help you find a construction loan elsewhere.” But I’m sure there are there are people out there in the banking industry who would help with that.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s just like anything else, it’s, you know, some banks are a little more tuned into helping the customer, some banks have have more guidelines that they they want to stick to and and go to. So, my my opinion is, um and what’s kind of interesting is I typically end up talking to the bank and they’ll they’ll ask me questions like, “Hey, has this person done plans? Is this person organized a schedule with you?” And to me, that’s a question of saying, “Hey, are these people paying attention and doing it?”

So if you go in there and and say, “Hey, do you do owner-builder loans? I might build this house and I might buy this land and I might do this,” it’s kind of like, okay, that’s great, you’re not interested, you haven’t even set yourself up. But if you say, “Hey, we have this piece of land, we intend on buying, we own it, we’ve owned it forever, we’ve paid it off, we have this house, here’s my financial scenario,” I think that your that the people the bank will be more accommodating. Just like any business is. Every business wants an organized, on top of it, positive customer. Um there’s a better opportunity to do it because I I have um communicated with some banks where you could tell they’re kind of on a fence. Hey, is this person organized? If they are, then we’ll work with them. If they’re not organized, you know, maybe we’ll need to pass. So, the more on top of it and more organized they are, the the better chance that they have to to do it.

Because now even banks, um if you go with a GC, they may not work with your GC.

Host: Right.

Steve Tuma: They they want them qualified to know that they’re a good GC, that they’ve got an experience in a project. So, banking is a little tighter and a little more stringent, and, you know, hey, we we we want the banking world to protect itself so that our financial situations are solid, but on the other side, there’s the balance of they’re there to loan money to to help the community, so. My my opinion is if a person has a finances in line, they know what they’re going to build, they’re decisive, they have a great plan, not just plan for the house, but a plan on how to execute the building, how long it’s gonna take, their budgets in line, their contractors in line… it’s very enticing for a bank and way better chances to make it happen. So, yes, you can get construction loans as an owner-builder. Yes, you can build your own home as an owner-builder. So, it’s pretty cool.

Host: You know, this next question I almost left off the script because we’ve covered it before, um but since we’re here, I just decided to leave it on, and well, let’s do this again because it does fall into line with, you know, people are just real curious. And so, uh for our regular listeners who’ve heard this question before, um just kind of, um, you know, twiddle your thumbs while we go through this. But but if you listen, Steve might even have even more information than the last time. So, the question is: tell us all of the differences between panelized, modular, and stick-built homes. And if you’re…

Steve Tuma: All of the differences. So, we’ll be here a month and a half from now.

Host: That’s what it takes. I just want our listeners to have all the info and ammunition they can when they go out there and start.

Steve Tuma: Well basically, you said panelized, modular, and stick-built homes. What are the differences? And what I’m going to do is separate, I’m going to add one here to add to this conversation. There’s the HUD homes, which you might say are trailers, they’re the ones with the metal frame underneath it. Then there’s modular, which are generally all wood, they don’t have a metal frame under it. There’s stick-built homes, which is generally what people build where you just get a bunch of 2x6s, cut them up, make a wall and make it. And then there’s panelized, which is a more efficient system of stick-built. So in that broad overview, let me give you a simple breakdown of each one, and then I want to add the twist of how that helps an owner-builder.

Host: And also also the similarities too. I don’t want to just talk about the differences, but a lot of people would find it helpful if you could tell us what the how they’re similar, and maybe we’ll probably just find that out through through your…

Steve Tuma: Well they’re similar in that they’re a home, they have a roof, they have a heating system, and they have windows. It’s how you go about and do it.

So when you have the HUD homes, it’s generally a price-pointed, more space for the dollars. I’ll let people go look at them themselves to see if they appreciate the quality, if there’s the quality they want, if there’s the features, if there’s the flexibility they want. Generally they’re long rectangle buildings, sometimes they cutesy up the front porch and do different things. Those are considered to be on the lower scale. Some communities won’t allow them, some financing sources won’t finance them. So they’re particular, and in some places you can put them in trailer parks. Um so sometimes there’s different financing. So that that’s more of a cost control situation, but you have to determine if the quality and the features of the home are what you want.

Modular in a sense, you might say is a certain step up, and then it’s made on a production line in modules that are put together. For simplicity purposes, a ranch might be two halves. A two-story might be four quarters, the first floor two pieces, the second floor two pieces. That’s a simplification, but in general they can’t really be highly customized. There might be some features here or there: add a dormer, add a garage, do this, do this. There are some companies, they generally work in a specific geographic area because of shipping, and generally you have to work with their contractors to get them built. So again, it’s kind of like a car, where you don’t go to your car company and say I want this made, you kind of have the parameters of what the production line is able to do. Again, there could be some financing issues with them, there could be some appraisal issues with them, because it is a modular building system. I’m not going to say that there’s necessarily for the people that want those that there’s anything wrong, but from what I understand in the financing world, they are looked at differently. So again, modular is generally a limitation on design, generally a limitation on changes, and banks look at them in a different light than a conventionally built home.

A stick-built home, which is where the general contractor will go out, get a bunch of sheathing, a bunch of 2x6s, 2x10s, roof trusses, cut the materials, make a wall panel, build it up, is the conventional building system in the United States for hundreds of years. You can generally build almost anything, a simple boxy home or an extreme custom home. So, that you have to go through the design phase, generally there’s a separate architect, generally there’s a separate structural person, and then a contractor, and they somehow on site mold those together and then end up building a house, with some potential adjustments and details on site if the plans aren’t clear. So that’s the conventional building method that I would say is kind of a standard for home building in the US for a couple hundred years.

But what we’ve done with panelization is added the efficiencies of the production line and the deeper design features. Because we are panelizing a stick-built home, so this is a stick-built panelized home, it’s built to the same codes, same engineering, and generally the same materials as a custom stick-built home, what we’re doing is making it more efficient and thinking through the processes of the designing, engineering, energy codes, site plan, so it’s easy for an owner-builder to understand their project, work with contractors, and also obtain permits, assemble the home package, and make it easier to go through the inspection processes. So in a sense, our panelized system is a more efficient, streamlined process of design and manufacturing and building the home. So our panelization is more towards stick-built.

Now, here’s the thing with owner-builder, and that’s the key thing of what can you do as an owner-builder. I believe most of the HUD homes, the more trailer with the steel frames underneath them, those you generally buy from a dealer and they get a foundation, they supply it, they match it together. It’s not necessarily something where an owner-builder is going to be able to go in there and really get in a lot of equity in it, because they have to pay someone to do it.

Modular is very similar, in that generally you have to go to a dealer, they’ll get the foundation, they’ll put the house together, match the pieces, finish the siding. And it’s not necessarily less expensive. We’re getting a lot of deals where people said, “Hey, I thought modular was less, but I could do it with Landmark, get the house I want, change the design the way I want, and be at a better cost.”

Owner-builders on stick-built, I would say that’s something someone could owner-build. That’s probably been going on for decades. But what we’re doing with our panelized system, and the way Landmark Home and Land Company looks at owner-builder panelized systems, is let’s help the customer with a broad range: architectural design, structural design, energy calculations, site plans, helping get the details for the building department, working through building department issues with them, supplying a panelized home package that matches the approved plans by the customer and the building department, so that the assembly and inspection is quicker. That’s what we’re branching, and I think that’s why we have an excellent process for the typical owner-builder.

Host: Well, since you threw HUD homes into that mix, I’m going to throw something at you too. And that’s just hoping you can clear up some of the the… what they call high-confusion search terms. So if you could just real briefly tell us, you know, people read kit homes or prefab homes when looking up Landmark, say. Can you just give us a quick overview of what those terms mean, and and how they fall into what you just talked about?

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s really interesting because what’s interesting is people ask, “Hey, Steve, what are you doing?” And I say, “Oh, we do custom custom panelized homes.” They’re like, “Oh, the prefabs.” And I’m like, “Well, that’s to a certain degree.” But in a sense, almost everything is prefab. So prefab can be so broad that if you were to ask those people, “What do you mean by prefab?” they generally look at you with a blank face because they’re using a word but they know they don’t understand what prefab means.

So, the way I look at it is the prefab is very generic. You can have a prefabricated HUD home. It is, it’s prefabricated in a plant and brought out. You can have a prefabricated modular home. It’s prefabricated in a plant, driven out to your site, put on a foundation. But you could also have a custom stick-built home with prefabricated trusses.

So, in all range from the simplest, you know, HUD homes to the most complex stick-built homes, chances are there’s a prefabricated something in there. So, people don’t always understand the word prefab. So, I can’t relate it in the difference to saying, “Hey, let’s go get dinner,” compared to, “Let’s go to an Italian place from Southern Italy where they have the best linguini.” You know, so you’re you’re kind of defining it more. So, there’s a lot of words that are used, but I don’t know that there’s a high definition as to what those words are.

And then as you see different shows, and you see different people do things on search terms and other things, they’ll come up with words like kit homes. And some a banker called me once and said, “Oh, is this a kit home?” I said, “Well, it depends on what you mean, because kit home can mean a lot.” And I said, “What’s your definition of a kit home?” and she said, “I don’t know, it’s just a word that I have. Is this a kit home?” And because what I’ve noticed is some people say, “Hey, I want a panelized home kit, not a kit home.” And I’m like, “Okay, so what’s the difference?” And so, we have the kit to assemble the complete package, and then other people use the word kit home for the same thing.

So, I think there’s a lot of words that are interchangeable that people use for the understanding that they have. And what we try to do is is tell, you know, suggest how how we work with them. So, the Landmark Home and Land Company panelized homes can be kit homes, they can be home packages, they can be home kits, they’re they’re kind of the same thing.

Now, within that, we used to supply kitchen cabinets and windows and roofing and siding, which someone might say, “Hey, there’s more details in your kits,” but the reason we got away from that is um people wanted to personalize and customize their own home. Some people want very affordable white vinyl windows; they cost less, they perform well, they work. Other people say, “No, I want custom-sized wood with this type of exterior with this type of of window of hardware and, you know, grills of a certain way.” So, that’s why we just stay with the panelized process and then customers can customize, you know, the type of roof, what type of metal roof, what type of asphalt roof, what type of heating system, what type of cabinets, and different things like that.

So, you know, we’re able to give people the home package, the home kit, the panelized home package, whatever word someone chooses, that allows them to build the best home for the price that they want, for all the features that they want. And we think that’s the most important thing. So, that’s kind of a long answer as to, you know, the high confusion search terms. Um, I’ve been in the industry for over three decades and I’ve I’ve just learned that certain places people use the word kit home, other people use panelized home package, otherwise people say panel kit. It’s just kind of one of those things. It probably goes down to which TV show did you watch last and which website did you review. Um, but but in all, there isn’t a true definition as to what it is that I’ve seen like an industry term. It’s just more, you know, the common adaptiveness of of how people use it.

So, in my opinion, kit homes, home packages, panelized home kits are are very, very similar in in word. Prefab home can cover everything. In general, I think people um think prefab is more the trailers or the modulars, um but, you know, with a prefabricated roof truss on a custom home, you could say that’s prefab as well. Cabinets are prefab at a factory, windows are prefab at a factory.

Host: Whoever thought semantics would play such a role in home building?

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about it, because like I brought up that one banker saying, “Oh, is this one of those kit homes?” I was like, “Okay, so what’s this person getting at?” So, I figured the best thing to do is ask them what they think a kit home is. And they didn’t know. It was just a phrase they were using. So, I was trying to get at them to say, “Hey, are you thinking this is a trailer?” Because amazingly, a lot of people in the financing world use words but they’ve never built a house, maybe they’ve never been to a construction site. So, they’re just kind of passing words on. So, I want to make sure that when we’re working with our customers, they’re taken care of properly. So, if they are working with financing sources, it’s put under the right category.

Let’s jump back to the banking situation. Different banks will put different building systems in different programs. And those programs may have different considerations as to how a customer qualifies. So, my communication with the bank and understanding how to position this right of what they’re trying to do can affect a customer’s ability to get the loan properly and the right loan at the lower interest rate. That’s where three decades of experience is pretty valuable to people. So, we’re not just in the business of of getting them plans and a panelized home, we’re in the business of helping them, well, with their home-building project. Our customers like to understand, they like to know, they’re inquisitive, they want to learn, they want to get a good value for their dollar to make sure their house is the best for their family. It’s it’s really cool. That’s the rewarding part, when you’re able to help someone really get a home instead of the quote house.

Host: You know this next question I should have moved it way up more on the list because we had talked about, you know, what it entails to be an owner-builder, but this could clear up a lot of other things that we may have left on the table. And the question is: what can I do myself? The typical do-it-yourself DIY question, but what should I do or what can I do if I’m comfortable with it, and what should I hire a professional to do?

Steve Tuma: This is my opinion on that. Um, do what you’re confident and you know how to do, and hire someone to do what you don’t know how to do. Okay? So, there’s a little bit of a gray area there because if you’ve never painted a house or maybe you painted something, you know, painting a room, you could probably do it. Is it going to be as nicely done, the corners cut right and everything? Probably not as much of a professional, but it’s not really going to affect the value of your home and your ability to enjoy it. So, you know, if you’re not a pro painter, you could probably still paint your house.

But if you’ve never installed a foundation and you don’t have a knowledge of excavation and footers and rebar and cement pouring, I would never suggest someone try something like that. Um, so, sometimes people get a little aggressive in what they think they can do or, you know, suddenly they think all these friends are going to come out of the woodwork and work for them for free every weekend and build their house so that they get a huge equity position. That’s not the way it works.

So what I have actually found is our customer base, because they research what they’re doing, they’re paying attention and they want to be successful, there aren’t really that many questions about what I should do. They know. It’s like, “Hey, I can coordinate, so I’m going to be the GC,” or they’re like, “Hey, my family’s in the cement business but we’re not framers, so I need to hire a framer.” And amazingly, it works pretty well because our customer base chooses to do this. It’s not a snap decision; it’s something that they’ve wanted to do for a while.

So, I if the question comes up and I’d say maybe 5% of our customers ask it, I would say, “Do what you’re comfortable doing.” You know, so that when you’re going in there you’re like, “Yeah, I got this,” instead of, “Uh oh, I don’t want to fall off my roof so, you know, maybe you should hire someone to do your roof if you’re not confident in it.” So, that’s the way I tell people because there’s also the other point of saving money, so on paper it looks like you save money, but then you installed it wrong, and then you get to do it twice, wasting time and money.

So the idea is to get a quality home out of this with good materials after we develop a great set of plans for you. So people have to be honest about this and this is one of those things, you got to kind of look in the mirror and say, “Hey, am I a good drywaller?” You know, that’s an art. You can’t just watch a bunch of YouTube videos and suddenly become a drywaller. That’s a very skilled job. So, I always tell people, you know, ask yourself, “Hey, can I drywall it?” If you even have to think about it, you got your answer. Don’t do it, hire someone. If you’re like, “Yeah, I’ve done it,” or “My dad’s a pro or my friend’s a pro at it and I’ll just be some of the labor behind,” go ahead and do it. But don’t go and try and get into a profession that you don’t understand. I would say the chances of you being successful in the long run are lower, and it’ll be a bigger headache to back out of it and fix it.

So, be honest with yourself on the budget, and that’s part of what the bank—all these questions are kind of intertangled here—but the banks also going to check. If you go in there and say, “Hey, I’m going to build a whole house,” they’re going to be like, “Really? You have a job and a family and you’re just going to be out there 20 hours a day building your house?” So you have to have a realistic budget. So, a lot of banks are saying, “Okay, if you’re choosing to put the roof on and frame the house, why?” And if people say, “Hey, I built houses, I’m on a crew,” they generally do it, but if if you say, “Hey, I’m a heart surgeon and I’m going to go do framing and roofing and plumb my house,” they’re probably going to be like, “Are you really sure about that?”

Host: Right.

Steve Tuma: You know, so there’s a lot of little checks and balances in here, and this is all a matter of being organized. And that’s our set of plans and our process will help you be organized, bring those questions up through the process so that you can shake this out and develop a plan so you’re successful in the build. Everyone wants you to be successful. We want you to, you and your family want to be at the building department, the contractors, the bank, your neighbors. So the more organized and understood the reality of your project, I think the more successful you’ll be.

And it’s just the pride. It’s when you look back after the house is done, you know, that’s where customers really appreciate that they were honest with themselves and spent the time to do it. Now, I don’t want to make this sound like a big deal. Like I say, only like 5% of the customers ask me about that. Most of them already know. It’s like, “Hey, I know how to do these three things, I need to hire people for these other things.” So it’s, it’s pretty cool. It’s an interesting time and people really enjoy it. It’s a desire to build a home, it’s like a life goal. Not just financially, but also personally.

Host: Let’s talk about proximity for a minute. Just is it even possible? I know people do it, but it just seems a bit daunting of a task. If I live in Nevada and I want to build my retirement home in Florida, how close do I have to be to the building site to actually make it work?

Steve Tuma: Well what’s interesting about that, in my experience, and we have customers doing it—one was New Jersey to Moab, Utah; right now we have one in Cape Cod building in Central Florida. We had one guy that lived in Napa building apartments outside of Oklahoma City, and then we were working with him on a home, his retirement home in the Canary Islands. So, I mean that’s a… so you can see the broad range.

And what’s interesting about this is, as we’ve spoken earlier, it’s the management, the understanding, working with the right people, being organized and doing it. So, what’s a distance? Because if someone lives a mile from their house and they never go there, it’s the same problem as if you live a thousand miles away. You know, if you have bad plans, bad contractors, you’re just not getting it taken care of, you’re going to have a problem if it’s on the land that you live on and you’re building a spare house in the back.

So, there is a difference in distance that if something goes on you can’t just whip by it at lunchtime and take a look at it. But we’ve had people do it. I have a customer right now he’s building a house out in Washington State and he lives in Baja California, Mexico. So, he’s got friends and family and a trusted contractor that he communicates with, and then every I don’t know, three, four weeks he pops up there, takes a look at it and works through, and we communicate with him. In that case there’s typically a little more communication with us, saying, “Hey, Steve, this happened here, this happened here, what can I do?” And then we help him through it.

So people have done it, but my suggestion if you’re going to do that is make sure that you have an organized plan. We’ll always supply you a great set of plans, but the plan as far as the right contractors, a schedule, knowing what you’re going to put into the house and make it happen. So, basically if you do your homework up front, the building process through the actual stages of building will be much smoother. But that’s even the case if you’re building right next door to the house. So if you can go through and make sure you have the right windows, the furnaces are all sorted out, it’s more of a coordination situation than it is a decision making and “Uh oh, you know, Friday, hey you didn’t pick your windows out, we need to know now.” Well, that’s a misplanning. That’s not a result of being at a distance.

So the better you plan it the better it will work. Get the best quality contractors you have and communicate. And work through. And people have done it. Is it a little harder? Yes, it’s a little harder. Is it a little more nerve-wracking? Probably. But on the other side, they achieve the goal that they needed to not have to move twice or to do this or to do that or get a retirement home in place.

So, there is an advantage to being closer to the building site, but I would say at any point 20% of our customers are building at distance. And what I mean by at distance is over 50 or 100 miles away from the building site. Some in the thousands of miles, you know, 1,000, 1,500 miles away. Some are in different countries. We’ve had that happen. You just have to plan better. And we’re fully capable of doing it, and we always suggest customers spend the time planning anyway. If you live next door, you don’t want to leave your window decision to the day that you’re installing windows. So, you want to do it.

And the issues that come up, which I have found, just to give people a hint, is dealing with land. You know, they excavate and there’s water table issues that weren’t researched. We always tell people to check it out, but sometimes there’s curveballs. “Hey, there’s something with the septic, it snowed, they couldn’t get the septic in when they thought.” You know, so it’s stuff like that. But once the house is buttoned in, the quote “dried in”, the frames up, it’s more of a controlled atmosphere, so it isn’t as big of a deal.

What’s interesting is the benefits of not living by the building site, you’re not going through the house every day thinking of changes that end up costing more, that end up delaying. “Hey, do we need to add an electric socket? Do we need to…” you know, more of the nervousness or the excitement of building where it’s like, “Oh, I got to get this right, do I need a switch here, do I need this?” So if you take the time upfront to do it, you minimize that and there could be advantages to it.

But bottom line is: can you build your own home if you don’t live by a building site? Yes you can, we have a lot of customers doing it. We suggest just better planning, make sure you have top notch subcontractors, and go by it every once in a while. You know, just to get a feel for it. Talk to the contractors, know what’s going on, and be prepared to communicate.

We had one customer built a home in Missouri and he was cruising the world in his mega yacht. He controlled it off a satellite phone. So, I mean people… it’s done. It’s just the coordination of it, the coordination, the communication, the quality of people, and make sure you make your decisions upfront and you’ll limit the issues.

Host: All makes sense. You know, there’s there’s quite a few questions left. I think we’re going to roll this over into a part two. I don’t want to take Steve’s whole afternoon away, but we do have quite a bit of these questions, these internet search questions. And I think that’s probably the best thing to do is to do a part two for this. If you’re up for that Steve, that’d be great. Before I let you go, Steve, as usual, let the listeners know how they can find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys are doing over there.

Steve Tuma: Best thing to do is check out our website at lhlc.com. Again that’s lhlc.com. Kind of the initials of Landmark Home Land Company. There’s plans on there, there’s these podcasts, there’s videos, there’s details on what we supply, little discussions on different building in different states, and I think that’s a great place. And someone can go through and find a plan, send us an email and say, “Hey, I’m here, I’m building in this community, let’s talk about it, what’s the price, how do we get going?”

They can also just send a direct inquiry in, and then they can also just give us a call. They can call our website, give a give us a call, Michael will answer the phone, or get back with you right away. We do our best to answer phones at all times and get people taken care of. We’re very customer service oriented. And that phone number is 800-830-9788. Again, it’s 800-830-9788.

And if someone wanted to, if they wanted to call me direct and just say, “Hey, I got a couple questions, great podcast, but how does this work for me?” I’m Steve Tuma, president and founder, and my cell phone is 708-205-2043. Looking forward to talking to people. This is fun. It’s good stuff.

Host: And there you go. Thanks again Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week and we will see you next time. Thanks as always, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thanks.

A: The most common pitfall is a lack of upfront honesty regarding the total scope of work, budget, and time required. Many owner-builders focus heavily on the fun, aesthetic decisions—like kitchen layouts and window sizes—without thoroughly vetting total construction costs, realistic scheduling, or site-specific requirements before starting.

A: No. Inexpensive floor plans almost always operate on a “garbage in, garbage out” model, lacking crucial structural details, local code compliance, and ceiling height specifications. Incomplete plans lead to confusion on the job site, severe permit delays, and blown budgets that far exceed any initial savings on the design.

A: Changing a window size or style isn’t just an aesthetic edit; it directly impacts wall engineering. Larger window openings reduce wall strength (requiring potential shear wall engineering) and significantly alter energy calculation models. Evaluating these decisions upfront ensures the design complies with energy codes while keeping structural integrity intact.

A: A geotechnical soil report tests the soil’s exact bearing strength through site borings. Without this research, you risk excavating only to discover soft or expansive soils that crack standard foundations, forcing costly last-minute engineering redesigns and shutting down construction schedules.

A: Yes, provided the home design, site selection, and labor strategies are tailored to fit that specific budget. By managing labor costs, contributing sweat equity, and making flexible material choices upfront, owner-builders can construct high-quality, equity-rich custom homes across various budget ranges.

Steve Tuma: We are a company that wants to give our customers um a very clear perspective on the realities of building. It takes a lot of time, it’s a second job in in a sense, and there’s there’s always something to work with.

Host: Greetings everyone and welcome to episode 87 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today as always is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company. A 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, sir?

Steve Tuma: Doing great. Another great day for building homes. It’s always a good day to build a house. To design it.

Host: It’s never a bad day to build the house is what you’re saying.

Steve Tuma: Ah, it’s good, it takes a little time to plan it out, think it through, get it taken care of, then you get the shovels and start digging a hole. It’s a lot of fun.

Host: And who worries about all the planning? You know, today I thought we’d jump into um I don’t know if we’ve ever touched on anything like this before. We do kind of talk sometimes about the ups and downs of of being a homeowner builder, but today I thought we’d discuss the pitfalls of homeownership and homeowner building in general. Are you good with that?

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. This is an interesting, it’s an interesting angle.

Host: I hope so because uh I’m gonna throw some stuff at you that that may surprise you a little bit, but let’s just start off with an easy one. No curve balls. Just what would you say are the pitfalls if there are any of owner buildership?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of an interesting thing. There’s a couple perspectives on that, but I think a pitfall is that people have to be honest with themselves in the situation of what they want to do.

So um you you can save a lot of money, you can make sure that your house is built right, you can be involved, there’s a personal gratification of it um to say, hey I did this, I learned it, I planned it, I built it, you know, maybe they did some work themselves. But people have to understand it is a lot of work.

You know, at the beginning kind of honeymoon stage when you’re doing plans, everything’s like, oh this is cool, what kitchen do we want, what windows, how big is the garage going to be? It’s a lot of fun. But then there’s the reality of hey we got to make sure the plans work well, make sure it fits on your lot, make sure the energy codes work, make sure the design’s right, and then in that there’s the reality of how much does it cost. And does does it work within the budget and and how do you go through and budget it, but also there’s the idea of the schedule.

We work with a lot of owner builders and a lot of them do a some of the work themselves or a lot of the work. We’ve actually had families where other friends and family are in the trades and they literally build a house themselves. We have some people that are on the other end of the spectrum where they they hire a general contractor to manage it. And then we we’ve had people in between.

So I think a lot of the situations is is really having a true understanding of what’s sensible to build. And amazingly, a lot of the customers that call us, they they’ve thought this through, they’ve looked at their land, they’ve talked to the building department, they’ve talked to their banker or they already have the cash or whatever, they’ve thought it through what we’re doing is is helping them tie it together.

But but we are a company that wants to give our customers um a very clear perspective on the realities of building. It takes a lot of time, it’s a second job in in a sense, and there’s there’s always something to work with. We always say hey work with the best people possible. We provide an excellent service, excellent plans, excellent support, excellent panelized home, but there’s also a lot of other people involved. And the better quality and more responsive people that you have, say doing the excavation, the foundation, the framing, you know mechanicals continuing on through it, it it’ll be more successful.

So sometimes people say well, you know, my my uncle’s gonna fly in from five states away and do the plumbing for free. It’s like, well, that’s great, is he really gonna do it? You know, sometimes you have to have the conversation or or this situation on a budget where people will say, hey it’s only another thousand you know to put a to put a a steam room in or some steam function on a shower. But you gotta watch it because a thousand here and a thousand here suddenly becomes ten thousand. Yeah. No joke.

So so what we try to do is, you know, give a very sharp and real perspective of the reality of building the home. And we are here to to help people so if people don’t understand or they need a little bit deeper perspective on it, we’re fully capable of uh spending the time and and we desire to spend the time so that people have a successful build.

Um our our customers understand the process, but it’s all it’s always good just to have other little conversations through the design phase, the building phase to to help people understand what it’s really about. But what what’s interesting in this age of the internet and all these TV shows, a lot of people have some decent perspective of what it is, but I do have to caution them. A lot of these TV shows are just there to get advertising money, not necessarily you know, put the reality of what it’s like to build and the reality of the decision, what ifs, you know, things that that come into play.

And because of our real life experience over over three decades, we got a great perspective of of how we can provide answers to a customer for how it applies to them specifically. And I think I think that’s one point is you know, building a house, say if you were building a house in the in the Rockies and you took that exact home and put it into suburban New York or you put it on an ocean front uh Florida, even though it’s the same house, it’s a different experience.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: So that that I think is where we’ll be um very helpful is people asking us questions and we can give answers particular to their exact project. Um with the advent of AI coming along, a lot of people are referring to AI to get answers and it’s it might be a good guideline, but it’s not a definite path.

Host: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Um so so we want to, you know, kind of explain to people how things work for for their situation, their house, their land, for for the home that their family wants to build. So it’s it’s it’s basically, you know, I have a couple conversations, work things through in the design phase to to get things figured out and and we’ll we’ll take the time that a customer needs to understand their project so they get a, you know, a focused vision of of how to be successful in building a home.

That’s the thing. It’s a little bit of a reality check for some people. Other people catch onto it right away and I would say over 90 percent of our customers are pretty pretty much on top of it, but we’re still here to uh to really help them through.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: It’s fun. That that’s actually the very interesting part because even though we’ve been doing this for over three decades, every once in a while a customer comes up and says, hey what about this under this condition? And uh we’re able to help them. It’s pretty cool.

Host: You know everybody wants to save a buck these days. Everybody. Myself included. Um but when it comes to to buying plans let’s just start there. Um is it is it ever a good idea to just say oh these are cheaper so this is going to work as well or is there more research that needs to be involved with uh some a homeowner builder um deciding if cheaper really is a good idea?

Steve Tuma: Well it’s interesting because it’s not with just cheap plans, it’s also the flip side of overly expensive plans.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: The the idea is you need plans that are accurate. In general, um I’ve never seen inexpensive plans have all the details that are necessary for a sophisticated building department, not just to supply the permits, but also for the building phases.

A lot of people are of the opinion that well the building department took it, it’s like great, they’re looking for their little hot buttons. They’re not looking to make sure the house stands. To make sure it goes together right, to make sure the homes are complete for energy codes and everything else. So the idea of of cheap plans, it’s it’s kind of I don’t I don’t want to say that it’s a dollar amount that does it, but people have to understand that it’s garbage in garbage out.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: So if your plans aren’t clear, the details aren’t there for the building department, the professionals building your home, um you’re you’re just going to have problems all the way through. So in our position, we believe take the time to do the plans up front. In a sense, do your homework up front.

So um I I may be proven wrong tomorrow, now now that I say it, but I’ve never seen a cheap set of plans that were clear enough, complete, and accurate enough to to accurately build a home and understand what’s to be built. There’s always situations where I mean I I’ve had plans from different people that have won awards and it doesn’t say how tall the ceilings are, are there cathedral ceilings, or you know, what dimensions are, you know, what type of windows here and different stuff. So you really want to have the content there.

And that that’s what we’re able to do and our our concern about having accurate plans, you know, especially structural design, which is what holds the house up, is because we’re supplying a panelized package that will go together accurately on site in a remote location. So we take a lot of time to make sure that the plans are drawn right with the consideration of what the customers want in their house and then we follow through with the structural engineering, architectural details, etc. to make sure that that’s supplied.

You don’t want a lot of decisions being made on site. I’ve actually gotten plans from architects where they’ll say, well they’ll figure it out on site. And my point is, what are you here for if they’re figuring it out on site? Because sometimes people get kind of stuck where you’re youre in a problem figuring out on site. Figure it out on figure it out on site to me interprets you just killed your schedule and your budget’s probably blown apart too.

Figure it out up front to control your costs and schedules so that you know what you’re building, it’ll be a lot more enjoyable, it’ll go smoother and you’ll probably end up with a better house that actually fits in your budget. You know that that that’s a key thing so. The the planning um

Host: Yeah it sounds like what you’re saying is just properly research and and basically understand the entire scope of the project up front. That just seems like the way to go. And I think that’s one of the things Landmark does is help the customer understand the the full scope of a building project.

Steve Tuma: And that that’s exactly the case is is how we go through and discuss these details. So sometimes people will say, hey put a big window you know, we we got a big backyard I want to see the grandkids playing. Well what does big window mean? Do you want a big picture window? Do you want a bay of three foot by five foot windows? Do you want awning windows? Do you want one of those big accordion patio doors? And a lot of this can affect affect the energy calculations and the structural designs. And and as well as your budget.

So to be able to go in there and talk to someone and say, hey here’s the benefit of this, what is it you’re looking for? And a family will generally say I never thought of this but as you start thinking about it having a little couple minute conversation, they’re able to say, hey I’d like this type of window because you know let’s paint the picture. It’s outside of a dining room, we’re going to be eating dinner, we just need a picture window to look outside.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: Or if they said hey it’s outside of a living room, they might say hey we want an accordion door so we can bring the outside into our home on nicer evenings. So those are things that sometimes people don’t realize and that’s part of the planning process. And what people don’t always realize is just because there’s a hole in the wall doesn’t mean you could stick any window in it.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: There are structural concerns, there are energy code concerns, in some cases there’s zoning concerns as to where and how big and what your windows are doing. And that’s that’s what we’re able to uh to help people with. Kind of give them a broader scope to understand it so when theyre making a decision they they have the variables and they understand them to move forward instead of making a decision just to make a decision and then later they find out that that uh they didn’t have the full knowledge.

So that that’s part of I think we talk about design a lot but it’s it’s extremely important. A lot of people think I’ll just get cheap plans you know I’ll just go buy wood and nail a house together. It’s like good luck. You know, it’s uh it it’ll happen, but is it going to be the house you want? Is it going to be on the schedule you need? And is it going to be in the budget that you want? You know that’s the key to working with our process.

Host: Well there you know that brings us to another point is budgeting. And and if you don’t develop a proper budget it just seems to me you’re you’re setting yourself up for for failure. And uh how involved uh do you guys get when it comes to helping the customer understand how developing a proper budget is really the best idea?

Steve Tuma: Well we we suggest it to them, we review it with them, and we review the different components of the home. And they’re owner builders, so they they’d go out and you know we we get a clear and accurate set of plans to say hey here’s the foundation, here’s here are the elevations so you can figure out siding. You know we we supply window opening schedules so they know how many windows and doors of what size and specifications.

So we’re we’re always able to go through and do it, but the owner builder does get involved and then going to the window people and finding out what type of window they want. Do they want a white vinyl window? Do they want a wood window? Do they need a custom window? You know whatever it may be. And that’s that’s where they get involved to sort it out work the budget.

And what’s amazing is some people might be intimidated by that but it’s actually a pretty cool process because people start understanding that hey this is why I bought this window, this is why it makes sense to spend a thousand less or a couple thousand more to get the window that makes sense for what it is. Or the flooring or the kitchen.

Um that’s that’s the key thing to it because uh all of us want the project to be successful and it’s all the planning up front. That involves the plans, the scheduling, the budgeting. And uh you know I don’t I don’t want to make it sound like it’s a huge problem. I want to bring up that it’s something that we help with so that people can understand and move along with their project.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: And by the way, this happens with people doing $200,000 homes it also happens with people doing five and 10 million dollar homes. So no one should be embarrassed that hey I’ve only got 300,000 will you help me we we someone’s a good person wanting to get a house let’s help them.

Host: You know I I’m we’re we’ll go back to um well just the overall build I guess, but we’ll go back to plans and I’d like to ask about um some plans or plan uh issues that you can avoid or that you just don’t really even need to deal with. Like how does avoiding grading plans and geotechnical reports, how does that affect the overall build, the budget, the the time it takes and uh how important is it to make sure that you get every single plan that you need for the project?

Steve Tuma: Well it’s uh you know the better information you have up front to design the home well make good decisions, makes it easier to build when you’re actually in the building phases. It also allows you to keep to schedule and control your budget. So something um you know like a grading plan or geotechnical report.

A grading plan just basically shows how the ground will be contoured so that your house can be set on it, you have access by the driveway and sidewalks and water sheds away from your property. That’s in general.

A geotechnical report is a a you get a geotechnical scientist where they take a soil boring to find out the exact strength of the soil at your exact building site. Because there are places where soil is very consistent, there’s other places where it’s very inconsistent or it’s weaker or it’s expansive and it cracks foundations. So there’s a lot of different details.

So sometimes people want to say, oh I don’t need that, my neighbor said I don’t need it. And I’m like okay that’s that’s good but this isn’t your neighbor’s house it’s your house, it’s your budget, it’s your project. And in some cases they could slide by without some information, but I think overall it’s very important to have that information because I would say that having the right information helps 60 to 70 percent of the customers avoid problems they didn’t even realize were there.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: By getting the information up up front. So geotechnical reports are an example of this. And I we’ll talk about geotechnical reports but it’s I’m also really emphasizing the value of understanding the project, approaching the situations, and helping through with the design and how that’s important.

But in the case of geotechnical reports um they could be a few thousand dollars, maybe a little more. They could take three to six weeks to get, sometimes a little longer depending on the geotechnical engineer’s backlog. But a lot of people say I don’t need them, and and then you they go out and excavate and find out they’re on expansive soils. So there they are excavating, foundation crew is about to show up and they find out that they have very soft soil. So suddenly it’s like hey let’s take steps back to redesign the foundation, to move this forward to go through. That problem could have been avoided. Um you would have kept to schedule and you would have understood your budget a little bit better.

Now if a customer ends up in a situation like that we are 100% there and committed to help them through it. But just like deciding, you know hey what type of furnace what do I want, what type of windows, we also have to deal with you know the site conditions. Is your is your lot accessible? In some places they want to know that your fire the fire department can get onto the lot properly.

Host: Oh yeah, sure.

Steve Tuma: People don’t think about that. They think about their kitchen, you know, the fireplace, the view out the backyard. Even though none of us really want to be in a fire, how many people think about fire access?

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: Smoke alarms. You know how how many people think about the big rain and not flooding your basement?

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: So those those are reasons why uh you know we we want to work with people to to make sure that the information’s there to go through it. Now our customers they’re the general contractor, it’s it’s up to them how they choose to proceed, but we we want to be there to give them the the potential array of situations so that they can make good decisions and understand their project. Our owner builders want to understand their home, they want to learn, they want to have a good time, it’s a life experience for them. So they’re open to doing it right.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: That that’s what we’re interested in. We want to do it right. A good home. A lot of these homes they’re the families are intending on passing them down through the generations. It’s got to be a good home.

Host: Well yeah, that makes sense.

Steve Tuma: That that’s what we that’s what we supply.

Host: You know this has been a really in whenever I walk away and learn a lot of stuff I really like these episodes where it’s like you’ve you’ve uh you’ve told us some things that I had never even thought about. And uh I think that’s what these podcasts are good for.

Your knowledge base is even if someone doesn’t buy or build a panelized prefab home or or buy it through you, I mean it’s like anybody would it would behoove anyone who’s thinking of becoming a homeowner builder to listen to this podcast. Sorry guys, I’m not trying to just plug myself, I have nothing to do with it. But I think these podcasts, if you if you’re listening to this one and we didn’t answer certain questions, go back through the archive and Steve has given us a lot of over you know like we said this is episode what 87 I mean that’s insane.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Host: There’s a lot of info. So yeah, go back to the archives and and find out um you know see if the question you might have in your brain is actually already taken care of. And it’s there for you to listen to. And just because it’s they’re not new episodes doesn’t mean that they’ve actually you know lost their their power and their and their knowledge base. So anyway that…

Steve Tuma: Yeah, but here here’s the thing. There’s a lot of information, but how does it tie together?

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: And I would say yeah, search our website out, listen to the podcast, but people are free to call in. You know, they can call 800-830-9788, work with Mike, to you know, in a preliminary stages on the design it’ll eventually I’ll get involved. But I’m I’m available as well if people want to talk about, hey how does this apply to me?

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: You know, I kind of understand a geotechnical report, I kind of understand a grading plan, I kind of understand this, how how do we wrap it up together for me? And in some areas it’s not as necessary as others, but what we can do is get a customer specific answer for what they want, where they want to build it and how they want to build it. And that’s that’s the key thing is tying it together of how it’s relevant to our customer base. That’s extremely important. That’s why we’re here.

Host: Well give us that give us the website again and the phone number again and just so people have it in their in their brain.

Steve Tuma: Oh the website is lhlc.com. Basically the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company lhlc.com. Uh and on there we’ve got thousands of plans, these podcasts, some videos, some descriptions of what we supply and different types of conversations. And I think that that’s a that’s a great place to start. Um they can send an inquiry in on a plan or just an email to us, let us know what’s going on.

And like I say they can call in at 800-830-9788. Um and if they want to call me directly my my direct cell phone is 708-205-2043. And I’m happy to talk to people that are interested in getting their project going and just kind of want to get a preview of how we can help. It’s it’s it’s a lot of fun. We we enjoy working with our customers. Every customer is very enjoyable to work with. And the site conditions and making the putting the details together of how their house will work is is what we do.

And I think it’s it’s uh it’s a very unique service uh for someone to have the the one stop shop of plans, structural design, energy calculation, site plans, plan sets for the building department, and then a matching panelized home package to the approved plans. It saves a lot of headaches and problems for a customer and makes it much easier for owner builders.

Host: You really like doing this don’t ya?

Steve Tuma: Ah it’s great. It’s it’s fun. It’s uh we’re lucky people. We we get to help um we get to help people, like I say, helping good people get cool houses.

Host: That’s good. Well there you have it. Thanks again Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Um we really enjoy doing this show and that’s why I was uh telling you go back and listen to some of the uh the archived podcasts as well because there’s a lot of info on all of these podcasts. So anyway for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and for myself, we hope you have a great week and we will see you next time. And thanks as always Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. This is another fun one. 87, let’s go do some more, another hundred or two.

Host: You got it. Thanks.

Steve Tuma: Thanks.

A: Beyond prefabricated wall panels, floor systems (like 2x10s or 2x12s), and roof trusses or rafters, a comprehensive panelized home package includes preliminary architectural drafting, site-specific structural engineering, energy calculation matching, and ongoing technical support through permitting and construction.

A: Beyond prefabricated wall panels, floor systems (like 2x10s or 2x12s), and roof trusses or rafters, a comprehensive panelized home package includes preliminary architectural drafting, site-specific structural engineering, energy calculation matching, and ongoing technical support through permitting and construction.

A: Traditional builders often quote low base prices and profit on change orders later. However, fixed-cost panelized providers like Landmark include routine preliminary plan modifications, window and door shifts, and architectural adjustments directly in their package pricing without penalty or hidden revision fees.

A: Rather than dealing with automated call centers or waiting for committee reviews, owner-builders receive direct, personal access to senior home design leaders—including the founder’s direct cell phone. Real-time guidance is provided whenever questions arise regarding site plans, engineering details, or panel assembly on the job site.

A: Building a single custom home creates substantial local economic value—equivalent to employing a worker full-time for roughly two and a half years. The process keeps capital in the local community by paying local excavators, framing crews, electricians, plumbers, and municipal utility providers.

A: You can start by browsing online house plan libraries to find a layout that fits your lifestyle. From there, you can submit an inquiry or call to discuss your property location, budget, and design goals. A dedicated designer will help refine your concept before moving into formal engineering and permit drafting.

Steve Tuma: That’s that’s the very important key. Is customer service knowing that Landmark is the best panelized home company they can work with anywhere in the country or around the world and and we provide the best service.

Host: Hello everybody and welcome to episode 86 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today as always is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company. A company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993. And that is Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how are things buddy?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, things are going well. You know, as always, we’ve got some cool projects going on and interesting customers building houses all over the country. So it’s a pretty exciting time.

Host: I like status quo. That’s good.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, you know, it’s status quo in the sense that we’re busy, but all the different types of customers, where they’re building, the reasons they’re building, the different budgets, the different designs… that that’s always interesting because we’re able to get, um, help people get the houses that they want, you know, a custom design instead of just a a standard house someplace. It’s kind of cool.

Host: Good. So we had a theme going on a couple of episodes back where I was just asking you questions that um the the potential or even past uh Landmark Home and Land Company um customers had. Um, basically what’s on everybody’s lips for every potential homeowner builder across the land. So if you’re ready to start fielding some pretty basic questions, but ones that I think are important, uh, let’s do that.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, what do you have? Let’s see.

Host: Well first, first off, what is what is Landmark? I just want the president of the company to explain… what does Landmark include in their, in your packaging, in your design, in all of that work that you do? What do you have that other companies just don’t include in in their uh their basic uh customer plan?

Steve Tuma: Well, I think it’s kind of an interesting question because a lot of people want to say, “Well, we include this, or we include this” as far as a physical item. And that is part of the answer, but a lot of it is also just the attitude and understanding and desire to really help customers build the right home for them, make sure that the house gets designed right, make sure structurally it’s sound, mechanically it’s sound, energy efficiencies are taken care of, you know, sitting on the land properly, and taking care of the building department requirements. So it’s, I I would say Landmark in a sense is a is a desire to help people get the house that they want, whether it’s a little house, a big house, a medium house, an ADU, a vacation home, whatever it is. So in that, you know, in our desire to really help people get a cool house, we do a lot of things for them.

Um, the, you know, panelized homes, a lot of people think, “Well you just order it and a kit shows up.” Well in the case with us, we believe we’re the best panelized company on the planet and uh you know, we we work hard to do so, but it’s because we go beyond just the product. It’s making sure the product is designed right, listening to the customer to make sure that what they want we we end up putting on the plans properly, make sure it works with the codes, make sure it works with the the building site, make sure it works with the energy efficiencies. So it’s not like going to a lumber yard where like, “Hey give me a stack of wood, I’ll nail it together and make a house.” It’s it’s the pre-planning, all the work and support and experience that we have that gives people the ability to build the house that they want and know that it’s the best house that they can get for for what they want to do.

That I think is it. So I guess it’s basically caring and our our experience and our attitude to really do it. But beyond that, I think what people wanted to hear or thought they might hear is we got a great panelized system. Um, we we have different floor systems, dimensional wood like two by tens, two by twelves, um two by six exterior walls are always typical, roof truss or rafter systems. Um, we can do the complete structural design that matches the energy calculations that also matches the architectural design. So, um, I guess that’s the long way of answering the question, but bottom line is we we take the time to make to listen to a customer to find out what they need so that uh we can draw it up right and make sure that that ends up in the house that they’re moving into. We we have a philosophy: if someone’s gonna work as hard as we do to make a living, you better get the house you want. So we’re we’re here to help.

Host: See, now that’s when you’re talking to the president of the company you’re going to expect, you know, the “let me blow my own horn for a while.” But I think when you… you, Steve Tuma, seem to take things back to to the customer satisfaction as opposed to just touting your own horn. And that’s… you know, and that goes back to my next question ’cause it said that Landmark Home and Land Company’s uh customer service is is the best there is. Now that’s a bold statement, my friend, but I’m sure you can back that up.

Steve Tuma: Well, the reason why is uh I work directly with every single customer. I’m a founder of the company and I work with every single customer, and I’ve done so for what we’re going on 33 years. So there’s a lot of experience, there’s a lot of knowledge, there’s a lot of understanding, and if if for some reason there’s a question a customer asks that I don’t have, I I have the availability of the people that might have, you know, deeper details on on extreme specifics. But I think that’s the case about is the passion and understanding to be able to listen to what a customer wants and make sure it gets taken care of instead of just, you know, some production line, you know, type of situation where you order something and something shows up.

It’s a situation of let’s make sure it’s taken care of because a lot of people may not realize initially, they’re like, hey I want this house, it’s it’s gonna go on this piece of land and it’s just gonna be great. Well, as you get deeper into the thought processes and the understanding of hey energy codes or how you want the house placed on the land or hey what type of window you want to look over the backyard to see the kids… your thought processes get a little deeper and it brings up more questions, and we’re here enabled to help. Uh, our customers with with answers, details, suggestions and how to how to put those details together.

It’s actually a lot of fun because we get to know our customers. We enjoy it, and I believe our customers enjoy it as well. Many come back and build another home or or uh recommend a friend, or some of them just become friends. You end up talking for decades later just seeing how they’re doing. So that’s that’s a key element to it is the the desire to really get into it, make it happen. Um, our panelized homes, there there’s a lot of work and thought that go into it. Not all plans are the same, not all panelized homes are the same, not all companies are the same, and customer service is definitely different. We we do our best… in fact, every customer I work with has my direct cell phone. They can call me at their convenience, and if I’m awake, I answer the phone. Yeah. I don’t think you see that anywhere.

Host: Well… anyone can have a business model, but it to to actually have a philosophy about building, that’s pretty unique.

Steve Tuma: It it’s very unique, and you know, I’m a consumer as well, and you know all of us have, you know, certain services in our home where they claim to have an award… you know, and then you call in, you’re on hold forever, you talk to someone that doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and it just becomes an annoyance, you know. And that that I think is what we model Landmark after, to be the best panelized company, not just in the product, but in the design work, the support, and the attitude of helping customers. That’s that’s the very important key. Is customer service. Knowing that Landmark is the best panelized home company they can work with anywhere in the country or around the world and and we provide the best service.

Host: See, you’re talking about the company being uh being an actual entity for nearly 33 years now, and do you think uh your return customers or the the customers who are are sent your way by word of mouth or or just, you know, their friends send them or they just see something online. How long did it take you to get that reputation, and and what do you think the secret of that reputation is aside from just being having great customer service?

Steve Tuma: It’s doing what you say… you know, get people taken care of in an ethical and the proper way. You know, treat people the way you want to be treated. It’s just one of those things that you that you do. And it it kind of hit right away when we started the company in ’93 and in the ’90s was that that people saw it so they they referred friends. And it just kind of snowballed from there. Um, it it it’s a lot of work to make sure that everyone’s taken care of properly. If someone calls at six o’clock on a Friday night and they need something, you answer the phone, you get them taken care of and you help them along. You know, if someone needs help during the business day, after business hours, weekends, whatever it is, uh, we do everything we can to help them because sometimes, you know, if a family’s meeting out on a lot on a Saturday afternoon and they’ve got a question that’s a minute or two of, hey what about this, can we do this with a walkout basement? Can we put a bigger window in to take advantage of a view? It just getting them a quick answer allows them to to move the project forward.

Um, and and we enjoy this. This is fun. You know, it’s cool even now at at about 33 years of helping customers all over the country and around the world, it’s it’s exciting to see a family get a house. It changes the the life, it changes their perspective of life, the way kids are raised, what they do in their free time, how they sleep, how they go to work, you know, the the holidays, family events and things like that. So it’s not just getting a house, it’s allowing for an atmosphere, an environment for a family to thrive. What what’s cooler than that? You know, so to to, so to take a little bit of time to to work with customers so that they understand what’s going on and how we can help them, and in times enhance their thoughts and their questions because of our experience, it’s it’s really, really valuable. So how long did that take? Well, we started at day one and it’s been compounding ever since. It’s it’s cool. It’s it’s one of the best parts of the business.

Host: When you love what you do, you never work a day of your life.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, that’s true. It’s uh, you know, even days where there’s a lot going on it’s it’s still exciting. It can be challenging, but it’s it’s exciting when you see, you know, a someone framing a house and they’re sitting there as it’s getting framed texting you pictures going, “The first wall’s up! The last wall’s up, you know, the roof’s on!” Right. It’s it’s pretty cool. It’s it’s actually pretty amazing and it’s not just for the family, but you look at the economic impact… I read somewhere, and I don’t know if this is true, but um, someone said that each house that’s built is the equivalent of hiring a person for two and a half years. So you look at the economic impact of, okay, buying the wood, the excavator, the guy installing your windows, the local gas company connecting the gas line or the sewer connections or whatever it is, everyone’s got a job for a while. And it just feeds through the community. So in that sense, it’s pretty amazing. You’re not just helping the customer get a home, but we’re also helping the economy by keep keeping people busy, you know, those, you know, in your community type of jobs. It’s pretty amazing.

Host: Yeah. You know what I think is funny, and I’m not going to just let it go past, but you talked about earlier how a customer or potential customer can actually have your direct cell phone number, and that that sort of direct communication. Well, first of all, uh, a guy that’s owns a company and you know, you work with big factories across the country, all this all of this prep work you do to get the um to get the projects off the ground, and yet you’re people are able to call you directly and not have to go through middlemen or or middlewomen and and uh you know like you said get put on hold forever. How does that how’s that worked and how long you been doing that?

Steve Tuma: Since day one. I mean it’s just been a philosophy that we’ve had. By the way, my direct cell phone, I’m Steve Tuma, Landmark Home and Land Company is 708-205-2043. Um, yeah, it’s we we just did it because it made sense. And what you find, and I don’t like calling and there’s push this for this, push this for this, push this for this… it’s like hey, why can’t you just answer the phone? So that’s what we do. And it’s literally a direct cell phone that my family and friends call me on and that that’s the one that that we use to communicate with customers. And that’s extremely important because our customers are all busy people. They have their jobs, their lives, their family. So if someone could call up and just say hey what’s up with this or what’s going on with this or we can we can really help them right away. So it makes it more enjoyable. You just get to it.

Host: So at least acknowledge that that is pretty damn unique. You do know that right?

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, it’s extremely unique. But but we like our customers. I mean it’s a lot of fun. You know, someone calls up and says, “Hey I’m doing this on the side of a hill in the Sierras. Hey I’m doing this in Iowa. Hey I’m doing our vacation home in Florida or hey I’m doing an heirloom project in uh in Utah. You know, whole family’s putting money in to build a house so we can get together on the holidays.” It’s uh why don’t… you know, just being part of that is just fun. Right. It’s exciting. It’s invigorating.

Host: Yeah. Well it has it would have to be to be to make yourself that accessible to your customers. It’s it’s a pretty amazing thing. So I just wanted to make sure you’d acknowledge it and you know that it is kind of amazing. Um, not everybody’s doing that. Let’s talk about Landmark’s extensive, you know, your real project experience. I mean, how many houses have you built in 33 years and and how you said it’s fun to do, I understand that’s how you keep the excitement up and how what gets you excited about getting on the phone and making these projects happen on a daily basis?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s helping the families get through the situations they need to go from the end zone, the end result. So they start going hey we want to build this house… we’re at A, we need to get to point Z. What’s in between? And that’s that’s how we help them. I’ve never kept track as to how many houses we’ve built, a lot. Pretty much all the 48 states and you know, we built them in places that are below sea level, the highest populated city in the 48 I think is Leadville, Colorado, we’ve worked there. We’ve worked all the way up and down each coast, well, on the central coast and along the Great Lakes as well. Um, we built in cities, we built in rural communities, we built in places where I think some customers said they’re 50 miles to any other human. So so um that’s that’s the thing that comes together and by working with these people and and truly you remember things, you gather that knowledge base and experience so that we’re able to take care of customers.

So if a customer calls up and they say hey what’s going on with this this and this, chances are I could give them a very solid answer of how it pertains to their project, their house, their land, their building department so that, you know, we we could keep them rolling. It’s not it’s not something where we have big committee meetings every other week and you got to wait for answers. We’ll we’ll get on it right away. Right. And and I think that’s the key thing because as building departments become bigger sticklers, codes tighten, budgets get tighter, different things happen, it’s good to have that long range experience and understanding of of what goes on. But that, but also direct access to all the architectural designers, the structural engineering, the energy codes to see that when a customer asks me or anyone at Landmark a specific question, we can give them an answer for the overall project, not just a component of the project.

Host: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So so what I mean by that is, let’s just say you happen to be building a house in uh Southern California in an earthquake zone. And someone said, “Hey I want to make my living room window bigger because I want to look south and just overlook some range or something like that.” So a lot of people say, “Well just make the opening for the window bigger.” It’s like yeah, but there could be shear wall situations depending on how how many openings are in that wall, the strength of the wall, and there could definitely be um energy calculation concerns.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: So in a sense where instead of just saying, “Hey let’s make the window bigger, customer’s happy,” we could review the whole situation on a structural and an energy code thing to give a complete answer for their exact project. People may not realize they need that help, and that is where we really shine is looking at hey, what’s the real situation, that that we’re helping you through. And that I think is where customers really realize it. What’s interesting and a big percentage of customers tell me this, it’s like Steve, we came to Landmark Home and Land Company to buy a panelized home, but it’s the support, the knowledge, for the project that makes it important. One of them actually said, “You’re like the engine of the project. You drive it, you get it taken care of, and move on.” And I think that’s what customers appreciate because there’s really a real and a knowledgeable support system that we provide.

Host: Mm-hmm.

Steve Tuma: It’s just part of our service. It’s part of our desire to help.

Host: Right. Well I mean…

Steve Tuma: So that that’s the key thing compared to going somewhere going, “Hey let’s go buy you know a hundred two by fours and put a wall together and see what happens.” You know, so we’re we’re able to make sure that budgets are used right, um plans are done right, so it’s easier for permitting and installation and inspections.

Host: Does it ever get overwhelming to be you? You guys do a lot of projects and they’re spread out and you’ve got every state, every county, every city has their own codes and you deal with all of that. You don’t just say, “Okay here’s your here’s your kit home, deliver it on a truck, good luck to you.” You you stay with the project for a long time. Does it ever get…?

Steve Tuma: Right. Right. We’re we’re not like those plan services where you go online and you buy a set of plans for a thousand or two thousand then you find out your building department won’t accept them and there’s disclaimers all over it that say get it checked by someone that knows what they’re talking about. They don’t use those words, but it’s essentially on there. You know, we we go through and and make sure. So um, it it’s a lot of work, but we’re committed to it and we improve every day. And we’ve been doing it 33 years, so we’ve got a solid channel to to get things taken care of properly, the way we work with customers, the way we listen to customers, the way we find out what they need, we’re able to mold our processes around to get it taken care of.

And it all starts with making sure the preliminary plans are drawn right for the site, the building department, the customer’s desire, any grade situations, any homeowners associations, architectural review boards, it starts at that way beginning point and then then we just push it through and fine tune it till the plans are there. So um, it’s a lot of work and we we have customers doing simple ADUs and we’ve got people doing very complex mansions, you know, all over the country. So it all kind of feeds into it. It’s kind of like working out. You might be working out or going on a big hike going “Man this is a lot of work” but it feels so good. That’s why… so it’s it’s kind of cool.

Host: Let’s talk about that just real quickly… the research that you that Landmark does for each and every home. You’ve got… there’s a lot, like you said, what are the what are the community codes, what are the state codes, um what are the environmental codes, there’s a lot before you even can can say, “Okay this is the final plan, this is the final deal.” There’s a lot of research that must go into that. That must be incredibly uh… just a big job just that part of it.

Steve Tuma: It it is, but we we’ve done it a lot. So we have a very strong understanding of it. So say, you know, 80 90 percent of the planning and design process we have sorted out. It’s that little 10 15 20 percent where you’re like, “Okay, how does this apply to the side of a hill on the ocean? How does this apply to an earthquake zone? Or how does this apply to uh you know, expansive soils in a mountain range?” And those those are the little things, but the actual processes we’ve got very strong understanding and professional people that have been doing this for a long time working through each of these. So we we have the knowledge base. It’s just how how does it get applied to to that situation.

It’s actually quite invigorating because, you know, what what would take someone um, you know, a long time, 5, 10, 20 years ago to sort out, we we have it now and we’ve got a process of of professionals on our team where it just flows. Communication’s open, attitude’s 100 positive, support each other, help it, make sure the customer is taken care of properly. So it it it may sound like a lot of work, and it is an incredible amount of work, but it’s also extremely rewarding to go, “Hey we took care of that. Here’s a mid-century modern house going to Carmel, California. Hey here’s a an all-American ranch going to Iowa” type of thing. “Here here’s an executive country home going into uh the Adirondacks. You know here’s a family’s winter home going to the the Gulf Coast.” So it’s uh it’s pretty cool. You know, it’s it this isn’t just cookie cuttering houses. It’s helping customers achieve the goal and the lifestyle that they’re that they intend on building. Right. It’s really cool.

Host: All right. Well fun is good. That’s going to do it for this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. But before we let you go, Steve, let the listeners know just how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company.

Steve Tuma: I think the best thing to do is is uh look at our website at lhlc.com… kind of the initials of Landmark Home Land Company… lhlc.com. And on there there’s plans, there’s discussions on what we provide, how we help, there’s thousands of plans to review, there’s videos, and there’s these podcasts. So that’s that’s a good place to start, but you can also on our website send us an email or send an inquiry on a specific plan. And you can also call in at 800-830-9788 and uh Michael will answer the phone, and he can work with you up front to just kind of sort out what you need, kind of get things figured out, and then after a certain point uh Michael will let me know that it’s time for me to jump in and help a customer go through and finalize details, get the plans going.

So we’ve got a friendly, easy going process, and that that’s the cool thing about it. I mean, people can check out our website, they can call in, have conversations, see see uh what works, see how we can help them. And it it’s also something if someone wants to call and buy right away that’s fine, we also have customers and totally understand that sometimes it takes a little while to get everything in line for a customer to start. So we’re here to help support a customer, you know, for the home they want on the schedule that they need and work their budget. So that’s uh check out our website lhlc.com and uh like I say we said earlier, if someone wants to call me and talk about stuff, let me know about their project. My direct cell phone is 708-205-2043. So uh it’s pretty cool. A lot of fun.

Host: Fantastic. And there you go. Thanks again Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week and we will see you next time. Thanks Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. It’s a lot of fun. Thanks.

A: Yes. Panelized home packages prioritize sustainability by using renewable wood species like Spruce-Pine-Fir (SPF), Douglas Fir, and Southern Yellow Pine sourced from responsibly managed, regenerating forests. Factory precision framing also significantly reduces job-site lumber waste compared to traditional stick building.

A: A net-zero home produces as much energy as it consumes annually using advanced insulation, tight air sealing, and active renewable power like solar panels. A solar-ready home is engineered upfront with optimal roof slopes, extra structural load capacity, and pre-planned electrical conduits so solar panels can easily be added later without costly retrofits.

A: Properly sized roof overhangs utilize seasonal sun angles for natural temperature regulation. Engineered overhangs shade windows from high, steep summer sun to lower cooling costs, while allowing lower-angle winter sunlight to penetrate deep into living spaces for free passive solar heating.

A: Yes. High R-value insulation cannot perform effectively if conditioned air leaks through gaps in the building envelope. Sealing minor penetrations around hose bibs, electrical outlets, wall seams, and doorbells stops drafty air leaks, allowing your HVAC system to heat and cool efficiently based on energy calculations.

A: Integrating HVAC ductwork layouts and equipment sizing directly into house plans and truss engineering prevents cramped or awkward retrofits on-site. Upfront heat-loss calculations ensure heating and cooling units are sized accurately, running cleanly through conditioned space for optimal comfort and energy efficiency.

Steve Tuma: We’re not using exotic woods. You don’t have Brazilian rosewood in the house. We’ve got SPF or Doug fir, or yellow pine that comes from forests that are regenerated so it’s available — we’re not depleting things that can’t be renewed.

Interviewer: Greetings everyone, and welcome to Episode 85 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

With me today, as he usually is, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company — a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, in all 50 states and around the globe. And yeah, and we’re happy to have him back here today, Mr. Steve Tuma.

Steve, how are you, young man?

Steve Tuma: Just doing great. Just doing great — helping people build houses, design houses. I have some interesting ones — some people trying to really, really control the costs, make sure they get the houses. And then we’ve got other people that want to really push the limits on some design and energy efficiency and different details.

So it’s a new day every day. Every project is different, and we take the time to see what a customer needs and help them through it.

Interviewer: Well that’s what you guys have been all about for over three decades — seeing what people need and give it to them, right?

Steve Tuma: Get them the coolest house.

Interviewer: So today I thought we’d discuss panelized homebuilding and how it can work in the — well, let’s just call it the “green” area. The sustainable design and energy‑efficient homebuilding, and how Landmark can help people facilitate that.

So if you’re good to go with that, let’s kick it off.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well Landmark Home and Land Company — a lot of the materials are already sustainable. All the wood materials come from forests that are regenerated, replanted, and grow. So that’s just the nature of it. So our actual products are like that.

And then a lot of it — engineered materials. Say, like in the old days, you might have a 6×6 or something, or 10×12 or something, and took a big piece of wood. In today’s world, like beams — instead of needing a solid, say, 6×12, you can have engineered materials that can be made of smaller pieces of wood that create actually a stronger support system.

So just in the nature of the engineered woods — OSB, plywood, LVLs, PSLs, glulam beams — we’re able to work with materials that are regenerated but also more economical to use for the intended use.

So that’s a pretty cool thing about it that I think is just amazing — the industry, the lumber industry in a sense, has already created a lot of that.

Now sometimes people come through and say, “Well, I got this exotic wood from here and exotic wood from there.” Well, it may not be as sustainable, some of those materials. But people can make a choice of what goes into it. But everything that Landmark Home and Land Company supplies comes from a sustainable forest, which is pretty amazing.

And, you know, so we’re not really doing anything to damage — they’re just regenerating and growing it.

And then you brought up the energy efficiency, which is kind of, I would say, related — make sure that we keep the environment as good as we can.

A lot of people think energy efficiency is like insulation — which it is; insulation will stop the transfer of heat or cold, or slow down the transfer of heat or cold. But we can also get into the design and efficiencies for heating and cooling systems, whether it’s conventional HVAC, heat pumps, mini‑split systems, to make sure that someone’s got a properly designed system, to make sure that the equipment isn’t running too much or too little.

And then there’s also details on types of windows — the energy‑efficiency factors, the R‑values of windows, the U‑value of the complete window or door. Those are details that we have for energy efficiency.

And then we can also get into something that not a lot of people think about — sun analysis, the orientation of the house to the sun, prevailing winds, different things like that — so that:

So there’s a lot of variables that we can get involved with in the actual design of a home, to make sure it’s sustainable materials and energy‑efficient.

Now, different states have different levels of energy calculations. Some of them are very simple and don’t consider sun, don’t consider a lot with your mechanical systems. And others — like California — are very detailed, where you need to have a net‑zero home. Basically what you have to do is make sure that the house can generate enough power for itself — basically electric.

So we’re able to work at whatever span someone wants to do — if they want to have more of a simpler energy calculation, or if they want to get really, really deep into doing net zero, we can do it.

Of course, as you get more efficient, it costs more. So there’s always a balance and a decision as to how deep a customer wants to get into it. But it is something we automatically do as part of our design process — make sure that a home is energy‑efficient so it meets or exceeds the codes, and it’s a sensible home for a family to own. Because you don’t want to build a house and then find out the utility bills are going to knock your socks off. You want to make sure that it’s built right.

And it’s not just the bills — it’s the comfort, it’s the enjoyment of the home. Details like that. We want to build a sensible home all the way around, so:

It’s a lot of thinking that we do in this process. But the energy efficiency, amazingly — it is a big thing of a home. It’s not always something that a customer completely understands, so we’re able to go through and make sure that the energy‑efficiency requirements are taken care of properly. And if a customer wants to go beyond, we’re more than willing to help them.

Interviewer: So yeah, when — let’s say a prospective customer calls you guys — you talk them through these things.

So let’s have you talk us through it as much as you can right now. Just talk to me like I am a complete novice when it comes to building. Just: what does energy efficiency and sustainability mean, in general terms, regarding a panelized home?

Steve Tuma: Well, the sustainability are the materials. So the simplicity thing is: we’re not using exotic woods. You don’t have Brazilian rosewood in the house. We’ve got SPF or Doug fir that comes from — or yellow pine — that comes from forests that are regenerated. So it’s available. We’re not depleting things that can’t be renewed. So that’s in the sustainable part.

The energy‑efficiency part is in the actual design of the home. So it’s not just the energy calculation; it’s also making sure that the insulation that an energy calculation requests can actually be put into the design of a home.

In some areas, you have to design — say, in very cold areas — you’ve got to put insulation around footers in certain ways, so that’s underground. Not everyone thinks of that. Very few people think of it. Sometimes you have to put it underneath the slab. Sometimes you have to have a certain amount in a wall or a roofline, an eave overhang, and we’ve got to tie all these details together to make sure that it works.

Because one thing that gets involved in the design is sometimes an energy calculation will specify a certain insulation — you have to make sure that there’s space in the wall or roof or floor or foundation to install that insulation, and it can properly be taken care of and will work effectively now and in the future.

And that’s the thing that maybe not all people realize — this gets a little deeper than just doing a calculation and saying, “Hey, my house is energy‑efficient.” It’s making sure that it’s designed right.

And then when you get into the efficiency, it’s also making sure it’s installed right. So the simple situation is, people generally know the bat insulation, the pink insulation, yellow, whatever color it may be — it operates at a certain performance when installed properly, basically meaning it’s not damaged, it’s not compressed.

So if you take an R‑21 insulation bat and compress it, it’s not R‑21. It’s the air spaces within that that allow it to minimize or control the hot or cold transfer. So people have to know to install the insulation right.

It’s the same thing with heating systems — with ductwork — make sure that:

But then also make sure it’s installed right. So you could have ductwork with little holes in it — so if a dollar of your heat comes out of the furnace, by the time it gets, say, across the house in your living room, is only 40 cents getting there.

So you’ve got to have the right ducts, make sure they’re sealed properly, to make sure heat actually gets transferred to the place you need it to be.

So there’s a lot of details. There’s other little things that people don’t realize. A lot of times — especially in places where it’s not monitored — someone will go through and put a little spigot through the side of the house for a little faucet, for the hose bib. Well, they don’t seal around that. So essentially there’s an air leak going into your house where that hose bib is, or an outside socket, or your doorbell.

So there’s the efficiencies in making sure that the energy calculations are followed by a proper installation of the insulation — it’s kind of a tongue twister — but the ducts, proper venting systems, venting systems in the roof. There’s a whole sequence to this which we do include in our plans.

So I know that that’s — for someone that may have heard that the first time — there might be a lot going on there. But it’s basically the concept: design it right, make sure it works in the house, then make sure it’s installed right so it can work properly.

And a lot of places, they’ll actually do blower‑door tests or have HERS raters or other people go through the houses to make sure that the energy calculations are complied with, to make sure it’s there.

So what a lot of people don’t realize is there’s a process to understanding what needs to be done — but then making sure that it gets done, for that true energy efficiency. Because you could have the best insulation on earth — if it’s not installed right, it’s not going to work right.

Interviewer: So I thought that was pretty good, pretty concise explanation for somebody who may not have a clue what exactly goes into that whole concept of energy efficiency and sustainability.

I mean, it’s — you know, those words are bandied about so much, you know — I mean, who knows sometimes what these things mean.

Steve Tuma: Right. And people have to look at it, because just because you get the most insulated front door, you’ve got to make sure it’s installed right, make sure it seals right, make sure it’s done right so that the door can do its job.

And a lot of situations happen where the installation of these materials isn’t right. So some customers will go to a degree of getting a secondary consultant to review these details to make sure that it’s done. And in some states, where it gets to be a little more hardcore, they actually demand in some cases that you get a third‑party inspector out there to make sure that it’s done — because not all people do their job right.

We’ll design it right, but our owner‑builder customers have to work to make sure it gets installed right. But we’ll help them through the process, and that’s a big thing of what we do by helping owner‑builders with our great panelized home systems — have the customer understand what they’re doing, so it minimizes their learning curve, so it’s easier for them to understand what they’re going to.

And we’re also always available to help customers go through the process — as they build their home or as they design the home — to make sure that they get through the issues that they need.

Customer support is our big thing at Landmark Home & Land Company. That’s the biggest thing that we’re able to help. People find us because of panelized homes or kit homes or owner‑builder homes — but I think the reason they really enjoy working with us is the level of knowledge and support, so we can help them through the process for:

That’s the key to all of this.

Interviewer: Well, while we’re defining terms, let’s go ahead and keep going. Define a couple more for us once and for all.

There are two terms: “net zero ready homes” and “sustainable construction.” And if you wouldn’t mind going through that, I know I’d be kind of grateful.

Steve Tuma: Well, the sustainable construction — we’ve kind of gone over. And that’s basically using materials that come from sustainable sources. You know, so that’s it — like the wood, it gets regenerated. Simple as that. There’s sometimes recycled materials — so something sustainable means it can be regenerated. You know, if you cut a tree down, you plant another one, that type of a thing.

But I think you could also blend a little into it — some recycled materials. I’ve seen countertops made of materials that are recycled. I’ve seen different things like that happen, so that I think people can check the materials that they’re buying to see what is sustainable or not.

Now, the other part of net‑zero — that’s basically where the building generates its own power. And generally that’s done through solar. And in most cases, where there’s enough solar electricity developed and saved so that it powers the home throughout the course of a year.

Now of course there are going to be some places where it’s shady two days or a week or whatever, and maybe there’s battery backups — but that’s the idea, that the house generates the power that it needs to operate. And those are all theoretical calculations that are put together. And then there are certain design elements that are put there to understand:

So there’s different technologies coming out. Like, what was interesting is a few years ago, California wanted everyone to use gas hot‑water heaters. Well, now they’ve come out with hybrid heat‑pump water heaters that run on electric, and the energy calculations are now switching people to go to the electric heat pumps.

So there’s different technologies that are being developed and then just different forces — where the building departments are making suggestions on the power that’s there. That’s a whole different debate — on how much the government needs to be involved in the design of a home. But in the cases where it’s more controlled — like California — we’re perfectly set up to take care of them and do an analysis of the home to make sure that the home is energy‑efficient and complies or exceeds the guidelines.

And then there’s a lot of other parts of the country where the building departments may not even look at the energy calculations or may not even request them. But even so, we want to know it’s done right — because it’s the customer’s utility bill, it’s the customer’s enjoyment, it’s also the customer’s comfort in a house where, you know, it’s warm or cool to the satisfaction of their needs for the season.

So it’s — I think we’re kind of getting around to, “Hey overall, what are we doing that makes sense?” You know, as much as reasonable, in building the home so we’re not damaging the environment, but also having the balance of making a house that makes sense and can still be affordable. Because there’s a lot of leading‑edge green technology out there that’s very expensive, that most people aren’t going to want to be able to put in their budget.

Interviewer: Well, one more definition here — because they… I mean, just to follow up, is there a difference between “green building materials” and “sustainable building materials” and “eco‑friendly custom homes” as opposed to “net zero ready homes”? I mean, these things start becoming a little bungled.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s the thing about it. I’m sure that there’s some society of someone out there that has an extreme definition. But to me it goes down to making sure the house makes sense.

Try to use renewable sources. Try to make it as energy‑efficient as possible while still being able to afford the house. So I think there’s a lot of these little things that have become buzzwords. But if you really look at it — how much of it can really be put into the budget?

How many people can go spend an extra $50,000, $100,000 for solar arrays to save a little? And are they even in an area where it could be efficient? So that’s one of the things that a lot of people have to balance out.

But I do notice overall, the people — if it’s something they want to do, they figure out a way to do it. Or if they say, “Hey, it’s not in the budget now, but it will be next year” — we can set the house up for solar so that when they get to the point of putting the panels on, the roof trusses, the structure of the home are strong enough to support it, and there’s a façade of a roof or something — or I should say, a portion of the roof — that faces the sun.

Or some customers have actually put their solar arrays on the ground — more on different stands if they don’t want it on the roof. So we’re able to work with people on if it’s something they want to do now or something they want to do in the future.

But I agree with what you’re saying, where it’s all bungled — there’s so many different: there’s green, there’s sustainable, there’s this — and where does one become another?

I kind of simplify to say: let’s do a house that makes sense for what the people want to do. We’re always going to work for energy efficiency. We’re always going to work for sustainable materials. It’s just part of what we do normally. It’s part of our game that we just supply. We don’t really toot our horn a lot about it — maybe we should — but it’s part of what we do to take care of it.

And by the way, it was interesting — we’ve done some projects in Europe. Their energy codes are tighter than what the tightest ones are. So it’s — we’re up for it. And we’ve done it. We’ve been doing it for 32 years.

Interviewer: A lot of it comes down to trust. I mean, you know, they trust you. So I would rather have somebody say, “Let’s build a house that makes sense,” rather than to go into all the ins and outs of green and sustainable and all these terms.

Steve Tuma: It gets complex. And — I hate to say it — some of it’s just greenwashing. Just use the buzzword, use the buzzword. And I’m like, okay, that’s great, but what can we really do to make an effect and still have a well‑built home?

And sometimes it’s just paying a little attention to an energy heel on a roof truss — it gives a little more space for insulation. Sometimes it’s just sitting back going, “Hey, we only have this much space, we have to use this type of insulation,” or, “Hey, that insulation costs more, so we need to adjust something somewhere else to make sure that the home as a unit is energy‑efficient.”

So there’s a lot of calculating and working and just balancing out — working with the customer to make sure it’s taken care of. So it’s not hard; it just takes a little bit more time to think it through and make sure it’s put together right.

We’re able to work with the energy calculations, the architectural and structural design, to make sure that the energy efficiency ends up where it needs to be, and also makes sense for the customer and the home that they’re building and the budget that they desire to stay within.

Interviewer: Yeah, that makes sense. So I’m going to throw some more — thanks for your patience on this — but what is a solar‑energy‑ready design, and is that hard to accomplish, and how does it fit into the term “green construction”?

Steve Tuma: Well the “green” is that you’re using the sun as the power instead of, you know, nuclear, fossil fuels or things like that. The sun’s — I think it comes up every day and goes down every night, so it’s there.

So the solar‑ready is something, like I mentioned — if someone doesn’t want to put the solar panels on now, but maybe they’ll do it in a year or two, we could design the home so that there’s:

But again, like all of these, it’s: how deep do you want to go? We could get into analyzing overhangs, orienting the house different ways to be more energy‑efficient — to either take advantage of the sun or keep the sun out if you’re in a hotter climate.

So there’s a whole bunch of different situations on:

So sun comes in through a glass onto a cement floor. It heats that floor up, so then at night, when the sun’s gone, the heat comes out of the floor. Or it could be a wall — it could be whatever it is. But those are things that we can work on. It all really depends on how deep a customer chooses to get into it, because the design work and expense that can come with some of this can sometimes be a little bit more.

Other times you can do things really simply. Like, instead of 1‑foot overhangs on a roof, let’s make it 2‑foot. It’s not a big deal. In fact, I probably wouldn’t even charge for it. We’d just do it if customers ask.

Putting an energy‑heel truss on there — there’s a lot of different situations that we can take care of that we actually just build into the design of our homes.

But sometimes there’s restrictions on what you can and can’t do. One thing which is interesting about taking advantage of the sun is if you were — like with your great‑great‑grandparents, say they were farmers — there’s a lot of space there. So they can say, “Hey, let’s face the house this way to take advantage of sun, take advantage of the breeze.”

Well, in the advent of subdivisions and city layouts, the cuts are cut for the efficiency of the real estate, to sell the real estate. So you can’t exactly go on a, you know, a 75 by 200 lot or 200 by 200 lot and have a perfect orientation for the sun. Sometimes it just doesn’t work. You can’t fit it in the lot.

Well, as I’m rambling here — but we also have a lot of places where we’ve worked where communities have restrictions on how much sunlight your house can block. People want vitamin D. Sun is good for people. So you can’t have something that blocks a big portion of the sky.

So sometimes we’ve got to get into designs and explain how tall a building can be, or only a certain part of it can be tall, so that the sun can still pass through the neighborhood — so you don’t have dark, canyon neighborhoods without any sun.

So sometimes the “green,” I think, can be saving energy or sustainable. But sometimes I think it gets into: how enjoyable is your neighborhood?

Do you have a backyard? Do you have a front porch? Do you have a place to talk to neighbors? Can you be part of the community?

And more and more people are being involved with that part of the design, which I think is pretty cool and interesting — of saying, “Hey, this isn’t just a place to sleep and feed the dog and park my car. I want to live here and flourish and have a great environment to live in.”

So, you know, this can go on and on — but it’s pretty interesting to see what we do to help customers, but also what customers are asking for. They want to have a good lifestyle. They might want to be in a community where they walk a lot. They might want to be in a community where they could ride bikes.

We’ve had a lot of people build houses in areas — you know, mountain areas or areas with water — so that it’s accessible. People can have easy access for their bikes or whatever equipment they need. Or horses — equestrian properties, where people have designed certain things for the enjoyment of the horses and the community around them.

So I’ll make this revelation that “green,” I think, goes beyond power. It goes beyond — it goes into a quality of life and people enjoying life and community.

Interviewer: Hmm. No, it makes sense. I guess we got a little deep there.

I think that the overall here is: when we talk “green,” we’re talking about saving money in the long run. I mean sustainable building is going to bring down your long‑term utility costs, for say — you know, I mean —

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: — and that, I would imagine, can help the resale value of your home.

Steve Tuma: Yes. I would say that it’s an important thing. Because if someone sees that there’s an energy‑efficient, well‑built home — good windows — that’s going to help the sale of the home. And then it makes sense — you don’t have to go in and rebuild it.

So I think it makes sense. Now, what’s interesting — I’ve looked at real estate ads, I’ve looked at stuff, and I don’t — I don’t want to cut it down — but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bank that says, “This is an energy‑efficient home. We’ll help you with a better mortgage.”

So there’s a point where, if you push too far, you’re going to end up paying for it, you know, if you’re getting a loan. So if you’re putting, you know, a certain excess of green into your house and it goes beyond an appraised value of a property, you know, someone might have to pay cash. Because I’ve never really seen a bank that says, “Hey, we’ll give you a little extra money to really build it right.”

So that, I think, is why a system like ours makes sense — because we’re able to work through, with the design, the engineering, to make sure we can put as much energy efficiency in there at a cost that’s reasonable for people’s budgets, reasonable for financing, and makes sense in the long term — make sense for buildability and make sense for maintenance as well. It’s an important component, I would imagine.

Interviewer: All right. Well that’s about all we have time for for this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

But before we let you go, Steve, as we always do, let me ask you to tell the listeners how they can find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company.

Steve Tuma: The best thing, I think, is our website. We’ve spent a lot of time over the decades developing a website that I think is very informative, and people can look at it at LHLC.com. The company name is Landmark Home and Land Company — of course we’re the best panelized home designer and supplier in the world, we know it — but you can go to the website at LHLC.com — again, LHLC.com — and see the videos, listen to some of these podcasts, see a whole variety of different plans, details of what we supply and how we supply and things like that.

You can then also send us an email from there. You can also look at different plans and go through and submit an inquiry, say, “Hey, I want to build this house, it’s plan number whatever, and I want to build this location — let’s talk about it.” So we’re able to go through and work off email inquiries.

Or you can call in at 800‑830‑9788, and Mike will answer the phone and he’ll be able to walk you through the process to see what we can do to help you and how we help you. And then, at a certain point, I’ll start working with you to get all the plans going, finalize the details, and get everything taken care of properly in a way that you understand and achieves your goals.

So that’s the best thing to do. And if someone wants to call me direct, I’ve got my cell phone: 708‑205‑2043.

Interviewer: Pretty cool. Well, there it is. Thank you again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

So for Landmark Home & Land Company President Steve Tuma and for myself, have a great week ahead and we will see you next time.

Steve, thanks a lot.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. Let’s go be green.

Q: Why do house plans from an architect sometimes clash during permit approval or construction?
A: When architectural drafting, structural engineering, and energy code calculations are handled independently by separate contractors, the drawings frequently conflict. For example, a structural engineer might specify 2×10 roof rafters, while local energy codes require 16 inches of depth for insulation. Uncoordinated plans lead to permit rejections, structural clashes with HVAC or plumbing, and unexpected job-site change orders.

A: Some draftspeople produce minimal drawings strictly designed to pass basic municipal permit checks, relying on contractors to “figure it out on site.” Complete, buildable plan sets unify architectural design, structural engineering, site grading, setbacks, and energy compliance into one cohesive set of blueprints so the construction crew can assemble the home smoothly as designed.

A: Windows are not standardized off-the-shelf items. A window’s dimensions, rough openings, and performance ratings directly affect wall framing, structural load paths, and energy code calculations. Selecting and detailing window choices on the blueprints upfront prevents structural framing errors, energy code failures, and budget surprises later.

A: An integrated design approach aligns the site layout, grading, foundation design, framing engineering, and energy performance before breaking ground. By solving structural and code conflicts on paper rather than in the field, owner-builders avoid on-site delays, contractor workarounds, and expensive “to be determined” change orders.

A: Landmark locks in the price for preliminary floor plan drafting, custom plan revisions, final permit-ready drawings, structural engineering, and the delivered panelized home package within the purchase agreement. This gives owner-builders complete budget control and eliminates the surprise hourly billing or price spikes common with independent designers and material suppliers.

Steve Tuma: And what I find when I talk to customers is they don’t believe that you can pay someone to get a set of plans that isn’t buildable. And sometimes those unbuildable plans even get approved by building departments.

Interviewer: Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 84 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

With me today, as he always is, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a 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, man?

Steve Tuma: It’s a great day. I guess I always say that.

Interviewer: It is always a great day.

Steve Tuma: You know, we’ve got new projects, different projects, working on delivering homes — and you know, it’s just cool when a family gets a new home. They send pictures — “Look at this, look at what happened the first day.” You know, a couple days — we’re half framed. It’s an amazing time and, you know, we’re lucky we’re able to help customers build their new homes.

Interviewer: It’s always good to make people happy, I would think.

Steve Tuma: That’s what the game’s about. That’s what it is.

Interviewer: So today I thought we would talk about the total shebang when it comes to panelized home building. And I’m talking from design to delivery and the entire building of a panelized home from start‑to‑finish project.

Are you up for that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. It’s a lot to cover, so we’ll probably have to condense a few points here, but get to the major overview of how we can help.

Interviewer: Right. Well let’s start with something fairly basic. How does Landmark Home & Land Company help with a seamless and unified design and build process — not fragmented building?

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about that is not a lot of people understand what that is. Because we’ve had customers — they’ll go get an architect, they’ll go get another structural engineer, they’ll get an energy‑calc person, and then they’ll be like, “Steve, I turned these plans in and I didn’t get permits.”

I’m like, “Well, because they weren’t done right.” And they say, “Well, it was an architect,” or, “It was an engineer.” It’s like, well that’s great, but you’ve got to put this together to make sure that everything matches up for your building site:

And that’s what we’re able to do — have a unified plan set so that they’re complete and thorough and make sense for a building department to understand. And then our plans aren’t just for the building department — they’re also meant for the actual building phases.

I’ve had people say, “Hey, I got a set of plans that’s meant for permits.” I’m like, “Well, sorry — is your intent just to get permits, or is your intent to also build a house?” You know, it doesn’t make sense just to get permits just to get them.

So I think that sometimes there’s different methods that people work. But at Landmark Home and Land Company, we work to make sure that the plans are unified.

What people may not understand is — let’s just take a roof of a home: a part of a home that’s made with a beam and a rafter, architecturally, for a certain look. A customer may want a 12‑inch fascia just to give a certain look to the house. The structural engineer may say, “Hey, you only need 2x8s or 2x10s for the rafters.”

So right there — let’s just go with 2×10. There’s a 2×10 structurally, a 2×12 architecturally. But maybe you’re in an area that needs more insulation and you need 16 inches of space. So if you have:

…all done independently, and no one works together, you might end up with everyone doing their work — but it doesn’t match.

So if the structural person says, “Hey, let’s put a 2×10 roof rafter up,” and then you need 16 inches for your insulation, you have a problem. So the structure doesn’t match up.

That’s the point I’m getting at: we work to look to make sure that the details are all put together and match throughout the design.

Now, I took a fairly simple example there in roof insulation on a beam‑and‑rafter type of roof system, but there’s a lot of other situations where that aligns with:

…and a lot more. And also, sometimes just the customer’s concern on what they want the house to look like. So being able to wrap all those together so it makes sense is there.

What’s interesting to me is a lot of people say, “Oh, Steve, the changes on site…” And I’m like, well, to me a “change” is if someone goes through and says, “Hey, I want something different than planned.” But if there’s a change on site because something wasn’t designed right, the designers didn’t design it right.

So you don’t want to work in a system where it’s inherently set up to have changes on site. You don’t want to deal with:

It’s just stressful. So it’s better to work to have a full set of plans that are completely designed up front. And we do our best to make sure that:

So it’s a lot of details. And that’s how we work with people to avoid the on‑site changes. It’s a lot of work, but it’s what we do as our project, and why we’re able to give a set price, give someone a set of plans that’s good for permits and building. And then when they’re assembling the home package, everything goes together as planned.

We’ve seen a lot of plans where, you know, there’s some details there — to someone that doesn’t understand it, it might seem to be complete, but in reality they’re not complete. For some reason, a lot of designers think that a lot of stuff gets worked out on site. I don’t understand that, because the nature of their job is to design it so it goes together right.

So it takes us, you know, a little extra effort to make sure we have all the components for a proper design.

Again, that might sound a little weird to people — to say, “But I paid my architect or I paid my engineer; shouldn’t they do that?” It’s like, well, they do their part — but who’s looking at the overall situation to make sure it all comes together right?

And that’s what we do at Landmark Home & Land Company. It’s a design situation to make sure that you get the house you want — but also make sure:

…is smooth and controlled. The smoother it is, the more controlled it is, the more you’re going to be able to stick to your budget — and the fewer issues you’re going to have with your budget.

It’s a pretty cool process that we have, but not everyone realizes how beneficial it is until they get to the planning stages and building stages.

Interviewer: Well, help us understand that a little better then. How does this — what you’re calling a seamless and unified design process — how does that actually help the owner‑builder in the building process?

Steve Tuma: Well, there’s a lot of components to building a house. Owner‑builders maybe have done a house, maybe they’ve done two or three. Even some of the professional contractors we work with, and smaller developers we work with — knowing that all the details are there, you’re hiring a pro to do the job; we make sure the job’s done. Or if you need extra help, we supply the details.

So what it does is it allows a person to go through and properly plan and execute the home and avoid pitfalls.

A situation like I ran into — something where someone said, “Hey, I don’t need to figure out window sizes — I’ll just buy standard windows.” And I’m like, “Well that’s interesting.”

I could understand a standard gallon of milk — comes in a container, it’s a gallon of milk. You can say it’s kind of standardized to a certain degree. But windows are not standardized.

I’ll tell people why. It’s an interesting thing. If you take some window companies, they’ll say their window is three feet by five feet — that’s the actual window size. You have to make the rough opening a little bigger. Other companies — the three feet by five feet is the rough opening, and the window’s actually a little bit smaller.

So you end up in situations there where people think that you just go buy a standard window. Well, the size that is in your plans may or may not work.

We’re saying, “Hey, you should check into this. We should know what’s going on. We should make it part of the plans so that you avoid issues down the road.” And then you should also check your windows:

So what all this planning does — we take the time up front. You’ve heard me say “Hey, we do our homework up front.” It allows us to make sure that we’ve avoided the pitfalls, thought out through everything during the building process, so that when a customer is building there’s less of a chance of a big “uh‑oh” moment or something bad happening.

We’ve noticed when people come to us with designs from other places, there’s a lot of pushing things off for someone else to deal with. Well at some point you’re going to have to deal with it, and it’s better not to do it at the construction site. It’s better to have it thought out.

So by having this done, people go through and they’ll have their actual windows, they’ll have the actual quotes — so they know the cost. They know what windows they need. They know what windows have tempered glass, what windows have egress features.

So there’s a couple of tricks to the trade that we help people through the process to make it work.

Another classic one is, people will say, “Hey, I don’t want any exposed beams,” meaning they want a flat ceiling; they don’t want a beam hanging down. What they don’t realize is that, if there is a beam, it’s got to go into a floor system. Well, if that’s the case, does it affect your ability to run plumbing and heating properly?

We check for things like that, to avoid it down the road, so you don’t end up moving a beam or adjusting something — and then the design of the home or the interior finishing isn’t the way you want it to be.

So by taking the time to review and understand the complete project — that’s where it helps with the seamless and unified design.

Another point is: how does your home fit on the land? If you go look at a lot of these plans that you’ll see out there online, they all assume you’re on a flat piece of land — which, I don’t know, I’m going to say half the country is kind of flat, the other half isn’t. So people figure, “Well, I’ll just adjust a foundation on the side of a mountain.” And it’s like, well, you’re really just guessing until you understand:

…and how are you going to access it with the driveway, sidewalks, things like that.

So there’s a lot of reasons to go through and really make sure that you’ve got a custom set of plans for your house on your exact piece of land, for the house that you want.

And that’s what we do at Landmark. We take the time to make sure those details are put together so that you’re not out there guessing on site. This isn’t a race to get it done as fast as you can. It’s a job to make sure it’s designed right in an efficient time at the right budget.

Interviewer: So you’re saying kicking the can down the road is not the best way to build a house.

Steve Tuma: It’s exactly not the best, in literal and figurative sense. But yeah, that’s the point — because I’ve seen a lot of situations where people come… you know, they’ve paid their own architect or someone to design a house. It’s like… and there’s stuff there, you know, “figured out.”

There’ll be comments: “To be determined.” Okay — “to be determined.” Then what’s the designer doing? The easy work? How about do the easy work? And at what point does that get determined? So a person may not realize the situation and then end up cornered during the building phase.

So that’s why it’s important to have a complete set of plans that’s properly thought through, considers your:

…to make sure that everything comes together so that the plans are accurate to want to build and not have a bunch of potholes along the way.

So it’s what we do.

I think that a lot of customers find us to be the best panelized home system because we have a great panelized home system, but it’s also because of the planning — to make sure that the home project is designed properly.

You know, for some reason people think, “Oh, you know, panels or sticks, you know, it’s all the same — just go get it.” It’s like, no, it’s how you do it that makes it a good project, and efficient — you know, financially — stays in the budget range you want to stay within, and then the schedule.

Interviewer: You know, I’ve kind of asked you this next question quite a few times actually, but sometimes it just keeps coming back within the context of what we happen to be talking about. But explain how building a Landmark Home and Land Company panelized home differs from building a standard stick‑built home. Just kind of get into that again, because it seems in this situation, when we’re talking about unified design, this is a good question to ask again and to bring up again.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, basically the situation is: we work with you on a complete set of plans so that you get the house you want. It fits on your lot, you know — works with energy efficiency. But the end result will be about the same — it’s how you go do it.

With us, we’re able to get you a cost for the details we supply — the planning, engineering, energy codes, and the panelized package delivered. And we’ll give you a guaranteed set price, which is really, really helpful — because a lot of times you work with designers, it’s by the hour. So it’s like a lawyer — you call them, ask them a question, they send you a bill. And, you know, how much of the problem is there?

We look at it as, hey, give the customer a set cost and make sure it’s taken care of right, so the customer can rely on it for their budget.

So I think a lot of it is that — the actual design work, the control of the budget with our guaranteed cost, our ability to work on a schedule, and most importantly, our ability and desire to listen, understand what a customer needs, and then help them through to get it taken care of for the project.

Now sometimes a customer will ask for something that just isn’t possible in their budget or on the land, but we still work with them to explain the situation so that then we can work together on a solution that makes sense for them.

Interviewer: Yeah, sure.

Steve Tuma: So I think it’s the process that we supply. Because of course we are the best panelized home company on the planet — and I say that seriously. I like to have a sense of humor, but the reality is that all the details that we supply to make the house right is important.

A lot of people think, “Oh, I’ll just go get the guy down the road, who for 500 bucks he’ll draw plans.” That’s a problem.

So I think when you take the combination of:

…it’s unmatched. And I don’t know that in stick‑building that there’s a method for someone to do that and make it easy and be able to have all the support and achieve the goal.

And it’s a big money savings. We have a lot of people that do two, three homes with us. Some will do one a year or two later, some will do it 10 years later. But I think that’s the basic situation of how we’re really able to differentiate ourselves and provide a service that customers appreciate.

Interviewer: You talk about custom‑designed homes as opposed to the standard design from Landmark Home and Land Company. So we’re assuming — you’re saying that there are designs that are kind of standardized, but the custom homes — are they more costly, a lot more costly, or how does that work?

Steve Tuma: Well, this is interesting, because that’s one of those things on a perspective. If you take a standard design, say from our website — a 1,200‑square‑foot, three‑bedroom, two‑bath home — there’s a price for that.

But even if someone decided to say, “Hey, I want to do a similar 1,200‑square‑foot home but change the inside or stick a little porch on there,” we don’t charge extra because it’s your own design.

So there’s something kind of different here. So if it’s feature‑for‑feature — like if you have 9‑foot ceilings and a cathedral in the living room — whether you work with one of our standard plans that we have on the website or you draw similar up, we don’t charge extra because you had your own idea.

Now the features — if you decide to put 12‑foot ceilings in there versus 9 — yeah, that extra material is going to cost more.

So I think the interesting thing about this is that sometimes people think just because a home is customized it will cost more. And there are ways to make sure that that doesn’t happen. Now, if someone comes in with an extremely high‑end custom home that’s going to have a lot of features — that ends up costing more. So someone will say it would cost more, but it’s the features.

What I’m trying to say is: just because you want to do a custom home, we don’t charge extra. We work with you. So if someone said, “Hey, I want to do an affordable 1,600‑square‑foot ranch, can I do my own design?” — it’s going to come out about the same price as if someone chose one of our 1,600‑square‑foot ranches.

So what we want to do — and we’ve set ourselves up — is to make sure that people get the house they want. I’ve seen too many times where people buy houses, and you can see this:

…where people take what they can get, but it doesn’t necessarily work for what they need. Size of bedrooms… just different uses. Different families live different ways.

So if we can work to customize the layout to get the person the home they want at the same price as if it was a standardized design, to me that’s excellent. It’s great, because people want to live in the house they want. It’s their home. They’re paying for it. They’re going to be there a while. They want to live the way they live.

Some people enjoy their kitchens. Some people want a big room for the family to get together. Other people want bedrooms and bathrooms to be laid out different ways, and we’ll spend the time to do that — whether someone just wants to do a little 400‑square‑foot, 500‑square‑foot ADU, or they want to do a 10–15,000‑square‑foot mansion.

We’ll take the time to design it and do it in a cost‑effective way.

Interviewer: I mean, what’s the breakdown of how many people come to you and get their design — even if they customize it — but get their design directly from the website, and people who come in and just want you to build a home based entirely on a design they have that, of course, you get involved with that… but what’s the percentage breakdown?

Steve Tuma: In almost 33 years, one person has had a plan saying exactly… Everyone changes.

Whether you’re building a house with a $100,000 budget altogether or 10–15 million, everyone wants their house. They need this and they need that. It’s just one of these interesting situations.

So the reality is — that’s why we do it. It’s really cool when a customer says, “Hey Steve,” two, three years later they’ll say, “Hey Steve, here we are in the big family room. Twenty‑five people are over for the holidays. We designed it right. Thank you.”

I mean, we’ve had other people to other extremes. I had a customer — great guy — but he happens to have two Harley‑Davidsons. And I guess on rainy days, you bring them in your house. You don’t leave them outside. So we made sure that the ramp up to the deck and then the floor system in the house would be able to support that weight.

So some people might look at that and say, “Hey, it’s a little bit odd,” but hey — if that’s your priority, do it.

Other people have rooms where they have different hobbies — they need extra support in the floor. Maybe a big pool table, a hot tub, or whatever it may be. And we can get that all taken care of.

And that’s the key element of going through and really making sure that people get the house.

So yes, the percentage — almost 100%, with the exception of that one person about 20 years ago. Everyone wants to do something to their home. And sometimes it’s a personal taste, sometimes it’s a big window to take advantage of a view, sometimes it’s a situation with the land if they’re building on a slope, sometimes there’s hobbies.

There’s people that, you know, they work on their car with the kids, or their garage is a big — turns into a big party room on big family weekends, or whatever.

So there’s always a special need there that’s very important to our customer base. And we believe that people should live in a house that they want, and that they enjoy.

You know, having to take what’s available, I guess, is okay. But if, for the same money or about the same money, you can get the house you want and know it’s built right — that’s why we offer this service. And that’s why we do a complete process — because owner‑builders and even the professionals, there’s always a lot of details, and we want to make sure our plans are complete and thorough for them.

Interviewer: Hmm. This has been pretty informative, I think.

Steve Tuma: It’s a lot of stuff. And what I find when I talk to customers is they don’t believe that you can pay someone and get a set of plans that isn’t buildable. And sometimes those unbuildable plans even get approved by building departments.

It’s one of these things that people don’t… you don’t believe it. You figure, hey, you’re going to go to the doctor, he’s going to help you. It’s like, well, did he really?

So you want to know that you’re getting a complete service, as well as a great panelized home. And great panelized homes — that’s what Landmark Home & Land Company does.

Interviewer: All right. Well that’s about all we have time for, for this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

But before we let you go, Steve, as we always do, please let our listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home & Land Company and what you guys are doing and how you’re helping people over there get the house they want.

Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check out our website. The company name is Landmark Home & Land Company. You can see our website at LHLC.com — that’s kind of the initials: Landmark Home Land Company.

And on there there’s plans, there’s videos, there’s these podcasts, there’s different details on what we supply, there’s pictures — it’s pretty cool. And someone can go through there and email us directly, or they can also look at plans and send us an email asking questions about a specific plan.

And then they can also call. Mike will probably answer the phone, or he’ll get back with you if for some reason it got to his voicemail, but he answers. It’s 800‑830‑9788. Again, that’s 800‑830‑9788.

And you know, we invite people to call, submit an inquiry online. If someone wanted to call and talk to me directly — my direct cell phone is 708‑205‑2043, and I’m Steve Tuma with Landmark Home & Land Company.

Interviewer: And there you have it.

Thank you again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

So for Landmark Home & Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week, and we will see you next time.

Thanks again, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. This is a really interesting one. It was a good one. Thanks.

A: A panelized home package is typically delivered 4 to 5 weeks after the architectural designs are finalized, structural engineering is completed, and local building permits are issued. Delivery timing can also be held back or scheduled around foundation completion to ensure materials arrive exactly when your framing crew is ready.

A: Yes. Deliveries can be controlled and staged into multiple truckloads to accommodate tight job sites, narrow mountain roads, rural dirt driveways, or islands where a single large delivery isn’t feasible.

A: The truck delivery includes the complete wood structural framing skeleton: sill seals, treated sill plates, floor systems with support beams, interior wall panels (typically 2×4 or 2×6), exterior wall panels (typically 2×6 with factory-installed sheathing and framed window/door rough openings), roof trusses or rafters, roof sheathing, sub-fascia, and structural wood-to-wood connectors.

A: The owner-builder provides the local framing labor and job-site fasteners such as nails or collation screws tailored to their crew’s specific tools. Exterior finishes like shingles, windows, siding, and interior mechanicals/finishes are also sourced separately so owner-builders can choose their own brands and price points.

A: Yes. Standard plans are simply starting points. Layouts can be fully customized—from moving walls and garage sizes to specific interior details like floor-to-ceiling closet doors—while Landmark integrates the structural engineering and energy calculations to match.

Steve Tuma: And that’s the advantage — our customers are owner‑builders, so they’re able to act as a general contractor or do a lot of the work themselves. We have had a lot of customers where their families are in the trades and they literally build the whole house.

Interviewer: Howdy everybody, and welcome to Episode 83 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

With me today, as he always tends to be, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company — a 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’s it going, buddy?

Steve Tuma: It’s a great day. You know, it always seems to be a great day when we’re helping people build homes — especially in springtime right now, the weather is pretty beautiful. It’s a good time to build a home.

Interviewer: Yeah, you know, a lot of people get going in spring to start the projects in fall — the actual design and details and get it going through permitting so that when it is springtime, they’re ready to go.

Steve Tuma: Yeah.

Interviewer: So I thought today we would go back to something we’ve been doing over the last few episodes, and that’s get down to some of the basics of panelized homebuilding. And some of these questions — I know, Steve, you’re very patient — but sometimes I have to come up with these questions that are so basic they seem a little… a little juvenile.

It’s important. You know, I know I’m not the only one that’s asking these questions.

So let’s start off with: how long does it take from the time you get your design done to have a home, kit home, delivered to your build site?

Steve Tuma: Well, we can basically get it delivered in four to five weeks from when a customer says, “Hey, put it in production.”

Now, generally we put it in production after the plans are done and permits are issued. Then we say it’s four to five weeks. But what’s amazing about it is customers always ask us how quickly they can get it done — and we can do it a lot quicker than they expect.

But the reality is, is they have to get the foundation and prepare the site. So most of our customers ask us to hold it back. But we’ve got very fast delivery. We have controlled delivery, so we can get it there the day that they need it and make sure everything works out.

So the direct answer to your question is: four to five weeks we can have it on their site, ready to go — and that’s if they want it that fast, as long as their foundation’s in. Because what we want to do is make sure that they have their foundation done, the foundation crew’s left, and our panels show up, they unload them, and then start building the home.

It’s good just to keep the project going. You don’t want stuff sitting around.

Interviewer: Yeah. Is there ever a time where people, like, you know, split their load — like have you deliver part of it at one time?

Steve Tuma: It happens a lot. Yeah, it happens a lot. And that’s the thing — some customers want everything at once, you know, floor system, walls, and roof trusses. And if it’s a smaller home, generally that’s how we deliver it.

But there are some more complex homes, or homes with challenging building sites, or just bigger homes, where they say, “Hey, let’s get the floor system in, then the first‑floor walls, the second‑floor floor system, second‑floor walls, and roof trusses.”

So we can work with customers to make sure it makes sense, because sometimes it’s scheduling, and a lot of times it’s space on the site. You know, if you’re doing a bigger home on a smaller lot, sometimes there just isn’t space to have all the materials laying around.

So that’s a great question actually, because it’s in the coordination of doing this — making it easy for the framing crews, and methodical, and a pre‑planned setup — where we’re able to do it.

We have a unique one — I guess it’s not too unique — but a family’s building in a very rural area, where it’s basically a two‑lane highway, and their driveway is literally a dirt road off this driveway. You know, so it’s not like there’s a bunch of intersections or anything. So what we’re doing is working with them to get a certain type of truck that can get off the highway quickly and traverse through their 900‑foot, winding‑through‑the‑woods, dirt‑road driveway.

So we’ve worked with customers on that just to make sure it’s taken care of. We’ve even done homes to islands.

Interviewer: Oh wow, that’s cool.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So I guess your simple question, I get to complicate it by saying, “Hey, if it’s on an island, if they’ve got a unique building situation, if there’s restricted space to take the delivery and hold materials, we can work with customers to get that taken care of.”

And that’s part of why working with Landmark Home & Land Company is very important — because we’re not just sending a panel saying, “Good luck, hope it works.” We’re looking at the project of what makes sense for what you need — what makes sense for you, for your house, the building department, the contractor, the building site. So it’s pretty interesting.

Interviewer: Hmm. Well I guess that… that was a great question, but look at all the answers. But the interesting thing about it is all those conditions we’re talking about — some customer has it. They’re either in a remote area, there’s a limited lot size. Other times, there’s a huge amount of space — they have people building on 30, 40 acres and they could take the materials and put them down, and then everything’s there when they need it.

The key to it is we can deliver when they need it, in a situation that’s advantageous for them to build their home. That’s pretty cool.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, that was a lot of answers in one question — but it’s always good.

Interviewer: Kill some birds here. What — I know this is another super simple question, but — and I know it’s going to deviate depending on the floor plan and the design and whatever — but what actually comes when that flatbed truck comes into your build site? What comes in that Landmark home kit?

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s interesting. There’s two answers to that, because there’s what we deliver on the truck — but then something I’d preface it with is what we do to make sure what we deliver on the truck, the panels, are done right.

So the actual truck delivery is basically the complete wood structure:

And our floor systems could be dimensional wood — like 2x10s, 2x12s. We can also do engineered I‑joists, and we can also do engineered open‑web floor trusses. We supply the floor sheathing, which is typically a 3/4‑inch tongue‑and‑groove OSB, but we can use AdvanTech or different plywoods if someone wants.

The interior panelized walls are generally 2×4, 16 inches on center. Plumbing walls are 2×6, 16 inches on center. The exterior walls are generally 2×6, 16 inches on center. And we do install the sheathing, and the window and door rough openings are installed with their headers, so it’s a complete panel that can just be lifted in place.

And then roof systems are generally trusses, but if they need rafters for the design, we can do that — the 5/8 OSB roof sheathing, and we can do plywood or ZIP board if someone wants, and then sub‑fascia. Then we supply a variety of wood‑to‑wood connectors, bracing materials, and details too, so that it’s a complete package.

Basically, our customers — their framing crew unloads it, and then they supply the labor, and our customers supply any nails or screws. There are just different screw guns, so it’s better for them to supply. But if someone simply looks at it as: we take care of the wood structure — the skeleton of the home — it clarifies it.

And then they supply locally — they’ll get the roofing materials, windows, doors, cabinets, plumbing, electric, heat, insulation, drywall, finishing trim, flooring, and things like that.

But that’s what people initially look for. The value that Landmark provides — and the exceptional service, and it is not generally available in the industry anywhere that I really know about — is that we work to help someone do the complete design. So it’s not just the design of the home, but it’s also the design of the home so it fits on your land, works in the zoning, works in the setbacks, works in whatever requirements you have, makes sure it sits on the land properly, so that we develop a set of plans that is ready for your building permits.

And that is a huge differentiation that people don’t understand. People don’t always understand the complexity of building departments, the curveballs building departments may have, or the deep details that they do. Now some areas, building departments are very simple; other areas, they’re extremely complex.

So if someone’s searching among different ways to build their homes, they might say like, “Hey, this panel company does this,” or, “This company does this,” or, “People that build in these methods do that.” It’s like, great — they can get you the materials, possibly. But we’re helping with the complete design, so:

…and all these other details, so that someone has a real set of building plans that are also used for the building‑permit process.

And that is a point that people don’t understand because not all panel systems are the same, and not all plans are the same. Just because you get an architect and a structural engineer doesn’t mean that magically everything works clearly for your framer and there aren’t unanswered questions.

With Landmark’s system, we work through:

…to make sure that your plan set is unified and matches up. And then when we deliver the panelized home package, it matches the approved set of plans.

And the reason I want to emphasize this is a lot of people have this opinion that when you go hire someone — an independent architect, an independent structural engineer, an independent energy‑calculation person — that magically they all talk into, you know, unicorns and rainbows and everything flows together. It doesn’t.

Even the professionals — I hear it so much, and we get so many plans from people that say, “Well, he’s the best architect in town.” It’s like, great, I’m sure he is — but how does it work on your project? Does it match the structural design? Does it match the energy calculations? Does it match your ground?

And that’s the point where people really appreciate what we do. A lot of customers say, “Steve, I searched, I found you because I wanted a panelized home, never realizing the amount of support, planning, details, and knowledge that’s necessary to help get a project going.”

That’s a key element that I don’t know that people always understand — that is of extreme value that we provide as part of our package. It’s pretty amazing.

It’s kind of like, you know, hey, anyone could go to a store and buy a 2×6 — but how do you use it right?

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: You know, I joke with people — it’s like, you know, I’m not a great cook, but if someone went to my mom and said, “Hey, could you make a chocolate cake?” she’d make an exceptional chocolate cake just off the top of her mind. You give me a cake mix, it’s probably not going to come out too well, even though it’s there.

There’s still a science and an art to making things happen. There’s an art to making sure that the plans are done right, they work for the building department, they work for your framer, they work for the panels, and then you end up with a house that you want instead of something where you have to do changes on site or plans are unclear.

That’s the key thing — our clear and accurate set of plans and clear and accurate set of assembly plans. That is extremely important. That’s what Landmark Home & Land Company supplies that not many people realize is extremely important to the success and staying in your budget.

Interviewer: Hmm. And the schedule.

Steve Tuma: It’s all nice stuff. And all of that stuff has to click and come together.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: But people don’t realize it. It’s weird. You would think, “Hey, you go to a couple professionals, they’re going to magically work together and it’s going to click together.” It doesn’t. But with Landmark, we’re the one‑stop shop that makes it easy for an owner‑builder to:

Interviewer: You know, just to jump where we’re headed here — I want to jump back into some of my bonehead questions.

We talk about “standard floor plans” a lot on this show, but exactly what is a standard floor plan — and more importantly, how customizable are they?

Steve Tuma: Well first of all, Landmark Home & Land Company will customize the floor plan to exactly what you want.

There’s something there because of decades‑old stories or the way tract builders work, or different non‑custom builders work, as they say, “Hey, go with the builder’s plan, it’s gonna save you money.” Well, yeah — if you’re building something and you’re not really concerned about the design of the home, in theory if a guy’s built the exact same home 25 times, in theory — I’m not sure that they do it — it should be a value. But then you’re going in a standard plan that may or may not work for you.

So in our case, we can work with the plan that a customer drew up, something off our website, and we can come up with a complete custom plan so that the customer gets the home that they want. You know, the way I look at it is: if you’re gonna work hard like we do to make a living, you should get the home you want that works in the budget and makes sense for you.

So for us to go through and dress the home up, move windows, move doors, or add complete custom features — that’s what we’re all about. We have a full design team, we have the full structural engineering team to make sure it gets put together.

What’s interesting about it is a lot of people think, “Oh, you go custom, it’s more expensive.” It’s not that the act of going custom is more expensive — it’s that the features in a custom home become more expensive. Like we have a customer — they’re putting an airplane hangar in their house. That’s not exactly normal. I should say, in their community it’s extremely normal, but the typical person doesn’t have an airplane hangar.

So the reality is, we don’t charge more because it’s an airplane — all that “this and that.” It’s like, no, it’s just a big structure, we work through. So if someone has 8‑foot‑tall walls in a house, it’s a cost. If someone has 12‑foot‑tall walls, it’s a cost. We don’t charge extra just because it’s a bigger item — it’s just one of the features we put in.

And that is why working with us — with our design, and our way to control cost and work with the complete structural design to give someone a set and guaranteed cost — that’s the thing that really helps customers understand how we help them.

So, to get the house you want at a set and guaranteed cost for what we do and supply — it’s exceptional. So a customer can understand their budget before they commit to the project.

Interviewer: That’s so interesting — to take something like what you call a standard floor plan and then to be able to give a customer such a wide variety of ways that they can make it more theirs is pretty amazing.

Steve Tuma: I’ll give you an example. I have an apartment home. She said she’s been thinking about it for 30 or 40 years. She’s owned the land for decades — I don’t know how long. She just told me two hours ago she planted, over the time of owning it, 350 pine trees on the land.

And she’s asking for some very, very precise things in her home. And they’re just things that I’ve never been asked to draw in a house. It’s not a problem; it’s just different. So I asked her why.

And one of the things she wanted was closet doors that went to essentially floor to ceiling. Instead of, you know, the top of a door, and then there’s a foot or two or three — depending on ceiling height — to the ceiling. And she said, “Steve, I’m short. If I get on a stepping stool, I don’t want to have to reach around a wall and this and that. I just want to open a door, have a ladder, and be able to reach the medium shelf, the top shelf, the highest shelf, and not have to bend around a wall.”

What’s funny about it is that’s extremely logical, makes an extreme amount of sense, but just because it’s not commonly done that way, people don’t do it.

So we went through a lot of work to make sure the exact way the doors are hung, the opening for the closets are there, so that it’s there. She said she’s in her 70s, she’s shorter — that’s a tongue twister — and then she said it allows her to access what she needs. She’s got file cabinets, hobbies, different things she wants, so she wants to have easy access and not have to have everything laying around her house.

So, after a while, you start looking at a closet door and go, “Why aren’t they all floor‑to‑ceiling so you can access that top shelf?” So it’s kind of an interesting thing.

So in that case, we spent a little time to draw it up, and it’s an exceptionally important thing to her house. And as long as she lives there, she’s going to get what she wants. It’s going to be easier for her to live in. It’s going to be more enjoyable. It’s not really going to cost that much more, and it just took us a little while to fine‑tune the plan.

So by listening to a customer, understanding what it is they’re after, we can then go and adjust the design to make sure the home is more enjoyable for them — and still stay in the price range they want to be in.

Interviewer: That makes sense.

I’m going to ask you something really dumb now — and it’s only dumb because we have covered this a lot on the show, but I still get the feeling that there are people out there who really don’t know the difference between a panelized home — which is what Landmark Home & Land Company does — and a modular home.

So I’m going to ask you one more time — well, maybe not; this may not be the last time — but how is a panelized home different from a modular home?

Steve Tuma: Well, this is an interesting question, because you think it’s kind of a simple dumb thing. I’ve had professionals in the trade, professionals in the real‑estate world, professionals in the building world, that interchange those words.

And I think it all comes from, like, prefab. When people say prefab, it’s kind of generic — it’s prefabricated. Well even a custom home has prefabricated components — there’s probably some prefabricated trusses in there. So it’s just a different building method that, in my opinion, hits different market segments.

So I’ll add one more. You have panelized, you asked about modular, and then I’ll use the word prefab.

So in general, when people use the word “prefabbed home,” I think they’re thinking more of the trailer thing — you know, a couple parts go down, they have a metal frame under it. It’s just a simple word of prefab that’s put together — 80% of it’s made in a factory, it’s prefabricated.

You can’t really customize a lot. You might be able to pick siding colors and an option of a kitchen or a master suite or bathroom or something. But it’s prefabricated — you’re taking an advantage. It’s a completely different quality.

I would say if you’re even considering one of those, really, really check into the quality of it — and if you can even finance it. And if you go sell it, if it’s possible to get it financed. But that’s prefab.

So then there’s modular, which again are like the two halves — or if it’s a two‑story, maybe four quarters. But basically they’ll be like 8, 10, 12, 14 feet wide, and they’ll be meant to be put on a conventional foundation. They do not have a metal frame underneath them, and they’re put together in modules. So it’s like a mega‑huge LEGO — if you’re building a house out of two pieces, you put two pieces together, and there.

So in the case of a ranch, you’d have two halves that are put together. Then on site, they tie the roof together, siding, some electric and plumbing, and go.

Modular is kind of a little bit of a step up from the — what I call — prefab, the HUD homes, the trailer homes, in that it is built to a better code. It’s theoretically kind of a stick‑built theory, but it isn’t. You should always look at the quality of the homes.

You generally cannot make significant changes to them — it’s limited. And way back, there were cost advantages, but from what people tell me now, there aren’t.

So the modular are two modules or four modules that come out to make a house. It’s limited changes, limited customization, generally price‑pointed — although people are telling me that they’re getting way up there. They’re not necessarily cost‑advantageous.

Now, panelized is a more efficient version of stick‑building a home. Stick‑building is what customers may see as a conventional builder — he’d go out and get a bunch of 2x4s, 2x6s, cut them up, make a wall, put a wall up, make the next wall, and just build it right on site.

Panelization — our system at Landmark — is a more efficient system in that we’re completely designing the home, doing the structural engineering, making sure it’s a consistent plan so all the details are put together on what needs to be built, and then we’re delivering the panelized package — which I kind of reviewed at the beginning, but basically the wood structure.

So we’ll supply the materials to assemble the floor system on site. We’ll supply all the wall panels for just to be set in place. And then the roof trusses to go through.

So what panelization has done is taken the efficiency of Landmark’s design, Landmark’s engineering, Landmark’s energy‑code processes, to have a more efficient system to get the framing up properly, on a budget and in a set schedule. It’s more control — but also more control on the part of our customer, because we work with them to design the home they want. And we have a lot of owner‑builders, so our owner‑builders control the project. They control the project, the schedule, the price, and what it is they get out of it.

Interviewer: And who doesn’t want to be in control, right?

Steve Tuma: Well, there’s a lot of things going on in the construction world, and we’re finding a lot of our customers have had prior experiences that they want to avoid. So they want to go through and control the project and understand what’s being done. They want to know what’s being done to their home — where the money’s being spent, the quality of materials — and make sure it actually ends up there.

Interviewer: We were talking earlier about that — when the kit actually arrives on the trucks — but after that, Landmark has nothing to do with the actual build, right? Landmark doesn’t provide the labor to build your kit home.

Steve Tuma: Right. And that’s the advantage — our customers are owner‑builders, so they’re able to act as a general contractor or do a lot of the work themselves.

We have had a lot of customers where their families are in the trades and they literally build the whole house. We’ve had others that do part of the work, and others that just kind of manage the construction. So the actual labor is something that you get locally.

We work nationwide and internationally — it’s just easier to work with a local person: insurance, licensing, things, to make sure that the home is put together.

Now, we are 100% of the time there for any support. We have very clear and accurate assembly plans. They say what each wall panel looks like and where it gets placed. So we’ve got a very good system to make sure that the assembly is easy.

And what’s interesting about a lot of people — like, “Hey, I haven’t done a panelized home,” or, “I did one 20 years ago” — they’re amazed at how easy it is, because we do have a great system of design, to make sure what’s designed shows up on site, and the panels are built right, trusses are built right, so that the contractors can go through, finish the home up, and move along.

It’s a pretty amazing process. A lot of people think, “Well, it’s pretty easy.” Well, it’s still a lot of work that we have to take care of, to make sure all the details are put together. It’s one of the things we supply. We work with our customers so that they understand what needs to be done, so that when they’re working through the building processes, they’ve already seen it, understand it, move forward. It’s easier for them. It makes sense.

It actually makes a lot of sense, but I’m not sure that people fully understand how we’re able to help — because there’s a lot of details. It’s not like watching one of these TV shows where you sit back and have a cup of coffee and magically, in 20 minutes, someone frames a house or puts a tile floor down. There’s a lot more detail in it. We supply the support so that people can understand it.

Interviewer: All right. Well, that’s about all we have time for on this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

But before we let you go, Steve, let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys are doing over there.

Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check our website out. It’s at LHLC.com — kind of the initials of Landmark Home Land Company, LHLC.com.

On our website we’ve got thousands of plans. We’ve got pictures. We have videos. These podcasts are there. There’s different conversations on what we supply, what we do, and how we help people along. There are some testimonials on there. So I think people get a pretty strong understanding.

But we are a very customer‑service‑oriented company. So people can send us an email from the website. They can also find a plan they like and send us a message. Or they can just give us a call, and we’ll get them taken care of.

Mike will answer the phone if you call 800‑830‑9788. Again, it’s 800‑830‑9788. And we’re there to help you through the process. And whatever it takes to help you understand how we can help — help you through the process — we’re there to do so.

Interviewer: Fantastic. And there you have it.

Thank you again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week and we will see you next time.

Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. This is another good one, as they all are. They’re fun. Thank you.

Q: What does an owner-builder actually do when building a house?

A: An owner-builder acts as the general contractor, overseeing the quality, budget, and construction schedule of their custom home. Depending on preference and skill, an owner-builder can manage professional subcontractors or perform hands-on labor like excavation, framing, and finishing work.

A: Owner-builders typically save 20% to 30% by eliminating the profit markup added by commercial general contractors. Managing sub-trades directly and controlling material choices translates those savings into instant home equity and reduced long-term interest costs.

A: Cheap stock plans or amateur sketches operate on a “garbage in, garbage out” basis. They usually lack complete structural engineering, ductwork spacing, energy code compliance, and foundation details. Incomplete plans prevent contractors from giving accurate cost estimates, delay building permits, and cause expensive on-site change orders.

A: Landmark’s one-price model locks in the cost of custom design, structural engineering, energy calculations, and the panelized framing package upfront in the purchase agreement. This guarantees material pricing against unexpected lumber market fluctuations, inflation, or tariffs while your plans move through municipal permitting.

Steve Tuma: If someone goes and gets an architect, a structural engineer, all these different people and put it together, the costs are just high — and it’s still not controlled.

Interviewer: Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 82 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

With me today, as he usually is, is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company — a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, in all 50 states and around the globe since 1993 — Mr. Steve Tuma.

Steve, how’s it going, buddy?

Steve Tuma: It’s a great day, another great day. You know, it’s interesting you say “all 50 states” — isn’t that amazing? We help people build houses in any state in the United States: California, New York, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, all these places.

But even within those states, there’s variations. Rarely, but occasionally, there’s cities at or below sea level. There’s the highest populated city of Leadville, Colorado. There’s the beach communities all along California. There’s the Northeast — those beautiful little towns, picturesque towns.

And we’ve literally worked in pretty much every condition — in mountain ranges, on waterfront, beach areas, lake areas, Midwestern situations, on the sides of hills, on the sides of mountains, earthquake zones, high snow loads, high wind zones. So it’s pretty incredible, the voyage this has been, to be able to completely support an owner‑builder in building their own home — no matter where they want to build.

Interviewer: Yeah. It’s a lot of fun.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. I mean, it seems like you like your work.

Interviewer: Steve?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s pretty energizing when someone calls up and says, “Hey, I want to build this big house here in Carmel, California,” or, “Hey, I want to do something in Orlando or outside of Chicago or New York,” or whatever it is.

So it’s not necessarily just the designing of the home — it’s what’s happening to the family or people that are building. They’re newly married, they’re starting a new life, you know — retirement home, helping the kids get a house, helping mom and dad get a house, building an ADU for income, building a duplex for income, an investment situation.

So it’s kind of neat. It’s not just like, “Hey, let’s just get a house.” It’s a transformation of what really happens in people’s lives and how taking the time to make sure that the house is built right, designed right, works within their budget — of how much we can help them achieve their goal as an owner‑builder.

It’s an incredible situation. I think we’ve been doing it almost 33 years — since 1993. It’s pretty amazing.

Interviewer: Yeah, I think you guys have it down by now.

Steve Tuma: Pretty good, I think.

Interviewer: You know, today I thought we’d talk about the — we always talk about owner‑builders. What is the whole — what’s behind that phrase, “owner‑builder”? Let’s talk about the owner‑builder model and how exactly that work is laid out by Landmark Home & Land Company.

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting about that is our customers are owner‑builders. So that means the person that is likely to live in the home is also the general contractor or the subcontractor.

So an owner‑builder is pretty much making sure that they’re building the house the way they want it, to stick to their schedule, to stick to their budget. A lot of people also do it because they want to know what’s going in their home — they want to make sure it’s done right. They want to make sure the quality’s there, the design elements and other features are put together.

So that’s generally what an owner‑builder will be — but it can span various degrees. Someone could literally be involved in every step of building the home — excavating, the foundation, framing the home, and continuing on. Or an owner‑builder can also be someone that manages the subcontractors that are building their home.

So a lot of people do it to control the quality. Sometimes it’s just a dream. We have a lot of people that are like, “When I was 12, I always wanted to build my home. Now I’m capable of doing it.” Some people do it for financial reasons — to save the money or get a nicer home for the same money. Other times, just affordability seems to be the big word that’s flying around now — homes are expensive. And if someone can save a considerable amount of money by building their own home, why not?

So our model kind of helps them get the biggest, one of the hardest components — designing the home, make sure it’s structurally sound, make sure it’s energy‑efficient, make sure it fits on the lot, and then supply the framing process.

As a one‑stop shop, we’re able to take care of a big component so that they can control their project. So they’ll tell us how they want the house — where they want walls, what the general look, what the garage is like, what the kitchen is like — and we’ll design the complete home with them.

So they understand it, they know our costs up front, and then they can go through and execute the building of the home with our excellent set of plans. Because with our great set of plans, they can talk to a knowledgeable contractor and get an accurate estimate.

Without accurate plans, it’s garbage in, garbage out. So if you give someone a bad set of plans — something you hand‑sketch, something you swipe off the internet — the details probably aren’t there. So you’re not going to get as accurate a cost.

But also, with a real set of plans, people are going to know you’re serious — you’ve put some effort into making sure the house is designed right.

So with our model, we help them understand the project, help them work to get the plan set that they need for easy permitting process and then also building. And then we deliver the panelized home package, which then is the complete wood structure that they can assemble — get a local contractor, or assemble themselves on site — and then get subcontractors to go through.

It’s a tremendous money savings.

Interviewer: How often do people come to you and say, “Well, I’d have you design it, but my cousin Dave took architecture in junior high, so I’m going to have him do it”?

Steve Tuma: You know what — usually that happens where they’re like, they’ll come to us with that. And… everyone’s got their capabilities, everyone’s proud of what they do. But the reality of needing us to do a professional design — we’re not just drawing a cute picture so someone could say, “Hey, look at this.”

We’re making sure it works for energy efficiency. We’re making sure it works for structural concerns. We’re making sure it fits the architectural needs that you need. If there’s green codes involved, it’s there. We’re making sure it’ll work for plumbing, electric, heating, and zoning and other details.

So although we do get a lot of plans from people, those essentially end up being great conceptual plans. So they’re good in that a customer’s begun the thinking process, but we can go through and finish it.

And people don’t believe it — we’ve gotten complete sets of plans from licensed professionals that can’t be built. Or the details aren’t there — where you need to do so much extra work — which is why we have our design process. Because then we can work to design the home that the customer wants and make sense for them, and make sense for their land, and make sense for their budget.

And we’re able to go through and make that happen instead of come up with a great, cute set of plans that just are below the customer’s budget. We’re able to work through and, for our part, give them an exact guaranteed price — which is amazing in the industry, but we do it. It’s something that is in full support of an owner‑builder — and even contractors. We work with a lot of contractors to help them with their building processes as well.

So planning is exceptionally important.

When you said that, “Hey, someone’s got a cousin, they can draw,” that’s a good starting point. But we need to go in and make sure the beams are sized right, make sure beams fit in an area, make sure that the space in a home is there that’s required for insulation — and the type of insulation that a person has.

So the level of thinking is a little bit more. The internet’s an amazing place. There’s a lot of bad information out there. There’s a lot of good information out there. Trying to decipher what is good and bad is the hard thing.

And just because there’s a free planning service out there doesn’t mean that the plans are done right. But it does give us an idea, if someone has drawn plans, to get a strong idea of what they want — and the customer’s gone through a certain point of designing.

But we always like to be involved with the design phase because there are so many elements that we do consider in our panelized home and owner‑builder processes, we’re able to make sure that they’re thought through and done properly. And then we’re also able to give a guaranteed price. That’s exceptionally important.

Interviewer: So you don’t get freaked out if you see a drawing with the curly‑Q line coming out of the chimney of a house design.

Steve Tuma: Hey, you know, at least they know what the chimney’s for.

The point you bring up there is: with some of the software and with what people can do in different places, it is a good‑looking plan. You’d be like, “Wow, that’s a nice‑looking house.” But what makes it stand up? Is there space for the heat ducts? Can the plumbing work? Is there space for the insulation?

And that’s the thing that typically isn’t thought through. And those are the things that people don’t always understand need to be taken care of. But we are there to take care of them. And it’s what we do every day. So we’ve got a proven process to help people get the house they want.

What people don’t realize — a lot of people say, “Oh, I just want cheap plans.” Well, that’s good. But the plans are the most important part of understanding budgeting and scheduling your house. So if you don’t have a good set of plans, it’s not possible to really have control of your project.

You want control of your project. And our system allows customers to be in control of their owner‑builder project. That’s what Landmark Home & Land Company does. It empowers the owner‑builder to understand their project and build their home, save money, know the quality of it, get the home that’s most beneficial for them.

Interviewer: You were talking about affordability earlier — it seems to be a catchphrase nowadays. How do you build equity in a new home, or in a new panelized home? And is being an owner‑builder actually worth it in the end, in your opinion of course?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, building equity — equity is basically the difference of what its value is, and what it costs.

So let’s just — and customers tell me this a lot — they’ve saved $100,000, $200,000, some more on bigger homes. But that’s it. So if the house is worth half a million and you have $400,000 into it, by taking the time to design, build your own home, you have $100,000 equity. And that grows over time as you pay the loan down.

The key thing to that, that people don’t always look at, is they say, “Hey, I’ve saved money,” but they’ve also controlled the cost. They’ve understood what they want in the home. They get the house they want and they know the way it’s built. Because they’re the owner‑builder — they’re paying attention to it. They’re there on site seeing it.

But a thing that people don’t understand is the magnification of that savings. So if you had a half‑million‑dollar mortgage versus, say, a $400,000 mortgage — if that’s what your owner‑builder budget was — there’s a $100,000 savings. If you look at the savings of that $100,000 over the course of a mortgage, that may be $200,000 or $300,000 less payments you’re making to the bank.

Interviewer: All right. So let’s define the owner‑builder again — and we’ll come back to that. That role being obviously more than just swinging a hammer or out there buying new tool bags and standing out there.

Define the owner‑builder role for people who are planning to become perhaps an owner‑builder.

Steve Tuma: It’s basically planning and understanding and managing your complete project. To what degree? Like you say — some people are swinging the hammer, some people are digging homes, some people are running wires. Other people are just managing it with subcontractors to make sure the project gets done.

Some customers hire general contractors, but most of them work directly with the subcontractors or do a lot of the work themselves. And that’s where the money savings comes in.

Previously we were talking a little on the instant equity, or equity that gets in. In some cases, if someone can afford $400,000 but not $500,000, it allows them to get that better home at the lower cost.

So the owner‑builder, I guess just to summarize it, is just someone that wants to take control of their building project and wants to be involved to whatever degree they are. So they are working with the contractors, they’re working with us in the planning and the panelized package, and they’re making sure that the project comes through.

And in general, they’re doing it to save money. They want to see and know the quality in their home. They’re happy to do it. And a lot of the people — they just want to do it. It’s just something they want to do. They want to have the pride of knowing they built the home exactly the way they wanted. Because if they hired someone else to do it, they may not be able to do it — or they may not be able to afford it. It’s achieving a life goal for them.

Interviewer: Right. It’s a good way to put it, actually.

I want to go back, because I skipped over something that I was thinking, and then I got into my own funniness about the owner‑builder swinging a hammer. But explain it a little more in depth: how does the Landmark system create an immediate equity position just simply by reducing that labor cost that we were talking about earlier?

Steve Tuma: Well, in general it’s because general contractors typically make a 20 to 30 percent margin. So a customer that understands, with our good plans — that understands building, understands how to schedule it out — they can go through and get deals, buy things different ways, not have to pay for markups. And that’s where a considerable portion of it will be.

Also, our customers build some pretty nice homes. Even if they’re the most basic 1,000‑square‑foot ranch or some big mega‑mansion, they’re putting a lot of features in there that make sense that a typical tract builder or conventional builder may not put in. So they’re able to personalize and get their home.

So that instant equity is basically the difference of the money in compared to its value, and that’s what comes out of it.

In typical situations, people add that much value by saving on cost, by doing work themselves, by negotiating and finding deals on different portions of the home so that they’re able to have the quality of home at the price that they want.

Now, of course different market conditions will dictate different values of a home and the location of the home. But in general, our customer base is doing it for an equity position and to have a lower cost — to save money. That’s why they’re doing it, as well as knowing what they want and being specific in getting what they want.

But the whole thing on saving the money is literally by coordinating it themselves, doing some of the work themselves if they choose to, and then just being good people and understanding the costs of a home and paying for what makes sense.

In any industry — your car, your shirt, the hamburger you bought for lunch — there’s a level of profit there. The hamburger is the perfect thing. You go out for a hamburger now — it’s 20 bucks. But I’m sure if you made that hamburger at home, it’s probably $4 of ingredients.

Interviewer: At the most.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Now the restaurant’s providing service, supposedly, and there’s real estate, and a plate that they serve you on. But when you look at it, if you did it yourself, there’s a substantial difference in what the cost is to do it compared to what you get charged.

So in a similar sense, it’s the same thing with the owner‑builder situation. A lot of our customers will go through, like say in the case of windows — there could be a substantial swing in the cost of windows.

Builders generally put the builder grade, which is actually to the lower side. But our customers might go for a different grade window. Maybe they do need the least expensive one, but they’ll go through and negotiate, work to make sure that the windows are the type that they want. And if they have to work the budget or something — maybe they’ve got to change the design of a window here, change the feature of a window, but whatever — they end up getting the insulated performance values, the design they wanted, the cost that they want. And that’s the nice thing about it.

And the other thing is — there aren’t really change orders there. If they plan the house out right, they should just be able to execute it. Instead of… a lot of people, they tell me that if they work with a general contractor, everything’s a change order, and it creeps the price up over time.

So with our situation, a customer can pre‑plan the home, pre‑budget it, stick to that budget, and control the budget.

So there’s a lot of facets to that simple question of, “How do you get the equity built in?”

Interviewer: Well, we’re talking real‑world savings here.

So let’s get to the subject of developer costs and let’s compare a Landmark Home and Land Company kit home to a traditional stick‑built home when we’re talking developer costs.

Steve Tuma: We do work with some professional builders. We work with customers that have built multiple homes with us — some of them 20 homes. They just live in one, then move out and help a relative build one or something.

And what they tell us the advantage is — and I believe it’s true — is that if someone goes and gets an architect, a structural engineer, all these different people and put it together, the costs are just high — and it’s still not controlled.

Because a lot of the people — like an architect — will give you a set cost or charge per hour. So you call your architect — it’s like calling your lawyer, you get a bill. And it’s not always set and controlled.

So what ends up happening is people go through and plan these, they get the cost of the design, all the design elements — is it accurate, is it complete, are the details there to properly budget? And then, with stick‑building, they don’t give set prices. They might say, “Oh yeah, we could do it about this price, but if this changes or that changes…” The price isn’t there.

So in general, there’s just a lot of open‑ended details. That’s why people say, “Hey, when you build, prices go up.” Well, a lot of that’s because of lack of planning and lack of good information upfront.

So that’s it. So in our case, where we’re able to go through and help a customer, is to give a guaranteed cost for all of those details. We’ll spend the time to design a home — if they need to do two sets of changes or ten sets of changes, it’s the same cost. And that’s why we’re able to give an extremely competitive price that pretty much all customers tell us they wouldn’t be able to achieve by working with a conventional stick‑builder.

And that’s it — just our buying power, the way we’re set up, the way our internal processes work, of all the architectural, structural people working together. We’re able to control that.

So that’s the key element, where in other systems there’s not a set cost. People might get an estimate. Like if you go to a lumberyard — you go there, they’ll say, “Oh, this is the price,” and on there it’ll say, “The price is good for seven days.” So it will likely change. And that’s something that will affect someone’s budget.

So that’s how we’re able to go through and really help someone get it put together — to give a guaranteed cost, explain to them exactly what it is, and then give them a complete set of plans so that they can go get estimates for other materials.

Now, I know someone out there is saying, “But I can go online and I can buy this set of plans and it’s only $500 or $1,000.” And we get those plans, and you know what — there’s a way to save money, and then there’s a way to be, what, penny‑wise and pound‑foolish, is a phrase I used to hear.

You don’t always know the quality of the plans. And if you look at those, it says:

So in a sense, they’re selling you an idea — or possibly a dream — but you still have to go through and do all the work to make sure that it’s put together properly.

And that’s the point that people don’t understand. The reason that people go over budget is they don’t pay attention to the details up front, know what they’re building, and follow through with that plan.

So if you have plans that aren’t clear, if you don’t know what you want to build and you want to constantly change, it will cost someone more. With our system, we’re able to work with a customer to find out what they want up front, put it in the design, work with them, spend the time to make sure it’s what they want. If they need to change it, we could adjust it on paper so that they know the cost. They know the cost going in up front. And that is the key element that’s very important, that’s there.

And there’s also other things that customers tell us. They’re like, “Steve, I’ve never seen a structure like this. It’s solid.”

So we’re not here quoting something and then sending something that’s substandard. We have a very solid structure that’s reviewed by the engineers, the building department — make sure it’s solid. There’s no corner‑cutting. It’s our reputation. We’ve been doing it for 33 years, and we’re in business and we get repeat business because we take care of people, we do what’s right, and enjoy the process — to make sure that a customer gets their proper home.

Interviewer: You know, we were talking about the price of hamburgers now — you go in, it’s 20 bucks. But how does Landmark work with some of the craziness that’s going on in the world right now — and some of the, whether they’re good or bad, policies, let’s say tariffs, or let’s especially talk about the price of wood over the last few years? How do you guys navigate that? Do you see it coming, or are you hit blindsided sometimes and you have to adjust that? How do you guys work?

Steve Tuma: We’ve got great buying operations. We’ve got great design operations. We understand our business. We take care of it.

And you know what I’ve learned in 33 years of doing this — founding the company and growing it and taking care of customers all over the 50 states — there’s always something.

So it’s interesting. Someone will say, “Well, it’s this, it’s this.” I’m like, “Can you name me a five‑year period where it was just all roses and everything was great?” There’s always something. If it’s not this, it’s COVID. If it’s not this political thing, it’s that. Or it’s this weather thing or natural disaster or this or that. There is always something there.

Now, I don’t know if it’s really there, or it’s just the nature of capitalism in America making it there. But the point about it is: we’ve learned one thing. Get up, do your job, take care of the customer as well as humanly possible, make sure everything’s done, get a good night’s sleep, and do it again.

Because you know what — if someone’s saying, “Hey, lumber went up because of this, and someone went up because of this,” I just want to hear what their excuse is next month, because there’s always something there.

So we’ve just learned how to navigate it. We run a lean and efficient business, so we can weather the ups and downs and navigate the processes with people to get them taken care of.

So when we’re sitting here telling a customer, “Hey, you’ve got a price lock for a certain amount of time for the full design, engineering, materials of this,” we have to be pretty good at what we do.

I don’t think that that service is available anywhere that I’ve heard of. There might be people that’d be like, “Oh, I’ll sell you wood within this time period.” But who’s doing all the design, the structural engineering, the energy codes, the site plan, and getting you taken care of?

So the big value there is tremendous. And when you split out everything that we’re doing for a customer, we just need to make a fair profit, move forward.

But fundamentally, if someone could tell me a five‑year period where there hasn’t been something, you just have to set your business up to navigate it. That’s why we’ve been around. We don’t worry about, “Hey, what person said this, what person said this, what disaster happened four years ago, what might happen in five years.” Because we know one thing: something is going to happen. We just don’t know what it is.

But what we can control is taking care of customers, designing cool homes that make sense for a customer and the land that they’re building on, give them a fair price, and just take care of it.

Interviewer: It’s always something, isn’t it, Steve?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it is. And what we’ve found is that “something” is just — take care of the customer and have a good time doing it. Enjoy the process of helping a family get a home that will change their life. That’s what it’s about. So what if a board goes up a dollar — it’s not the end of the world. It’s better to make sure that the family gets the house that they want. That’s where you’re really making a change.

Interviewer: All right. Well that’s going to do it for another amazing edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show.

But before we let you go, Steve, once again, please let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home & Land Company.

Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check out our website at LHLC.com. It’s Landmark Home & Land Company, but LHLC.com. You can see all of our plans, our videos are there, our podcasts are there, discussions on what we supply, how we supply, what we do are all there.

You can then submit an email through there. You can pick a plan out and submit an email on a specific plan. Or you can give us a call — Mike will answer the phone at 800‑830‑9788. Again, that’s 800‑830‑9788.

You can call, talk about your project. Once you get to a certain point, you can transfer to me, and then I help them through.

But if someone wants to call me directly, they can call my direct cell: 708‑205‑2043. And the important part is getting to know each other, understand what a customer’s looking for for their family, and help them go through and make the project happen. We’re here to help.

Interviewer: It’s comforting. I think building a new home can be a daunting thing. You always just seem to have that answer that covers the problem, and that’s a good gift that you guys have at Landmark.

Steve Tuma: Well, the thing about it is, we’ve been involved with a lot of projects. There’s always a little bit of a curve ball. Chances are we’ve seen it before and we can help a customer through it. And by proper planning, support, knowledge, you can avoid a lot of those details. So it’s a big undertaking, but it’s exceptionally rewarding. People love it.

Interviewer: Excellent. And there it is.

Thank you again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Homebuilding Show.

So for Landmark Home & Land Company President Steve Tuma and for myself, have a great week and we will see you next time.

Thanks again, Steve.

Steve Tuma:

Yeah, thank you. This was a really interesting one, a different angle than we’ve discussed previously. Thanks.