Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show

A: Floor plans can be personalized to include flush transitions between rooms, zero-threshold entries, roll-in showers, and wide doorways for wheelchair accessibility. Designing flexible living spaces—such as split-bedroom layouts or private in-law suites—ensures homes function comfortably for aging family members or large gatherings without requiring future structural retrofits.

A: A window and door schedule is an engineered blueprint table detailing the exact quantity, style, glass dimensions, and framing rough openings for every exterior penetration. This documentation enables owner-builders to obtain precise supplier quotes, verify local energy code compliance values, and ensure factory-built wall panels arrive with accurately framed openings.

A: Mandatory measures are verified construction and air-sealing standards required by building departments to ensure a home achieves its calculated efficiency rating. These protocols include caulking electrical and plumbing penetrations on exterior walls, properly sealing chimneys, and insulating cavities behind fireplaces to eliminate thermal drafts.

A: Preliminary blueprint revisions allow designers and homeowners to identify underutilized spaces—such as oversized formal dining rooms or expansive foyers—and reallocate that square footage into functional great rooms or functional storage. Refining floor plan dimensions before engineering begins ensures room layouts align with daily living habits without driving up unnecessary framing and foundation costs.

A: Exterior finish materials carry distinct weight profiles that directly impact foundation and framing engineering. Heavy natural stone requires dedicated concrete foundation ledges, while brick or thick stucco can alter wall thickness, shear bracing, and window flashing details compared to lightweight vinyl or fiber-cement siding.

Steve Tuma: We have a lot of knowledge from real experience, so when someone calls up and says, “Hey, Steve, what about energy codes?” or “Hey, should I get a civil engineering design?” or “Hey, how do I deal with the septics or do I get an electrical layout?” I’ve done so many of these that chances are 98 out of 100 questions I can answer right there.

Interviewer: Hello, everybody, and welcome to episode 61 of the Panelized Pre Fab 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’s 31 years, folks! Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how you doing, bud?

Steve Tuma: I’m doing great. It’s a good day. Yeah, October 13th of this year marked 31 years of helping people build houses all around the country, and sometimes around the world. Big houses, little houses, some in places that are below sea level, some are at 10,000 or 11,000-foot elevations, some are waterfront, oceanfront, some are in cities. It’s kind of interesting—31 years of helping people get the house that they want.

Interviewer: Yeah, it’s pretty impressive, man. There’s no way to look at a 31-year business, especially a family-owned and operated business like Landmark is, without acknowledging that it’s a big, amazing accomplishment. Let’s just say that.

Steve Tuma: Right, It’s pretty cool. It’s cool to look back and see the evolution of what we’ve done, the different customers we’ve helped, and amazingly, a lot of them come back and build their retirement homes, or homes for their kids, or a move-up house, whatever it may be—a second home. It’s pretty interesting. It’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: Yeah, to say the least. That’s a good word. I can imagine you have a sense of pride. Today, I thought we’d go over some of the finer points surrounding a basic review of a home building project from the very start. So, are you ready to dive into that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, this is an interesting topic because, you know, a lot of people come in different directions. They have different ideas of what they want, different ways, different situations with each property and each new building project.

Interviewer: Yeah, and I’d say one thing that Landmark is famous for is you guys have the ability to get right back to a customer, listen to what their concerns are, and help them to get off to the right start. So yeah, that’s kind of a good thing to be known for. All right, let’s start right off. The review process of a new panelized home seems like an important first step in any new home build—just, you know, to get the finer points down before you’ve put one single nail into a piece of wood. So tell us how you guys over at Landmark Home and Land Company would begin that conversation, say, by reviewing the land itself that the house is going to sit on.

Steve Tuma: Well, a lot of it’s the land, the house, the specific need of what a customer is looking for. So if someone is doing their vacation home, it might be a different design or kind of need than if it’s their home for a growing family or a retirement home. So I always kind of want to get an idea for what people are trying to achieve, but also where they’re building. You know, the land—Is it a flat piece of land? Is it the side of a hill? Is it a steep slope? Is it waterfront? There could be different code issues—there generally are. There could be different concerns on accessing the house. You know, can you get in a good driveway to get into the garage if it’s a slow piece of land? But also where it’s at. If you took the same house—just take a random home design—and you wanted to build it on flat land in the Midwest, even though the house may look the same, it’s going to be different than if you put it in the south or anywhere in the hurricane zones, you know, in Florida. But then if you took that house and went into the Rocky Mountains or the Sierras, there’s going to be different concerns. How does the foundation attach to the land? Are there different conditions for seismic conditions, snow loads, high wind speeds, expansive soils? So we always like to get an idea of where a house is being built, what’s the purpose, and what are the land conditions so that we can go.

And some customers know a lot of details; some of them don’t know anything about it. So we’ll take the time under either condition to work with a customer, kind of get them up to speed on the process of what to look out for, and then we can, you know, show them how we can help them from our experience and just ideas to make a home, you know, economic to build, make sure that the design concepts make sense for what they want, and make sure it’s a set of plans that we can, you know, get through, make sure it’s good for the building department and the actual execution of the building processes themselves. So it’s kind of a unified approach. It’s not just a, “Hey, this is our system, hope you like it.” It’s, “Hey, what does our customer specifically need? What are they looking for in a house? What are the land conditions, the building site, building department concerns to make sure that everything’s done properly?” So it’s kind of a multi-pronged approach. It’s not a one-size-fits-all. It’s kind of just our knowledge base that we tailor to each individual customer’s needs. Amazingly, a lot of people have thought about this. They understand. They say, “Hey, I want to build in a mountain. I understand that I’ve got a slope to my land. We maybe have to get a civil engineer in.” You know, maybe the design you’d build on the side of a hill is different than if you had a flat piece of land or if you were in the city versus a country setting. So we kind of have the conversations to help them through and sort different things out. And what I’ve found is all customers have an understanding from a perspective of what they want to do. We just have to kind of, you know, finish it out with details that maybe they haven’t thought through or they may not understand. But whatever it is, we’re willing to take the time to talk to each individual customer, you know, person by person, specific to their project. And I think that’s a tremendous value that a lot of customers or potential customers don’t realize they need. They don’t realize that we’re here to supply those details. They may have built, you know, bought a house that was built somewhere and they were just told, “Hey, here’s this house on this lot. What color do you want it?” You know, where in our case, it’s “What do you want? Where do you want it? Let’s figure out what you need and get it all taken care of so that the customer gets the house they want.

They understand the house and then they also understand the costs.” It’s a lot of work to build a house and we think a customer that understands what they’re doing and the costs and the processes, it’s just a better build and it’s actually more rewarding for them. People build a house on their own because they want to. They want to understand the quality. They want to understand what the house is going to look like. They understand why something’s being done a certain way, and it’s their money. They also want to know why and how it’s being spent.

Interviewer: Yeah, that makes sense. Do you often find that some customers are so excited about a project that maybe they get a little ahead of themselves? Is that often a lot and you have to kind of—

Steve Tuma: I wouldn’t say it happens a lot, but what I’m finding is different customers have different things. Some people are very concerned about the structural design. Other customers are concerned about the work that they can do. Other customers are just concerned about a schedule, but sometimes they have a schedule that just might not be possible. People calling up in the Midwest on November 1st saying that they want to start the house before the snow flies. Maybe the snow already is flying, so there’s different situations that we take the time to explain the process to them so they can understand and have a realistic set of expectations for what’s there. But amazingly, we’ve got a good customer base of people that have wanted to build a house. It’s not like they wake up one day and say, “Hey, I want to build a house,” and call us. Generally, it’s been something that’s—sometimes it’s been there since they were a kid. Sometimes it’s something where they got sticker shock from a local builder and they’re like, “We want this house, but we need to get it done less expensively.” And then they realize the owner-builder situation’s there. So people are generally pretty focused on what needs to be done. We just have to fill in spots here and there. And then we’ve had other customers that are professional builders. They know how to build and they just need us for the efficiency of the design, the one-stop shop, the panels, and the guaranteed cost. So that’s something that they appreciate. So every customer kind of has their own approach. And then, like I say, we fill in the spots where they might need a little bit of information or knowledge to understand how something goes through. And amazingly, it works out very well. I think it’s because we’re attentive. We understand the owner-builder. We build houses ourselves, and we have a lot of projects going on right now. So we kind of know the pitfalls. We kind of have likely seen situations before. We build in all different types of situations across the country, you know, tops of mountains, sides of mountains, flat spots, waterfront. You know, just all these different conditions. So we’re a great resource where we can help people. That, I think, is the important thing.

Yeah, true help. No voicemails, you know, no push to here, push for there. Just give me a call on my direct cell phone. Yeah. And we talk about your project. It’s fun. Customers become friends or part of our life. And we’re proud to work with good people. That’s why we’ve been here for 31 years. It’s the basic thing: take care of the customer and make sure they get what they need and want.

Interviewer: That customer service thing, that’s just a dying art, you know, and the way you guys handle it—let’s say it’s old school. Maybe it’s retro, but I would prefer that to any modernization where I have to push a bunch of buttons to get an answer.

Steve Tuma: It’s the cool thing about it, the attentiveness, because we have a lot of knowledge from real experience. So when someone calls up and says, “Hey, Steve, what about energy codes?” or “Should I get a civil engineering design?” or “How do I deal with the septics?” or “Do I get an electrical layout?” I’ve done so many of these that chances are 98 out of 100 questions I can answer right there. And I think that’s what people are surprised about. They’re like, “Well, you don’t have to go to someone, or you don’t have a meeting and try to get some authorization?” It’s like, no, we’re a company that’s designed to be knowledgeable and be able to support a family in their efforts. And that’s the way we’re set up. I’m kind of the central hub of working with all the architectural designers, structural designers, and all of the people that are necessary to get a good set of plans put together. And then a lot of details for also making sure the panel product is put together so we can carry the concept all the way through.

It’s kind of interesting because sometimes people say, “Well, I can get my own architect, I can get my own structural engineer, I could get my own this and that.” I’m like, “Yeah, I’m sure you can.” But it’s kind of like, you know, trying to put ducks in a row or chase greased pigs. It’s great. Everyone’s going to do their individual process. Good luck if you don’t have the right knowledge. But how do you tie it together? Because sometimes people can draw a pretty-looking set of plans, but is the right information there?

Interviewer: Right. Yeah.

Steve, Tuma: And people say, “Well, you know, this guy designed this, he designed that.” I’m like, “I’m sure he did.” The idea is to find out how well it goes together, stay on budget, and stay on schedule. There could be a big difference there. So with us in the one-stop shop, we’re able to give our customers the knowledge and understanding and support so that they can leverage their time to stay busy with their family, their job, and then the actual construction of the house instead of dealing with minutiae. So it’s kind of like having a resource for extra brain with building and design knowledge that helps them get it put together. It’s a lot of interesting conversations. It’s a lot of talking to customers and sometimes working the conversation with them so that they develop the plan idea because sometimes people say, “Hey, I know what I want,” and they do. But then when you start getting into the finer details, you know, they might have to sort through. So they haven’t thought everything out, and that’s where we’re able to help. So if they say, “Hey, you know, what’s the benefit of vinyl siding versus cement board versus brick?” We can go through the different situations. But we also have an understanding that if they choose one or the other, it may affect the design and the engineering as well, so they don’t accidentally go down the wrong path. And that’s the really rewarding part of it is kind of taking the time up front—what I say is doing your homework up front—so that the project is well thought out, completely thought out. It’s easier to get permits. It’s easier to build. It’s easier to pass inspections. And it’s a lot more rewarding. And it’s the thing that keeps you on track for keeping your schedule and your budget in line. You know, it’s the reality of thinking about it up front instead of just diving in and building. You don’t want to design and build a house in “real time.” You want to design it, have it all sorted out, and then execute the building.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: That’s how we can help.

Interviewer: Well, help. Again, we go back to customer service. Help. Simple word, but it means a lot.

Steve Tuma: Oh, it is. And in today’s world, you know, I’m a consumer myself. You know, every company has an award: the best of this one minute after purchase, the best of this a week after purchase. And then me as a consumer calls in, and I’m on hold, and people say they’re going to call me back, and they don’t. It’s kind of aggravating. And I think that we’re there to answer the phone, get people taken care of, and get them the answer that they need, you know, right away or very quick. That’s relevant to their exact situation.

Interviewer: Yeah. So, you know, on this show, we talk a lot about plans. You know, it’s choosing plans, adjusting for the exact home design that a customer wants, etc. It sounds, you know, like oh, it’s just one aspect of everything. And it is. But it seems to me that’s such an important part because that’s where you start. If you don’t have a plan, what do you have? So let’s get into how you review the design elements of a new panelized home and within that partnership that you would develop with a customer.

Steve Tuma: Well, I’ve got an example. I got off a phone call with a lady in Texas. Hi Beverly! She started out with a house. She wanted to build about a twenty-five-hundred-square-foot ranch home on a slab with a three-car garage facing the front. She has a specific look on the outside of the home and then some specific details on how she wants the inside. You know, some guest bedrooms, a little workout room, an office, and then the master suite, and then a very large kind of great room concept with, you know, a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. And she wanted them to be a specific—the kitchen, dining room, living room had to be forty-six feet long. OK. And it’s just kind of like, OK, so you figure it out. We had this plan idea. We fine-tuned this, fine-tuned this. Well, sometimes you make a little addition, like add a foot here, add a foot there, add a hallway here. And you don’t realize you added three hundred square feet. And suddenly it’s like, whoa, wait a second. We can’t just add square feet because generally that means more money. So there was a specific target. So we’ve had to kind of sit there and go through a couple iterations of the plans to find out what’s really going on here. What’s going on? So she wanted a certain size fitness room. But then after a while, she goes, “Hey, wait a second. This is taking a lot of space. I really don’t use two pieces of the equipment.

There’s only three.” Right. So we worked out a layout there. Then we figured out, you know, the big thing is she has a family of about 40 people where she wanted to know that there are spots for people to hang out. You know, some people talk here. Some people watch the game. Some people sit around the fridge. Some people be out in the back patio. And how do you get this together? So through the conversations, we were able to kind of boil it down to make sure she got the elements of what she wanted and then get rid of those little wasted spaces that are nice, but they’re not really usable. You know, so if you have people coming in going to this great expansive 14-foot-tall great room, do you really need an entryway that’s 10 feet by 15? It’s kind of cool, but you know what? 8 by 12 does the same thing, you know. But sometimes you adjust something here, it domino effects into something else. So we were able to move some of the positions of the garages, tweak some of the sizes and accesses into the different rooms. And I think we got it. We’re in the process of going through. So it’s taking a couple of iterations to find out what’s really important because sometimes people come up with ideas and say, “Hey, I want a 2,500-square-foot home.” It didn’t necessarily happen in this case. This is just a generic statement, but “I want a 2,500-square-foot home.” But if you ask them the dimensions of all the rooms they want, it’s 3,500 square feet, right? So it’s aligning the vision and the reality with what works out mathematically. Sometimes we have to kind of sit there and go through and say, “Hey, wait a second. You’re asking for a dining room of this size. How many people are going to sit in it?” And they say, “Well, we really don’t even use the dining room. Usually, it’s my wife and I with a bistro table in front of the TV.” It’s like, “OK, so do you need a 15 by 20 dining room if you’re not going to use it?” And they’re like, “Well, our house now has a dining room.” I’m like, “But do you use it?” They’re like, “You’re right. We don’t.

But we still want it because every once in a while…” So then we figure out a way to put it together. And in some cases, it means a smaller dining room. Other times, it means changing a floor plan. We’ve had a lot of people—they’re like, “You know, the family doesn’t come over a lot except for like Fourth of July and the holidays. Then there’s 15 people. We need an expansion place.” So we’re able to design something so that that works out. So a lot of it is just really in asking them questions and letting them answer and asking them other follow-up questions to find out what really is the gist of what they’re looking for. Because it’s easy to say, “I want a big dining room.” Well, what does big mean? Right? Is that 12 by 12? Is that 20 by 20? And a lot of it just gets into the lifestyle. Some people literally sit down, you know, 12 people at one table. Other people say, “No, 20 people come over, but there’s five there. There’s five here. The guys are in the garage looking at the hot rod. The guys are in the back playing with the barbecue. Women are over here in a craft room or just hanging out with the family, just talking and catching up.” So it’s kind of an interesting thing to see how it goes. And when it gets really interesting is when we have people that are building houses where they have a garage for their airplane, or people in equestrian projects, you know, where they have horses and they need kind of a little mini tack room cleanup room in the house, or people with different hobbies—restoring cars, playing with cars, craft rooms. One guy had an in-house butcher shop. It was kind of weird. Wow. They had an They had an organic, like truly live-off-the-land, type of situation. Other times, there are people with concerns about solar and how the sun reacts. Currently, we’re doing a house right now where they’re very concerned about wheelchair access and making it very, very wheelchair accessible. So avoiding differences in floor heights, making sure the doors are the right size, light switches are in the right place, roll-in showers, different situations like that.
So generally, the customer knows what they want, but every once in a while, the customer needs help in how they achieve that. Whether it’s an energy efficiency thing, a design thing, or how we fit it on the land, we take the time to work with each customer.

Whether the customer has never experienced this before or they’re more experienced and have an understanding, it’s really about taking the time.
And it may sound, you know, a little intimidating for someone to say, “But Steve, I just don’t know.” Well, that’s the process we go through. We want our customers to understand their project, know their project, understand how it’s getting built, understand the codes, understand the effect of the design issues, and how it works within their house. So that, I think, is where it’s at because people want to build their house. Part of it is saving money, but also a part of it is just the pride of doing it themselves. It’s just a goal where they want to build a house for money savings, savings on mortgage payments, making sure that it’s built right. You know, they trust the contractors, but it’s kind of a trust-but-verify situation. Make sure that things are put together right.

Interviewer: Yeah, of course.

Steve Tuma: So it’s an amazing process.

Interviewer: It’s again, it all goes back to customer service and you guys being willing to get on the phone and spend the time it takes with the customer to get them what they want. And why is that so difficult nowadays?

Steve Tuma:Well, we do it. We’ve actually evolved into it, and it’s actually pretty interesting. Sometimes we’re on calls with people with four or five family members. Sometimes it’s one family member. Sometimes the call is 20 minutes. Sometimes it’s two hours. Whatever it takes, we’re there to help a customer get the best home they can.

Interviewer: Yeah, let’s change the subject a little bit now to finishing materials. They’re just materials in general, things like windows, cabinets, those special touches that, you know, can sometimes get bogged down in the minutiae of it. They’re still very important. And, you know, just to help make the house a home, all those little details. I’d imagine the review process regarding those sorts of elements is something you guys get very detail-oriented about. I would imagine that’s the case. Am I wrong?

Steve Tuma: Yes, it is. It’s an interesting process because we do all the design work, the engineering, the plans for the permit application, and then we deliver a panelized home package to match the approved plan. So it’s easier for construction and inspections and, you know, certificates of occupancy. But the points you’re bringing up—we don’t supply the windows and cabinets and siding and, you know, trim and carpeting and stuff like that. But we work with a customer. The reason why we used to do it like 25 years ago, but the reason why is our customers like to personalize it.
So if someone goes through and they say, “Hey, in this area, Navajo red’s a good color,” or “We need this type of stone,” or “We like this type of siding,” it allows them to touch and feel, in a sense, the product. So our panelized structure, the wood structure, it gets covered up. People don’t see it unless you’re in a basement looking up; you’ll see the floor system. But in general, the details of that. Now, we can help people. Windows are an example. There’s expensive windows, less expensive windows, and very expensive windows. There’s some that perform better, you know, for energy efficiency. There’s different materials, colors, hardware, and looks that can go through.
So in that case, since our customers, whether they’re building a very simple home or an extremely expensive home, they still want to know what they’re getting. So then they could go to a local window supplier and see what’s there. The nice thing is, on our set of plans, we’ll put an opening schedule, which basically says the type of window, you know, casement, double-hung, single-hung, picture, whatever it may be, the size, and then the rough opening. So then they can go to their supplier with the plans and say, “Hey, can you get me a quote?” And those suppliers typically supply a printed-out list of all the performance values and everything that they can then check with the energy calculations to make sure it passes the energy efficiency.
But then we can also put the proper rough openings into a wall so that when the windows are installed, they can just put them right in the rough opening we supply and move on. It adds to the ease. We can detail out kitchens, you know, get dimensions as to where the dishwasher is, the sink, you know, windows, and things like that. But the cabinets, again, cabinets are endless possibilities of types of materials, textures, finishes. So with our plans, they can then go to their kitchen supplier and sort out what type of cabinets they want, and they can design their own cabinets. Where if we supplied that, you’re kind of working off a standard unit, you know, “Hey, here’s a choice of six cabinets.” Well, there could be thousands of options.
And some people want a simple kitchen; others want an extremely extravagant kitchen or vanities, whatever it may be. So with that, we’re able to get them the support so that when they want to go out and pick out these different features, they can get the exact garage door they want, the exact front door they want, with the exact doorknob. So we’re kind of doing the heavy lifting and the design and the structure and all the foundation design and everything, and then they, in a sense, get to work on the more fun things of, “Hey, what color? How big of a fireplace? Do we want a stone fireplace? Do we want an oak mantle?” Whatever it may be, and they can sort that out.
It’s pretty cool because people really, really get into that. It’s the finishing look; it’s the image of the house; it’s the feel of the house; it’s the efficiency of the house. And they’re supportive in that so that they can go through and get the house they want with the look they want.

Interviewer: There’s also an element there too. I’m one of those people that when I have to wait even for a week for something, I go crazy. So if there’s little busy jobs that I could do, like go down to Home Depot and pick out my own windows, that adds a lot to the overall experience, I think.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, once people get into this process, they’re busy. So it’s one of these things where what we’re able to do is make it easier for them because when they have a set of plans with the dimensions and the details, like you use kitchen cabinets, they can go to the kitchen cabinet supplier, they have everything, and then they get to go through and pick out the types of cabinets, the types of woods, the finishes, and everything else. So it’s pretty cool. And depending on how deep they want to get, we’re always there. If people want to get real deep into civil engineering, into energy calculations, the types of beams they have, you know, they look at it, what the underside of their front porch is going to look like. Is it a flat ceiling? Is it a cathedral ceiling? Is it decorative beams? You know, we can work with them on the whole project. It’s actually kind of fun. Yeah. It’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: And why shouldn’t it be fun? You’re building your new home, you know, that should be fun. Yeah. Let’s get into energy for a moment. This is a subject very much on everyone’s mind these days with energy prices going through the roof. How detailed do you like to get when it comes to the concerns of energy efficiency in a new home? How much input do you have in the actual efficiency of a new home?

Steve Tuma: Well, we always do the calculations. Each state has its own energy calculation method and energy standard. So we always make sure that the house at least meets that. Sometimes customers want to go beyond for their own personal reasons, sometimes by chance just the nature of the design the home excels. So we always make sure everything’s, you know, code compliant. Some customers want to go a little deeper. Some of them are into solar. Some of them are just into thermal bridging. Some of them just want certain insulation. So we can work with them on that whole project. It really is a bottomless pit. How deep do they want to go? Some people say, “Hey, I’ll just go to my local furnace guy. He’ll put in a 90-some percent efficient furnace, and we’ll be good with it.” And that’s fine. You know, we always point out to people, “Well, the 90 percent efficient furnace is great, but how it’s installed and verified that the installation is right is also very important.” It’s kind of like taking an energy-efficient car that gets 50 miles a gallon. Well, that might be when it’s sailing along on the highway. But if you’re accelerating fast and stopping fast and real stop and go, you know, driving kind of crazy, it’s not going to get the energy efficiency of it. So you’ve got to get a system that’s built for what it’s intended to do and then verify to make sure that it’s installed properly. Sure. So we can talk to different people and get HERS raters and other people to go through and make sure that the house is designed. And a lot of the energy calculations have a thing called mandatory measures, which are basically procedures you have to follow to make sure that the energy efficiency calculations we provide are adhered to.

Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So, and sometimes it’s simple things like people will, you know, poke a wall for a spigot or an outside electric socket. Well, just the idea of caulking it on the inside so air doesn’t leak through makes the home more energy efficient. How are you insulating behind a fireplace? Are you insulating the chimney? Are there drafts? There’s a whole variety of different situations there that can work into it. So it really gets into how much effort people want to put into it. Some people are very deeply involved. Other people are like, “Hey, you know, let’s just make sure we pass. I’d rather put my money into a bigger garage or, you know, a fireplace or whatever it would be.” So we can work with the people on that.
But there’s other states, you know, a lot of people think energy is, you know, your electric bill, your gas bill. There’s a lot of places where they have green codes to make efficiency so there isn’t waste and materials. Flushing toilets, you have to have toilets that flush a certain amount per flush, you know, shower heads that have a certain water flow. So energy efficiency or the efficiency of the home isn’t just limited to energy efficiency. It’s also the use of the materials, the waste of the materials, and things like that. It’s pretty cool. So we’re there. If someone wants to get deep into it, we’re there. It’s interesting stuff if someone chooses to get in that deep.

Interviewer: Yeah. So the bottom line is, with all of these dream aspects of a new home and, of course, all the concerns that go with just the mechanics of building a house, how does Landmark Home and Land Company assure the customer can dress up their project in a cohesive and practical way and yet make their new home special to them.

Steve Tuma: That goes from the first conversation until they move into the house. So basically, the upfront conversation is about what you are looking for in a house. How do you want the house? Our ability to do a complete custom design, which almost every one of our customers does. They might choose a plan off our website, but then there’s usually some adjustment. I think in 31 years, we’ve done one home exactly off the website. Everyone changes it, whether it’s a choice they want for the land or whatever. And we work with them through the design process. We don’t just send them a set of plans and say, “Hey, there it is. Your house is showing up in 30 days.” We go through to make sure, and we only design the home and build the home under their direction.
Right, so we’re not just saying, “Hey, there it is. Get it.” We’re saying, “Hey, what else do you need? Is everything complete? Do we have to talk about this, or hey, last week you brought this up. Do you want to talk about it?” So that’s what it is. We’re just set up that way. I guess it’s just in the DNA of the company that every house is customized. So the customer has the choice in how they choose to do something, whether it’s the roofing, the windows, the siding, the furnace, the type of foundation, where it goes on the land. So that’s what it is. We don’t sit here and dictate to them, “Hey, you have to take this house, and you have to put it on your land like that.” We listen to what they want and go through. So it’s really a truly customized home. We can change anything on the design they want. We could put it on the land where they want as long as it fits within zoning and certain restrictions that might be there.
But that’s it. And it’s basically we listen and ask people the right questions to make sure that we get the details onto the plans properly. Customer service and caring, I guess, is a good way to put it,

Interviewer: And help, just offering help. You get so frustrated waiting for people to come on. You’ve talked to your third representative of the day with the company, and met with us.

Steve Tuma: That’s good. Once they get to working with me, they’ll work with Mike up front to review the process. But once they get to a certain stage, I’ll carry them all the way through the whole project. Which is cool. It gets a relationship going. There’s a mutual understanding of the project and what the people need. It’s just easier.

Interviewer: Yeah, well, all right. Another fantastic show with Landmark Home and Land Company founder and president Steve Tuma. But as always, Steve, before we let you go, why don’t you tell our listeners where they can find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company?

Steve Tuma: The best thing is to check out our website at LHLC.com. That’s like the initials of Landmark Home Land Company, LHLC.com. There are plans on there, videos, these podcasts, different discussions of our materials, how we help, testimonials, different details like that. And they can flip through there at their convenience. They can also look at plans and send in an inquiry on plans, asking questions. And they can also just give us a call and just make sure that everything’s taken care of. They can call us, find out what they need, and go from there. It’s 800-830-9788. Mike will answer the phone and get it taken care of. We’re very customer service oriented. We want to talk to our customers. We want to know what they need. And we want to spend the time to work with them to get it taken care of.
So that’s the best way, to take a look at the website, and then give a call. If they ever want to call me directly, they can on my direct cell phone at 708-205-2043. And we’ll do everything we can. But the website’s a good place to start. And then, you know, give us a call or send an email, and we can continue the conversation to go through and help people build their house and have an understanding of it. I think that’s the key thing. The upfront discussion is to make sure that there’s an understanding of the process.

Interviewer: Excellent. Good job. This has been a great show again, but that’s going to wrap it up for today. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the Panelize Prefab Kit Home Building Show. And as always, we hope you’ve learned a few things to help you feel more confident as you move forward on your path to becoming a kit home owner-builder. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. It was fun. Thank you. Thank you.

A: The three foundational pillars are defining your general floor plan concept, securing a specific parcel of land, and establishing a verified budget. Understanding the physical conditions of your building site and your target financing early ensures the architectural blueprints are designed to fit your property without exceeding your construction budget.

A: Generic pricing apps and square-foot estimates cannot account for hyper-local labor rates, site-specific foundation requirements, or fluctuating trade subcontractor pricing. An accurate construction budget can only be finalized by submitting complete, dimensioned blueprints to local contractors for firm, itemized trade bids.

A: A septic soil test evaluates percolation rates and ground absorption to design a compliant drain field for wastewater disposal. A structural geotechnical report analyzes subsurface soil density, bearing capacity, and rock strata to engineer the concrete foundation footers and load-bearing walls.

A: Cost savings are achieved by simplifying non-essential structural areas and standardizing foundation corners to free up budget for focal-point architectural features. Value engineering roof truss geometry allows designers to integrate soaring cathedral ceiling spaces and expansive window banks without requiring expensive custom steel framing.

A: Yes, owner-building is fundamentally an organizational and management role centered around scheduling, communication, and budget tracking rather than physical labor. Armed with an accurate, fully detailed set of engineered blueprints, remote owner-builders can successfully manage licensed trade subcontractors from out of state.

Steve Tuma: Well, I think the interesting thing is building departments, although some people sometimes they might be a little interesting in their attitudes or their lack of desire to help, or sometimes they just don’t help as much, others are very helpful. But the bottom line is, whatever their attitude is, there’s typically a detail as to what they want for permit application.

Interviewer: Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 60 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me in studio, as he normally 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 would be Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how’s it going, pal?

Steve Tuma: It’s very good, like always. It’s always a good day to build a house. It’s always a good day. I was just listening to your introduction—nationwide. Yeah, all the states, and we’ve done international projects as well. So it’s kind of cool. You get a lot of experience, just different perspectives, and, you know, all those experiences help us help new customers.

Interviewer: Well, I don’t want to make you feel old, but in case you didn’t hear it, this is Episode 60 of the podcast.

Steve Tuma: Sixty. That’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: It’s, yeah, that’s impressive and pushing toward our hundredth episode, which is going to be a big celebration. We’ll have fun. But yeah, congratulations. Sixty episodes. That’s good stuff.

Steve Tuma: And I think more on their way.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And 30 years, 30 years plus of Landmark Home and Land Company. So you’re to be congratulated on that as well.

Steve Tuma: Thanks. And going strong, you know, getting a whole different variety of different customers building in different places, different types of homes, more complex designs, simpler designs. It’s kind of interesting, the mix of customers that we get, the different types of people, different backgrounds, different family situations, different building sites, different house designs. It’s kind of cool. It’s kind of like build a house you want where you want it.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s the way we look at it. The one-stop shop where you can build your house the way you want it. Why not? I figured today we might jump into a sort of customer point of view episode and go through and try to, well, allow you to answer some of the typical questions you get when speaking with people who are thinking of building a new home. So if you’re good with that, let’s get started.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, let’s do it.

Interviewer: Great. What are the main items to consider? And let’s just say, you know, I’m calling you guys up. It’s my first home. What are the main items to consider when starting a new home building project?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s actually something on the overall plan. It’s not necessarily the plan for the house. It’s an important part. So you need to know the type of house you want to build, the general idea, although that can change. But there’s also an understanding of land. Where are you building? What’s the land like? Is it flat? Is it a city lot? Is it acreage? Is it on the side of a hill? Is it waterfront? You know, whatever it may be. And then also financing or money sources, you know, kind of the budget are things that people need to deal with. So basically, you know, what is the house going to look like? What type of design? How big? Bedrooms, garages, basements, things like that. Where are they going to build it? And then also what budget they want to stay within. And we can help them with different ideas. So if someone’s saying, “Hey, I want to build this, you know, 10,000 square foot home for $400,000,” it might be a little hard to do it. But amazingly, our customers don’t really fall into that. They’ve kind of thought it through. But by us helping them get the right set of plans, they’re able to go through and understand their project more in the budgeting. And we also work with them to fit it on the land. But those are the three main elements, kind of, you know, step one. Start thinking about those. It’s not that you have to have your financing or have to have your land to call us. But at some point, you’ve got to put all those things together to really make the project go. You can’t really build a house without the land. You know, it takes money to do so. So sometimes they’re intertwined. And we can help the customer through the process.

Interviewer: What do they say? “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.” So, something like that. That was the old NASA thing. But, so basic question again that a customer might call and ask, and I’m sure they have over the 30 years. But how does one go about budgeting a new panelized home? Is it different than budgeting a regular—I don’t want to say regular stick home—because basically panelized homes are that. But I mean, is there a different process to budgeting a panelized home build?

Steve Tuma: Well, we have a process that we found to be valuable. Some customers will have their own budgeting methods. They’ll get general ideas of foundation costs, material costs, you know, heating, air conditioning, electric, and work with that. And what we look at is, you know, there’s just different parts of the country. You could even go across town in the same town and get different costs. Just different neighborhoods, different things going on. So what we suggest is people get a set of plans from us that we drop that work on their land for their house. Now initially, they’ll probably do a target budget to say, “Hey, I want to do a house $400,000,” and target something to say, “Hey, I think this will work,” from their preliminary review. But once they’re really trying to nail the budget down, we should get into some plans so that they can actually go through and get an exact cost. It’s really the only way to do it.

Sometimes people tell me they found a book or a website or an app that tells them how to price stuff out, and I’m like, “I don’t know. Is that really true?” Because there’s just so many variables. So even though that might be a guideline just to target something, I think it’s always good to actually make contact with the contractors, say, “Hey, do you have an interest in this project?” Get something going. So the nature of going through the budget also helps people understand and kind of project out what they have to do, who they need to work with, the types of contractors, contractors that are responsive, knowledgeable, helpful, and also at a fair price. So the budgeting kind of gets them at a point where they preview the project to do it. And then as we work with them on the home design, different questions will come up and we can help them navigate those issues as well.

So even though there’s a lot of websites and books and people selling information, I still tell people, check it on your own. It’s your budget. When the book’s wrong, the book’s not going to make the difference. So you want to get an accurate set of plans, and that’s what we do, is go through and get a set of plans that’s actually usable for that because the details are on there. And not just that, we’re here to help. If someone says, “Hey, you know, should I, you know, the contractor said I should have a six-foot crawl space,” I might say a six-foot crawl space, how much more is an eight-foot basement? You know, sometimes it amazingly could be very similar in cost, and it just adds tremendously to the value. So, you know, it’d be a sounding board to help people through the process. That I think the customers will find to be very, very, very helpful because the budget’s very important. It’s something that, you know, sometimes might be a sticking point for people, but it’s—you don’t want to fool yourself, you know, you don’t want to convince yourself on paper that you’re going to get something done and all your friends are going to show up and work for free and, you know, bring parts over for free as well. You have to have a reality check of, “Hey, who—if you’re working with friends and family—who’s really going to show up?” Not just that, who actually has the knowledge, because you want the home to be built right. Chances are there’s going to be an inspector that goes through, and whether you did it or a contractor did it, it’s got to be done right.

Interviewer: Yeah, your nephew’s showing up with a brand new tool bag.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, you know, there’s a place for that, but yeah, I wouldn’t have him doing a roof on a 12/12 pitch chalet hanging off a cliff. But, you know, there’s different ways that people—you know, you bring the nephew thing up—I’ve had a couple of customers like in the last 10 years that have younger kids, like eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. And those kids are actually part of the planning and understanding because they’re like, “Hey, isn’t it cool for a kid to understand a budget and hey, how much nails cost, how much doors cost,” you know, just have the ability to break it out and think through the process.

Interviewer: And they’re going to grow up in that home.

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. But then also see it being built. So you’re planning it and then the excavation. So there are different places where, you know, there’s a spot for someone that’s well-intentioned and wanting to help.

Interviewer: So putting back on my customer point of view hat, let’s just say I’m just starting out to build a panelized home. Where do I start with building departments? What do I need to know before going in and dealing with a building department in my area?

Steve Tuma: I think the interesting thing is, you know, building departments, although some people, you know, sometimes they might be a little interesting in their attitudes or their lack of desire to help, or sometimes they just don’t help as much, others are very helpful. But the bottom line is, whatever their attitude is, there’s typically a detail as to what they want for permit application. Some of them might say, “Just give me plans.” You know, “plans,” I’ve heard that. And I’m like, “Okay, so what are plans?” You know, do you need this? Do you need engineering? Do you need electrical layouts? Do you need HVAC design? And usually when they say something like that, our basic plans are more than enough. But others get extremely detailed, you know, with a PDF that might be 50, 100, 200 items with even sub-items of what needs to be taken care of. And that’s basically what we need to do is find out what the building department wants so we can be sure that all the items are addressed. And some building departments are extremely picky. Some are very easygoing. Some I wonder if they even look at the plans, you know, so it’s kind of an interesting situation.

But bottom line, we don’t just do the plans for the purpose of the building department. That’s great. They check them for their concerns. We want to know that the house is built right, you know, so that’s why we have an accurate and clear and detailed set of plans so that the actual assembly and construction of the home can go smoother and the people on site have the information that they need. But to ask your question, you know, building departments—and I’m using the word “building department” kind of generically—there’s also zoning. Make sure your setbacks are right. You know, if you want to build a fourplex in a single-family home community, it’s not going to happen. You know, there’s different setbacks. Where can you have your driveway? Sometimes there’s lot coverage issues, building height issues. If you’re in an area of well and septic, you might have to have a soil test done for your septic system. You’d have to get maybe a permit for the well or will-serve letters for water and sewer details. So there’s a variety of details. But in general, once a customer understands this, a lot of these are available right on the website. Sometimes building departments, the customer would have to go in and get some details. But either way, we’re right there with them to, you know, on the phone, talk through the process and help them understand what’s there. Or if they get confused saying, “Hey, the building department said I need a soil report.” And what sometimes will happen is they might have a soil report for a septic thinking it’s the same soil report, you know, the generic term of soil report for a structural engineer. It’s different. So that’s where we can help people and we’re happy.

Interviewer: Sometimes we can get the information from a building department. Other customers that have done a little upfront homework have the list and they just email it to us. And then we can go through and say, “Hey, we can do these items. You have to get those items,” and work along. And our customers do it. They’re excited to do it. They’re the type of people that understand the benefits of building your home, designing it. And not just that, the pride.

Steve Tuma: Sure.

Interviewer: You know, the sense of accomplishment. Money savings is also pretty cool too.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, that’s kind of an important thing. Save a buck.

Interviewer: Yeah, exactly. Without skimping too many corners. We keep talking about plans though. I want to get your expert opinion. I’m a new homeowner, our new home builder. Where the heck do I get the plans to start my new home build?

Steve Tuma: You know, there’s a lot of sources of plans. And this is something that is an interesting kind of button for me because I’ve seen a lot of people spend exceptional amounts of money, over $100,000, and they just don’t work or the details aren’t there. And they’re stamped by someone or they might do this or they might do that. Or there’s something where hey, there’s a local person in town that’s just the plan person and they do it and everyone uses it. And then we see the plans and it’s just missing details. And they’ll be like, “Well, this guy’s been doing it for 20 years.” And I’m like, “I’m sure he has, but the details aren’t there.” Right. You know, so those lack of details just lead to decisions being made on site that might be by a contractor that can lead to change orders, overruns, and delays. So it’s better to have the plans detailed out.

So what we have is a method of working with people where we can do preliminary plans to get their ideas together, you know, take the ideas of the house that they want. Maybe they pick something off our website or they sketch something up themselves or have different ideas. And then what we can do is go through and draw the plans up, and they could use those plans for budgeting, you know, preliminary reviews with contractors and details like that to see if it works. And then if they have to make adjustments, we can do all that in the preliminary plan stage. That’s a very key element that we have our own design team. So the architectural designer, structural designers, green codes, energy codes, site plans, everything’s right there in what we call our one-stop shop so that everything can be put together. It’s not a situation where someone calls and says, “Hey, what about this?” And it’s like, “Well, we’ve got to wait a week for the structural engineer to get back to us and then a week for the site plan guy.” We have it all right there, like we can get into the conversation, work things through, and get people the answers quickly so that they could get the understanding and confidence that their project can become a reality.

So because of that, if we do the plans, we’re able to control it, know that it’s done for the codes, know that it’s done for the structural concerns, the energy calculations, all these details, and make sure that everything’s there because there’s a difference in plans that someone does compared to plans that we do. People that sell plans do that. They do a great job at selling plans. We’re here at making sure that the panelized package goes up well. So we have to make sure the plans are right and accurate so that we can manufacture the panelized system, the roof trusses, the floor systems, get everything set out and know that it’s going to go together at your building site. So there’s a different level of—I’ll call it consciousness and understanding—of what leads to less errors, less overruns, less annoyances, less scheduling issues on site because everything’s thought out. Right. So that’s why we suggest people go with us.

Sometimes we have people, like I say, they didn’t know of us and they bought plans somewhere else. And, you know, we just figure out a way to help them through, likely redraw them so that the details are there. We’re doing a set of plans now for a family, a couple that’s building in Pennsylvania. And the amount of conflicts, inconsistencies, and just flat out wrong details are there. Now if you looked at the plans, you’d be like, “Oh, it’s a good looking set of plans.” But until you really get into it, you don’t realize that, hey, there’s a lot of stuff missing. So we don’t want to work off of plans that aren’t done right, which is why we do it. And I work directly with the customer, the architectural people, the structural engineers, and anyone else involved with the design process. And the set of plans is like the most important thing. It’s like your roadmap to success for scheduling, budgeting, reducing stress, enjoying the process, making sure that your money’s spent right, you know, and avoiding issues with building departments, things like that.

Interviewer: It’s got to be kind of interesting for you to deal with customers and they pick, let’s say they go onto the Landmark website and they find some plans that they like and they talk to you about it and then they start making the changes. And for you, it must be kind of fun to see those processes take place where people are really getting excited. But then I guess you have to go back and bring them to reality also and say, “Well, you know, you can’t really have a 15-foot window in that wall.”

Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, there’s a lot of people understand it, which is kind of interesting. But yeah, you’re right. So the question is more like, “Hey, can I do this? How do I do it?” So there aren’t that many totally unreasonable expectations. It’s more like, “Hey, we’ve got a view of a lake, you know, and then there’s a big tree or something.” And, you know, so they’re like, “We got to have as big of a window.” They might say, “Hey, I want a glass wall 20 feet tall.” But hey, if the roof of your house is 17 feet, we can’t really do that. Or maybe we have to change a roof system. We’re doing a house like that right now where the customer wants you to walk in the front door. The glass around the front door where you could see through the house into a like an 18-foot glass wall looking out the back so you can like see through the house and then if you’re in there, it’s just light everywhere. So what was interesting is everyone’s got a budget so they wanted to stay in a certain budget. So we simplified certain structural things that then allowed them to have this. Then we’re like, “Hey, the way this roof structure is coming together, we could put a cathedral ceiling in here relatively easily at a very low cost proportionally and really open it up, put a catwalk across the second level.” And it’s going to be a magical type of situation. So it’s kind of interesting how when people are like, “Hey, I’ve thought it out,” and they have. But then we get a conversation going and go, “Hey, you know, if we do this or if we do this,” and then they get going into it. It’s pretty interesting, especially when people are like, “Oh, I’ve thought this through. We’re never going to make any changes.” And then 20 changes later, you know, you’re working on stuff and they start thinking about stuff. First, it’s the overall form, you know, the big things, the windows, the roof. But it’s like, “Hey, wait a second. Do I want a peninsula or do I want an island? Hey, these big windows or hey, do I want a catwalk or do I really need a cathedral ceiling? Do I want it?” You know, different things like that. And that’s what we’re able to help the people with. So as they get into it, they understand the support we supply and also that we’re very open to them designing the home. You know, they shouldn’t be embarrassed to say, “Hey, Steve, I told you no more changes. But my family and I were talking about something and we’d really like to add…” We’re all up for, you know, tuning the house up so it’s the way that they want it to be.

Interviewer: We’re getting more people with elevators.

Steve Tuma: Wow, that’s interesting. Yeah. Elevators, easy access homes, aging in place situations. Some communities have visitability guidelines, meaning that if you pull up to the front of the house, the numbers are there and you can tell where the front door is and you can tell where it’s easy to park, you know, so it’s not confusing. And some of these get down to the detail of where are you putting the doorbell? And you can’t just say to the right of the door; you have to say where is the doorbell going.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: You know, so there are a lot of little details that people don’t think about, and we’re able to help them. So if they’ve never thought about it or it’s something new to them, we can kind of guide them, give them the ins and outs of the different options, and then they decide and move forward. So it’s that planning stage so that someone understands their project and believes in it is there. And every once in a while, you’ve got to say, “Hey, you know, you said you’re trying to stay at a certain budget. You might want to check some of these details you’re adding because people shouldn’t fool themselves.”

Interviewer: Right. Yeah. It seems like you’d have to just remain realistic going into something like this. But, you know, when you’re dreaming about something, you get a little excited and you probably have to play psychologist a little sometimes when you’re, you know, bringing people into a certain reality. I know there’s got to be a certain way to bring people into that reality. And I would imagine after 30 years, you’re getting pretty good at it.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Most people actually have a pretty decent grasp of reality. And it’s—I’m actually surprised myself because, you know, with all these TV shows and magazines, it’s like when’s the last time you saw a, you know, Architectural Digest showing a 1300 square foot ranch? You know, it’s always these big palaces with mega this and super cool this and crazy expensive that. So I think a lot of people, as they’re going through the process, they’re walking through building centers or the big box stores getting ideas saying, “Why is there a toilet for seventy dollars? But there’s also a toilet for a thousand.” Right. Or, “Hey, a custom window is a thousand dollars. But the off the shelf that does the same thing relatively the same size is 250.” So people have an understanding of putting it together. So it’s actually pretty rare that someone comes up with such a pie in the sky, like what were you thinking, type of thing. Most people are in range and—and—but we’re fully supportive. If you have someone that wants more details or is just going to figure out a way to get that extra something, you know, we will review it with them and, you know, figure out a way to do it. And sometimes it’s a step back. Sometimes you can’t have a 20-foot glass wall, but the 15 is pretty cool. And sometimes there’s things we can do just within the structure of the home.

We did a house for a family in Iowa—sorry, Idaho. It was on family land. The father bought it way back. It was a little town, and the daughter inherited it and she wanted to put in—she said, “Hey, we have a certain amount of money. My dad always wanted to have a 16-foot Christmas tree. How do we do it?” So what I did is I worked with our engineers and figured out a different type of roof system that would still give an exceptional, dramatic roof with the glass wall she wanted and a tall ceiling where we were able to get it set up. You know, having had a 16-foot Christmas tree, the ceiling’s one thing—it’s how do you get it in the house? So you also need a door, you know, that’s that big. You can’t—you know, you’ll shred it going through a three-foot man door. So that’s where everything is like, “Hey, wait a second, where’s this tree coming in? And is it a fake tree? Is it a real tree? You know, what’s going on?” and help the people put it together.

And then sometimes, you know, sometimes this stuff doesn’t cost more; it just takes a little thinking. Like there was this one family that—they were doing a house in Utah and they wanted a little fire pit to overlook, you know, this valley that they overlooked. So do you put it off to the side? Do you put it in the front? It’s just more the thought, “Hey, how does the driveway come in? You know, are you trying to have a privacy spot or do you want a spot like if a neighbor drives by, they see you and then they stop in and you get a conversation going?” So there could be different situations like that. And that really doesn’t cost anything. It’s just, “Hey, let’s get to know each other. And what are you trying to achieve?” Because I’m a person that believes a house is great. The environment you live in is what makes it the home—the “Oh, wow, this is cool. I’m glad I did it. I got a great bang for the buck for my money.” That’s what it’s about. But it doesn’t seem like overall you’ve had to talk people off the roof getting into a project and freaking out.

Right. It’s actually pretty rare. People are in touch. You know, the Internet can provide a lot of disinformation, but it can also give people guidelines. You know, they can go through a community and say, “Hey, land here costs fifty thousand, twenty thousand, two hundred thousand, whatever it is.” They can go through and, you know, go through our website, look at different plans and say, “Hey, Steve, can you price, you know, these five plans out to give me an idea?” And we’ll gladly get it priced out and then let them know and talk about the ins and outs of things. And if they say, “Hey, I like this design but it’s just, you know, just right at the edge of my fingertips,” it’s like, “Hey, wait a second, let’s figure out what we can do to do it.” And invariably what you find is there’s something on design that they really like, but then there’s also items that aren’t that important.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So sometimes you cut some of that out and then they get what’s important to them or there’s a different way to do it. And I’ve also been known to go into the back room, twist a couple of people’s arms and say, “Hey, we’re getting this family this yoga loft or kids’ little loft.” A lot of grandparents want that. They want like a little loft where the kids could sleep up there.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: You know, like in a roof type of a thing. So that’s fun when you’re a kid to have those little nooks and niche corners and stuff to sleep in.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s like the cherry on a sundae. It’s like just that Shazam, like that extra bite. And that’s what we’re trying to do is not just say, “Hey, here’s a pile of wood, turn it into a house.” We’re trying to say, “Hey, this is an environment your family’s going to live in.” You know, so that’s the stuff in it—you know, the thinking, the talking about it, the working through the different details, the figuring different things out. That’s what we’re here for. That’s what we do. And, you know, one of the many advantages is that we have those resources at our fingertips so we could help a customer get through it right away.

Interviewer: Sure. This is a weird question I have, but you’ve never asked a weird question before. This is it. But are there any—you’re talking about, you know, doing the research and before I’m, you know, let’s say I’m going to build a new panelized home, I should do the research, et cetera. But are there any specific skills that you would recommend that I develop to be an owner builder?

Steve Tuma: You know what’s interesting about that? If I were to take a cross-section of our customer base—and I’m doing it right now as we’re thinking—there’s been people that have never built a house and I don’t think have ever picked a hammer up. And then we’ve worked with professional contractors and developers that have done their home, people in the trades, people out of the trades, all different types of people. And what I think it really comes down to, you can’t say that, “Hey, you have to have this education or you have to have this experience.” It’s really kind of a management project. So you could have someone that doesn’t know what an HVAC system is or doesn’t know how to pour cement or doesn’t know how to determine grade, but they understand it, you know, through working with us with our plans. They understand their project as to why it’s important to understand the grade, why it’s important to know what type of foundation you want, why it’s important. So on the people that have never built before, we’re completely supportive. We’ll spend the time to talk to them. Now, we always answer the phone, we’ll return the call if for some reason they do get our voicemail. We’ll just converse with them. So some people like that are remote—what’s amazing, Steve, is we’ve had a lot of people that live states away and are managing a project. And then there’s other people that live on the same land that they’re going to build a home on. So it really comes down to it.

And at a certain point, it’s the idea of having an open mind, know how to prioritize, know how to schedule, and kind of get over issues as they come up. You know, you go through and say they’re excavating—this happened in the mid ’90s. A guy was excavating, and there was a car buried in his yard.

Interviewer: Wow.

Steve Tuma: No body in the trunk, but there was a car buried in his yard. And he was like—he called me, and I’m like, “Well, that’s a first.” Hasn’t been duplicated since. But what do you do? Well, excavate the car. You know, he made it yard art. It actually became a benefit. So it’s one of these little situations where, you know, sometimes you’re working on something, “Hey, they’re going to pour the foundation on Monday,” and then it rains or snows or something goes on, you know, so it just kind of shuffles the schedule down. So it’s kind of a resilience and understanding things. And like I tell people, how do you eat an elephant? You don’t do it one big bite. You take little bites, chew that bite, and move on to the next and move on to the next. So that’s where it comes in.

And I think that’s why people that are more like not a hands-on but management person do great as well as people that live in the business. We’ve had customers where their whole family or friend base are in the trades, and they literally build the house with their own team, and then we’ve had people that don’t know anyone in the trades, they find it, go through and manage good people, you know, the good people that do what they say, provide a fair price, are responsive, and work to keep on the schedule, and they get through it. So it’s really an understanding that, you know, it’s navigating problems, which is kind of life. You know, yeah, you get up and you, you know, you get up and you go out, and you’ve got a flat tire on your car. Well, you figure it out, right? You know, and you move on. And before you know it, you’re on to something else. So it’s more of a mindset of a management thing. And if we never tell people, “Hey, go out and do work you don’t know how to do,” right, you know, you should only do the work you know how to do when you’re confident. And don’t fool yourself that you’re going to roof—you know, going to get on a three-story chalet with a 12/12 pitch if you’re scared of heights, you know, or if you’ve never done it before.

So we always tell people, you know, you have to be real with yourself and go through and do it and make sure that you work with good people that are responsive. A clear and accurate set of plans will make it easy for people to communicate with you, understand the project. And, you know, through that, it falls into place. And it’s amazing how they’re like, “Steve, are you going to be there?” I’m like, “Yeah, we’re always here.” But as the project gets going, suddenly I’ll call them. They won’t call back. Two days later, they’re like, “Oh, Steve, we just got this and this, and, you know, I got this great guy that’s helping me with this. This lady’s helping me with this.” And suddenly, they’re in the rhythm of it, and it gets going to where they’re kind of on their own. It’s kind of neat. We’re always available. But I think the actual concerns that they have up front don’t necessarily end up being the issues as they work through on the project.

Interviewer: Yeah. Well, far be it from me to kind of tell you what to do with, like, merchandising, but that’d be a great T-shirt: “Landmark Home and Land Company: Be real with yourself.”

Steve Tuma: Exactly. Yeah, I like to say, “Great people building cool homes,” you know, but that’s that’s kind of the bottom line of it. I mean, yeah, it’s a challenge. It’s work. But the thing about it is that’s life. There’s challenges at your job. There’s challenges with health. There’s challenges with eating right. There’s challenges with exercising. If you’re going to do this, it’s great when you look at the end result. It’s there. This is a funny story. It was actually a lady that was just divorced. She built a house in central Michigan, and she just wanted to do this on her own. And she built this beautiful home and detailed it out and decorated it herself. And it was just—it was magnificent what she built. It was like a 1300 square foot home in the early 2000s, late 1990s. And she was concerned, but her attitude was just, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to conquer the world.” And at the end of it, you know, I was talking to my customers, see how we could have helped them more. What’s going on, you know, what did they end up doing that maybe they didn’t plan or little curveballs. And she said, “Steve, I want you to tell your clients, especially your female clients, this story.” So I listened to the story. She goes, “Steve, building a house is like having a baby. Making it, you know, thinking about it is all a lot of fun. And then you have about nine months of ‘What am I doing? What came up here?’ And then when you’re done, you look back and see it’s the most amazing thing you’ve done in your life.”

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s cool.

Steve Tuma: So that’s the situation there that I think during the building phases, there are a lot of different details that come up, little things that may change or just be with. But we’re always here to help. And that’s the key. And I got to say the success rate of our customers is exceptional. All the plans we’ve developed and people have submitted with the intent to build have been permitted, and the people finish the houses, and they’re beautiful. And a lot of them come back years later and do it again. So it’s kind of fun.

Yeah, that’s the pat on the back when they come back or recommend a friend. We’ve had people from 25 years ago contact us to build again or suggest a friend. That’s kind of a cool little badge of honor that we’re pretty proud of.

Interviewer: Yeah, I would say so. All right. Well, that’s going to wrap things up for today’s episode. But before I let you go, Steve, like we usually do, tell our listeners how they can find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company.

Steve Tuma: The best thing to do is check out our website at LHLC.com. That’s like the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company. It’s actually LHLC, not Land Company. But so LHLC.com. There’s these podcasts, there’s a variety of videos, there’s descriptions of what’s included in our package. There’s different situations on plan options. I think there’s five or six thousand. The tab says two thousand or sixteen hundred, but there’s thousands of plans, different designs where people can get ideas. So I think it’s good just to peruse that for a while and then either send an inquiry in. You can email us or send an inquiry in a specific plan or you can just give a call, and Michael will work with you initially at 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. And, you know, we can get the conversation going and see how it goes. I get involved with helping people once they get a little deeper into the process, you know, when we’re going to get the house plans going and details. But I am available if there’s something special that needs to be covered or special details or something odd about the land or just stuff that a customer needs a little extra help. We’re always available. We do answer the phone. If for some reason you do get our voicemail, we are very proactive in calling back. And, you know, we’ll spend the time that you need to understand how we can help. And also so you can understand your own specific building project. It’s a lot of fun. It’s rewarding. And we enjoy helping people.

Interviewer: Yeah. And that’s our episode, Episode 60, Steve. So congratulations again. That’s a big number and moving toward that 100th mark. So another great one with Landmark Home and Land Company president Steve Tuma. Thanks again, Steve. And thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the panelized prefab kit home building show. We hope we’ve been able to enlighten you a bit today and to feel more confident as you move forward on your path to becoming a kit home owner builder. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time.

Steve Tuma: Thanks, Steve. Thank you. Have a great day.

A: While model building codes like the IRC are standard, structural engineering calculations adapt based on your region’s governing environmental force. An identical home footprint in coastal Florida requires heavy wind-shear bracing and piling foundations for hurricanes, while builds in the Pacific Northwest prioritize seismic anchoring, and mountain regions engineer for heavy snow loads.

A: Natural lot grade dictates how foundation walls step down to meet ground contours while keeping finished living spaces above moisture levels. A three- to six-foot drop across a building footprint often makes a walkout or daylight basement the most practical and cost-effective design, whereas flatter sites favor standard crawlspaces or concrete slabs.

A: Flood elevation certificates establish the minimum base flood height required to position your home’s living areas safely above potential storm surges. Beyond municipal building permit approval, insurance carriers require this documentation to calculate standard homeowners policy rates and issue mandatory flood insurance coverage.

A: Relying on approximate lot dimensions rather than an official recorded survey can result in building across property lines or encroaching into mandatory setback zones. Confirming exact property boundary lines, utility easements, and right-of-way access upfront prevents expensive site plan revisions and municipal stop-work orders.

A: Coastal properties in severe storm surge areas are engineered on elevated pilings or open piers rather than standard enclosed foundation walls. Ground-level enclosures must incorporate breakaway walls that collapse under wave action without transferring destructive hydrostatic pressure to the elevated living structure above.

Steve Tuma: Even though we’re doing the plans and supplying the Panelize home package, it’s having the vision of what they’re looking for that can help us design it a little better, make something a little better, give flexibility for future use.

Interviewer: Hello everybody and welcome to episode 59 of the Panelize Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today, as he usually 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, amigo?

Steve Tuma: It’s another good day. As always, it’s always a good day to start building a home or designing it or talking about it to figure it out for a future build.

Interviewer: You’re always so positive, and I’m sure that your customers appreciate that. Positivity is good.

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s interesting. You know, building a house, it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot, you know, some decisions, some, you know, just making sure the house is right for your family, some budgeting and a lot of detail. So it can be a lot of work, but we help customers along so that they can sort it out and make sure everything comes together for them.

Interviewer: Good. It’s as good a description of what Landmark Home and Land Company does as any that I can think of.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, once someone said, “Hey, what do you do?” It’s like, “Hey, we help good people build cool houses.” It kind of gets to a simple point. That’s the way we look at it.

Interviewer: Simple is good, man. Simple is good. Today, I’d like to dive into a subject that many would rather avoid probably, but I know you’ll be able to give us a lot of takeaways that’ll remove a lot of misconceptions, I guess is what I’m trying to say, and tackle any misinformation that’s out there about panelized homes, etc. And the subject is new home building pitfalls today and how Landmark Home and Land Company can help potential customers deal with some of those possible pitfalls. So are you good to dive in on that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, this is interesting. This will be kind of a different spin. It’s not really spin. It’s facts of what people run into and the process we go through. It’s impossible to go over every single pitfall, but we can go through the process of what we do to help people through so they understand what they’re doing.

Interviewer: Sure. So let’s dive in. We know, of course, that Landmark does a lot more than just design the panelized home packages, but is there a start to finish process that Landmark utilizes to help homeowner builders avoid, you know, some of those bonehead mistakes that, you know, when building, say, your first panelized home?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, there are, and it’s a relatively informal process where we talk to the customer, get to know what they need, what it is they’re doing, what’s the reason they’re building a home, do they have the land, do they have it financed, are they paying cash, just kind of get out an overall picture of what it is that they’re wanting to do. Because someone doing their first starter home—you know, maybe they just got married and the kid’s on the way—compared to someone that’s retiring and downsizing or someone that’s in the middle of life with kids and they’re stepping, you know, increasing the size of the home or the features of the home or maybe just moving to a different community. There’s also people moving the in-laws in or the parents in, other people with home offices, home businesses, home hobbies, so it’s kind of a little different idea of, you know, what the end goal is for a customer. So we’d spend some time with them to find out exactly what it is, and it’s pretty interesting. You know, some people are building their, you know, their dream home. We have one customer, Lee, he’s had this idea since he was 15 that he’s gonna have 300 acres and a big chalet on it, and he’s getting to the retirement phase. He found 330 acres for his dream home, and we’re helping him do it. So the design elements and the different features that he might be looking at might be different than if he was, you know, say newly married and wanting more of a starter home. So there are different priorities there.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So on the home he’s doing for his, you know, his final home as he calls it, he wants a lot of architectural features that, just to him through life, he’s grown to appreciate. But if he was, you know, just getting going, just having kids, he might need something, you know, people want, you know, low maintenance. You know, so that kind of spans it. But that’s the overall thing—find out what people want, what’s the reason, where are they building? A lot of our customers have unique pieces of land with great views they want to take care of or settings that they just want to enhance.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So that’s what it is—just kind of find out what it is. Because amazingly, and it’s real common with the internet and everything out there, there’s just a lot of misinformation out there. So if someone’s trying to sell you windows, they’re gonna tell you, “Hey, the best windows are—you always should consider your windows the only thing important are windows.” You know, of course, there’s something there where we look at, “Hey, what’s the overall project? What are you trying to achieve?” You know, so it’s not just the house, it’s the environment where you’re building in. You know, whether it’s a city lot or big acreage or, you know, a subdivision in the country or subdivision in a municipal area, and that’s it. So just kind of get a grasp of what they’re trying to achieve because that helps us, in a sense, kind of reverse engineer the idea.

Interviewer: Interesting.

Steve Tuma: So if it’s a home where it’s gonna be their first home and their family’s gonna grow or in-laws are gonna move in, we could work with them on different concepts and just kind of understand what it is that they need. You know, that also gets into one of the bigger things that people don’t think about. You know, people generally think about, “Hey, I want this window, I like this kitchen, I want this bathroom, you know, I need this type of a great room, we need this garage or a basement for future, you know, a future workshop or something.” But something that’s really, really—it’s kind of obvious but people don’t think about—is how does the house fit on the land? Like if you’re on the slope, you know, the side of a hill, you know, there are some places where land is literally flat or there’s such a small slope you can call it flat, but then you go to hilly areas and where there’s a hill they might consider it flat compared to a cliff. But you could have something like, you know, say you had a simple ranch home 24 feet deep and 40 feet wide, there could be a three, four, five, six-foot drop in the 24-foot depth. So maybe you want to do a walkout basement, maybe it only works where there’s a crawlspace, maybe you’re in an area where slabs are there. So we’d have to make sure that it fits so you can access the house, make sure it accesses the garage. And then also zoning concerns. You know, most building departments have setbacks, so if you have a lot that’s a certain distance, the setback from the front yard, the side yards, and then the rear would be dictated, and you have to build within them. Sometimes there’s easements, power line easements, easements for neighbors’ access or something that someone would have to work through. So you got to make sure it fits on the land. And these are all the kind of, you know, details that people generally, they know if they have to be involved with it, but it’s not the cool, exciting stuff to talk about with your friends.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, to talk to your friend about, “Oh, I got a five-foot building setback,” you know, yeah, it’s cool, it’s part of the project. It’s not sexy, but it is more important than a lot of other things.

Interviewer: Yeah, I mean…

Steve Tuma: You know, and a guy’s gonna be like, “Hey, I got my man cave, I’m getting my car lift.”

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, wife’s letting me get another convertible. You know, that type of thing, you know. Or people will be like, “Hey, we have a gaming room, a home theater for the family, a craft room, whatever it might be.” So those are the things that are there, but in order to, you know, have the house get built properly, you’ve got to think of these things. And that’s where we can help is, you know, make sure it fits on the land. Is there slope of the land? And that’s very key information because we’ve had a lot of people that find that just judging land yourself, just looking at something going, “Oh, that’s a four-foot drop.” And later, when someone’s out there and surveying it, they find out it’s an eight-foot drop. So that’s how the foundation design gets into the grading and drainage plans or civil engineering in areas where the site might be a little more complex. So since people don’t really know about it, it’s not something that’s generally talked about, it’s not the hot topic among, you know, friends that might be building. It’s items that we find are very important that can really, you know, kind of throw you a curveball. So it’s good to review this. And then it’s also good to have accurate information. It’s amazing on land, and it happens to me, if we were on a piece of land and we said, “Hey, you know, what kind of drop do you think it is from there to here?” You know, I might say four feet. Well, the surveyor goes out and says seven. Well, that could be the difference of a walkout basement or a crawlspace.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Or a lookout basement. And it’s kind of nice to know because generally if someone wants to build a basement to have a walkout, it’s considered to be, you know, a nice advantage and a great design feature and it’s affordable, you know, square footage as well.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So that’s the thing where we work with people to kind of take the idea of what they’re trying to do. And then you work with the land and the home design to kind of optimize it for them. And, you know, it’s just a conversation, just getting ideas. It’s not a bunch of technical stuff. It’s just general ideas of, “Hey, you know, your family’s growing. What does that mean? You know, are you getting two kids, three kids? You know, what are the concerns that people are looking for?” And that’s where we can help them because there really isn’t a source that I know of that kind of solves all issues. You’ve just got to talk about it. And as you get into different parts of the conversation, different details come out. People will say things like, “Oh yeah, we have two kids, but after the kids are five, we’re going to get a dog.” Well, what are you getting? A Great Dane or a Bulldog, whatever it is. You know, someone will say, “Hey, you know, my parents might move in. We need another parking space.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, just little stuff. And sometimes it’s easier to design in when you’re doing the home than to come back and add it or have to rebuild something, you know, down the road. So it’s just a little bit of thinking. And we’re here to help.

Interviewer: Yeah, I would imagine it helps you guys at Landmark Home and Land Company as well to provide a better service. The more information you can hand down to the customers and, you know, to diffuse some of the misinformation that a customer might have when they come to you.

Steve Tuma: Right. And that’s exactly it. Even though we’re doing the plans and supplying the panelized home package, it’s having the vision of what they’re looking for that can help us design it a little better, make something a little better, give flexibility for future use. And that’s the important thing about it. We’ve been doing it for over 30 years. This customer might be the first time, maybe it’s the fifth time. But even so, different houses, different land, different communities, there’s different details. And just to bring up, you know, there’s homeowner associations. Some of them are very simple. Others are extremely strict. So we can help them navigate those guidelines. There’s sometimes historic committees. You know, there could be a whole variety of different things. A lot of the areas where you’re building by water, it’s more restrictive now and how close you can build to water compared to it. People have land and flood zones are changing. You know, so to get a flood certification is important, not just for the building department but for your homeowners insurance.

Interviewer: Right. I never thought of that.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Right. So it’s little stuff like this that makes a lot of sense when you bring it up. But it’s not what you’re thinking about when you’re flipping through plans on our website. You’re going, “Oh, do we want the ranch? Do we want the two-story?” You’re not thinking about flood zones. Now, I don’t want to make it so complex by bringing all these things up to say that all these things have to be reviewed with every project. Not all pieces of land have homeowner associations. Very few of them have historic committees. I’m just saying if someone needs that type of help, we’re very experienced in it and can help them navigate. So we kind of become the one-stop shop. But also, I think we’ve got a lot of information where someone could get an idea and formulate a plan of attack, in a sense, of how we’re going to go through, design the home, work with the land, go through permitting so that there’s a definite plan. And they’ll find it’ll really bring them to ease to have a grip of what’s going on. Because you go talk to five of your friends that have built a house, you’re going to get probably six different stories and what’s right. So that’s how we can help the customers. And it’s really, really important stuff just to take the time up front to get to know and then also for customers to understand what we can do so that if they have a question they can just give me a call and say, “Hey, what about this? How do we find out where our utilities are? Where do I want my electric panel? Hey, there’s mini-split, you know, heating and cooling systems compared to conventional HVAC. You know, just different things. Or, you know, hey, my building department, they’re asking me about calculations for HVAC design.” You know, it’s rare but it’s starting to happen a little bit more and more. And I think what’s happening is some of the building departments are finding that maybe not all people that are doing the work are really up to speed with the modern codes and the way that building department chooses to enforce something. We all hate the minutiae, but without the minutiae things don’t happen. Things don’t work out right.

Interviewer: Well, that’s what it is.

Steve Tuma: One of our customers way back—and man, this was late 90s—he was an engineer for Ford and he said, “We always find the devil’s in the details.” So it’s real easy to have the broad stroke: “I want a 2,000 square foot two-story home with a three-car garage right in the middle of this five-acre plot.” Well, how does all this work? Are there water table issues? What type of foundation? Are there soil conditions? Are utilities there? You know, stuff like that. So it’s one of these things that I think people will actually start to appreciate it once they have control and understanding. But amazingly, a lot of our customers are already up to speed on that. But if someone isn’t, we’re here to fill in the blanks, you know, where they need help.
Interviewer: Do you find people do a lot of research before they come and give you a call?

Steve Tuma: Yes. The majority of customers are pretty up to speed. They’ve spoken to the building department. They know zoning. They understand, you know, hey, they can put a certain size house here. The house has to face a certain way. But they may not have exact specifics like a survey. They may know that their lot is 50 by 100. Well, maybe it’s really 50 feet two and a half inches by 99 feet seven and three-quarters of an inch. And some people say, “Well, it’s close enough. Just do a 50 by 100 lot.” Well, with different overhangs and setbacks, it’s better to work off the exact. Because we’ve run into situations where people have different surveys and some more counties, more in the western parts of the United States, they’re actually checking your building site plan with the recorded description and the county. And some people are finding that what they think they bought is slightly different than what the county has. It usually always works out, but it’s stuff that you want to double check.

Interviewer: Yeah. It sounds to me like what you’re saying is that the customer’s overall input at the outset is so important. And if somebody does do their research, I mean, that’s got to be a really nice thing, you know.

Steve Tuma: You know, it’s nice, but I think they also find it rewarding. We’re doing a very complex home in northern Michigan and the person’s just the type of person that likes to know the details. And there’s a lot going on in this house with engineering, setbacks, grading plans, you know, just a lot of stuff. And I think even though it’s a lot of work, he’s going, “This is pretty amazing.”

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: And so not everyone just builds the house for the purpose of having a place to sleep. A lot of it’s to control the quality, control the budget, know where their money’s being spent, and know that it’s being built right because they directly control and can inspect what’s going on before everything moves along to the next stage.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So that’s a lot of it. A lot of the customers are building out of, I think it’s pride, personal accomplishment. And what’s interesting about this is we have a lot of single ladies building houses. They do a great job. So then there’s a lot of projects where, you know, in a husband-wife situation where the wife is the driving force in it. Sometimes it’s the husband, sometimes it’s both. You know, they each kind of do it. So it’s not something where, “Hey, you’ve got to be the, you know, the big builder to do this.” I actually find that people that just understand the management, the paying attention, the inquisitive, the wanting to understand how to do this, it’s fine. And I think what’s happening is there’s a lot of interest in building a house. It’s actually really cool. And one thing that, you know, we don’t really emphasize but it makes sense is if someone is able to build their own home and save a tremendous amount of money, if they have a mortgage, you know, say saving $50,000 or $100,000 over the course of a loan, that generally is two to three times the amount. So if someone saves $100,000, that may save them $300,000 in the overall payments of the loan. It’s a tremendous financial advantage. So it’s not just that, “Hey, you’re paying less for it.” It’s that, you know, long term, you know, payment to the bank. Although a lot of our customers are paying cash, but it gives them, you know, opportunity cost to invest the savings someplace else.

Interviewer: Yeah. You know, we never like to generalize, but you brought up, you know, over the last 30 years that you’ve, that Landmark Home and Land Company has been in existence. Yeah, again, don’t like to generalize, but most of the women I’ve known in my lifetime are very detail-oriented.

Steve Tuma: That’s why.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: Multitasking too.

Interviewer: Multitaskers, yeah. I’m not good at that, but have you noticed over the 30 years that the numbers are starting to really jump? Women who are even single women coming in and deciding they’re gonna build a home. Has that number jumped?

Steve Tuma: You know, I don’t actually track it like by a chart. I would say off a gut feeling, yes. We’ve had a lot of women get involved. In fact, I was talking to a lady, she’s building a house in Texas, and she said, “Hey, you treated me well, this and this and that. How many women have built the homes?” And I said, “Man, how many are like the lead on the project?” You know, type of thing.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: I would say it’s 40 to 50 percent.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s pretty good.

Steve Tuma: Give or take there. So what was weird is I went to our Better Business Bureau reviews, and at this current time, you know, this podcast is gonna be out there for a while, years, but at this current time, I went to our last six five-star ratings—they’re all five-star ratings—and five of the six were females that were heading the project.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Which was kind of cool. I never realized it. I looked at, “Hey, customers,” you know, all types of people that just help them get their family a good home. But what that brings up is different people look at different angles.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: And I haven’t really figured out who looks at this, but some people are very detailed into the mechanicals. You know, maybe in their life they’re more mechanical people. Other people, if they’re more decorators, are into the look. Other people, if they’re in the utility, are like, “Hey, how am I gonna access my basement for my roof?”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Or some people just have big families. “Hey, where’s my family gonna park and how are, you know, a dozen people gonna stay at my house, you know, through the holidays?”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So that’s what we’re able to do. So we’ll help anyone that has an interest. It’s kind of cool. It’s very cool. We’ve been doing it over 30 years and it’s still exciting every single time to talk to a customer, deliver the house package, and then just randomly get pictures. You know, there’s a picture of a family going, “Hey, here we are, we’re moving in,” or, “Hey, the dog’s first run around the yard.”

Interviewer: That’s great.

Steve Tuma: You know, things like that. We had a customer, he adopted a big mastiff, a huge, huge dog, and he bought 30 acres in the middle of Colorado in a valley area and that’s what it was. He wanted the dog to run around. He wanted to have his spot for his friends to come over. He was a retired military person and wanted to, you know, have get-togethers and I guess his friends would bring dogs. They’d all run around, they’d barbecue, have a good time, and, you know, move on from there.

Interviewer: This is kind of off topic, but we’re talking about the 30-year existence of Landmark. How similar are states in, let’s say, building codes or overall, you know, just making it easy to build a house? Are there more difficult states or are they all pretty much—the building codes are all sort of universal, or is everything just the Wild West out there?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s interesting because, you know, now the codes are pretty much universal—the IRC or the IBC. There’s different years that states may apply, you know, to their particular plan check. Some are a current one. So the codes are kind of the same. The difference is in the code application to your building site and then also what I call selective enforcement at the building department.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So the code application at your building site is, you know, for simple conversation, let’s say that you were to build a 1,500 square foot boxy ranch and you were to do it in Iowa, and in general, Iowa’s a flat piece of land. So it’s relatively simple. That foundation is a certain thing. But if you said, “Hey, we just decided to move to Key West and we have an oceanfront property,” suddenly that house is going to be on pilings, maybe 12, 15 feet out of the ground. So even though the house may look the same, the structure to withstand hurricanes and be put on a piling system would be different. And then I think being in Key West, people are gonna be like, “Hey, we should put a different type of a porch on there.” Or, “Hey, we can’t have an attached garage. Our house is up in the air on the pilings. We’re gonna have breakaway walls on the lower level.”

Interviewer: Interesting.

Steve Tuma: So then let’s just say that family said, “You know what, I think we’re gonna go to Colorado. We want to live in a ski area.” And suddenly you’re on the side of a hill. Well, suddenly that foundation is different. The snow loads are different. The wind speeds are different. It’s there, you know, and then if you said, “Hey, wait a second, we’re gonna move to Oregon or Washington state where there’s seismic, you know, earthquake activity,” suddenly the house is going to change because the governing force is the house being shaken instead of a high snow load or a high wind speed. So in some places, there’s areas that are earthquake and snow load, but there’s always one that governs. So it’s a universal code that is site or, you know, state-specific applications. And there are some places where they have their own adaptations or a community will have things or a specific building department may have their own selective enforcement.

Interviewer: Makes sense.

Steve Tuma: Amazingly, a lot of times we hear that, “Oh, we have the worst building department. The guy’s really picky.” And it’s pretty rare that the guys are that bad. It’s usually that they’ve had experiences before where they want to make sure that the plans are done right. And then the house is built right, which is an advantage that we have because we go through and do a full set of detailed plans. So it’s very clear what this house looks like and how it’s going to be put together. We’ve had plans from, you know, the customers bring from us, they’re all proud. They’re like, “Oh, we got these plans, you know, the best guy in town built them.” And there’s details that are missing—ceiling heights, how a wall’s connected to a roof, how a roof is or a wall is connected to a floor foundation, you know, what cathedral ceilings look like, what entry areas look like, how things are framed. So that’s why I think sometimes these building departments kind of get on people and say, “Hey, it’s not clear.” They’ll be like, “Well, I just paid this guy X amount of money. He’s the best designer in town.” It’s like, well, that may be true, but if the details aren’t there, they aren’t there. So, you know, sometimes it’s selective enforcement. Sometimes it’s people, you know, the building department just watching out for people. But either way, whatever the issue is, even if it is the worst inspector on earth with the biggest chip on his shoulder, somehow we’ve navigated all of them. And we’ve worked through every single building department that a customer submitted to and wanted to build at. We’ve done the plan set where they get permits quickly. And then that same approved set of plans gets used for actual building. So it’s the same stuff. There isn’t a set of plans for permits and then a set of plans for building. It’s the same set. That helps with ease of installing the panels. It also helps with the inspection processes so that people, you know, if there’s an issue, they can say, “Hey, these are the approved plans.

This is why it’s done a certain way.” But I take care of all customer service. A customer calls and says, “Hey, the inspector has a question,” or, “Hey, can we do this change?” I take care of it. And we don’t get that many calls because we do a good job. I say do your homework up front. Do it right once up front. And then the rest just falls into place.

Interviewer: Yeah. Well, the thing that strikes me whenever we do these podcasts is your passion for building homes. It’s pretty apparent. But it also sounds like you guys have a lot of fun just building houses. I think that’s pretty amazing.

Steve Tuma: Oh, it’s fun. This one person that he’s building a complex home, we’ve had some interesting conversations. And I think he asked or it came up, “Would I help him again?” I’m like, “Yeah,” because it’s actually kind of intriguing. I don’t want to call it a badge of honor, but there’s something cool about when you’ve gone through these different things and different situations that can arise, and you know, where you’ve done something even for 30 years, and then every once in a while you get a curve come up. So we get the answers, get it taken care of, and move on. And then it becomes part of our system. So the reality is, it’s probably pretty hard to stump us. But there are situations that are unique where you just really, really have to look at stuff. And until you get into the details, sometimes you never see it. But that’s not something our customer has to deal with. That’s me in the back room with some guys saying, “Hey, engineers, hey designers, hey energy code people, how are we going to get this taken care of?” So it’s not like if there’s a problem, we tell the customer, “Hey, go to the Internet and get an answer.” You know, we have it. We have the sources to get the right answer in a way that we can move forward and get the design taken care of. We’ve got electrical engineers, plumbing designers, HVAC designers, green codes, energy codes, you know, so we’ve seen it.

Interviewer: Yeah. It’s 30 years is going to, no matter what you do, 30 years is going to put some experience under your belt.

Steve Tuma: That’s just the beginning.

Interviewer: Yeah. So, well, I think we’ve just about covered the subject of the pitfalls of building well enough. You know, so this was another fantastic show. But before we let you go, tell our listeners the best way to find out about Landmark Home and Land Company.

Steve Tuma: The best way is just to take a look at us on the Internet. It’s open all the time. You could see us at LHLC.com. Again, that’s LHLC.com, like Landmark Home Land Company. And on our website, there’s these podcasts, there’s videos, there’s different details on what we supply in packages. There’s thousands of plan options and you can email through there, send a message. And someone could also call in. Mike will answer the phone at 800-830-9788. Again, 800-830-9788. And Mike can help someone kind of, you know, in the preliminary stages, just sort out how can we help, how can we work together, what are they looking for, where do they need help. And then when they get to a stage where they’re ready to go, I step into the picture and, you know, kind of fine-tune some of the bigger details. You know, if they have specific specifications like Lee’s house in the south, you know, he wanted a certain type of beam and a certain look. We take care of those things and get it taken care of. So the best way is just to take a look at our website, send an inquiry, or give Mike a call at 800-830-9788. And I think the important thing about it is we do answer our phones. We do talk. If you do get voicemail, we’ll call back. We spend time to get to know you and your project. You know, so we want to know that we’re working with good people just like they want to know they’re, you know, they’re working with a good supplier like us.

Interviewer: Well, there it is. Can’t ask for more than that. Thanks again, Steve. And thank you for all of you who have been listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. We see the numbers go up and it’s just always a lot of fun to host these podcasts and to know that there’s information getting out there that’s really going to help people build their brand new homes and their great week ahead. And we will see you next time.

Steve Tuma: Thanks.

Interviewer: Thanks.

Steve Tuma: It was a good time. This was an interesting one. We’ll see if people call and ask us about pitfalls we didn’t cover here.

Interviewer: There you go. Thanks.

A: A simple single-story rectangular ranch with four 90-degree corners and a standard gable roof is typically the most affordable design to build. Minimizing exterior corners reduces labor, excavation, and material expenses across foundation forming, framing, drywall installation, and exterior siding.

A: Not necessarily; foundation costs depend heavily on the home’s footprint and the lot’s slope. A 2,000-square-foot two-story home requires half the foundation footprint and roof area of a 2,000-square-foot single-story ranch, which can make a two-story design on a basement competitive in cost with an expansive slab.

A: While the raw steel container shell appears inexpensive, modifying the structure to meet residential building codes requires substantial structural reinforcement, specialized insulation, and complex mechanical rough-ins. Once engineering, site preparation, and finish work are completed, the final cost per square foot often exceeds that of a pre-engineered panelized wood home.

A: Blueprints can incorporate flexible, multi-use spaces—such as a ground-floor dining room that temporarily serves as a children’s playroom and later converts into an in-law suite or home theater. Pre-planning future wing additions or designing convertible rooms during the drafting phase prevents costly structural remodeling as family needs evolve.

A: Installing extensive glass in tall, 20- to 25-foot cathedral walls removes structural wood framing, requiring specialized engineering to resist lateral wind loads and seismic forces. Reinforced framing members and point-load connections must be calculated to prevent the tall wall from flexing, bowing, or causing interior drywall cracking over time.

Steve Tuma: These panelized homes are basically stick-built homes. They’re just done on an efficient production line where we can control quality, we can control cost, we can make sure it’s done to precision design standards, make sure the right materials are there, and then deliver it to the site so it’s easier for someone to assemble.

Interviewer: Hello folks! Welcome to Episode 58 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Joining me as always is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993, and that would be Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you, my friend?

Steve Tuma: I’m doing great. We’re going to have an interesting podcast here, a little different angle on some questions, I guess.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: Again, it’s always a good day. We’re helping people design their homes, build houses, answering questions of customers that have built, maybe want to build again, and then helping customers that are thinking about it, may build in a year or so, or sometimes five.

Interviewer: I keep throwing you curveballs, but you keep hitting them out of the park.

Steve Tuma: I’ll keep on doing it.

Interviewer: It’s actually a really fun podcast to host. Anyway, for this episode and for the past few, actually, we’re going to continue our series of our point-by-point, in-depth look at the process of designing and building a kit home. That’ll include permits and regulations and everything surrounding a kit home build, including what it takes and how easy it is truly to become an owner-builder. Steve, are you good to walk us through some of the finer points of kit home building?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. I think a lot of these, we’re talking about different costs and designs and stuff like that.

Interviewer: Yeah. Again, I’m going to try to throw you a couple of curveballs, but you always have the answer, so we’ll see what happens. We’re going to start off with something that you might find kind of funny, but I’m curious. What is the most inexpensive style of home to build? I don’t mean mud huts. I mean actual homes.

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s actually kind of funny. If you built a mud hut, there are people doing that with different mud products. You’ve got to go through so many different engineering and reinforcement. You still have to hit the same codes that those costs sound high. It becomes high, so it’s not necessarily you just take a pile of mud and build your hut and move in as some ancient civilizations might have been if you were to go that route. Still engineers, still energy codes, still zoning, so it’s kind of interesting. To get to the point, generally the most inexpensive style to build is like the ranch home. Just put four 90-degree corners on it, 24 wide, 40 feet deep, 60 feet deep, whatever it is. Sometimes you start getting over 26, 28 feet, it might go up a little bit more, but most of those are 24, 28 feet deep and 30, 40, 50, 60 feet wide. The reason being is there’s less corners, so less corners on the foundation, less corners on siding, less corners on drywall, less corners on ridges and valleys on the roof, so it’s just less expensive to do labor-wise and generally less materials. But what’s interesting about that question, I’ve got to go a little deeper, throw it back at you type of a thing, is that’s the style of home, but some people still want a house with a little more intricate roofline or more corners or a special entryway or breezeway or whatever it is. There are ways to still add those features and still control costs. So just because you go to a house with six corners on it, eight corners, a dozen, 20 Corners doesn’t mean you still can’t come up with an affordable design if you wanted something a little bit more complex than just a typical all-American ranch home. Now, something else to go a little deeper: sometimes people will say, “Well, I heard slabs are less expensive than basements.” And it may or may not be, depending on what you’re doing. I’ll tell you why. Sometimes people say, “Hey, a slab’s less expensive.” Well, if you have a flat piece of land and you don’t have to do groundwork, that may be true. But if you have a 2,000 square foot ranch home, you have a 2,000 square foot slab.

Interviewer: Oh right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: If you have a 2,000 square foot kind of boxy two-story, 1,000 square feet on each level, your foundation’s 1,000 square feet. So in some cases, the general rule of thumb of, “Hey, slabs are less expensive,” doesn’t necessarily hold true depending on the design. Because if you take a boxy ranch and then a boxy two-story, you have half the foundation size and half the roof size.

Interviewer: Got it.

Steve Tuma: So sometimes there’s little guides or stories you hear. Just general rules of thumb may work under certain conditions, but it doesn’t always work out every time. Now, that’s why we’re here to help. If someone wants to talk about it, have us price out different panelized packages, we can do it. And then the people can make a decision of what works best for them.

Interviewer: Right. I’d hate to be the guy that had to get permits for a mud hut, that’s for sure.

Steve Tuma: Way back 15, 20 years ago, there were a lot of people going—it was like after the economic crash, a lot of people were getting proper homes and just different alternative methods. There was just like a two or three year period there. And we checked into it and it’s—yeah, by the time you enter even the container homes, you hear people—you’ll see this stuff, “I built this house with a 3,000 container.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. And then $200,000 of other things to make it livable. And then you were in an eight by eight by 40 box. So sometimes what appears to be less expensive doesn’t end up being less expensive, which is why we suggest people get plans, price it out, and know what it is instead of just guessing and going. So another thing, let me throw another curveball in there. Sometimes people call and say, “Hey, is there an app that’ll give me pricing?” Or “I found this book or this online guru’s telling me the pricing to build any home anywhere in the country.” I’ve never seen it work. It may make people feel good for 10 minutes, but the reality is people should really look at the design, their land, where they’re building, and get costs for building their exact home on their piece of land. Don’t work off of general numbers that you found online or some app or some book because it just varies too much.

Interviewer: Is it overall less expensive to build a panelized home than, say, a stick-built home? Tell us about that. I mean, it just seems to me panelized homes have got to be economically better. But the way you talk, I mean, it could be—it could be just with all the variables and everything.

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of hard to know exactly because generally all of our customers panelize it. We have thousands of plans on… I’m sorry, customize it or personalize it. So it’s hard to say, “Hey, here’s your custom design on the side of the hill in the Sierras compared to a box home on flat land someplace.” So when people design the home with us, we work to give them all the design details that they want. But where the advantage is that different groups have proven is that it’s the control of it. So sometimes people say, “Hey, your panelized package costs this and the lumberyard quoted me this.” Well, yeah, they don’t give you a guaranteed price. They didn’t engineer the plans. They didn’t do the energy codes to make sure that everything works.

So you can’t just take, in a sense, you can’t call a grocery store and say, “Hey, how much is one hamburger bun and a half a pound of chicken?” and say, “Well, that’s the cost of the sandwich,” because someone has to cook it. Someone has to put it together. Someone has to get the lettuce, the tomato, and get everything. And that, with our panelized process, we’re combining as the one-stop shop—the architectural design, structural design, energy codes, site plan, green codes, whatever details your building department may request. And then providing a set of plans that you could submit for permits. If your building department has questions, we can answer them. And then we supply a panelized home that matches the approved plans. No one else does that.

The bottom line, I think, you look as our company grows, people appreciate it. Some people come back and build a second, third, fifth home with us. They tell friends. And there’s a value. And I think what you see is, at the end, I just had a conversation with a person—his name’s Mike—building in Montana. He said it’s amazing, the help, the support, the knowledge, the being on top of it. That’s where it’s helping him build his home. So my belief is if you go apples to apples, look at the architectural cost, the less waste, not having to go to the lumberyard, not buying things because people miscut them or throw stuff away, the dumpster cost, the quicker framing time, which is faster. So if you’re on your construction loan money or opportunity cost, if you’re financing it with your own cash, the ability to control and get into the home. And then other things that people don’t think about—hassle, stress, pain-in-the-butt situations. We’re able to work with you up front to get it taken care of.

So I think you’ll see that the world is going to a process of manufacturing things in certain streamlined ways because of the efficiency, the lack of qualified labor, the control that our system gives, the control that our customer gives over the assembly of the house. And I think that that’s where it really comes together. When a customer goes through and says, “Hey, the foundation’s going to cost this much. The windows are going to cost this much.” They can work to get the house they want instead of someone saying, “Well, you have a choice of this window company only. You can’t use others or you can’t do this.” So that, I think, is where it is. We always strive to provide the best price. We guarantee our prices in writing. It’s a set price. And that’s where it is. We’re not in the game of lowballing and then nickel-and-diming and driving everyone crazy.

Yeah, it’s just not fun. It’s not cool. And tell you the truth, I don’t want to do all the change orders. So we just work with people. And if they want to add a window or door, you know, move something around, it’s not a big deal, right? So it works out pretty well. Very well, actually.

Interviewer:  Let’s go, let’s get into semantics a little bit here. People talk about Panelized homes and prefab homes—I think that there’s a kind of a cross-connect here. Is a panelized home technically a prefab home or are they completely different?

Steve Tuma: Yes, it is. But the word prefab is so generic because if prefab could be the manufactured home, it could be a modular home prefabricated on a production line. It could be a prefabricated panelized home, and then it could also be a prefabricated truss and a completely custom home. So the word prefab is kind of saying, “I want to get dinner,” compared to, “I want spaghetti with marinara sauce and two meatballs with a Caesar salad with two slices of tomato.” So it’s kind of one of these things. It’s kind of interesting when people say, “Oh, Steve, you do those prefabs.” Sometimes I’ll just say, just to prove this point to myself, “What is a prefab?” And it’s kind of like you told me just a Sasquatch. There’s this look, it’s like I’m using this word but I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it means because it’s just around people say prefab, prefab, prefab. So it’s interesting even in custom homes that use prefabricated trusses and a custom stick-built home, you can still say it’s prefabbed. So the prefab is generic.

My belief, just for my own little informal survey, is that when people think of prefab, they’re thinking manufactured homes or possibly modular. You know, the two halves going down the road and then they get put together on site. So generally panelized isn’t—we’re more of a panelized stick-built home. So what we’re doing is providing the customization of stick-built but the quality and cost control of the production line. So we’re kind of putting the best of the best together. It’s kind of cool. Again, it’s control for the customer, understanding of the cost, understanding of the design elements, and understanding of the details for the building department approval.

Interviewer:  So there’s a lot of variables. And I think people have misconceptions about, you know, prefab home or panelized home. Everybody kind of melts things and kind of sticks things together in their head about, well, that’s the same thing. And really, it just isn’t.

Steve Tuma: Once people put an inquiry in, talk to us, find out what it is, I think they start seeing, “Hey, wait a second, prefab doesn’t mean anything.” You know, they start seeing—and it’s already there in your own world—you know, what kind of car do you want? Do you want a station wagon? Do you want an SUV? Do you want a sports car? Do you want a sedan? What do you want? So people don’t just say, “Get me a car.” They’re usually like, “Hey, I want a four-door car that can carry five people,” or whatever it may be. And that’s kind of what this is, just a subsection of general building. So, yeah, it falls under the word prefab, but I think the way it’s generally defined—no, we’re not prefabricated. It’s a custom stick-built panelized home.

Interviewer: Right, and it seems to me my understanding has always been that a prefab home is kind of like a box that arrives, whereas a panelized home is like a big giant wooden puzzle that once it’s together you get a pretty amazing house.

Steve Tuma: Right. Yeah.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about designs. We’ve talked about design before in the past on this show, but the different types of—like, is it Landmark? Can you guys do—I know you do a lot of pretty standard houses, what people would look at and say, “That’s a house.” You know, it’s either a Victorian or it’s whatever it is, whatever kind of house. People have an idea, but modern home design is a whole other ballgame. Can I do a modern design panelized home through Landmark?

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah, we do a lot of them. Some of them are, you know, they might be a boxy design but say in the back wall is eight feet tall, the front wall is 12, and they have a single pitch roof, big overhangs, you know, maybe big open ceilings, a lot of windows to take advantage. Yeah, we’ve helped people with modern designs. We’ve done mid-century modern. We can also do modern versions of old designs. Right now, we’re doing a Victorian home, an 1890s Victorian that burned and then redesigning it to the modern situation. So sometimes people like that retro feel and look, but like in the case of a Victorian, Victorian homes had very small closets. People must have only had like three shirts or something, you know, now where closets are small rooms.

Interviewer: So we’re bigger, our clothes are bigger.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So to answer your question, yeah, we could do modern designs, you know, also meaning like mid-century or modern versions of classic designs. So it’s pretty much if someone wants to draw something up or get us ideas of what they’re like, “Hey, I kind of like this.” And a lot of people will do that. They’ll be like, “I like this floor plan but I want this garage, I want this entryway, and I want this roof system.” And then we work together. So yeah, we’ve done modern designs. We’ve done homes that are buried in the sides of hills. We’ve done conventional ranches. We’ve done mid-century moderns. We’ve done variations of organic designs, the Frank Lloyd Wright designs. We’ve done all different types of situations. So we will figure it out. The only thing we can’t do is like someone once wanted a round house, like a golf ball, like a ball. But we can do, you know, sometimes people say those like octagon homes. We can do those because those are actually made up of a variety of flat walls put together to do it. So yeah, we could do octagon homes if someone wanted something like that. So we’re able to really put the whole thing together. And the key to it is not like we’ve spoken. It’s not just the house design. How does it fit on your land? How does it attach to your land? Grading plans, foundation designs, things like that.

Interviewer: Yeah, it brings up an interesting point because there are some areas where the artistic side of people comes out a lot more. You know, you see people who do like cement pillars and, you know, somehow one house will look like a Roman sort of meeting place and the next one will look like some art house hippie place. But all of them are, you know, pretty interesting. But I would imagine you guys get some pretty interesting inquiries about certain types of builds. How—where do you draw a line or do you ever draw a line?

Steve Tuma: I don’t draw the line. That’s actually—all the houses are interesting, but they’re, you know, sometimes people ask for stuff that just like crazy beyond their budget. “I need a 15-foot cantilever,” you know, and they’re trying to do something at a budget that doesn’t allow for a 15-foot cantilever.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: You know, so that’s it. So no, we’ve had it. One of them, we just did the design up in Leadville, Colorado. There’s a very unique historic district there that—Leadville is one of the highest populated—I think it’s the highest inhabited city in America, like 11,000 feet. And they have a very unique house design that I don’t want to call it Victorian. It’s kind of minor, you know, like miners would have, but then they would add on. So there’s this very eclectic Dutch hip, gable end, you know, all these weird little changes that they want to keep that kind of eccentric feel to it. But it’s not like you can go online and say, “Hey, this is a Victorian. This is a right hand. This is a Georgian.” It’s just really unique to that town. So there’s a whole situation. But, and then that particular family also had a situation where they wanted to have a house where the in-laws could live.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s good.

Steve Tuma: So it wasn’t just fit these architectural features, it’s put it on the side of the hill, blend the living area of the in-laws. And then when they no longer live there, have that living space blend in for an expanded area for the couple that was going to be the main resident of the home. So there were just a lot of little things. It wasn’t the design of today, but it had to morph into future uses. So we’re helping a man up in the Northeast. Same thing, his kids are a certain age now. So the dining room is kind of a little playroom. He actually called it a war room, but that’s a playroom for his kids. But then as they go on, it’s easily transferred back into the original design concept of a dining room. It’ll probably be more of a home theater at that age, at that time. So we’re able to work with different people on situations like that. And then occasionally we have people that say, “Hey, we want to build this now. But as the family grows or hobbies grow, we want to add on in the future. So could we design this house with the intention that down the road we’re going to add something else?”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And we’ve done stuff like that as well. So you know, the design thing, that’s actually, like I say, it’s all fun. But that’s that extra little challenge where you get to, you know, take a look at it and go, “OK, how do we do it?” You’re kind of thinking out of the box and it always comes together. It’s kind of amazing.

Interviewer: You guys have done a lot of lifestyle homes too. You just mentioned like a hobby home, but like I know you’ve done lifestyle homes. Like you just mentioned home theaters. I’m sure people have wanted to design a home just around a cool home theater. What about like, I know like a family of kayakers or some family does a lot of biking. I’m sure you guys do a lot of stuff like that.

Steve Tuma: We did one on the islands off of Washington state.

Interviewer: Really?

Steve Tuma: The family had a piece of land on an island. So we had to design it, make sure we could get it across to the island, get it built. And their idea was the lower level was to have like a spot for the toys—the kayaks, the canoes, the equipment—so they could easily bring it in and out.

And then downstairs there was like a little get-together room, clean up, you know, overflow of sleeping, party room, man cave, entertainment area downstairs. And then upstairs was more of a typical living room with big windows overlooking the ocean. We’ve also had people with equestrian properties where they want to have certain access or tech rooms in the house or kind of a transition from the horse to, you know, the horse clothes to, you know, wash up and then go in the house.

Interviewer: Right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, with type of situation. We’ve had people that are just really into their dogs. So there’s a dog bath, you know, when they come in. We’ve had people with car collections where people go through and they design it. Sometimes it’s a car collection, “Hey, I’ve got 17 whatevers,” other people go through and they say, “Hey, I like to restore cars. I need a lift,” or “Hey, my son and my time is, you know, changing the oil, you know, checking the tires. We want to put a lift. We want to do this stuff,” and it allows us to save, you know, money on repairs and also have a little bit of a hobby. So we’ve had people that restore cars, build certain race cars, collect cars. We’ve had people have situations where the garage turns into a man cave. Other times it’s like in the case of kayaking, the house I mentioned off of Washington state, that was one where they actually kayaked in. But another one, they didn’t kayak into the house—they kayaked onto the land, and they were easily able to bring it into the storage area under the house. Kind of a tall crawl space, you know, basement area, and they had racks and everything for their items. But we’ve also had situations where people don’t live on the ocean or on the river or lake, but they’re set up. So they want their SUV where they could pack it up the night before, put the kayaks on top, open the garage door, and drive out instead of drive their SUV out, then load it, and go. So sometimes it’s as simple as, “Hey, how are you living? How tall is your SUV? Do you want to pack it the night before?” So when you get up early, you can just hit the road. So there’s a lot of situations.

And then one of the most heartwarming ones is kind of cool in Prescott, Arizona. A man called us and he said, “Steve, I’m 78 years old. And when I got married when I was 18, I told my wife I’m going to build her a new home.” And he said, “I better do it before she kills me.” You know, he’s laughing because he’s 78 years old. He goes, “I’m finally in a position to do it.” And I said, “So tell me about it.” He said, “Well, we got a couple acres in Prescott and there’s two things. He likes to tinker in the garage, fix little stuff, you know, the classic grandpa, you know, fix a broken chair, you know, do something here, build something, you know, whatever it would be, you know, clean the car up.” But the wife, the grandmother, loved baking pies. So she wanted a certain window to overlook the two acres so she could see all over the two acres from anywhere in the kitchen. But then inside, we had to have it set up in certain ways for her pie-making method.

Interviewer: Wow. Yes, that’s specific.

Steve Tuma: Well, it was just really interesting because you’re like, “Wow, this is kind of like, you know, some type of gourmet kitchen but custom designed for her making pies.” So we actually did a little drawing showing where the windows are, where the line of sight would be across the land, how they could see, did all these different situations, you know, made sure the garage worked so she could say, “Hey, dinner’s on.” And then also the kids, the kids could be there. And then there was a porch with a big overhang to keep the Arizona sun under control. And we did it relatively simple house, but the amount of thought that went into making sure that she could stand in the kitchen and see the whole piece of land was kind of amazing. And again, that wasn’t a $10 million home. So you can do this stuff and nice, energy-efficient, everyday homes will take the time to do that. And it’s just kind of amazing to see how people put the houses together and the work, the time we’ll take to make sure it’s there. So that’s—I think the prior podcast you’re saying, “Hey, where’s it on cost?” And, you know, cost is important, but getting what you want is more important. You don’t want to be that person that buys a shirt. It’s $10 off. You get it home and you’re like, “Why did I buy this?”

Interviewer: Right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, you want to make sure it’s thought out. It works. It fits on the land. It fits for your needs. It fits for your budget. And we can take the time during the design process to get those elements into the home.

Interviewer: Hmm. You know, we’ve hit on this before in a couple of the podcast episodes, but I’m still—I’m just fascinated by windows, and we were talking about custom design homes. And it seems to me like windows, if people are building something really specifically custom modern, how do you deal with that? When a customer calls you and they’re just dealing with some real—I don’t want to say strange—but just really unique window settings. How do you guys handle that?

Steve Tuma: Well, we talk to them to find out what they’re looking for because sometimes someone will say, “Hey, I want a wall of windows like this or a chalet,” or “Hey, a two-story living room to overlook something.” And they’ll have pictures. So it’s kind of like, “Okay, so in this picture, what do you see?” And sometimes they’ll be like, “Well, a big open picture window at the bottom. I don’t really care what’s way up.” Other people say, “No, I want three rows of big square windows because I can see the peak of the mountain. I can see the trees. I can see this. I can see whatever.” And so there’s different situations where we get an idea of what they want and then draw it up.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And then they can determine what works for them on the actual look. And windows can get expensive. And sometimes the budget kicks in a little.

Interviewer: Sure. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: And make some adjustments. But what’s interesting about that is if you took like a chalet design, a 20-25 foot ceiling with a bunch of glass. It’s not just the windows. It’s how is that wall being reinforced? Because when you put that much glass in a wall, there isn’t as much strength from the wood.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So we have to go through separate engineering processes to make sure that that wall is strong. And most people think of, well, the weight of the roof or snow load. They’ll say, “Well, I’m not in a lot of snow. We don’t have to worry about it.” I’m like, “Well, you probably have wind.”

Interviewer: Oh yeah.

Steve Tuma: Or even small seismic situations where then we go through to make sure that it’s there because you don’t want a wall like that to bow. And then over time, you end up with these little cracks in your wall. So it’s really got to be engineered right to do it. What’s interesting, and people should really watch, like, “Well, my building department doesn’t require engineering.” It’s like, well, your building department may not realize they should on certain designs like super tall walls. You know, that’s why we do stuff like that, so you don’t run into a problem down the road. You don’t want just someone guessing on how your wall’s not going to flex.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: You know, and that’s what we do because that affects the roof design, the wall design, floor designs, foundation designs. It’s all tied together. And that’s what we take care of. So yeah, I got a little sidetracked on engineering based off of windows, but that’s what we’re here for. But that’s what it is. And I guess I went that way because it’s not just the window, it’s the structure that’s holding the window in place. And then in some places where energy codes are considered more important for the permitting process, when you have a lot of glass, it can affect the energy codes and heat getting out but also sun coming in.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So it can get pretty interesting, but we have the system so someone can ask us, we can walk them through it so that they understand it. And then we’ll take care of the details.

Interviewer:  It’s interesting.

Steve Tuma: It’s deeper than people think. You know, they’re always like, “Oh, I just want a big window.” It’s like, well, “Hey, you’ve got a 40-foot wall and you want to put a 39-foot wide window in there.” What? You know, so that might be a little extreme, but it gets the point across.

Interviewer: The things you guys have to deal with. And I don’t mean have to, I mean just the things—it seems like you have fun dealing with, you know, just different issues that come up. And I’m sure there’s a variety of things that come up every single day.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s what it’s about because people don’t realize it. They don’t understand that, hey, there’s this situation, this situation. Someone might tell them, “Oh yeah, you can just put a window in any wall.” Well, generally you can, but there might be things that need to be done to make sure the structure is strong.

Interviewer: Sure. Um, yeah, if you’ve got time, I’ve got one more really good question and maybe kind of in-depth or you may be able to just—what is it? Let me know. It’s panelized homes versus the standard stick-built home. Give us the pros and cons from a guy who builds a lot of panelized homes.

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s interesting is these panelized homes are basically stick-built homes. They’re just done on an efficient production line where we can control quality. We can control cost. We can make sure it’s done to precision and design standards, make sure the right materials are there, and then deliver it to the site. So it’s easier for someone to assemble. And amazingly, a stick-builder assembles it, right? We’re taking a lot of process. So in a stick building, a framer might order a bunch of two by sixes, cut them up, make a wall, stand the wall up, and go from there. In our case, the wall’s there, you just stick wall one up, wall two up, and go that way. So the advantages are in the efficiency. We can guarantee a cost. We can guarantee a cost based on the plans that we drop, get all the details put together. And we can also help through the whole design process, engineering, and building permit process. So it’s kind of the one-stop shop. But when you look at the actual product for product, if you took a stick-built home and we put our panelized home next to it, I don’t think many people would know the difference. The only difference is where two panels come together, you have two studs instead of where you stick-built, they might not have the two studs.

Interviewer: Right. Got it.

Steve Tuma: So the end result is—and like we mentioned earlier, stick-built homes are probably going to have trusses, but if someone wants a stick-built roof or a more dramatic ceiling or exposed beams or something, we can do it. So what it really comes down to is the process that we supply at Landmark where we go do all the design, all the engineering work, a thorough and complete set of plans. That then allows us to supply the panelized package to match it. And this is a point that people don’t understand. They think all plans are the same. So someone will be like, “Well, you know, in my town this one person always does plans,” and they’ll send us copies of them. And there’s just a lot of missing details, and they’re like, “Oh, the builder will figure it out on site.” It’s like, well, if the builder’s figuring it out on site, how do you know what he’s building and how are you controlling the cost when there’s so many open-ended things? You know, we’ve gotten plans that have been approved by building departments and you don’t know how tall the ceilings are.

Interviewer: Right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So when someone gives you a price, what is that? Is that an eight-foot ceiling, a nine-foot ceiling? Is there a big cathedral in there? You know, there’s just different situations there. So that, I think, is it. It’s not just the stick-built, panelized building system we have, it’s the planning process that allows the customer to understand what it is that they want, make sure that it’s on the plans, and that’s what gets permitted and that’s what gets built. So it makes it easier to permit, makes it easier to build, makes it easier to go through inspections, makes it easier to stay on budget and stay on schedule. That’s the thing. So it’s our process of designing and then using the panelized home package that really, really helps the customer along to control the process.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: It’s one of those things that kind of doesn’t make sense. And the reason it doesn’t make sense is people assume that a local designer does a complete set of plans. And it is exceptionally rare to almost never that that happens. We just got some—someone spent upwards of a hundred thousand dollars on plans and stuff’s missing.

Interviewer: Wow.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. You’d think. And so I called the architect. I said, “So what’s going on?” “Oh, they figure that out on site.” I’m like, “What did he get paid for?” You know, you don’t want to put a customer in a position where there’s an open-ended budget, you know, which is why we give a guaranteed cost. And we go through and then with our complete set of plans, the contractors know what’s to be built. They’re not out there going, “Oh, does the customer want an eight-foot wall, a nine-foot, or 10-foot? Well, I’ve got eight-foot studs, so let’s just give them an eight-foot because it’s not clear on the plans.” Or then the customer gets change orders. There are certain people that run the framing business and building business where they lowball a price and then they make their money on the change orders. You don’t want to be in that position, right? You want good plans that are clear so people know exactly what it is to be built.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So that’s a value that people don’t think of. You know, they’re thinking, “Hey, stud for stud or header for header, what’s the difference?” It’s like, wait, look at your whole picture. Look at what you’re trying to achieve. You have a raw piece of dirt to a finished house. You want to stay sane, be on budget, be on schedule, and get the house you want. That’s what we’re able to help customers with.

Interviewer: Pretty cool. It’s kind of deep. You’re a deep guy.

Steve Tuma: Yeah.

Interviewer: Well, this has been another great show, Steve. Interesting as always. And as usual, before we let you go, I’d like you to tell our listeners the best way to connect with you guys over at Landmark Home and Company.

Steve Tuma: Best thing to do is check out our website at L H L C dot com. That’s kind of the initials Landmark Home Land Company. L H L C dot com. They can see what we have—a bunch of podcasts, videos, conversations, plan options, whole bunch of ideas. People can email us from there. They can send inquiries on specific plans. If they’d like to call, they’re always welcome. We are available. We answer the phone. If for some reason you do get our voicemail, we’ll call you back right away and have a one-on-one conversation to find out exactly what you need and how we can best help you. Michael works with customers up front. And then once they get to a certain stage, I work with the customers to work out the final details of the project and get the plans going and get every nitty-gritty detail on the home. So that’s the best thing to do. And we’re communicative and proactive and have a lot of knowledge, a lot of great history, and most of all just a passion and a desire to help people. Like I kind of tell them, it’s like we want to work with great people and build cool homes. That’s what it’s about.

Interviewer: That’s a great mantra. Yeah. Great people, let’s build some cool homes. And there you go. Well, thanks again, Steve. And thanks to all of you for listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. We hope you’ve come away with some useful knowledge and feel more confident with that knowledge as you move forward on your journey to becoming a kit home owner and builder. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead and we will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. This was fun. And I think it’s number 57 or 58 that we just did. So there’s a lot of podcasts people can listen to on our website or whatever streaming service.

Interviewer: This is 58. Pretty cool. Congratulations.

Steve Tuma: Congratulations to you. That’s a lot of cool stuff to talk about.

Interviewer: Yeah. I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface yet. Alright. Well, thanks, everyone. And we will see you again. So thank you.

A: A manufactured home is constructed on a permanent steel chassis with axles and is built to the federal HUD code rather than local residential standards. A modular home is built to standard state and local building codes in large volumetric sections that are transported on flatbeds and crane-set onto a permanent foundation.

A: Lenders often classify manufactured and modular properties in higher-risk loan categories that require mandatory title disclosures and carry higher interest rates. Because they are mass-produced on factory lines, they often do not appreciate at the same rate as site-specific, custom stick-built and panelized homes.

A: Unloading a panelized delivery typically requires an extended-reach rough-terrain forklift and a staging crew of three to four people. The forklift lifts banded bundles of wall panels, truss packages, and loose framing materials directly from the flatbed trailer and distributes them around the foundation for easy framer access.

A: Panelized wall components are bundled in flat, banded stacks and delivered alongside corresponding numbered floor plan layout sheets. Each individual panel is clearly labeled and dimensioned with rough openings in place, allowing the framing crew to assemble the perimeter and interior walls in sequential order without job-site measuring errors.

A: In high-elevation or cold-weather climates where the construction window is limited to a few months, assembling pre-built wall panels and trusses allows a home to be framed and dried-in rapidly. Enclosing the structural shell in a matter of days protects framing lumber from weather exposure and enables interior trade work to proceed through winter.

Steve Tuma: I’m a believer if you’re going to work hard to build your own home, you should pull up to it every day and go, “This is great. I really like it,” instead of, “Oh, I should have.” And that’s what we’re able to do when we customize a home and get everything put together for your house, your land, your family. It’s kind of cool. It’s fulfilling.

Interviewer: Hello everybody. Thanks for joining us for Episode 57 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me 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’s it going, buddy?

Steve Tuma: Doing great! As always, it’s a great day to start designing a home and building a home.

Interviewer: Oh yeah, always good for that.

Steve Tuma: It is. Just one of those days.

Interviewer: That’s right. For today’s episode, I wanted to go back to a formula we’ve been playing with here on the podcast for the past few episodes, and that’s simply to go point by point on the process of designing and building a kit home, and permitting and regulations surrounding a kit home build, and just what it takes and how easy it truly is to become an owner-builder. So Steve, are you ready to dive into once again to some of the talking points and walking us through the kit home building process?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. I guess we’re going to talk about modular homes, manufactured homes, stick-built, panelized homes, kind of the differences, the ins and outs of each one of those systems, because people don’t always understand what the difference is.

Interviewer: Yeah, well that’s where we’re going to start. And I know you’re very patient about this, but sometimes I ask you obvious questions, and they may seem like dumb questions, but you never make myself or any of the customers feel dumb. You always have a way of explaining things that makes it, you know, levels out whatever topic we’re talking about. So this is nonetheless a very important topic for this discussion. So just what is a modular home, Steve?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, well that’s the situation like you’re bringing up. People don’t know. So they hear it’s like, “Hey, I’m building a modular, I’m building a manufactured, I’m building a new home, I’m stick-building.” And after a while, people kind of—it blends together. And what’s the definition or how’s the way to differentiate, you know, if you see one on the road or see one getting built or whatever. But basically, I think there’s basically modular homes, manufactured homes, stick-built homes, and then our panelized homes. There’s also other, you know, way deep things, you know, some people build them out of hay bales or use tires or something, but that’s a little more obscure. But I would say these are the more typical ones.

So a modular home is kind of like its name says—they’re building modules in a production facility. So that production facility may have a capability of making a unit eight feet wide or 10 feet wide by however tall. And they’re basically—I shouldn’t really say the word cubed, but they’re long rectangular boxes. And you’ve probably seen them going down the highway. Generally, they’re in groups of twos. The trucks will go in like if it’s a ranch home, there might be two halves that are delivered. Then a crane sets them and puts them on an existing or on a foundation that was installed. And what that is, is basically the code that it’s built to. It’s kind of built to a stick-built code but it’s built on a production facility.

So the advantage of the—or sorry, production line—the advantage of the production line is that you can kind of cookie-cutter things out. The disadvantage is they generally don’t like to do complete custom different sizes. It’s more limited by, you know, sizes of homes and designs of homes that you can do. And basically, they can make a modular unit. The siding could be on it, windows could be on it. Generally, carpeting isn’t in, but cabinets might be in, drywall might be done, and portions of plumbing, electric, and HVAC systems may be included as well, depending on the manufacturer. So it’s basically the modular. So it’s built on a production line to say 80-90 percent complete and then it’s delivered to the site. So that, I think, is the quick kind of understanding of the modular home.

Now, where it’s different is generally they can’t be customized as much due to the production line. Generally, there’s limitations on the sides of these modules. But over the last years, there are companies that get a little more, a little more unique. They might make a variety of smaller modules that can be stacked together to get a little more custom. But I think from what I understand of those, those are for, you know, kind of very high-end situations where maybe areas have a limited building season, you know. So sometimes people do stuff like that in places where you only have three, four months to build because of weather or whatever. But I think for the regular use, the modular home is what people will typically see going down the highway in two halves or if it’s a two-story, maybe it’s four quarters and then they’re assembled on site.

They can be, I should say, personalized. There might be some options, but generally they’re a little restricted on—they’re very restricted on changes, but also they’re generally restricted on, you know, types of siding, types of cabinets. You know, it’s a production line thing. So it’s meant to be—have a lower cost, although we’re being told it’s not necessarily the case by the time it’s done right. So that’s a basic…

Interviewer: It’s funny, you’ve just brought up something and people don’t even think about this stuff. But there are regions of the country and around the globe, I guess, where the actual season where you can build, where the time frame is different. And that’s something that you guys help with. I would have no idea. I’m going to go build a house and I want to build it in Minnesota. And can I start building in December?

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: How much of that stuff do you get?

Steve Tuma: Right. Well, that happens, you know. So yeah, you go into the ski areas in Colorado, the Sierras, yeah, even way up north in like Minnesota, the Dakotas, there’s a limited time to build. Sometimes it’s people’s restrictions. It’s like, “Hey, I bought the land, I want to be in by the holidays,” or “Hey, I want to be there for springtime,” or whatever it is. So that, that, that’s, that’s something that we’re able to help with is people understand this—the timelines, what it takes to get something done so we can, you know, put a reality check to what needs to be done.

Yeah, that’s, that’s part of it. Like in our situation, people probably heard us talk about this on another podcast, but there’s a variety of different situations—code issues, weather issues, financing issues, zoning issues, and does a house fit on the land. But we can generally help people through the ideas.

Interviewer: Yeah, it’s just—I kind of got off subject there, but I just thought that was when you mentioned—and I’m going to—you guys at Landmark, you’re able to, to feel so many different kinds of problems and not even problems with just issues people might find when building their home.

Steve Tuma: But well, that’s what you’ll find because a lot of these, like whether it’s modular, manufactured, or whatever, there—people will find it’s like, yeah, I could find the modular unit, but how do I know if it’s on the land? What about my foundation? What about zoning? What about height restrictions? What about, you know, grading plans? What about energy calculations? What about all these things? So even though the modular company might be able to help them with a component, meaning, you know, the modular unit, what about the rest to, to, to get the building permits? There’s also something, it’s, it’s kind of a something that people should consider. A lot of modular and manufactured homes require special financing. The banks have put them in a separate category that from my understanding can be more or very restrictive on how they can do it because sometimes they’re appraised differently. It’s got to be disclosed. It’s a—from what I understand, it’s got to be disclosed that it’s a modular manufactured home. So even though someone might have a perception of a lower cost when they go to banks and finance, and not every customer wants one, just, just kind of interesting. There’s, there’s at times there’s a stigma to it.

Interviewer: Right. Well, I’m sorry I got off topic, but I’m actually glad we did.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, we never got off topic and just started talking about cool stuff.

Interviewer: That’s right. So we talked about modular homes. Let’s, let’s talk about manufactured homes and exactly what is a manufactured home?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So a manufactured home is kind of a same thing as modular except it’s on a metal frame. So people will see that and sometimes they can be put in parks. Sometimes, you know, there are some areas won’t allow them. It’s the same with modular. There’s some areas that won’t allow that type of building. But generally manufactured are less expensive for the size that you get. They can still cost a lot of money but less expensive for the size. But generally it’s on a metal frame and the axles are kept on there. So they install it on a foundation, the metal frames are, and it goes from there. So again, it’s made on a production line. It’s generally limited, very limited in changes. They might like have an option, you know, optional master suite bathroom, optional kitchen or laundry room setup. But generally they’re pretty, they’re planned. They’ve got some cool designs but people have to look at, hey, how does it affect financing? How does it affect appraisal? How does it affect resale value?

So to a certain part of the market that wants a lower cost and a lot of space and just wants the use for their family, they can work out well, but they should check on financing because not all banks will finance them. And there’s just sometimes disclosures and different situations that come up. Overall, people will consider the quality to be considerably different. You know, the types of cabinets, the types of windows that are in there, since it’s more of a price-pointed product, you know, sometimes items in there are less expensive. So it’s a kind of a little subsection. And it’s also built to the HUD code, a federal code.

It’s always interesting to me how you can take a HUD code home and stick it in a hurricane zone. But then if you do a stick-built home, put it in that exact hurricane zone, it’s got to be considerably, you know, beefed up considerably in the structure. It’s just interesting how these codes work and certain things slide through other things. So someone should really check it out. There is a definite part of the market where modular and manufactured homes work out, but people should also understand the nuances of the financing, the resale, the maintenance, and how they’re made. And then also in a lot of places, it’s restricted. They won’t let you put the homes in there.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s another reason they need Landmark. When you’re building, somebody like you knows all these things. Half of the stuff we talk about I never think about it until just the moment you talk about it. To me, it’s like, “OK, well, I got some land. Let me design a house and I’ll put it up.”

Steve Tuma: Well, what’s happening is as both of these industries, you know, the modular and manufactured home industries grow and mature and get better. You know, the modulars of today are likely way better than the ones of 20 years ago. Well, then that comes in cost. So what I’ve been told by customers that were shopping is there isn’t necessarily a cost advantage. There’s a theoretical schedule advantage. But to me, if you’re going to live in a house for 20 years or 10 years or whatever it is, do you want to build a custom home that you have and get in an eight, nine, 10 months? Or do you want to move into a home that someone else has designed in three, four, or five months? So there’s a lot of different nuances on, you know, really being able to boil it down to how—where is the cost advantage if it’s even there? And then also is the design you want? Is it the features that you want? Can you even build it in the community? Is your financing going to cost you more if you can even get it? So that’s just something to look at. They have a spot in the market. There’s a lot of them being built, but it’s a different type of buyer.

Interviewer: So we’ve gone now through modular homes, you explained everything really well, manufactured homes, but Landmark does panelized homes. What’s—how does a panelized home differ from modular and manufactured homes?

Steve Tuma: Well, the basic difference is the code that it’s built to. We can completely customize it. And we haven’t found anywhere that doesn’t allow them. So a panelized home, someone could literally draw a house up on a piece of paper, text a picture of their sketch to us, and they don’t have to be pro architect. This could be like a child-like scribble. Right? Send it to us. We could draw it up, get all the details put together and get that home built. So if they have particular needs for their lifestyle, particular hobbies, you know, in-law apartments, basements, slabs, crawl spaces, you know, three-car garage, one-car garage, whatever it is, restrictions for homeowners associations or just special needs for the really unique land that they’re buying, we can design that exact house to take advantage of the situation. Now that being said, we also have a lot of customers just building regular ranch homes on flat land. It’s a relatively simple process, but they just want to know that they can see it built. They can control the cost. They can make sure that their money is being spent on what they want. And then when they’re there, and when they’re the general contractors, our owner-builders, they’re the ones coordinating it. They can make sure that everything’s installed right, the energy calculations are right, and different details are put together. So I think that that’s where it is. It’s kind of the bang for the buck and not just the pride of knowing what you’re building.

That’s nice. You get to design it. You get to do this. I think in prior podcasts we’ve spoken about people that want a particular view of a mountain or the water or a tree or a field or the city or whatever it is. And they want to have windows certain sizes, you know, or they want to have this or that or a kitchen because they entertain a lot or maybe a kitchen. We’ve had a couple of people—hey, my husband’s into football, wife’s into cooking. We need—we want to be together but we need separate walls with sound barriers between them so that, you know, when he’s yelling at the football game, it’s not bothering her in the classical music she’s listening to while she’s, you know, making a gourmet meal. So there’s things like that that we can work with to get it taken care of. And bottom line on everything I think is the service and customer service that we provide where people can call and say, “Hey, I was thinking about this. Hey, can I make my garage door like this? Or hey, I just remembered we’re going to put our boat in the garage.” So they’re like, “Well, I have a 22-foot boat.” It’s like, “Well, 22-foot boats are nice, but what about the tongue on the trailer? Are you going to walk around this?” Yeah, so sometimes people say, “Well, I got a 22-foot boat. The garage is 24 feet. This works.” I’m like, “Not really. You know, we got to think about these things.” And we’re able to put it together and consider the zoning considerations, the homeowners association, historical committees, or in a lot of places just, you know, the people’s desires of what they want, you know, kind of help them think it through. Sure. Since we’ve already done it a bunch of times, we’re able to kind of help them think through the process to make sure something’s designed right. That’s the really important part of it.

I’m a believer if you’re going to work hard to build your own home you should pull up to it every day and go, “This is great.” Yeah, I really like it. Yeah. Instead of, “Oh, I should have.” And that’s what we’re able to do when we customize a home and get everything put together for your house, your land, your family. It’s kind of cool. It’s fulfilling.  Yeah. When people get the house they want..

Interviewer:  The satisfaction is amazing. Yeah. So let’s talk about something that’s obviously of interest to all potential homeowners, especially in this day and age. Let’s talk about the cost. How much is a modular home compared to the price of what Landmark does, panelized homes? And what are the areas where that price difference may come into play? Let’s just say in the U.S.

Steve Tuma: Well, what we’re finding out is that I touched on this a little just a few minutes ago, that as modular homes get better, their prices increase. So the modular home of 20 some years ago was in a, I’d say, beginning stage of the industry. Now it’s come along. But by the time they get better windows, better this and their labor costs and shipping costs and details from what customers that are considering have told me, they actually cost the same or more. But the design is restrictive. They can’t design their own home. So that’s what I’m being told. I haven’t gone through to do it because these modular companies generally don’t do chalets like we do. They don’t do the custom designs. But if you took a standard ranch, just a boxy 1,500 square foot home, from what people are telling me, the end cost is about the same. The panelized might be a little bit less expensive. But when you consider the work that they’re doing, they’re able to control the cost more but also get the features they want. So when you go to a modular unit, say the kitchen, they kind of have a layout. Well, if you’re going to build an equivalent kind of, say, ranch home, you can design your own kitchen, your own TV room, your own bedrooms, where the closets are, and get it taken care of. And that’s what I’m told.

But then there’s also situations, say, if you go get into a space that’s a little more challenging, the side of a hill—you know, we help a lot of customers in Colorado, the Sierras, mountain areas in the Northeast. You can’t always get them in there. You know, there’s just restrictions to build it. But ultimately, I think what it is, is when people compare the cost, they’re like, “Hey, wait a second. You know, say it’s relatively close, you know, close enough that you say they’re the same.” People are like, “What am I getting? I’d rather get my house.” The only people that I’ve seen and I don’t agree with the decision, they’re like, “I want to get in faster.” It’s like, “OK, so you might have this theory of getting in faster depending on their house for the next 20 years.”

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So is the perception of a month or two or three faster necessarily worth your enjoyment over the 20 years? That’s the only difference I’ve seen where some people are like, “I got to be in it six months.” I’m like, “OK, are you going to enjoy the house in two years?” And usually those timelines are self-imposed. It’s not like something’s going on. Right. They don’t want to move twice or something like that. I myself wouldn’t personally, you know, take a short term advantage for a long term negative.

Interviewer: Yeah, a house is a pretty important thing, you know.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer:  Good things come to those who wait for sure.

Steve Tuma: Right. And then also a lot of times on the timelines, when I see most of our customers build, they build, they’re done six, seven, eight, nine months, sometimes 10, 11, depending on the details and how committed their schedule is. That’s from like when they put a shovel in the ground till they move in. Sometimes in the modular manufactured areas, they’re like, “Oh, we can deliver in three months or six months.” But hey, you still have to get the septic in, the foundation. So I’m not quite sure how the timelines actually shake out. It’s something someone should check with their local situations. But bottom line, the way it is, the customers that buy from us, they want their house. You know, they want to move a window where it is to take advantage of the view. They want the utility room to have a dog bath in it. You know, they want a garage for the boat or to put bikes or lawnmowers or man caves or whatever it is. And we could design that, you know, attic space above the garage, you know, cathedral ceilings of certain ways or adding attic space in there. And with us that I think is what it is because it’s kind of dollar to dollar about being the same.  It’s want to get what you want.  Yeah and tune it up.  You’re actually getting more.

Interviewer: Are panelized homes allowed in every area in the U.S.? Is there any area where you can’t build a certain type, like a modular home or a panelized home? Are there places where they’re not allowed?

Steve Tuma: We haven’t run into that in all the projects in 30 years. We haven’t run into it. We have run into situations where some places will say, you know, they’re essentially saying you can’t do modular or manufactured. They may not say that directly, but they’ll say things like you have to have certain overhangs or you have to have certain roof pitches or certain situations which typically may exclude a manufactured or modular home. But we’ve worked in all different types of places: rural, city, PUDs, homeowners association-controlled places with very stringent guidelines, and some extremely high-end homes in the multi-multi millions. And we’ve never run into the problem. So it’s worked up, and it’s basically because it’s a stick-built home. You know, our panel, whether it’s built in a plant efficiently and delivered, you know, easy to assemble, is the same thing as if you built it right on-site.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So it’s not something that they can really discriminate against. So we haven’t run into a problem. And we’ve done it. And I’ve worked with every single customer since day one of this company. So I would know if we’ve had issues, and we haven’t.

Interviewer: You guys must run into a million different issues with home building and with your customers in different areas of the country. I mean, I know. Can you give us some anecdotes about what are some of—just give me like even one. What is something strange that’s happened when you have been working on a home, on a panelized home for someone, like the truck arrives and something is just not right. Have you guys run into anything like that?

Steve Tuma: Well, with the panel thing, we’ve got a lot of quality control, double-checking, qualified people doing the work, computer-controlled saws, laser systems to make sure everything’s built. So, you know, occasionally something weird happens, but it’s so rare you can almost say never. But it does. But if something comes up, we always answer our phone and we always take care of it and we work through.

Now that being said, we could have a perfectly designed home that went through the building department great and something weird happens on-site. The foundation isn’t poured right. The foundation’s in a different spot than it should have been. Even that is rare or just, you know, I’ll call it just stupid human mistakes.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, some something, you know, one of those like you scratch your head saying, “How did this happen?” But what’s interesting about it is we’ve gotten through every single one of them. And the weirdest one yet—the weirdest one yet—it was an exceptionally nice family in Arkansas. We sent them the plans. They did the plans. They gave it to their foundation guy. The foundation guy decided that he wanted more copies of the paper plans, even though we sent him PDFs where he can send them to the office stores, and they can print them off. He gave them paper copies to make huge photo—you know, the two-foot by three-foot plans.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Somehow someone hits the, like, reverse mirror image. So this guy gets three or four copies of mirror set images. So the foundation plan is backward. No one knows about this. And then the customers tell me, “Oh Steve, it’s taking a little longer.” I’m like, “What’s going on? Something’s not right here.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And they told me what happened. And I’m like, “So the contractor didn’t see that a two was backward or a three was backward or a five was backward?” Right. So he put the foundation backward. Amazingly, we helped them with the panel system to adjust it to fit on the backward foundation. Now that’s only happened once. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. But the point is, you know, someone orders the plans, and something weird happens that now—I wouldn’t, you know, I wouldn’t make that sound like even that even happens once.

You know, it’ll probably only happen once in a lifetime. It’s not common, but that’s a way extreme for the purpose of, “How did this happen?” You know, it’s kind of a head-scratcher. But, you know, other little stuff that’ll happen. Someone will sign off on plans. They’ll build the house. They’ll look at it. And then they may go through and say, “Hey, you know, something came up. We didn’t realize we had a really nice view. Could we add a window?” So generally, what we have to do is go back to the engineers, see if a window could be added because it affects the sheer strength of a wall. And then we can go through and say, “Hey, if you’re going to add this window, it’s got to be done in this way.” And then we get a note for the building department and move forward. So generally, stuff is pretty smooth. Every once in a while, something weird happens. I’d say once a year something happens where we deliver trusses.

And someone accidentally backs up and drives over one or something and squishes it. That’s just stuff that happens. But if there is an issue like that, and I think this is the value irrespective of what you buy, is that you can call us. We can go through, help someone through the process on our product, get them back on track like right away. It’s not one of these things of, “Hey, someone will call you back in three days.” I’ll be on the phone right there. We figure out what the situation is and move forward, whether it’s maybe a mistake we did or maybe a mistake a customer did or the contractor or one of those things. But mysteriously, it happens.

And then in some places, you do have building departments that approve plans. You know, that’s plan checker number one. You know, plan checker number two does the check, and he decides to have a little different opinion on something. So if that’s the case, you know, or this guy says, “Hey, you can’t do that.” Well, we’ll work with them to figure out what can be done or justify why what we did on the plans that they approved is right and move forward. So we’re here for the support. And I think that’s what it is when people are considering, “Hey, what am I going to do?” There’s the reality of you can sit here and go, “Hey, who costs more? Who costs less? Who’s a month faster? Who’s a month slower?” The bottom line is, “What’s the reality of what will actually happen?”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: That’s the key element. And that I think is where we really excel because we’re available. We help people understand the situations and talk through it. If our customer, potential customer, past customer has a question, we’re always here to help. It’s kind of fun. And we’ve had people call 15 years later saying, “Hey, I’m thinking of adding a door. Hey, what about this?”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And we take care of them. It’s the pride of our product. It’s our customer’s home, but it’s still kind of ours.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: You know, so we want it to be done right.

Interviewer: It’s just—just out of curiosity, and this is mostly just for me, but I’m sure there are people out there who wonder. The house arrives on big trucks, big flatbed trucks just like you see on the highway.

Steve Tuma: Yeah.

Interviewer: It’s just—the house arrives and it’s like a puzzle, of course. But it’s a…

Steve Tuma: We give them the answer though.

Interviewer: Yeah. There’s a layout showing where each wall panel goes and a drawing showing what each wall panel looks like. So on average, or just a generalized view, when that truck pulls up, what does it look like on the site? What is the customer sitting there waiting for that truck when it’s coming any minute and it turns the corner and they get excited? What’s on that site, that build site when that truck arrives? Are there some homes where you need a forklift or are there some homes where you need a crane, or what’s kind of the average look of a build site when that truck arrives?

Steve Tuma: The first thing is a lot of customers text me or call me a picture of the truck. They’re like jumping. It’s like it’s happening.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, it’s like being a kid again. And you’re hearing this, you know, presents are showing up.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So generally, what’s on the build site like for the actual unloading of the truck when the truck shows up? We work this out with the customer, the delivery date, and say, “Hey, it’s a morning between eight and 10,” or whatever it is. The truck driver calls, makes contact on their way just to work it out. But generally, our customer has a crew there, you know, a couple of people—two, three, four people, say three, four people—and an extended reach forklift that can unload the panels and the trusses and materials from the truck and then spread them around the lot in convenient locations for the framer.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Right. And then they could use that same extended reach forklift or their framing crew just assembles it and the delivery. We also supply the assembly sheets. So in the case of the wall panels, it’s basically like a floor plan showing where each wall panel goes and then we have detail sheets explaining what each wall panel looks like. You know, so one’s a big wall, one’s a big wall with two windows in it, one’s a big wall with a patio door.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Whatever it is. And the actual trucks—let’s see how good I am at describing it. The wall panels will be stacked like pancakes and banded together. So the forklifts can just lift it up, pick up a bundle of, say, eight to 10 walls, put it in one spot, and then the trusses are banded together. And again, they can be picked up with a forklift and moved to place. Generally, they’re bigger. So maybe you have a guy or two at each end with a guideline to guide in place. And then the loose materials—beams, two by’s, you know, sheathing, different details like that. So it’s pretty amazing. The deliveries go well. We have a very accurate delivery process.

Interviewer: And hopefully there’s a foundation there when you get there.

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. There should be land. There should be a foundation.

Interviewer: Yeah. All those…

Steve Tuma: Yeah. They’ll need the foundation. Every once in a while there’s a delay. But we always tell people, “Hey, get your foundation and have that crew leave.”

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: Have the site prepared. Then let our trucks show up and your framers go. So they’re not like stepping on each other.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Getting in each other’s way.

Interviewer: Yeah. That’s interesting. It was just for me personally. I just had—I wanted to get a visual on what a panelized home build site looks like when the truck arrives because I can only imagine how exciting that is. You’ve been dreaming about your new home and designing it and laying awake at night thinking about how it’s going to look. And then it finally arrives. That’s got to be amazing.

Steve Tuma: Well, I’ve gotten pictures. You know, I’m sitting there working away, doing something, you know, working with the engineers. And then my phone goes off—ding! And then there it is, this family sitting in front of the truck or there’s the truck coming down the road. There it is a block away. There it is a hundred feet away. There it is getting unstrapped. You know, it’s kind of cool because the situation of people building their own home, it’s not just “Hey, get me a house.” It’s the process of understanding the pride of it, the getting the house you want, knowing it’s engineered right, knowing the installation’s right, you know, so your energy bills are controlled. It’s kind of a pride in that a lot of people just want to do it. Just one of those life experiences that you want to do. And you know, I always look at the economic effect. I heard this once that the ripple effect through a community is pretty big. And each new home is like one person having a job for three years, you know, the ripple effect by the time you consider the foundation guy and the electricians and plan checkers and whoever else is involved. So it’s kind of an interesting process.

Interviewer: All right. Well, we’ve done a good job of digging into some pretty important stuff here as always on this show. Steve’s always very informative. And yeah, it’s been another interesting show. When we finish these shows, I know we do it over and over again, but I think it’s important before we let you go to tell our listeners the best way to go about finding out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and just getting general information and let us know how potential customers can find out more about you guys.

Steve Tuma: The best thing is to go to our website at LHLC.com. That’s kind of the letters for Landmark Home Land Company. They can see videos, they can listen to these podcasts, they can see plans, they can see just general conversation on how we can help and what’s generally included in our home package and those plans.

They can submit an inquiry saying, “Hey, I like this plan. Can you, you know, I want to build on a slab in South Florida. Can you get us a cost?” Or they could send questions and they can also call at 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. And that’ll go to Mike and Mike works with customers up front trying to find out what they need. You know, do they have land? What kind of help they need to get it going? Give them a preview. And then once they’re at a point where they want to get going, it gets transferred to me and I’ll work with the customers directly through the whole process. So the website LHLC.com or just call in at 800-830-9788 and we’ll help. You know, there’s not a cost to call. There’s not a cost for pricing. We want to get to know you just like you want to get to know us. We want to, you know, just kind of see what’s going on with your project and, you know, see how it’s a fit of how we can help people and give them ideas on how to move forward. And it’s a lot of fun. It’s thrilling. It’s really rewarding to help people get a new house.

Interviewer: And I think what people need to understand is the Landmark Home and Land Company website is really fun. There’s so much on there. It’s chock full of not only these podcasts but just a bunch of cool general information. There’s the design part of it. And then there’s a bunch of videos. And it’s a really cool site.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s evolved over—I think we went online in 1996, you know, when people barely knew of the Internet. They were like, “What’s that?” And it’s evolved. But the key to it is that that’s a good piece of broad information. But we are available to talk specifics about your project, your family, your land, your building department, your requirements, and how we could do it. And we can get people pricing also so that they understand how this all works. It’s a no-pressure situation. It’s not something where, you know, we don’t have like promotions, “Hey, buy today and we’ll give you a free refrigerator.” We’re more concerned about good people building cool houses, make sure it’s well thought out, make sure they understand how we can help, make sure they understand the process. And we’ve had some people have never built. We’ve had people who have built 20 houses, 30 houses. So we can help all of them.

Interviewer: I like to say that Landmark Home and Land Company is where the dreams begin, you know.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: So let’s get them in that house.

Steve Tuma: Yeah.

Interviewer: So there you have it. Thanks again, Steve. And thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. It’s always a great pleasure to host these podcasts. It really is. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Thanks, everyone. I enjoyed this. This is cool. You got to keep on listening. There’s more podcasts online.

Interviewer: Yeah, there’s a lot. Thanks, buddy. Bye.

A: Eliminating obstructive basement support posts and dropped beams is achieved by engineering clear-span open-web floor trusses across the entire foundation width. Incorporating a wider five-foot staircase during the initial design phase also ensures easy, safe access for large family gatherings and moving bulky theater furniture into the lower level.

A: Designing for a future residential elevator requires framing a vertically stacked closet shaft with reinforced wall-to-floor attachment points on every level. Pre-planning the shaft during initial drafting also ensures dedicated electrical circuits and drive-mechanism clearances are roughed in, eliminating costly structural reframing down the road.

A: Tightly air-sealed and heavily insulated modern homes require significantly fewer BTUs to maintain consistent indoor temperatures. Installing an oversized heating and cooling system causes rapid short-cycling, which wastes fuel, increases monthly utility bills, and fails to properly dehumidify the living space.

A: Dual-exposure fireplaces penetrating an exterior wall create a potential thermal bridge that must comply with strict building envelope and energy code standards. Blueprints must specify dedicated chimney venting clearances, gas supply line sizing, and weather-sealed hearth transitions to pass municipal plan review.

A: When building on land covered in immovable rock formations, an accurate boundary and topographic survey identifies natural open gaps between the boulders. Structural engineers can then design an elevated concrete pier and piling foundation positioned within those clear spaces, avoiding expensive rock blasting while preserving the natural terrain.

Steve Tuma: If you want to stay to a good budget, if you want to stay to your schedule, we should make these decisions now in the design phase instead of while you’re building and a house is already up and then you decide to move something.

Interviewer: Hello everyone and welcome to episode 56 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Joining me 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 my friend?

Steve Tuma: It’s another great day. I’m just thinking you say that since 1993, when we start we’re 30 years and a half year old. It’s amazing. We’re going through going strong, 30 years six months. That’s awesome. It’s great.

Interviewer: Yeah, well it’s helping people around the country and telling a friend to buy from us. So it’s kind of cool.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s actually very cool.

Interviewer: Today I thought what we did with the last episode I’d like to continue with, and that was we had started taking questions from people who write in using the Landmark Home and Land Company website and just sending in general interest questions about panelized homes and kit home building. And I just thought today we might go through some more emails. So there’s a lot more to get through than what we got the last episode. So if you’re up for that you want to give it a shot again?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. It’s kind of like put Steve on the hot seat apparently, but I’ve been doing this a while. So I think we can get some good answers.

Interviewer: Yeah, of course. Yeah. So let’s start with one that, well, there’s this one that quite a few people have written in and asked. It’s simple but I think a very important question, I feel. And I think you’ll agree. So first question here from a person writing in, what are the pros and cons of kit homes and kit home building?

Steve Tuma: The pros and cons of kit homes and kit home building. That’s interesting because it’s really, really helpful in the way we put it together. At Landmark, we’ve developed a different process, kind of the one-stop shop where it’s not just the kit home process. It’s the design, architectural design, engineering, green codes, energy codes, site plan work where we put it together. So a big pro to our process at Landmark is that we don’t just help in supplying the materials. We help in the designing, obtaining permits, getting the plans together for permits, you understanding energy codes, making sure the house fits on the land, not just setbacks but also on the grade if you’re on flat land or if you’re on slope land. So there’s a lot of details there in the design.

And like we’ve spoken about in other podcasts, the designing process I think is very important to make sure it’s easy to obtain permits and also for a successful build, successful inspections, and staying on budget and on target. So that to me is an immense pro that people don’t always realize. They think, hey, this is materials, it’s wood, I could buy it anywhere. It’s like, well, it’s not true. It’s how you use it. Is it used effectively? Is the cost contained like we do? And is there knowledge and support to help you through the building phase?

And I think that’s extremely unique to Landmark Home and Land Company and what we’ve developed here, kind of the one-stop shop. I would consider that to be an immense pro that it’s interesting. Customers don’t even realize it when they call us. They call us to find panelized homes, the wood product. But as they go through there, a lot of them, almost all of them, will say, Steve, the planning is more important.

So that’s what we’re trying to get across is like, hey, what’s your project? How are you going to do it? How are we going to make it efficient? What are we going to do to help you stay on budget, help you stay on schedule? That’s an extreme pro to working with us.

Now the con to it is you got to think and make decisions. Ultimately someone’s going to have to do that. Whether someone decides how big their kitchen is while they’re designing or while they’re building, at some point they have to make the decision. It’s just better to do it when we’re doing the design phase on paper and PDFs. It’s easier to make an adjustment there instead of at the building site.

So what I found is some people think it’s normal because they must watch TV shows on doing changes as fun and doing changes as part of it. Well, it’s really only part of it if you didn’t do the thinking and decision making upfront and then stick to those decisions. So the con is that we’re going to work with you and kind of work with you to say, hey, these are things to think through now. If you want to stay to a good budget, if you want to stay to your schedule, we should make these decisions now in the design phase instead of while you’re building and a house is already up and then you decide to move something.

So that’s kind of something there. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t do a change to a panelized home. You can. It’s wood. We can help someone through if they need to. But it’s just more efficient to do it in the design phase. So there’s always little details here and there. Basically, we’re supplying a more efficient design and building system than conventional stick building. But that, I think, is it—the ability to design right, work it through, look at your whole project, look at the detail but also look at the overall project.

How does the house fit on the land? What’s the building department’s involvement? Then looking at it, hey, how big of a window do you want in the kitchen? Do you want a double sink in the kitchen, a triple, or a single? So we’ve got to look at the details and the macro view as well.

So what we find is our customer base, even though they may not understand the processes, they really enjoy it because that’s kind of the way fun part. It’s like, hey, Dreamland, let’s design this house, let’s make it work. And that’s where they get to be involved and really start seeing the home come to life. So those are the big, I would say, the big pro and the big con to it. In a sense the con is just really saying, hey, think it through. We’re here to help you think it through. We’re here to help you understand the project so you know what you need to think through if someone doesn’t already know and go from there. And some of our customers have built a lot of homes, others have never done it before. So we’re here to support it. So I guess I’m trying to make a con into a positive.

Interviewer: I was just going to say that when it comes to what Landmark’s doing in the home building front, the cons are really learning experiences. So that’s not a con at all really.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s the interesting thing. I ask customers why are you doing this? And some people say, well, it saves me money. Other people say, I’ve just always wanted to. And the biggest thing I hear is this industry is strange. I want to know what’s in my house. I want to see it. I want to know what’s going in. I want to know the quality of my home. And I want to know why it’s done this way instead of someone covering things up. So our customers can get into it and know what their house is, how it’s built, how it’s designed, why it’s built, what the budget is, and then think it through. And it gives them immense control.

But I think the coolest thing is the satisfaction afterwards when they sit back and they’ll send a picture of the family barbecuing in the yard with this new home or the first holiday season or the first kid’s birthday. It’s kind of one of these monumental times in people’s lives where they sit back and go, this is cool. The amazing thing is how many of them come back and say, Steve, I want to do another one. That’s always an incredible pat on the back to us.

Interviewer: There’s no con in that.

Steve Tuma: No, it’s fun. I got off of a phone call today with a man that’s doing two of them, kind of his semi-retirement thing. He’s building two and then he’s going to build six more. And he said, Steve, everyone tells me home building’s hard. And it is. He said it can be stressful. He goes, but it’s cool. My wife and I are having a lot of fun. We’re building this house and we’re learning. He goes, it’s just so much fun.

Interviewer: That’s got to be nice to hear.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s not just that, hey, I got a house and let me put my dog in it and put my truck in the garage. It’s a life-changing experience where the people, they’re satisfied. They enjoy it. So I guess that’s not necessarily something just pertaining to the house but it’s what it does to people. They understand it. One of the coolest things is we’ve had a couple of customers where their young kids are involved, like eight, nine, 10, 11-year-olds, in the budgeting, the design, the kind of management of the process. And you look at how that helps them live their life down the road to understand keeping a schedule, making decisions, being accountable for what you do. So yeah, I guess I got a little sidetracked there from your question.

Interviewer: That’s okay. That’s what we’re here for.

Steve Tuma: I’m trying to get extra credit.

Interviewer: We’re here to sidetrack you because we always get more information than we’re looking for. And that’s not a con at all. But yeah, let’s move on. There’s a question here which is sort of off of the subject of actual building a house but the financing of a house. Is it difficult to get a mortgage for a kit home? Is it any different at all, is the process any different than going and trying to fund a regular stick home sort of build?

Steve Tuma: Actually no, because panelized homes are conventionally built homes. They’re just done in a more efficient manner in a production facility. That question is probably coming up because a lot of the modular homes and HUD homes, the quote trailer homes, are financed different and there’s different disclosures and there’s different financing restrictions on those. They don’t always appreciate, there might be stigmas to them. But our panelized homes are just like a conventionally stick-built home. So the design, budgeting, appraisal, financing processes are pretty much exactly the same.

Interviewer: Yeah, I think I misspoke Steve because I said is it different than a stick home. But really it’s the same home. So my saying that I should watch that because the panelized homes are just like regular stick homes.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, that’s basically it. With our system we can control the quality, give a guaranteed cost, do a lot of changes. A lot of stick builders won’t do changes to homes. We’ll do it so it’s truly a custom home but we’re able to because of the efficiencies of the production line, we’re able to go through and still get people a high-quality custom home for their personal needs but also for fitting on the land properly.

Interviewer: Right. That’s interesting. The whole thing now is building these little add-ons or even separate little houses on a property, but how does that process work? Can you add on to a home in the future?

Steve Tuma: If someone wanted to, they can. And what’s really cool about that is you bring this up, it’s kind of a two-phased answer because some people plan on adding on in the future.

Interviewer: Oh right, yeah.

Steve Tuma: But to answer the question, just get to the point right now, yes, you can. It’s like a conventional stick-built home. You can take the siding off, add on to it, and go from there. I guess if someone wanted to do a ranch home, make it a two-story, they could do that. So yes, someone could add a garage in the future. But what’s interesting is we have had some people that are like, hey, we just got married, we don’t have kids but right now our budget allows for the two-bedroom home. Can we do the three-four bedroom addition when time allows? So we’ve had situations like that. And sometimes these additions are literally attached to the home. Other times people have a plan to say, hey, my parents are going to move in in the future, let’s make sure the land is laid out so we can have a separate kind of apartment, little granny flat, ADU off to the side. So yes, we’re fully capable of doing it.

We even a little while ago worked on some designs where they were kind of little designed units, little rectangular units that could be put together to add on. So someone could say, hey, if in the future I want to add an office, here’s the office module that we could then design just to attach. But here’s something else. Sometimes you think of additions of hey, adding a great room, another bedroom. Sometimes people do things on additions in the future that are kind of smaller. Okay, so let’s just say someone had a two-story home and they want a second-level deck. But right now it’s just not in their plan to put the second-level deck up there. We can do the framing for that wall for a bigger window, a bigger patio door so that when they go in and attach the deck they could just remove the siding, some of the drywall, and the framing’s already there for a bigger window or patio door that’s more useful for the deck. So there’s a lot of stuff that we can do to help people out. Oh, here’s another one. I mean, this is probably even more common is people saying, hey, in the future I’m going to finish a bonus room out, a bonus room above a garage, a bonus room above a main part of the home, or even situations of continuing the build into a basement or a walkout basement. So there’s always different things that we can do to do that. We just helped a family in Nebraska do a house like that. They wanted a basement but right now they weren’t in the position to go and finish the basement the way they wanted. It was going to be a huge home theater, family room.

So typically a basement might have some posts and a beam running through it which would block the use of the room just by having dropped beams and posts and variety of things. So we worked with them to go through and figure out what they were doing. And basically they had a family, 12-15 people that would come over and what they were going to do is put a big game room, home theater down there. So big pit couch, big swing theater.

Interviewer: Yeah. That’s a new thing now, people designing home theaters.

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. And they’re going to put retro Pac-Man games and stuff like that in it. Right. That’s cool. Since we got in that conversation, what we’re able to do is use clear span floor trusses to eliminate the posts and eliminate the beams. And then we made their staircase to the basement five feet wide instead of a kind of standard three feet. So what that allowed is the structure of their home is there. They don’t have to go down later and go, oh, this post is in the wrong way. Where are we going to put the TV? It gave them like an open framework to put the TV wherever they wanted, the food, the bar, the little kitchenette, the video games, without the restriction of a post or a beam hanging down. And then a wider staircase when you got 15 people running up and down for sandwiches and munchies, it’s better to have a clear staircase. And apparently, they got together a lot. So there’s a lot of pre-thinking that we could do to make that future build, whether it’s finish a basement, finish a bonus room, or do a complete conventional add-on. We can really think it through with the people.

Interviewer: Right. And that goes back to when I had misspoke and said, you know, is getting a mortgage the same as for a regular stick home. Well, a kit home is a regular stick home. And if you want to expand on it in the landmark, then you would if you were just adding on to an older house or something. So it makes sense.

Steve Tuma: Right. And sometimes, you know, man, you got me going here. Here’s the thing. Sometimes adding on isn’t like just adding space. Sometimes people want to add different heating systems in the future that might be more efficient. They might need different stuff for technology. Some people have hobbies. We’ve had a bunch of customers that the family’s into restoring cars. So they’re like, hey, at this point, we only have one car, but, you know, we know we’re going to get another one and we’re going to want to lift so that my son and wife and I, we can change the oil, family time, work on the car, the hot rod, the convertible, whatever they have and go. So in that case, we’re like, OK, so what are we doing here? Right? You’re going to have a car collection and change your oil. You really want a nine-foot ceiling or do we have to lift it so that someone could put a lift in the garage for additional storage or to work on the car? And some people could say, well, that’s no big deal. It’s like, well, it kind of is because we have to have the headroom. But we also at times, depending on the lift that they have, have to do stuff with the reinforcement of the cement so that this lift can work because some of the lifts are, they can just be put on a regular four-inch slab. Others need a slab and a variety of details depending on the complexity of the design. So whatever work we can do up front… Oh, my mind’s going again.

Interviewer: That’s what I’m here for.

Steve Tuma: A variety of people saying I might put an elevator on and in the future.

Interviewer: Mm hmm.

Steve Tuma: So people are like, wow, an elevator, that’s pretty cool. Can’t you just stick a four by four hole in the floor? Well, it’s kind of true. You can just put like a shaft there, but there needs to be certain attachments for some of these elevators to be attached to the floor or to a wall system or to have certain mechanicals or electrical units there. So just all the little work that we can do to pre-design for a future elevator, it’s relatively easy to do now and it’ll save someone huge headaches and a lot of money when it comes time to actually install the elevator.

Interviewer: Because otherwise it’s not an elevator. It’s a fire pole.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, exactly. Or a real quick way down if you just take the floor out of the closet. There you go. I got to tell you a funny story now that we’re on this one. You know, most elevators, there’s like a driveline along the wall for residential that’ll go up one or two floors. We had one customer, kind of a good old boy. Great guy. Incredible, incredible person. He was just using an old forklift. I asked him what this garage was in the back of the house. He goes, that’s where I drive my forklift at night. I have a platform and it lifts from the first floor to the second floor. And I’m like, well, I don’t know what the building department will think about that. But yeah, we could put a little garage in the back of your house that just happens to be sized for a forklift. So sometimes people have pretty interesting ways of doing it.

The point I’m getting at even thought it’s humorous, kind of subject there, is we’ll work with you to get the house you want. That person of putting a forklift in a garage to make an elevator is the only person ever I’ve never heard of it before, but we worked it out. Other people, if they’re doing elevators, more conventional systems. But more and more people are getting into family time, not necessarily dining rooms but family rooms, TVs, video games, little card playing games, ping pong, home recreation type things. And then they’re also getting into designing the kitchens a little bit more precise for their exact use. And then I’m seeing a lot more with decks and people that they’re spending time. It’s like, man, I’m working at home. I got to get out, sit in the yard, and where are they doing this?

So even though it’s not technically part of the panelized home, it’s part of the lifestyle that our product and service helps where if you’re sitting there and you bought your beautiful lakefront property, you probably want to know where your fire pit is, where this goes, where your driveway is, different things like that.

Interviewer: You had mentioned something about the guy wanting to take his forklift from one floor to the other. You said you’re not sure how the building department would react to that, but that gets us to a good point. Another question that comes in a lot is about permitting and what permits are required to build a kit home. What are the differences between building the permits for building a kit home and building a standard house?

Steve Tuma: It’s pretty much the exact same system because it is a conventional stick-built home just more efficient in our design processes make it easier and cleaner for our customer and the building department. So there are actually areas in the United States and even internationally that don’t require permits. And then there’s places that are extremely picky in the permit requirements. But either way, we’re betting a thousand percent every customer has gotten permits. So we’ve helped people whether they’re in a little town with a really picky stickler of a plan checker or if you’re in one of these bigger places where they’ve got engineers and people that go over every single house design with a fine-tooth comb.

So the process is the same and we’re fully set up to work with it. I work with the building departments to find out what they need. If they do have odd requests, which more and more of them are getting with some odd requests, we’re fully capable of getting through those details. So if it’s a smaller town where you have some Barney Fife type guy who’s going to take control and make your life a little different, we’ve worked with situations like that. And then there’s also situations where you just have these big building departments that just never seem to finish the plan check process. We’ve gotten through every single one that we’ve approved that we’ve been customers asked us to develop plans for. They’ve all been approved and it’s actually kind of fun because sometimes you do see something that makes no sense initially but after talking to the building department you’re like, okay, I kind of understand this now why you’re asking for it. Don’t know why they’re the only one in the country asking for it but that’s what they need, we’ll figure it out.

Interviewer: Hmm. So let’s get into some geography. There’s some people writing in and asking if there are any restrictions on where I can build a kit home. And I’m not—I’m not sure if they mean are there states that frown upon kit homes? I doubt that very much, but are there any restrictions to where you could build a kit home on a slope, on flat land? And you know, what’s your answer to that?

Steve Tuma: We haven’t run into it anywhere, whether it’s some guideline or law or where it’s a, you know, a problem with the land. Now, occasionally and rarely, like if we’re doing something in the Rockies or in the Sierras or remote areas, sometimes people will have a piece of land that’s been in the family forever. And great grandpa had a Model T that was, you know, five feet wide. So the road is six feet wide to to access it. Now over time they’ve probably made it wider just for modern cars and whatever deliveries. Occasionally you end up in a situation where someone just has an extremely unique building site that is harder to navigate, but we know about those. And what we do is we work with the customer still to take advantage of our system so that they can work with it. And then generally in a case like that, we’ll deliver our materials to where the safest point is. And then there’ll be a little truck that takes it from that, you know, down the windy curvy road. Because some of these sites where our customers have built on are just spectacular. You could be going through groves of trees that are 150 plus years old on a windy road. They weren’t thinking of 80-foot trucks at that time. They were thinking of, you know, 20-foot car at most. So you don’t want to cut the trees down. You don’t—you don’t want to hurt it.

But what we’ve done is worked in a way so that our delivery and the panels are put in an advantageous method so that the person can still take advantage of our system and build. Now, I’m bringing it up—that’s rare. That’s like, you know, two-tenths of a percent of our customers that are in a spot like that. We’ve had customers on islands, whether they’re private islands or some of the islands off the Southeast or in the Northwest where we’ve delivered to it. But as far as building, you know, if you look geographically on the side of a mountain, a steep mountain, or over a swamp or whatever, as long as the building department allows it, there’s a way to do it. Now the caveat to it is sometimes these cost more. We had a customer where there was a wetland situation, just the nature of the way the ground was in that area. It was on the East Coast where we had to work with the local environmental departments to figure out the proper type of low-impact, low-environmental-impact foundation. So basically a house was built on a pier, and for every square foot of pier footprint, they had to have a plan to mitigate two square feet elsewhere on the property or pay into a fund that would do it somewhere else in the area.

So we’ve been in some pretty incredible situations. One of the coolest ones was a man in full of boulders, big ones, not like 20 feet tall but two feet, five feet, 10-foot boulders. And he didn’t want to drill into the boulders. So what he did is he had a surveyor—we suggested get a surveyor out there—to find out where there were openings in these boulders where a piling could be placed on raw ground. We then used those areas to develop the piling foundation to support the house he wanted. It was kind of amazing. So if someone wants to do it, we’ll figure it out. Now what I brought up to you is very extreme. Most people, they’re building maybe on the side of a mountain that might be a little steeper but offers an incredible view. Let me tell you where people get caught and they don’t always understand it. It happens in the Midwest a lot. I’ve heard stories that 90% of America’s wetlands have been filled in compared to 200 years ago just for farming or cities or whatever. So what people don’t realize is that when you fill in a pond, you’re putting something semi-solid on top of something soft. Because if you go to the edge of a pond and stand there, you’ll sink. I’m a 200-pound guy. You could go sink. I mean, imagine putting a house on there. So people don’t always think of it. So if you’re by lakes, rivers, areas where there’s likely to be filled-in ponds, it’s always good to get a geotechnical report to find out what’s going on there.

We had a customer in Southern Illinois who said this problem’s not there. This land’s been in the family 120 years. No one’s filled anything. And I said, you should check this out. It’s just one of these gut feelings. And I tell that to a lot of people. And that exact situation happened. He was planning on a three-foot or four-foot crawl space. Well, when they started excavating, he hit a filled-in pond. His basement wall ended up being 14 feet tall to overcome this. Kind of quite the budget killer. We could have checked it out up front, but he wanted to be in that specific spot to take advantage of the view. Now again, that’s an extreme situation, but it shows the help that we can point things out to people and then also work with them if for some reason an odd situation comes up. So I would say we’ve seen a lot of different situations. Hurricanes, high snow loads, landslide situations, soft soils, hard-to-reach locations. So it’s kind of fun. But if we know the details up front, I think we can overcome anything. We haven’t tried the moon yet, maybe in the next few years.

Interviewer: You know, there’s—pardon me for this because I’m bouncing around with these questions as I’m looking at them. They’re not in any specific order. But I’d like to go back to our mortgage question. And this one kind of hits on that as well. How involved is Landmark and what are the available financing options for panelized homes?

Steve Tuma: Well, we understand financing. But generally what customers do is work with a local bank or credit union. And I’ll tell you the reason why, especially if it’s a smaller bank or a smaller credit union, they have a better pulse on what’s going on in the community. Some of the big nationwide banks, you know, they send it to underwriting and who knows where. And someone that’s not even tied to the community may be making a decision, whereas sometimes these smaller credit unions or local or regional banks, they’re people in the community. So they know the nuances of a town. They know the nuances of what’s going on. They know the nuances of the customer. So a lot of people will work that way to get a loan. And a lot of those banks and credit unions have very flexible programs.

There’s also the people can work with farm credit services in more rural areas where I believe that’s through USDA where they help people in rural areas get loans. You know, sometimes rural areas there aren’t as many appraisals. You know, if you had a town of 300 people, you know, how many comparables are there in that area of a similar home? Or a lot of those towns, the houses don’t turn over. So sometimes these loans are there to help those communities get through it. A lot of people have cash. They borrow from their own savings or retirement accounts. Occasionally there’s a lottery winner. And then sometimes people use, you know, hard money investments which are more based off of the asset that is being built more than credit or income. So we have, you know, sometimes self-employed people or people leveraging their retails themselves.

But I think the point of what you’re asking is they’re financed just like any other new home construction. I think banks actually like working with us because there’s a definite control and process to helping an owner-builder build their home. Now some banks will, you know, double check someone if they’re being an owner-builder, make sure their budget’s right, make sure that it makes sense, make sure the appraisal’s right. And they don’t want people to get too aggressive. A bank’s not likely to work with someone if you say, hey, all my friends are going to help me. I have zero labor costs. You know, they’re going to be like, yeah, I don’t think anyone’s got friends that are going to build a whole house for free. Someone might help you here and there. But, you know, the chances of everyone showing up and doing everything for free is kind of limited. So most people, unless it’s direct family, you know…

Interviewer: Or the Amish community.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Yeah. They just do everything on their own. But it’s kind of smart. But that concept that you bring up there of helping each other is where like the owner-builder thing kind of comes out. So we do have a lot of customers where they’ll either be the general contractor and hire people. And there are a lot of families where the trades are in their friends and family and they can do it. We have had customers that literally have been involved with everything from, you know, excavating for the foundation to cleaning the house, you know, the last day before they move in. So it’s kind of incredible. But, you know, the financing sometimes you’ve got to if you’re going to be doing a lot more work on your own, your bank is going to have to understand that and have a, you know, they’ll probably just want to double check to make sure that you’re really capable of doing things and that your budgeting’s right. You don’t want to fool yourself and say, hey, I’m going to buy everything on sale for 90% off. The chances of that happening are very limited. You might get a deal here and there. So it’s still good to have a realistic budget. And then if you save something, you’re steps ahead.

Interviewer: Yeah. You’d mentioned something about wetlands and the, you know, the there are fewer and fewer wetlands every year it seems like. But how do the Landmark Home and Land Company kit homes, how can you prepare those for environmentally friendly living? Is that something built into your system?

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. Some states have green codes to make sure that you’re like water usage is right. You’re not using exotic materials. You know, where are you dumping things so that people aren’t taking toxic materials and just throwing it on the side of the road. So, you know, places that have green codes, we can supply that for the building permit. Other people that aren’t in areas where there are green codes, which is most of the country, we can still give them guidelines if they choose to, you know, want to pay attention to follow that. It’s also in the energy efficiency. A lot of people say, hey, I’m just going to insulate this house like crazy and I’m going to save, you know, all this money. Well, it’s not just the insulation, it’s your windows, it’s the lighting, it’s the heating and cooling system and sometimes even personal activity.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: You know, on a hundred-degree day, do you want to sit there with your front door open, you know, while the air conditioning is going. We can get a little deeper into organic design as well. So, you know, the types of overhangs to keep sun out in summer, orientation of the house, where are you putting windows, where are you getting things that are heat sinks to keep you know, gather heat during the day and release it at night in the summer—I’m sorry, in the winter. So there’s a lot of stuff that we can do, you know, in green, kind of organic design. More and more people are asking about it. Ten years ago, people would ask but very few would do. But I think now people are kind of understanding the benefits of it and they’re wanting to get this taken care of. And what’s amazing is some of these systems are getting to be more and more efficient every year. So the technology, say in split heating and cooling systems, is far advanced compared to where it was just years ago. So people can build very energy-efficient homes.

We can even get into the designing of the heating and cooling systems so that people’s heating and cooling systems are sized properly because you don’t want too big of a system. You don’t want too small of a system. You want it so it’s designed right for the climactic conditions of where you’re building and also the specific design of your exact home. A lot of people are still out there saying, well, you know, I’ve always put a hundred thousand BTU furnace in this type of home. Well, that might have been cool 30 years ago when insulation wasn’t as good. But now that people are insulating their homes and homes are, quote, tighter for heat and cool transfer, you don’t need as big of a system. So if you put too big of a system in there, it’s going to actually burn more fuel.

People don’t understand that. It’s not something that you see. You don’t necessarily see that dollar going out your heat duct. You know, people just think it is what it is. But there are ways for us to help them go through and design situations like that and then specify certain lighting so that it’s more energy-efficient.

Interviewer: Right. It’s pretty cool stuff. And we had just—you just mentioned green codes and earlier we were talking about building codes in general, but I don’t want to put too fine a point on it. But I’d like to—I’d like to go back to another person who wrote in asking are there any specific building codes for panelized homes? Can we hit on that again just for a moment?

Steve Tuma: Those codes are the same as if doing a stick-built home. The code is actually the same. It’s a national code that might have adaptations, you know, for certain states or certain areas. But then there’s also that—that code will also adjust for different conditions. So it’s the same code. But if you’re building a house, say in Iowa, on a flat piece of land where Iowa doesn’t really have earthquakes and that building site. But then, you know, so maybe that’s an area where it’s a 20 or 30-pound roof load and a 90 mile an hour wind speed. Well, if you took that exact same house and stuck it on Key West facing south, you might have one hundred seventy-five mile an hour wind speed. So we got to make sure that, you know, the home can’t get blown over. But then so—and it’s not just getting blown over, it’s how is it attached to the ground so that the foundation doesn’t get pulled out. So then again, if you took that exact same house and stuck it in Leadville, Colorado, or say Lake Tahoe California or Nevada, suddenly you’re on a hundred seventy-five pound snow load. So even though the floor plan looks the same and the exterior of the house looks the same, now the biggest force is a hundred seventy-five pound snow load pushing down on the house. It’s not necessarily the one hundred seventy-five mile an hour wind speed from Key West. So to answer your question, the code is the same. The application for the house and the specific building site is where we help a customer to make sure it’s put together right, designed right, but also the plan set is proper for the building department.

That—that’s—that’s the key from this. And it’s, you know, we say we sell panelized homes. The reality is we’re helping people with the design to make sure they get the right house, make it easy for permitting, and then build the right house. And if they’re sitting there, you know, in a big snow, they’re not sitting here worried about their roof. If they’re sitting here in a high wind speed area, they’re not worried about the wind.

Interviewer: Yeah, makes sense. A lot of these questions are really what you would think of as real basic questions, but I think they’re really important. And, you know, there are no stupid questions if you’re actually just in the process of learning about something. So one of these is a lot of people asking about the assembly process of a Landmark Home and Land Company kit home. Can you kind of just answer this question sort of in a—I don’t know, concise way that’s not too long and tell us what the—we’ll see if that’s possible.

Steve Tuma: But yeah, yeah, I can’t. Basically, we’re doing a more efficient system than stick building. We’re building it offsite. It’s computer-controlled drawings, computer-controlled saws and assembly systems so that we have a precisely built home. So the floor systems, we design dimensional wood like two by 10s or two by 12s. We can go to I-joists—they’re an engineered product—or we can go to open web floor trusses so we can design the whole floor system. We deliver the materials for assembly on site. The walls are panelized. So what that means is we pre-build them so they come in a panel. So a conventional stick builder might go get a variety of two by fours, cut them, make a wall and put it up where we deliver for an exterior wall a two by six wall 16 inches on center with OSB sheathing, headers installed, and the rough openings installed as well. So you’re not sitting there having to cut and measure, cut angles, you know, build something, build a flat wall in a, you know, out in a field. You’re just taking the panels and putting it up, kind of wall one next to wall two next to wall three. And then we deliver a roof truss system where the roof trusses are then placed on top, and then they’re sheeted with OSB or plywood sheeting, you know, per customer specification. So what you’ll find the quality of labor and availability of labor in the United States is harder to find. So it’s easier for a crew to come in and put it together. You basically need one that understands framing or lady and then a couple helpers, kind of the muscle to move the walls in place, hold them in place, nail them down, plumb them, and go on from there. So the actual process is faster, more efficient, less waste. It’s just cleaner. It allows a crew to get in and out and less of a chance of errors because everything’s been pre-designed. It’s a matter of just assembling components instead of hoping you have the right materials, cutting it right, hoping you cut it right, hoping you assemble a wall right and hoping it goes in place. And the cool thing about it is we’ve got very clear and accurate assembly plans that show what each wall panel or truss looks like and then specifically where it’s placed.

Interviewer: I mean, there’s something in the house—what you’re talking about is something I’ve wondered about too. So what you’re saying is it’s pretty much a contractor—any good contractor can put together a kit home and it’s just that much more efficient. But are people who are buying Landmark kit homes, Landmark Home and Land Company homes, are they looking for a specific contractor or is it just pretty much find a good one?

Steve Tuma: Basically, any framing contractor can do it. We’ve had customers do it themselves. Now I only suggest that if you have a knowledge of it. But yeah, pretty much any contractor can put it together. Now some of them will be like, I’ve heard of panelized, I’ve never done it. So there’s a little bit of a mind bend where they got to go through and say, hey, this company’s doing over half the work, it’s quicker and easier. So some guys that run a tighter business are going to be like, hey, wait a second, I could charge less, I could get in and out quicker and get to my next project and build more houses during the building season. Other people that don’t understand their business as much are going to be like, I don’t know, how do I figure this out. Because I’m not always convinced these guys know how to price. They know what they did the last house and this house is closer, for they’ll charge the same. But we’re always available to help a customer and their contractors understand it and work out how we work together—the delivery process, how it gets delivered, the equipment they’ll need to unload it, the equipment they can use to assemble it, the type of crew. And then really we just want them to know we’re here, we’re here to help. If they call, we’re going to answer the phone, talk to them, answer whatever questions they have. But amazingly, we ship the homes all over the country and sometimes internationally. And I think our plans are so well done and our assembly plans are there that it’s pretty rare to get a call from a framer. It’s more like, hey, this got done quickly. Let me know if you have any other customers where I can help.

Interviewer: Yeah, that just goes back to that world famous Landmark Home and Land Company customer service, man. You’ve got to be proud of that.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s the bottom line. Sometimes people will ask, well, hey, what’s the difference of your panelized home versus stick building or modular? And I could tell them about the product. The reality is it’s the customer support, the knowledge, and it sounds weird, but caring. I had a customer—I was relaxing last night watching the news and 9:30 at night a customer called me to ask a question. We talked about it, had a good laugh, and two minutes later he was off. He was there with his wife trying to figure out a dimension and what might work for their kitchen dining room area. And they happen to be together so we were helping. They’re putting a budget together to go to the bank this week and get their project going. So it’s not just help as far as, hey, can you set me in the right direction? But it’s also customer support, which is sad to say, as all of us have experienced, customer support does not exist in the world. There’s too many AIs or computers or send an email in, we’ll get back to you in 48 hours.

In our world, I’ll answer the phone, we talk to the people, get things taken care of and walk through it. And we’re proactive and very active on that. So we’re able to do that because we care about the customer, we care about the product. It’s the customer’s house, but we still kind of think it’s ours. But it also leads us to having a better set of plans and a better upfront process to make sure everything’s clear so that less questions are brought up because the answers are right there in the assembly plans or the plans. But we understand odd things happen. Every once in a while something will happen. There’ll be an inspector that comes out of nowhere with one of the weirdest questions anyone’s heard of, but we’re here to answer the question and work them through it if one of those situations arises. So it’s the customer support that really matters. And the knowledge and the availability of knowledge. Now, we’re not a committee-run company. We’re lean and trim on taking care of people. So chances are if someone calls me, I could give them the answer right away. If not, if they do stump me on something, I’ll get the person right away to get an answer so that they can move on with either their design project or building or budgeting or whatever they’re doing. So it’s the customer service that really, really sets it apart. And I think people will realize it’s not something that people always ask about up front, but when they’re in the design and building phases, they realize the benefit of it. And that, I think, is we just care. It’s fun. It’s cool.

Interviewer: It’s just so important. Customers are friends. The passion of it. As you know, Steve, I was talking to you about here in the studio, I had a new piece of equipment and a lot of questions in the company we bought the equipment from. That guy was right on it, man. He was there for us. And I think Landmark is the same way. It’s just so much about customer service and building those relationships.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s exactly what it’s about. And that’s pretty much what separates the good from the bad. And we choose to do this. We enjoy it. I founded this. It’s like, this is a great time helping people. Like we spoke about earlier, it’s not just sell wood and build a house. We’re affecting people’s lives. People’s lives are different. They’re able to help their parents live. They’re able to get their kids into a better school district. They’re able to have space for a hobby or family get-togethers or save money or do whatever it is or get a more comfortable home. So that’s what it’s about. And you don’t do that just by saying, here’s a great piece of wood. No, you see, we’re saying we’re helping them build a home and environment so that it works well. And I don’t really know how to put it across other than to say we care. And we’re there to help people. It’s in our blood. It’s also a great time, like I say. It’s really cool.

Interviewer: I think that was the best answer you could give. You got time for another question? I’d like to bring one that’s kind of off the wall. But a lot of people write in asking, we’re always talking about the exteriors of houses and building walls and roofs and everything like that. But what about prefab home interior design ideas within your plan system? And if you go on the Landmark Home and Land Company website, there are so many plans, it’s mind-boggling. But as far as designing interiors and the design ideas that you guys come up with and how adaptable are there and how easy is that process?

Steve Tuma: It’s actually part of our process. Now, there’s two parts of it. There’s the interior designer, which sometimes customers, the wife or daughter will do that or they’ll hire a professional interior designer to do that. But it kind of ties together along with our work. So let’s just say someone had a room with a couple doors, say a big living room with a couple doors going into it and windows over the balcony. Someone could say, be like, oh, I’ll just paint it white. Well, someone might come in and say, no, I want to put a skylight in there. I want a patio door. I want to have the wood trimmed inside with walnut. I want to have a certain finish. I want a tray ceiling. I want arch door openings instead of squared off door openings. I want barn doors instead of regular doors or I want pocket doors. So we’re not necessarily driving the actual design of what color, but we’re helping the customer achieve that when they say, hey, I want a patio door. I want a huge accordion door. I want to have a sunken living room for certain things. Or hey, I want to have this type of fireplace, southwest like a Kiva fireplace, different things where we can work with them to make the structure and the design is important.

Now, we’re having more and more people that are getting more involved with the interior design and our design processes, whether themselves or with professional people, but sometimes this can affect the permitting. And what a lot of people are doing with these outside entertainment areas is having fireplaces that are in the house and outside of the house—one unit with dual exposure. That can affect energy codes and a lot more building departments want to know what you’re putting in there. What’s it fueled by? Is the venting right? So it’s kind of weird, you know, sometimes someone might say, oh, interior design, it’s just colors and wallpaper and curtains. Well, not necessarily. It could be your fireplace, and suddenly it’s like, is there enough space? Is this fireplace at floor level? Is it raised on a hearth 12 inches? Is it higher up? Is there a TV on top of it? Is there a bar to the side or a buffet for serving food? So a lot of these little things we’re getting more and more involved with so that people can understand what’s going on. And sometimes it’s as simple as, maybe it’s not really interior design and stuff, I’ll call it like entertainment design—I just made that up. But you know, like in the back, say you had a back deck and you’re going to have a gas grill and maybe a little outdoor refrigerator. A lot of building departments want to know, how’s your gas line coming in? You know, if you have an outside electric socket, is it covered to be weatherproof.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So there’s a lot more of those details we’re getting into. And I think I’m probably sounding repetitive, but we’re helping someone here build a home and an environment, not just saying, hey, here’s a stack of wood, have fun moving into it. We’re helping them do that. So not everyone’s going to realize the situation of, hey, I want to put an outside grill, that a building department might say, well, what’s the fuel for it? Is the piping going to be the right size? Different things like that. So that’s pretty cool.

And then let’s just go back to this thing. Suddenly you have a patio, say a regular deck, and then someone’s like, oh, you know, we’re in a sunny area. We want to make it a three-season room. Suddenly you put a roof over it. Is that insulated? Is that a cathedral ceiling? Is there a ceiling fan in that cathedral ceiling of the porch roof? Are there outside heaters, outside coolers? It’s pretty amazing how, hey, let’s just make a barbecue area in the back and suddenly it becomes a little bit of an atmosphere where they like the idea of us being able to design it in. And that’s kind of fun. And that’s just part of our service is kind of making sure that everything goes through well. And that’s because we choose to help people with one of the harder parts, which is designing the house right so that it’s easy for a building department to understand and approve the process.

Interviewer: I think that, uh, I think you hit on some important parts of this whole process in that last, uh, that last little exchange we just had because, uh, you’re building a place where people are going to build memories. So you’re, you know, that’s the thing. And it’s, that’s what I like about Landmark Home and Land Company. You’re not just as you said throwing sticks together. You understand what’s going to happen in this home once it’s built and what it is.

Steve Tuma: Ya, what’s interesting is, you know, 15-20 years ago, people were building homes for their family, moving up, moving to a new area, wanting a more efficient home, whatever. I would say ever since the economic crash in ’08 and even now with, with, uh, you know, the COVID, you know, a couple of years ago, uh, there, there’s more and more people involved in what I call heirloom houses where the land has been in the family for a long time. So the family—and the family could be two, three, and sometimes four generations—are working on a design or, oddly enough, unfortunately, we’ve had two where chalets were burned in the mountains up in the Western States and the family’s rebuilding the home that grandpa built way back. But it’s got to be to, you know, modern things. The family might be bigger. The family might not be in a formal dining room now; that might be in a big great room. Right. So we’re working with a variety of projects where it’s different generations of the family that are involved. So it’s a little bit of, hey, let’s make sure grandma and grandpa can get in early, but hey, let’s also make sure that there’s a spot to the side where the little kids can get a little loud. And so the—sometimes that’s floor planning. Sometimes that’s going through and saying, hey, let’s put some insulation in the grandparents’ walls between the grandparents’ room and, you know, other parts of the home. So it’s kind of interesting. And sometimes, like say in the case of like a fire rebuild, sometimes there’s very strict guidelines. Like you can rebuild the exact same footprint or the exact same square footage, you know, that we have to work with. Other times it’s, you know, it’s an open platform to design whatever you want.

Interviewer: Yeah. So well, that’s going to wrap it up for this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. But before I let you go, Steve, as we usually do here on the podcast, tell our listeners how we can contact Landmark Home and Land Company and how we can find out a little more about the company and about how, you know, people can become a home owner builder.

Steve Tuma: Well, these podcasts I think are great. You get a flavor of how we can help. I think you said this was episode 56. There are more of these podcasts, but there’s also our website at LHLC.com. It’s kind of the initials—Landmark Home Land Company. So LHLC.com. There’s a variety of plans, just different conversations on things. You can email us there. And there’s a phone number—1-800-830-9788. 800-830-9788. And Mike will work with you from there. I kind of take over when someone’s coming along and wanting to do the plan details, but that’s the best thing. Look at the website, get ideas but we are always available. You can call Michael, work with you in the initial stages, talk to you about your land, your project, what your kind of vision is. And there’s nothing wrong with calling, you know, some people call because they want to start today. Other people are planning two, three, four years out. So, you know, there’s nothing wrong with taking time to understand the process and we’ll work with people, you know, if they’re going to do it a few years out also because the big pre-planning is also important. Sometimes it takes people, you know, to find the right land or there’s something going on with zoning or whatever in the process. So that’s the best thing. Look at the website, give us a call, and we’ll do everything we can to walk you through the process.

Interviewer: Fantastic.

Steve Tuma: And yeah, remember the planning up front will make it easier for people.

Interviewer: That’s right.

Steve Tuma: The building process. And that’s why we’re here to help you.

Interviewer: And there it is. I want to thank all of you who’ve been faithfully downloading and listening to the recently become listeners of the program. Welcome aboard. And well, that’s going to do it for us today. So for Steve Tuma and myself, here’s wishing you a positive and productive day and week ahead and we will see you next time. Thanks again, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, thanks. This was a lot of fun. Thank you.

A: A panelized kit streamlines the construction process by combining architectural design, structural engineering, and precision off-site framing into a unified package. This approach provides guaranteed material pricing, simplifies municipal permitting, and accelerates on-site assembly while allowing complete custom floor plan control.

A: Yes, panelized home framing easily accommodates modern smart home technology, from basic automated lighting and climate controls to advanced whole-house automation. Blueprints can be customized upfront to incorporate specialized wiring chases, motorized shading pockets, and automated safety lighting for staircases and hallways.

A: Passive solar design positions the home and window banks to capture lower winter sunlight while using engineered roof overhangs to shade the interior from high summer sun. Aligning the structural footprint with natural site topography optimizes cross-ventilation, minimizes mechanical heating and cooling loads, and lowers long-term energy bills.

A: Panelized building systems have virtually no size or aesthetic limitations, accommodating everything from compact 1,000-square-foot cottages to multi-story luxury estates exceeding 15,000 square feet. The method supports diverse architectural styles, including Mid-Century Modern, Craftsman, Saltbox Colonial, Mediterranean, and Prairie School designs.

A: Pre-engineering structural framing during initial drafting allows headers and point loads to be placed for future second-story decks, bonus room build-outs, or room expansions. When the homeowner is ready to expand, exterior siding and drywall can be removed to install doors or tie in new framing without requiring major structural retrofits.

Steve Tuma: It’s a cool person-to-person type thing. It’s not, you know, computer to person. It’s people working with people to help them build a cool house. That’s what I say. We want to work with good people and build cool houses.

Interviewer: Hello everybody. Thanks for joining us for Episode 55 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Calling in from, well, he’s on the road, a busy guy in our first ever phone-in version 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. And that busy guy is Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how’s it going, buddy?

Steve Tuma: It’s a good day. We’re just checking some projects out, looking at a few things and figured, hey, we’ve got to get a podcast in. I think we’re doing kind of an interesting and different format today, aren’t we?
Interviewer: Well, it’s just you’re so busy I have to catch you when I can. And since you can’t be in the studio this time around, I said, well, what the heck, I’m just going to see if he can take a few minutes and call in. And so I think it’s going to work fine. You actually sound pretty good on your end.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s good. Amazing technology these days. So let’s get into it. Today, I thought we’d start something that maybe will end up becoming some sort of tradition or something, or just at least a semi-regular feature of the podcast. I wanted to field some questions that have come in via the Landmark Home and Land Company website and through emails and people who are thinking of building custom homes and are curious about panelized home building and curious about Landmark Home and Land Company in general. So if you’re up for it, let’s go through some of these emails and questions. You ready for that?

Interviewer: Yeah, these are just general questions that people ask for what I understand, right? It’s kind of down and dirty, you know, basic questions that they ask. So this should be fun.

Steve Tuma: I don’t know if there’s dirty. They’re all pretty clean. It’s a family show.

Interviewer: OK, so let’s see what you have. OK, so let’s start with an email that’s fairly recent. This person asks, and it’s a pretty logical question, can you please explain what a panelized home kit is and what is the purpose of kit houses?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of interesting. The purpose of the kit house is to make it easy for people to understand their project, control their project, control the budget, control the schedule, just to have an overall control of doing it the way we do it. It’s kind of a one-stop shop. So our kit isn’t just the wood structure of the home. It’s also the plans, the changes people want, the preliminary plan stage, the final set of plans which are then used for final application, which can include the architectural plans, structural design, energy code, site plan, mechanical details and details a building department would request. And then once the permits are obtained, we supply a panelized wood structure that matches those plans. So it makes it easier for permitting, installation, inspection, and then occupancy. And our kit home is a very solid wood structure basically consisting of floor systems, panelized walls, roof systems, trusses, different methods of making a roof, and then the loose materials to put it together such as bracing, fascia, soffits. So we basically supply the complete wood structure. A customer would get the, you know, they’d have their land, they would install their foundation, and then they would supply windows, doors, cabinets, you know, roofing, siding, and details. So we’re kind of doing the plans, the plans for permits, and then the wood structure, the skeleton as it is. So that’s our kit. And we found it to be extremely helpful to people because one of the hardest things is designing it properly and then getting the right set of plans to get through permits and then making sure that the wood structure matches those approved plans. So a lot of people think, oh, it’s just wood. It’s just a kit. I’m like, no, it’s a lot of knowledge and details to put it together, and especially for more complex building sites, you know, on oceanfront or hurricane areas or snow loads or flat lands with big winds, earthquake situations, California, Florida, Colorado, you know, all over the country, there’s a lot of different details. We’re able to help people make sure that the house fits on the land, works with the local building department, is easy to assemble. Kind of a kit. It makes it easier for people. It’s our one-stop shop and helps them control the cost and keep to schedule. It’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: This is a question from me, not a write-in question, but we’ve never talked about this. But what’s the typical – I don’t want to say typical, nobody’s typical – but what is the sort of the typical panelized kit home builder? Who are the people who buy these?

Steve Tuma: It ranges from all different types of people. It could be a first-time home buyer. It could be someone – we’ve had some people build over a dozen houses with us. Sometimes people do it as a little business. Sometimes people just build a house. I mean, we’ve actually had some people – you know, we’ve been around 30 years. They built a house with us, then their retirement house. Then if their kids get married, we’re helping their kids build houses. And sometimes we work with developers, people that want to have a piece of land and develop it, whether it’s a few building sites for very custom homes or more homes. So there’s an advantage to everyone. And we’ve had customers – some customers have built four or five homes with us, some a dozen. So it’s a variety of people. But what they enjoy is basically leveraging their time and knowledge so that we can take care of the plans, engineering details for the permit set, so that then they can keep on coordinating the project and taking care of other items. So we’re kind of an extension of the people. So whether it’s one person wanting to build one home in their life or someone that may want to do a few of them, it’s kind of interesting. It’s someone that understands the value of the knowledge of designing it properly, making sure it fits on the land, making sure it’s energy efficient, making sure it’s cost contained, making sure it fits the schedule. Those are the people that want to do it. And a lot of our customers, a huge portion are owner-builders, many of which have never built a home before and they do a great job. So it really, really varies. And we’ve done some homes that are more modest beginner homes or retirement homes, and we’ve done some exceptionally intricate homes in the higher-end zip codes of America that are in the multimillion dollars. It’s pretty cool. But either way, we help people. It’s a lot of fun.

Interviewer: Right. I would imagine that people who come to you sometimes have just discovered what kit homes are, what a panelized home is, and building a home in a separate area and then putting it on trucks, flatbeds, and bringing it out. That’s got to be a new concept to people, even though I know you’ve told me in the past that there’s a rich and long history of panelized homes.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, the kit homes have been like that. But yeah, what a lot of people are finding is there’s some parts of the country and high up in the mountains where there’s a limited building site because winter leaves late and winter comes back quickly or summer building season’s three, four months.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So a lot of people work in those areas. Others know that the permitting process can be very intricate, whether it’s a simple home or a complex home. Some of the jurisdictions just have extremely detailed requirements, so we can help them through. So the way it makes sense is it allows a person to leverage their time and their money instead of hiring an architect, a structural engineer, an energy code person, a site planner, all these people and hoping that they communicate and get a unified set of plans.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And I do emphasize the word hoping. It’s not always like you just get people and magically they just all coordinate and get it taken care of. We do it at Landmark. That’s what we do.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: But it also helps them make sure that the wood is there and then we give a guaranteed price, a set price that the customer knows upfront so it’s easier for them to understand and manage their project. That’s why a lot of people do it. Otherwise, someone could go to someone, have a set of plans drawn up, and the person draws a set of plans and who knows if the budget’s even in consideration.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So we’ve had people do that where they have someone locally build plans and then we get a set of plans for a $2 million home and they want to spend $400,000.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So with our system, we’re able to kind of guide things and get it taken care of so that our customer has an understanding of the project and there’s a control on the cost and what they want to get built. Also, the other thing is customer service. We answer the phone, we talk to people, we take the time that they need to make sure that we can help them be as successful as possible with their project. And a good set of plans, a solid, well-built panelized home package allows it. And then our team here that ties it together. So what’s interesting is a lot of people say, what is a panelized home? What is a home kit? They’re just thinking of the wood, but they don’t realize that you can buy a 2×6 in a lot of places. It’s how you use it. Is it designed right? Is it energy efficient? So that’s where we come together. And our kit is more than just the framing materials. It’s the help and knowledge and plans and engineering to make permitting easy.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Kind of cool. Pretty wild.

Interviewer: That kind of leads back to our next question. A potential customer here who wants to know if they can customize the layout and design of a panelized home. How easy is that to do?

Steve Tuma: Yes, customizing the layout and design of our panelized homes is very easy. A lot of people think that, hey, you can only do a standard plan. They’re stuck in some old concepts of, well, you’ve got to work with the builder and the builder will have plans and you build it. Well no, we’re in the business of giving customers houses that they want. So it’s not just something where there’s five plans, pick one. We have got thousands of plans on our website. A customer could sketch something up that they want and then we can go formalize it in it. So we can completely customize or develop a complete custom set of plans for a person so that the home is the way they want it and their family wants it, so it fits on the land right, so it works within codes and it works properly and is energy efficient. So yes, we can customize the layout and design of a panelized home and we can give a customer exactly what they want. That’s the cool thing about it. A lot of people, they might say, well, isn’t panelized like modular? It’s like, no, it isn’t. Modular you can’t really customize. I mean, maybe there’s something where there’s options in the kitchen or bathroom layout but 90% of it is what it is. You take it or leave it. We believe if you work hard for a living and you want a cool house, we want you to come home at the end of the day and go, yeah, this is cool. I’m glad I did it instead of go to the house and go, I wish I did. So we’re in the business of helping people get the house that they want.

Interviewer: So you’re pretty much at their shoulder when the customization of the layout and design is actually taking place.

Steve Tuma: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it’s kind of a partnership type of thing. They might come to us and when they’re customizing their panelized home they might go through and say hey, I need this size bedroom, I want this size garage, we want a kitchen like this. And then we’ll draw it up and then we’ve got our drafts people where we can fine tune things, just fine tune it because sometimes people they have an idea but when they see it on paper they’re like hey, wait a second, I need something a little different or something happens. When they see a great room they might say, hey, on the holidays 15 people come over, I want to be able to put a table in there for 15 people. So that’s the neat thing about it. But it’s not just the customizing for the family’s personal desires. It’s the customizing to make sure it fits on the land. You know, if you took a house and just built it on a flat piece of land and then took a similar design and said hey, I need to step it down the side of a mountain, there’s a lot of work for the foundations, you know, how you enter the house, how you leave the house, can you access the driveway, different things like that and the foundation design for a sloped hill. So that’s one of the key things to it is we can work to make the house fit on your land so that things flow well and it works well. A lot of people don’t think about that. We’ve all seen a house on the side of a mountain but people don’t always understand the relationship of how do you make that house fit there and make sure it’s structurally sound at the same time.

Interviewer: Yeah. You know, it’s funny because we have this next question here and there I’ve been hearing myself a lot about smart homes and this person writes in and said what exactly is a smart home and can a panelized kit like Landmark Home and Land Company creates, can that be created as a smart home?

Steve Tuma: Yes, it can. Smart homes are kind of a trend. Well, it’s actually emerging technology, I should say. I think it’s here to stay. So yes, our kit homes can all be made into smart homes. Smart homes are generally a technology that can be added to a home and sometimes it goes to the simple systems that you can buy, you know, the Google systems, the Amazon systems, the Alexas where you can say hey so and so turn a light on or hey adjust the temperature. There’s a lot of details like that but some customers get extremely detailed in smart homes where you walk in a room and it knows who you are and it adjusts the music and light and temperature to it. So there are a variety of, I guess, different levels of smart home. But yes, our panelized home packages can be worked together with a smart home system so someone can get exactly what they want. And amazingly not everyone wants a smart home. Some people just want a home with regular light switches and you know, walk across the room turn the light on, close the curtains manually. So there’s different things that can be done. And sometimes a smart home isn’t just like for techies. Sometimes it’s safety things. You know, little alarms, is an elderly relative walking down a staircase? If you go down a staircase do lights turn on automatically? You know, little things like that. So it can also be kind of a safety issue.

Interviewer: Sure, yeah.

Steve Tuma: And a medical issue. And you know, once people get into technology they can have a lot of fun with it. So somebody who’s a little bit afraid of technology and then all of a sudden they enter their first smart home and see how cool that is and they might want one.

Interviewer: Yeah, technology can be a big learning thing for people. Everybody talks about, you know, elderly people. They’re not really computer savvy. And I’m thinking most of the people I know in their 70s and 80s can work a computer just fine, you know.

Steve Tuma: Right. And a lot of people are using it whether or not they do it. If you go to one of your assistants on whatever system you use, you say, hey, whatever the name is of the assistant, turn a light on. You know, whatever it is. That’s kind of entry-level smart home.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, smart switches. So yeah, it can be done. Our system is very flexible. And it’s not just smart homes. Some people want elevators in their house.

Interviewer: Right, wow.

Steve Tuma: Some people want custom kitchens with two different stoves. We’ve had some people put little slides for their kids. So we can customize to specific needs. We have a customer, he’s working on an airplane hanger underneath his house.

Interviewer: Wow. Underneath his house?

Steve Tuma: So we’ve had people with boathouses. Yeah, so it’s kind of one of these things. It’s a great question but it leads to someone else going, but hey, okay, I may want part of a smart home but what about my boat? What about my car? What about my motor home? What about a craft room? What about, we had one person, they put a tech room for their horses.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And kind of a cleanup room. So we’re very flexible in what people can do. But yeah, our panelized homes and our home packages can work with smart home systems. It’s pretty amazing.

Interviewer: It is the home of the future if you want it to be one. We’ve come a long way since from clap on clap off, right?

Steve Tuma: Right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I mean someone could say that was the beginning of smart homes.

Interviewer: That’s right. That’s right. You know, these questions, I’m sorry I didn’t put them in any sort of conceptual order or anything. I’m just taking them as they’re here on the page. So if I’m jumping around a little, forgive me. But one customer writes in…

Steve Tuma: Yeah, but these are actual questions that people did. They’re just as they came in I think is how you put this together. So it’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: Yeah, I’m just, like I said, I didn’t put them in any kind of category or anything. It’s just kind of what came in. I’m just giving them to you as they came. So one of these is talking about resale value. What exactly is the resale value of a panelized home? Is it like selling a regular home or is there a difference or how does that work?

Steve Tuma: A panelized home, our system is basically a more efficient method of stick building. And stick building is conventional building. And that’s generally, as far as I know, every time how is it appraised and financed. What people have to realize sometimes they’ll be like, oh, that’s prefab. My friend’s trailer or modular was devalued because of the stigma of those or the way banks choose to treat them. So this does not have the stigma of a modular or trailer home. This is, I should say, a true custom stick-built home. We just make some sections off site to bring them in so that it’s easier to get it built quickly, control cost, and minimize waste. So the resale value should be done just like any custom home, which is the best you can do. I don’t know of any higher for financing or for appraisals or anything. It’s the best system, which is nice. Other systems are sometimes limited but ours is not.

Interviewer: Yeah, it sounds like you’re hitting all the checklists for both building and for resale. Yeah, everything I hear just tells me panelized homes are a great way to go no matter what. I know we’ve hit on this question before but just because it did come in recently, I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind answering it. But this person writes in and wants to know what’s the energy efficiency, what are the features of energy efficiency of the prefabbed homes from Landmark Home & Land Company?

Steve Tuma: The energy efficiency of our panelized homes is pretty interesting because we can get pretty deep into it if people choose to. Most states have just a regular kind of energy efficiency calculation to make sure that a house meets a minimum standard for the state. And then other states such as California have a very stringent energy efficient process. We have done work in Europe and they are even tighter. So we can go through and work with a customer if they have certain desires to go beyond the code requirements. And some customers just say, hey, I just really want to insulate a door. Hey, I want to check my windows or make sure the doors are right or make sure the HVAC system is there. So we can develop a list of typical things for a customer to review to make sure that when they install the insulation it’s installed right to make sure that the HVAC system is installed right. There’s also services that people can go with that allow them to double check the work. But one thing which is interesting on energy efficiency is it’s not just buying insulation that has a high rating. It’s making sure it’s installed right. And that’s part of the situation. Anyone could go buy a furnace but who puts it in right so it operates right so the ductwork is right. Who puts the insulation in right so it can perform as it’s intended to. So that’s where we can help. So it’s not just a matter of putting specs, hey, put R21 in the walls, put R38 on the ceiling or 50 or whatever it is. It’s going through the actual process so that a customer understands how to install it properly. And it’s also just in sealing doors. It’s in the HVAC systems. The efficiency of the HVAC systems or the new mini-split systems, getting the right ratings for their use of the energy. We can also help people with solar systems if they like. And if someone wants to get real deep, we can get into organic design. The orientation of the house to the sun, overhangs that keep the sun out in summer when the sun is higher and then allow sun to come in when the sun is lower in winter. So that’s actually a pretty interesting question that can get pretty deep. Because a lot of people just think when you say energy efficiency, the first thing they think about is a lot of insulation. But it actually gets into the design, the position on the land, the orientation to the sun, and then other things like the furnace and how that generates its power and what types of fuels it uses. So we’re fully capable of getting extremely deep into it, doing net zero houses if a customer wants. And we’ve done passive house, the German version and then the American version if someone were to want to get that deep. It’s pretty cool. Most customers just want to make sure that they’ve got a good solid home that meets or exceeds the codes of the state. Some customers will say hey, I want to be 10% better. So we can work with them. Others say hey, I want to go net zero. But either way, we can help them. But our panelized system, that’s the nice thing. We can go through to adjust the structure to make sure that insulation and different features can be put into the home so it’s as energy efficient as a customer wants it to be.

Interviewer: Right. Speaking of energy efficiency, the bigger the home usually the harder it is to just be energy efficient. I mean, that’s just common sense. But speaking of size, are there any limitations on the size and style of a kit home?

Steve Tuma: Well, the size, I mean a bigger home it might need more stuff. If it’s bigger, it’s going to take more fuel or electric to heat or cool it. But the efficient systems for that bigger home are just, they’ll work the same. It’ll just be for a bigger home. Now sometimes the nature of those bigger homes is they’re a little more luxury, taller ceilings and things like that or big glass walls. So it gets a little more complicated. But we can make that work. But you ask about the limitations of the size and style. We haven’t run into that yet. We’ve done houses 10,000, 15,000 square feet. We’ve been involved with some commercial projects, you know, kind of hotels which we panelize as well. So there really isn’t a limitation on the size and the style. Now if someone said hey, I want to make a house that looks like a golf ball, you know, it’s probably not going to happen. That would be extremely custom. We’re not going to, you know, do a house that looks like a golf ball. But as far as, you know, regular designs, if someone wants a craftsman, an organic Frank Lloyd Wright type design, if they want something boxy, modernistic, you know, prairie school, you know, saltbox colonial, Georgian, Mediterranean, you know, we could do all of those designs and work with them. So there really isn’t a limitation other than the customer’s budget and land.

Interviewer: Well, I would imagine that might be a limitation. Pocketbook could be a bit of a limitation.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, I should have said that. It’s the pocketbook and the dream.

Interviewer: Yeah. So there’s a couple of questions here. I’m going to bounce around a little because some of them kind of tie into the question before. But let’s talk about the design options. You guys on your website, you have a plethora of available design options for prefabbed homes. How many available designs are there at Landmark Home and Land Company?

Steve Tuma: I think our website says sixteen hundred or two thousand but I think there’s more like six. I think that we actually have about six thousand on there.

Interviewer: Wow.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, but you know, it’s interesting. People could look at that and say I want to do this design with a couple of changes or take the roof of this one, the floor plan of that one. Or people just have, you know, we’ve had people sketch it on a piece of paper, take a picture and text it to me. So yeah, the design options, it’s something that we can take care of.

Interviewer: That reminds me of tax time. We have the full design team.

Steve Tuma: Tax time walking into your account with all of your receipts written on pieces of paper.

Interviewer: That’s got to make your job a little tougher when they, depending on how good an artist they are, I guess.

Steve Tuma: Well, actually it works out pretty well because people have an understanding. Now, yeah, their sketches might not be exactly to scale but it’s actually amazing of how people have a pretty strong idea.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Of what they want. So, you know, for them to sketch up an idea or say hey, I kind of want this. Or they might have a picture saying hey, I like this roof I saw it, you know, as they were traveling someplace. So we’re able to put it together. I mean, no one’s stumped us yet. You know, sometimes it takes a couple little fine tuning because sometimes the customer may ask for, you know, a roof that doesn’t fit on the floor plan.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Or a design that doesn’t work or whatever. But then we work with them to figure out what it is so they understand the situation. And then we get it together. And I would say they’re happy at the end because they like the idea of designing it and understanding what’s being into it.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: What’s being built.

Interviewer: Right. Yeah, a couple of, there’s two people who’ve written in here but I’m going to read it as one because it all kind of falls together. But one person asked what permits and approvals are needed for building a panelized home. And another person writes in are there any specific building codes for panelized homes? Can you tackle both of those?

Steve Tuma: Well what’s interesting, they’re kind of one and the same answer is the building permits and the building codes, it’s the same as a conventional built home.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So it’s not like there’s something special or you have to do it. Now what people someone asking that might be confusing panelized homes with like modulars or the more trailer, you know, the ones with the steel frame. Those are built to different codes and the permitting process may be different. But for ours it’s just the regular IRC or IBC depending upon what the building department requests. Sometimes there’ll be the code with the, you know, modifications for a certain area. So this goes through the exact same process as if you were doing a custom stick-built home, which this essentially is. And what’s interesting is we’ve if I could pat ourselves on the back, we’ve worked all over the country, you know, in areas below sea level, above sea level, oceanfront, mountaintop, you know, in the plains, hurricane areas, high snow load. So we’ve been able to get through every single one to make sure. So even if a person says, oh, my building department’s extra picky or extra mean or whatever, we’ve probably been through it before. We’ve got a great set of plans and we have a great understanding of what building departments want. And if they do get a little stingy or a little interesting in their request, we’ll figure it out. We figured every other one out over 30 years. So we don’t see building codes as the issue. It’s kind of funny. A lot of people say but can you get the building department to approve it? I’m like yeah, I don’t see that as the issue. The building department approving it is fine. Getting it built right, getting it inspected right and occupied right is the thing that’s more important. People don’t believe it but you can get sets of plans approved by a building department that are not buildable. Our plans are dual purpose. They’re for permits and building. There’s a big distinction. People don’t realize that. They’ll go get a set of plans and say but the guy’s the best guy in town and he won three awards and how can this not work? And they don’t realize that a good set of plans has a lot of details on the connections, a lot of sections, just a whole bunch of details so that it’s clear on site that when the customer, the bank, the building department, the contractors that are involved they each understand exactly what needs to be done. Now if they have a question we’re always available by phone to review it with them but we try to have a set of plans so all the details are there so that when a house is getting built your team can keep on building and make sure it gets done properly. It’s not just hey, will you meet the codes. It’s not just hey, will the building department do it. It’s are the plans good so the contractors understand it and make it easy. That’s where we shine. It’s plans for permits, customer review, financing permits, any homeowners association, historical societies if they’re involved but also for the ease of construction. That’s what it’s about. So this person asks a pretty basic question but I think it’s a good question because people look at the Landmark Home and Land Company website and what exactly is the process for building a kit home? How is it really different from building a standard stick home?

Steve Tuma: Well, the value that we add to it is we make it easier for people to design the home the way they want. We have our full design team so if someone gives us an idea of what they want we can draw it up and then we can fine tune it, move a window here, make the dining room bigger. Whatever it is we can make those changes. Then after we go through getting the preliminary plans put together, we work with the building department to find out what details they need for permit application as well as us adding details for easy build. So we’ll go through do the site plans, the energy codes, all the other details we’ve spoken about so that our customer can then submit for permits. Then once the building department approves, they may approve the permits first time through. They may have a checklist of items that need to be clarified. Either way we’ll answer their questions until permits are issued. Generally it’s the first time through, but in some places it’s second. Then once they get permits, the customer will coordinate their contractors to prepare the site and install the foundation. We schedule with them when they want the panelized home package delivered. So the idea is your foundation crew is done, they leave, then our truck shows up and your framing crew unloads the materials and frames the house. Then you finish it just like a conventional stick-built home. Put the roof on, put the windows in, put the siding on, do the HVAC, plumbing, electric, insulation, drywall, interior trim, and just kind of move on to finish it out. So the process is essentially the same as stick building a custom home, but our level of help is what makes it easier for customers to manage their project on their own or we work with their general contractor if they choose to have one. So what we’re doing is making it easier through the whole planning, engineering, energy code, site plan, mechanical design process, and then the delivery of the home package. What people don’t realize is the concept that, hey, I can just get individual people that aren’t connected, a separate architect, a separate structural engineer, a separate energy code people and it comes together. It doesn’t always work that way. We wrap it all together and then make sure and guarantee that our panelized home package matches the approved plans. So you minimize or actually in our case eliminate the cost overruns because we give you a set price. They have a panelized package which is pre-cut, pre-engineered to go together smoothly so the framing time is quicker, the framing labor is less, the waste is less and then you move your project along much faster.

Interviewer: Got it.

Steve Tuma: And that’s the key. So that’s kind of a big overview. Obviously, there’s a lot more little details and nuances in there, but that’s the overview.

Interviewer: And I know you’re busy today but if you don’t mind fielding one more question then I’ll let you go.

Steve Tuma: One more? Yes.

Interviewer: Okay. The person writes in and says, and it’s pretty basic, what are the benefits of a panelized home? And if anybody is able to answer that, it’s Steve Tuma, president of Landmark Home and Land Company. So what are the benefits of a panelized home?

Steve Tuma: Basically with our system at Landmark is that we can do all the planning, engineering, plans for permits, all the details that are required for permits, the details that are required for building in a complete and accurate and unified set of plans. That means everything matches, it makes sense and it works. So it’s easier for someone to manage the design and permit approval of their home. And then when we deliver the panelized home package, it’s all pre-engineered, pre-designed. It goes together very quickly and easily so that it’s just assembling pieces instead of cutting, calculating, hoping it’s right, fixing mistakes and kind of moving forward. So it’s actually working with us. It’s our customer has control of their project and the design. We don’t tell them how to design. We might give ideas if they’re asking for something. We’re like, hey, this might be a little bit better. They can control the budget because we give them a guaranteed cost up front before they start. And then they can also control the schedule by them managing it and they can also control the quality. If they want to do a very high-end home, they could do it. If they want to do a medium more typical everyday design, they can do that as well. So it’s the control of their project and the understanding of their project where they know what they’re building, they control it and it’s their house. We’re kind of a system that supports them and really helps them through the process. We’ve been doing it for over 30 years so we’ve got a lot of knowledge that our customers really appreciate. That’s one of the things they don’t realize until they’re deep into the design process.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: That’s the benefit is our support of their building project. Up front they think it’s purchasing the panelized home. When they’re in the project it’s the support and the knowledge to make sure all the little details are put together.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: It makes sense. It’s fun. Every project’s different and it’s a lot of fun and we do everything we can to help a customer.

Interviewer: Well this has been interesting and enlightening. Thanks for taking the time, Steve. I mean this is a lot of questions and you don’t ever seem to have any problem. Just whatever I bring your way you have the answers which is I guess what Landmark is all about customer service, knowledge and experience. It means a lot.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, but what you just brought up there is interesting. These are questions that have come in and we’ve been doing it. We have the answers because we’ve been doing it. You’re not the first. It’s not the first customer that’s doing it. We have the process. We have the experience. We know the ins and outs.

Steve Tuma: We know different details to lead to great success and beautiful homes and that’s why people. Like your last question you said hey, what are the benefits of a panelized home? Well, it’s more than just the wood that we supply. It’s the plans, the customer support, the availability, the knowledge, a knowledge like right now type of thing. I know me as a consumer, when I call somewhere, I don’t want to get a message that says hey, call back in three days if no one returns your call. We answer the phone and we can take care of you right away, which I think is very key, especially in today’s world. People, they need help and we’re here to help them and we enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun.

Interviewer: People talk about customer service being a lost art and I think there are still companies like yours that keep it going and I think it’s a good example.

Steve Tuma: Right. We really get to know our customers and enjoy it and get to know them. It’s just kind of cool. Even though it’s their house, we kind of still think it’s ours.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: It’s the pride of our part of the project that we want to keep on going.

Interviewer: Well, you said it earlier in this podcast. It’s kind of a collaboration. It’s a partnership. Who could you be partnered with better than Landmark is my opinion. Anyway, that’s going to wrap it up for this edition of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Before I let you go, Steve, tell us how we can contact Landmark and how we can find out more about the company and how people can find out about becoming a homeowner builder.

Steve Tuma: Well, we’ve got a great website with videos, these podcasts and a lot of general information and a lot of plans. You can see that at our website at LHLC.com. That’s kind of like initials, Landmark Home Land Company. LHLC.com is the website. People can peruse the website, send us an email through there, look at plans and ask questions about them. We are real people that have knowledge that answer phones. If someone’s got a question, they can always call in at 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. Michael answers the phone. He answers the phone but he’s on the phone a lot. But if for some reason someone gets a voicemail, leave a message and he’ll call back. We are there to talk person to person about your specific project and your land for the exact design that you want. Michael will help people through and then at a certain point they come over to me where I’ll work with them on the bigger details and actually getting the project going. We’re also on Facebook and Instagram and details like that. But I think the best thing is if customers look at the website, take a look at it, and then if they want to learn more, we can talk person to person and get them taken care of. That’s the fun part is really seeing how we can work, help people and just get the project rolling. It’s a cool person to person type thing. It’s not computer to person. It’s people working with people to help them build a cool house.

Interviewer: That’s what I say. We want to work with good people and build cool houses.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s important stuff. Got to get some T-shirts made. Build Cool Houses with the Landmark logo on it.

Interviewer: Exactly. That would be great. Well, there you have it. Thanks again to all of you who have been faithfully listening to the podcast and to those who just recently found the show. Thanks for tuning in. All you new people, welcome to the podcast. That’s going to do it for us today. For Steve Tuma and myself, here’s wishing you all a great week ahead. We will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. Remember, we’re helping good people build cool houses. We’ll see you next time. Thank you. Bye.

A: When independent professionals draw architectural plans, engineering calculations, and energy reports separately, discrepancies often arise in wall dimensions, load-bearing points, and insulation cavities. Unifying all drafting disciplines under a single team ensures the dimensions match exactly across every sheet, preventing failed building inspections and costly job-site change orders.

A: Engineered roof trusses must accurately align with architectural roof pitches and overhang depths while properly transferring downward snow and wind loads through designated structural beams to the foundation. Coordinating truss engineering with the main blueprints ensures critical load paths are supported without distorting the intended exterior profile of the home.

A: Widening a window opening even a few inches removes structural framing studs, which alters the lateral shear strength of the exterior wall and may require a heavier load-bearing header. Increasing glass area also increases thermal heat gain and loss, requiring adjustments to the home’s overall energy calculations and HVAC equipment sizing.

A: Heating and cooling equipment must be sized according to the home’s specific thermal envelope, insulation R-values, and physical framing dimensions. Coordinating HVAC design with architectural and energy calculations ensures ductwork fits within floor systems and chases while preventing the installation of oversized, inefficient heating and cooling units.

A: Blueprints serve as the central communication tool connecting the owner-builder, subcontractors, lending institutions, and building inspectors. A complete and unified set of construction drawings clearly details every structural connection, material specification, and dimension so trades can accurately price labor and execute the build without guesswork.v

Steve Tuma: Because our plan sets that we do at Landmark Home and Land Company are meant to be communication devices so that your contractor knows what’s going on, your financing source, your family, your building department, yourself and anyone else involved knows exactly what’s going on.

Interviewer: Welcome everyone to episode 54 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show with me as he usually is in the studio for 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 are you, my friend?

Steve Tuma: It’s another day, another podcast. Some excitement talking about making plans match up and uniform plans. Is that what we’re going to talk about?

Interviewer: Today we’re going to talk about uniformity among plan sets. Some people might go, what? What are you talking about? So that’s why you’re here. That’s why we have you here.

Steve Tuma: This is an interesting topic because it’s kind of, today’s a consumer today. You figure, hey, if you buy a pair of running shoes, the shoe’s designed for running. Or hey, if you buy a truck with big wheels, it’s designed to go off road or whatever it may be. If you buy a boat, it’s good for the water. So sometimes it’s kind of interesting with the plans of if people attempt to work with an architect individually, a structural engineer, a green code person, an energy code person, a civil engineer for grading and drainage plans, it’s kind of assumed that they’d talk and make sure the plans match up. But we just find that it doesn’t happen. Everyone takes care of their discipline and kind of has that, well, it’s not my job. Hey, I did what you asked me, but how do you know it matches up? That’s kind of the whole situation. I kind of equate it to saying, hey, go to a shirt store and ask a guy for a shirt. Go to the pants store, ask the salesperson for a pair of pants. Go to the shoe store and ask a guy for a pair of shoes and then put it together and hope it all works. You know, are you going to a formal dinner or are you going jogging or are you sitting at the beach? Obviously, you need something. So you want to make sure that what you’re doing works well. So that’s what we call making sure the plans are uniform so that they match up for the intended purpose and make sure that the information across the plans matches. So that’s the main reason a lot of people assume, well, I had my local designer, my local engineer do it. It doesn’t happen that way. That’s why we’re in business to do the plan set for what people want and make sure it’s unified so that it makes sense. It’s consistent. The details are equal across the plans and it’s easier to build, creating less problems on site, creating less problems with your budget and your schedule.

Interviewer: So did you say that’s the main benefit of matching plan sets just for consistency and design?

Steve Tuma: Well, consistency and design for permitting, for your understanding. Because our plan sets that we do at Landmark Home and Land Company are meant to be communication devices so that your contractor knows what’s going on, your financing source, your family, your building department, yourself and anyone else involved knows exactly what’s going on. Because we all know what happens if I were to say, hey, Steve, remember this, unless it’s written down, people don’t remember it. So that’s why you want to have the plans with all consistent details to make sure that the home goes together right and the building department understands it so that you can avoid issues on site, issues with inspections or previously, issues with permit application.

Interviewer: So what are the biggest issues that as new home builders that people run into? I mean, let’s just run down a list of things that people should be prepared for. Let’s start with, let’s say, truss design.

Steve Tuma: Well, the truss design, that’s an interesting thing. So a truss is a structural component that used generally to build a roof system or a floor system. So let’s just take it for a roof. So let’s just say that there’s a house, a relatively complex Victorian house, you know, from the early 1900s. There’s a lot of roof alleys, roof ridges, overhang situations, different situations where they might need girders, they might need different beams to support it. You need to make sure that that truss design matches the architectural design, also matches the structural design. So are the loads transferred properly from the roof down through a beam down to the ground or down through the wall down to the ground? And then also, is it the architectural look that someone wants? So a simple thing that people will understand are the overhangs. Are the overhangs a foot, 18 inches, two feet, three feet? Whatever it is, are they at the right pitch? What’s the tail done? How all these details are put together? So sometimes what’ll happen is people will get truss designs done, but someone has to verify that they match the structural issues, the snow loads, the ground snow loads, the code year that the building department’s asking for, make sure it matches the structural design. There’s just a lot of little details. It’s tying it together to make sure that everything works. So that goes into architectural design and structural design as well. So it’s kind of everything’s got to work together, otherwise you could end up with trusses that don’t give the look you want or don’t have the consistent structural features.

Interviewer: Yeah. It seems to me we’ve talked in the past a little bit about energy calculations and I’m sure there’s a lot of issues going into a house build with energy calculations and getting them correct.

Steve Tuma: Right. It’s not just the actual calculation, it’s making sure that what is calculated fits in your house. So someone could, say you’re in an area where it just gets really cold and you need an R-48 insulation, does it fit in your roof system? If you have an R-21 wall, does it fit in your wall? If you need a certain insulation in your foundation under the slab, around the footers, is it designed in there and do people understand that it’s there? And that again is tying it all in. So sometimes people say, hey, I got these energy calculations, it’s like there’s not enough space to put it in the house or in order to do so, you’ve got one of the more expensive types of insulation, do you realize that?

Interviewer: Right. That’s why it’s good to tie all that together and have us do our plan set with those details so we can understand, so we can review it with a customer so that they understand what’s going on with their project.

Steve Tuma: Right. Because the energy calculations can also affect and will also affect the design of their HVAC system. So all of these are kind of tied together and it’s important to make sure that the people designing the HVAC understand the architectural and structural design as well as the energy calculations. The energy calculation people should also understand the structure to make sure that it’s there. So sometimes people will come to us and say, hey, I got this and this, and I’m like, well, it’s kind of a little bit of a mess, we got to clean it up and put it together, which is why we always say, hey, just come to us for the plans, we’ll work on it. And then if you have questions, we can substantiate why something’s done. Or if someone needs a change, we can kind of domino effect the change through the whole house.

Interviewer: Right. You know, if you break it up, when I hear you talk, you break it up into things like architectural design is the sexy part of building, energy calculations, like you were just saying, that’s not really sexy.

Steve Tuma: People don’t think of it.

Interviewer: Yeah, but it’s very important. I think grading and drainage plans are the same thing. They may not be the most exciting, glamorous part of building your house, but it’s just as important as anything else.

Steve Tuma: Well, you’re right, because, you know, you go to a cocktail party or get together for the holidays, who’s sitting there talking about their drainage pipe?

Steve Tuma: That’s right. Like no one. They’re all talking about the cabinets or the cool fireplace or the family room or the pool table they’re getting and how they were able to do it. But it’s those things that avoid the hassles. Proper insulation, your energy bills are less and the house is more comfortable.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And making sure that your house doesn’t flood is probably important, which is why it’s good to understand the drainage, you know, make sure that water drains away from your house. So people don’t always think of it. They’re always like, well, you know, we’ll just figure it out on site. I’m like, do you really want to do that? You know, because if, you know, let’s just say your neighbor did that and they raised their house and suddenly the water went into your house. That’s not the way to do it.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: You know, people have to be responsible for what’s going on. So I agree. People don’t think about it. You brought up a great point because everyone’s excited to say, I want my kitchen this way. I want my garage this way. I want the family room to have this. I need a view of the tree or the sunset or the sunrise. But it’s like, how do we do that? And make sure that you can enjoy the home and get the design. So that’s the reason for the uniform design. This is an extreme situation, but we did a house on the West Coast. It was 10 or 15 years ago, but the people had a very expensive lot in a very exclusive neighborhood and they wanted to take advantage of every inch of the view. And there was a situation there where they wanted to have a window about six inches wider. Well, just going that six inches wider changed the structural design and the energy calculations. Right. Now, someone would say it’s a huge window. What’s six inches got to do? You took so much of a structural member out and that bigger window allows more cooler heat transfer into the home. So we’re able to work with them to architecturally, structurally and energy and green code wise, make sure everything’s tied together so that they get what it is, or at least understand what the situation is to see if they still want to move forward with it.

Interviewer: Right. Well, it seems like you guys at Landmark Home and Land Company have to walk kind of a tightrope because you have to make sure people are realistic about what they need to make the, basically just to make the house pass inspection to start with. But at the same time, you have to be aware of the personal vision of your customers and clients, what they want their homes to look like. And that’s important.

Steve Tuma: Right. And it’s kind of interesting because different people have different concepts of what’s important to them. Some people are just energy efficiency. Other people are, give me the garage, I need my man cave. Other people are, hey, when our family gets together, there’s 23 people on the holidays. So I want to have a great room area where we could set tables up and everyone can mix. But then again, people can split up. Other people, it’s the view. Other people, it’s the inside, not as much the outside. Other people, it’s the outside, less the inside. We’re working on a project now that people want a glass entry door that you can see through the house, out the glass wall in the back. So as you approach the front of the house, you see through it and see the beautiful view in the back of the house. It’s their thing. It’s pretty cool. So we’re working with them. Other people, they just want to have a house there that’s set. And then the backyard, a fire pit, barbecue area, whatever it is, to go work with it. Other people, it’s a view of the lake. One customer, we helped Bill in Michigan. He wanted to know that he could be in the master suite and watch the sun rise and the sun set. That’s nice. From his master. So we worked on stuff. And someone says, well, just stick a window facing east and a stick a window facing west.

Well, there’s a lot more to it. There’s roof lines below it. There’s overhangs. There’s just the seasonality of the sun. There’s just the position changes. So there’s a lot of things that we had to work with. So that’s the thing, is to be able to take the vision of the priorities of what they want. Now, we’ll wrap other things in there, make sure structurally it’s right. Make sure the energy codes work. Make sure things flow. Make sure the codes work in general, you know, hallways are the right width, enough space around toilets, enough space around cabinets. You know, doors are the right size, different details like that. So it’s not just the vision, it’s understanding what they’re getting to. Because sometimes people will say, hey, I want a wide hallway. Well, we might ask, what’s the purpose of the wide hallway? And they might say, well, I have a big dog. I want to walk down the hallway with my 200 pound St. Bernard or whatever it is. They want to be able to do it. Or their kids are constantly running back and forth. Or they envision a wheelchair or something in the future, and they want to be able to get stuff taken care of. So sometimes it’s asking what they want, but then also asking why or what’s the purpose of something. Because sometimes people just don’t know, or they need to develop the idea, or we need to draw it up.

They look at it and say, hey, that’s what I asked you to draw up, but can we change it again and make the adjustments? So there’s some time spent up front making sure the house is right. Because we have found that even though if someone says, hey, this is the house I want, that’s from their preliminary review. As you get into it, hey, think about the kitchen, hey, think about the garage, hey, think about the bathrooms. And as they start getting deeper into the thoughts of different portions of the home, invariably something will change. Some houses have a tub and a shower, and some people are like, I haven’t used a tub in 10 years. Let’s just make a big shower, or let’s put a double vanity in there, or have a separate toilet room, or put a closet off the bathroom so we can work a lot of those details.

Interviewer: Yeah. I know you’ve probably never thought of it this way, but whenever I hear you talk on these podcasts, it seems to me like you act as sort of a conductor. You’re like leading this orchestra of architects and engineers and other department heads to make sure that the plans match what they’re doing and what the customer is looking for. That is quite the feat, I guess, sometimes to get through.

Mike Tuma: Yeah. And a lot of people don’t understand that because they’ll say, well, doesn’t an architect do that? It’s like, not always. Doesn’t an engineer do it? Not always. And I finally boiled it down as to why. We actually design homes that get built. We’re not here just selling plans saying, you paid me, now it’s your problem. Right. It’s your problem. You can come back and add another bill. We make it part of our process and our predetermined set cost up front so customers know the cost of the house to make sure that it’s put together because we have to deliver a panelized package that goes together well, anywhere in the country or in the world, goes together well, per plan, passes inspections, and people can continue on with the process. It’s a lot different when you say, hey, here’s a plan, go get someone else to figure it out. We’re the ones figuring it out and making it easy, which is kind of the one-stop shop idea where it makes it easier for people to say, hey, I got to get from point A to point Z. We’re there bridging all those gaps instead of handing different people being involved that don’t communicate, don’t get things taken care of. So that’s a situation where I think it’s important, excuse me. That’s a situation where our end product, the panelized home, has to be well thought. All the details have to be put together so we can assemble a home package that someone assembles on site with minimal to no issues. So it’s just assemble the home, then they go to the next processes. Where if those details aren’t tied together, you’re going to spend a lot of time on site going what if, what about this, where’s this, how’s this supposed to go, I thought. And that’s what Landmark’s process avoids is the situation where there’s loose ends.

We work in our process to make sure everything’s put together. And it’s kind of an interesting situation. I say in like medical situations, the doctor always doesn’t talk to the pharmacist or the physical therapist. They’re each different people doing their job, but no one’s really there tying it together. You have to have a master chef or conductor, as you’re saying, and that’s the role actually that I play is getting the idea of what people want and then knowing that the end result will be done right. And the coolest thing is when they call back in five years and say, hey, we’re retired, we want to build a new home, or hey, my kid got married, can you help him build a house? So it’s really the orchestration of the product.

One of my customers, Mike in Phoenix, he actually said, Steve, you’re like the engine driving the project. Yeah, there you go. And that’s the point. You don’t go to a grocery store and someone tell you, hey, here’s a recipe, here’s how you put it together, here how it is. You need a chef. Yeah. Or to have the knowledge yourself, but in that case, we’re the conductor kind of tying it all together.

Interviewer: Yeah. That’s a great word for it. Yeah, I think that’s the way I’ve always thought about it. A chef is more doing all the work themselves, mixing everything in a bowl, and a conductor is more like what you guys at Landmark. You’re working with the musicians who are the architect and the contractors and the customer and leading everybody into a great home build. So what would you say, I mean, is that what you’d say one of your biggest strengths is at Landmark Home and Land Company is to match up plans to make sure that the design is consistent among all the plan details, the architectural and structural design, the site plans, energy codes, all the way down to just putting in foundations, and it seems like you’ve got to be on top of everything.

Steve Tuma: And matching it to the panelized home that we deliver. So we have to draw plans, engineer plans, energy code plans, and manufacture a panelized home package that goes together exactly to the customer’s specs and the approved thing. So that’s the key thing. And what’s interesting about that, that’s kind of the crux of it, the big golden goose type thing, but people don’t always realize it up front. They think, hey, I’ve searched panelized homes or architectural design, but they don’t really realize what they really need is someone to put the whole project together to help them go. And we do this for professional builders, people that have side businesses, developers, and different things like that. That’s the value. Make sure everything comes together. That’s the onestop shop because, Steve, you’ve probably had this situation. You go buy something somewhere, say a big company, and you call up and you say, hey, I have a problem here. And the person’s like, well, that’s not me. You got to go to that person. And then you get to re-explain yourself to that person. And then they say, you know what? No, this is really that other person. And then you get bounced around, and after a while, you’re just aggravated. We’re with us. It’s us. It’s me. You call up. We get the plans taken care of. If there are any questions or concerns or changes or situations that come up, it’s like the buck stops here. I can work with the customer to get through whatever situation they have. That support is the key to it. And that is why Landmark has been around for over 30 years, helping people because you don’t get a bunch of voicemails or push two, push three, all these different things. You have someone that’s actually deeply involved with the day-to-day design and construction of your panelized home package, answering your question.

That’s what we do. And that’s what’s cool about it, and I’d say that’s a big advantage that people don’t think about when they’re first thinking of building a home. They don’t even know to think about it, but I think after they talk to us, that’s the reason they work with us, to make sure that things are taken care of. I kind of like that. You’re making it sound like some huge sophistication of some conductor. It’s a lot of brainpower. It’s a lot of quality people behind me. A lot of knowledgeable people and a full team to make sure that it’s done right. Customer support is extremely important.

Interviewer: There’s nothing wrong. There’s nothing worse than getting on a phone and being bounced around. And not just from department to department, there’s like country to country. All of a sudden you’re speaking with somebody who’s in a completely different country and you have to explain again, over and over again, to each department that you’re passed off to. It seems to me like Landmark has kind of solved that issue when it comes to home building.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, that’s basically it. It’s customer service. I’m a consumer. I want to know if I purchased something that there’s a company that truly stands behind it. It’s happening less and less. They all say they do, but the actual standing behind it, answer a phone, take care of issues, answer questions, that’s what we’re about. Let me give you an example. This was about a month and a half ago. There was a family building a home and they found out that there was something that happened with their foundation. She happened to call me 10:30 on a Friday night. By chance I answered the phone. She asked me what I’m answering for. I said, well, you called. That’s what we’re here for. So we were able to work through the weekend, get a few details put together for her so that they could continue on Monday when the process was going. We made a few adjustments to our panelized package and shipped it out. Now that’s turning on a dime. It was extreme situations, but we are set up here to get it taken care of. And that’s, you know, it’s beyond the call of duty.

Interviewer: Isn’t that funny how we’ve grown accustomed to being surprised when somebody actually answers the phone and it’s a real human.

Steve Tuma: Oh, I’ve told a couple of customers, they’re like, well, you sound customer service oriented. How do I know you are? I’m like, you know what, randomly this weekend, give me a call. Yeah. But don’t be surprised if I answer and say, hey, what do you need? How can we help you through it? Now what’s amazing about it is, you know, people generally call during the regular business day or hours or they’re like, hey, Steve, will you be around? We need to catch up. But that’s the nice thing about it is that we are here to help because people don’t just build during their business day, during their work week. It might be with a family member, husband, wife, kids, whoever they’re helping build the house for. And there might be a question that comes up, hey, we just found something out. It happened last week. The family was out there on a project trying to figure out the best location for a house on a sloped piece of land in Colorado. And they wanted to be like, hey, the family’s out here. We want it to face this way to take advantage of the view. But what happens if we do here? What goes on with the foundation? What goes on with the energy codes? And since I’ve done so much of this, I was able to give them an answer. So that five minute phone call was able to help the family make better determinations so that then they could get us to plan changes and we could get a design that they were happy with that works with the land, the energy calculations and structural design. So it’s communication. It’s time to have real conversations with real information, with knowledgeable people. Every once in a while, someone will stump me, but I’ve got the people behind me where we can get all answers. But that’s the situation. It’s a real situation with real support and real customer service. It’s not, hey, email this person and they might get back with you in five days. You give me a call and email, we’re on it right now.

It’s fun. It’s really cool. It’s kind of satisfying to help a family put a house together and then at the end when they take a picture with them in front of it and their dog and the grandkids or their new kids saying, this is it, Steve. I mean, there’s no better feeling. I actually got it. Cheryl, if you’re out there, she sent me a text saying, your mom must really be proud of you for all the people you’re helping and how you changed their lives. It’s just amazing. You sit back and it just feels great. It’s like, bingo, this is why we do it.

Interviewer: And again, that goes back to, it’s not just customer service. It’s- Pride. Yeah, customer pride. Enjoyment. And it’s pride of the company. Passion. Well, that’s about it for today’s episode. And before we let you go, Steve, like we usually do, let our listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home & Land Company.

Steve Tuma: The best thing to do is check our website out, LHLC.com. One of the initials of Landmark Home & Land Company, LHLC.com. There’s plans on there. There’s videos. There’s podcasts. There’s different discussions of what we include, different ways we can help. You can send an inquiry on plans there. You can email us direct, or you can give a call to 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. Mike will answer the phone or get back with you very quickly on reviewing your project. We can get into details, specifics on your project to help you, and let you understand how we’re on your team to help you get the house that you want. We just want to work with good people, build cool houses, and have a little fun along the way. And there you go.

Interviewer: Thanks again, Steve. And thanks to all of you for putting up with our stuffy noses and our occasional coughs. Hopefully this cold season will be gone pretty soon, but in the meantime, thanks for listening to the panelized prefab kit home building show. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great day, and we will see you next time.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. This was fun. Thanks.

A: Most catalog blueprints are drafted for generic, level ground under baseline climate assumptions to appeal to a broad market. They lack the specific structural foundations, grading adjustments, and step-downs required to safely build on sloped, walkout, or hillside properties.

A: Modifying structural dimensions or room layouts in real time creates expensive change orders, construction delays, and potential building inspection failures. Resolving framing headers, staircase clearances, and load paths on paper before ordering materials ensures the project stays strictly on schedule and within budget.

A: Municipalities frequently reject generic online plans because they lack location-specific calculations for regional snow loads, high wind speeds, and seismic shear bracing. Standard stock drawings include liability disclaimers requiring an engineer to verify all structural connections, dimensions, and local building code compliance before permits can be issued.

A: Widening or raising a garage opening removes load-bearing wood framing from the wall, requiring upgraded structural headers and engineered shear wall reinforcements. Increasing header height also demands taller overall exterior walls, which increases the required rise and run dimensions for staircases accessing upper living levels.

A: Plan checkers evaluate blueprints strictly for life-safety compliance, egress minimums, and basic structural load limits rather than day-to-day buildability or ceiling clearances. Plans that pass municipal review can still contain missing connection details, conflicting dimensions, and unverified trade rough-ins that stall on-site subcontractors.

Steve Tuma: And what happens is sometimes people will go through and they’ll say, hey, my builder can adjust it on site and I’m like, well, you probably can, but you’re just opening your wallet up in your schedule.

Interviewer: Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for episode 53 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me 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’s it going, buddy?

Steve Tuma: It’s a great day. Another great day for people to start building a house. Always a good day.

Interviewer: Always a good day. And if I sound a little stuffy or even if Steve sounds a little stuffy, I think we both went through a cold thing and everybody’s been getting this, whatever this seasonal cold thing is. So hopefully we sound pretty clear. I think we’ll survive. Yeah. So you had brought up a subject you wanted to talk about today and that is standard plans, store and online bought plans and are they any good? And I’m sure a lot of people have questions about this. So is that something you’d be up for getting into right now?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, that’s kind of an interesting topic. It’s actually the whole plan situation is interesting because a lot of people will say, hey, I bought these plans. The local guy did them and he wins the awards in town or hey, I found them online or whatever. There’s a plan service in town or a plan book or whatever and they buy the plans and that was for your, hey, everything’s taken care of. Well, it kind of depends on what your situation is of the land because most of those plans are set for a house to be built on a flat piece of land. They don’t have considerations for slopes in the land, different situations, showing mechanical drawings, plumbing and electric that are relevant to your actual building site. So they might be a decent starting point for the concept, but the chances are you’ll need more details to really go through and build. So if you were just to go buy a set of plans and these people say, hey, they’re good for building permits.

Well, you got to wonder where they’re good for because most of them have a lot of disclaimers on them. You must go through a structural engineer. You must verify all the codes. You must verify the mechanical design. You must verify the dimensions. There’s so many things that you have to verify that you’ve really got to take the concept but start from zero to make sure that it’s put together. So if you were building a simple home in an area where there aren’t as many regulations on a flat piece of land as well, they might work if it’s a simple home. But if you’ve got a home that’s more complex, a Victorian, a modern design, a home with a lot of corners, a home with a lot of ridgelines, you might see that the plans have to be adjusted, especially if you get into higher snow loads, earthquake zones, high wind speeds, because those plans in general have been designed for areas where the building code enforcement is relatively simple. Say a 20-pound snow load, which is a lot of the United States, but then you go take this into Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Northeast, anywhere in the plains states, anywhere in the West Coast, anywhere in the Sierras or the Rockies or Florida earthquake zones, the wind speeds, snow loads, seismic conditions are way beyond the lowest standard. And what people will find is sheer walls need to be designed. Sometimes that will restrict part of the design.

The roof trusses need to be stronger to support it, and sometimes a stronger system takes more space in the structure and it needs to alter the design. So in general, what we have found is the plan services have great concepts, and we work with them on our website. They have great concepts that you may have to adapt to your particular building site. And that’s the interesting thing about it. So it’s not necessarily like if you were to buy a gallon of milk, you say, hey, it’s ready to be served at lunch. It’s kind of like, wait, it’s got to be adjusted. So that’s where I think we really come into play, because a lot of our customers do build on flat land, but also a lot of them are on the sides of hills, sloping areas. Maybe they have a walkout, so the front of the house is on a flat piece of land, but the rear is in a lower part for a walkout basement. So a lot of those plans have to be adjusted. There’s a little bit different business model there. The plan services are in the business of selling a plan and reselling it. We’re in the business of having plan sets that are buildable for your exact building site, the wants and needs you want in the house, also specifically applied to your building department’s requirements. There’s a big difference there. And I think that’s where I think people really appreciate our help, is helping go through to work to make sure that plans are suited for the building department.

Just this week, I had a customer, they bought a set of plans, they said, should I turn it into the building department? I said, well, if you look at the disclaimers on the plans, it says they need to be checked for codes, they need to be checked for proper engineering loads, for foundation design, for shear wall calculations. So I tell them, it’s one of those things, you either have to take care of it before you apply for permits, or the building department will likely ask for it. If for some reason they don’t, you’ll be adjusting it on site. In our opinion, it’s better to do the design work upfront on a piece of paper or PDF than it is to be doing it real time during construction. Our system, I think people will be able to control their budget and their schedule and their stress level, which is very important as well. So you’ve really got to look at it, but most building departments are getting more sophisticated on wanting to check snow loads, wanting to check seismic conditions, wanting to check shear, just wanting to check to make sure truss design is right. And pretty much every set of plans that I’ve seen that are like that, they need to be verified. So it needs to be done. It’s a great thing.

Interviewer: I don’t think people even have any concept. They go out and, let’s say I wanted to build a house, I go out and get some plans. They have no concept, I don’t think. The majority of people about what goes into just looking at the plans and then evaluating where this house is going to be built. There’s a lot to think about just before you even get, before just with the plans in your hand before you’ve even thought about building.

Steve Tuma: Right. And what happens is sometimes people will go through and they’ll say, hey, my builder can adjust it on site and I’m like, well, you probably can, but you’re just opening your wallet up in your schedule. It’s like, what adjustments has to be done? Why does it have to be done? What if there’s miscalculations and you’re doing it twice? It’s a change in budget, it’s stress, and your schedule is going to be altered considerably. So it’s better to work through all those details up front. You don’t want to design a house real time. You want to design it up front and then just execute the building. It’ll keep people’s sanity a lot better. It’ll keep the budget in better check and it’ll keep the schedule going. It’s just easier.

Interviewer: How much difference is it for somebody who buys a pre-drawn set of plans as opposed to talking to you first and maybe going on the landmark home and land company website and looking at plans?

Steve Tuma: We don’t charge anymore. We want people to get their own house. Right. So if someone has a pre-drawn set of plans, something they drew up, something a local person drew up, something that they bought, or they go to our website and do it, it’s all the same cost. I mean, now the features may be different. If their pre-drawn plans are an extremely complex home and they choose a plan off of our website, that’s simpler. The cost of the features will be less, so the cost is there. But if you had a like for like, it’s the same. So in the end run, there really isn’t any savings because we have to go through and make sure it’s done right. Where it might help is the customer can go through and have an idea of what they’re looking for.

They could be like, hey, I want a modern. I want a chalet. I want a Victorian. Or hey, I just want a simple boxy home to control costs so they can work through it. But I think some people are of the assumption that they have to have a plan to come with us. It’s like everyone does custom plans. I think in over 30 years we’ve been doing this, we only have had one customer build the plan exactly as on our website. Even if they say, hey, this is it. No changes. This is it. There’s always a change. The reason why is they start thinking deeper. It’s like, hey, this is the house and they’re like, hey, what about the kitchen? What about the garage? What about the living room? Then they’re like, hey, as they get to those different levels of thought, the adjustments come through. And what we’re able to do is work with them to get their adjustment done. But sometimes customers don’t realize that, hey, if you change one thing, it may affect something else. Sure. Domino effect all the time.

Right. So we could see the downstream issues. We had a situation, a beautiful garage area below with a living space above. The customer had a plan and it worked well. But then he said, hey, wait. We have a ski boat with a tower. It’s got to be a certain width. We got to put it in there. Well, just changing the width of the garage doors a couple of feet in the height changed the engineering requirements because we were just taking some wood structure away to make bigger garage doors where we had to reinforce it. Now we know that what was interesting is their building department didn’t necessarily think that it was something that had to be done. But we do because we know how to do it right. We’re going to have a properly engineered structure. So that’s a situation. And then sometimes people say, hey, well, can’t you just raise the header of my garage door? It’s like, yeah, but then you have to have a taller wall. So there’s all these little things. And then the taller wall means the staircase to go upstairs needs more rise and run. So there’s all these little things. But that’s not something someone’s got to necessarily get caught into. That’s our job. Right. It’s our job to listen to what they want and determine how to make it happen properly and affordably.

Interviewer: Now what about building departments and pre-drawn plans? I mean, is it any more difficult to get a pre-drawn plan through a building department than say, you know, something that they pull off of a website?

Steve Tuma: Well, a lot of building departments actually have now that if you have online bought plans or quote standard plans, they don’t accept them because the details aren’t there. Now some may do it, you know, less sophisticated, smaller towns. They might be like, yeah, sure. Those are your plans. There are some parts of America where you can still draw something on a piece of paper, not even a scale, just draw it at your dining room table and get a permit. But so we don’t look at it as getting the permit is the issue. That’s part of it. It’s making sure the house is built right at a controlled cost at the right schedule.

That’s the important part. And when you, the less clear your plans are, the more questions you’re going to have during the building phases. The more questions you have built during the building phases are delays and higher costs. So that’s why we say you should have this all taken care of upfront. The idea is not to sneak it by the building department, make it hard to build on site. The idea is to have a proper set of plans that the building department accepts and is also clear and easy for your contractors or subcontractors to build on site. So you don’t have what-ifs or oh-oh moments or I didn’t know that’s what you want. That’s the situation. There’s a lot of detail work that’s required in a plan to make sure that everyone understands what’s to be built. People don’t always know what they don’t know. So I’ve got a project now, a beautiful Victorian in upper Michigan, 1890s Victorian, it burned. We’re rebuilding it. Kind of a 1890s Victorian to modern design and the customer’s a knowledgeable person. He said, hey, no changes. And he’s always saying, well, do I have to do this? Do I have to do this? And now that we’re through the process, he’s like, I’m glad I’m working with you guys because I didn’t know that there were these issues. He didn’t understand the value of a grading plan, knowing the elevation of the street to where your driveway is to get into the garage. Also to make sure the relationship of your basement floor to your house floor to your garage floor to the exterior deck floor to the second level to the attic to make sure that everything works. So that’s one of the situations is there’s a lot of complexities. And that’s why I think it’s important to really look at your plans to do it. It’s not just for the building department to get a permit, it’s to know what you’re building so you can control the cost, get proper estimates from subcontractors and keep to a schedule.

Interviewer: Yeah. And it sounds to me what you’re saying is even if a building department accepts a pre-drawn plan, that doesn’t mean they’re exactly buildable and it doesn’t mean they’re meeting any codes either.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. A lot of people think that building departments are there, you know, crossing every T, dotting every I, checking everything, making sure the house is stylish, buildable, easy to put together, affordable. Building departments vary in what they choose to inspect. Some of them look at it and say, hey, that’s a good set of plans. The builders will figure it out on site. Well, you do that. You just open your wallet up to what are they going to build? If you want a 10 foot ceiling and they do a nine because the plans aren’t clear, it becomes a change order. So what we have found is building departments typically, first of all, if they check, they’re typically checking for safety and then some structural issues. They’re not necessarily checking to make sure the house is the way you want it. We have an example. There’s a project in a beautiful home in a mountain range. Beautiful home.

The customer decided to have a set of plans drawn up before approaching us and I said, hey, these aren’t necessarily detailed enough to understand what’s being built. And he said, well, the building department approved them. I’m like, well, the building department’s not checking the ceiling height of your entry level in your living room, in your dining room, in your master bedroom. They’re making sure the beams are right. They’re making sure the roof loading is right, seismic conditions, snow loads, and things like that. They’re not in there saying, hey, it’s unclear how tall your ceiling is. And the customer said, but I spent all this money, I did this. How does this happen? And I said, well, people think the building department is there to check everything to make sure your building life is perfect. It’s not. They’re there to take care of different issues and they’re not all the same. One building department will really just look at something, charge you a fee, give you a permit. Others will detail it to the very finite degrees, but they’re generally checking for code issues. Do you have egress windows? Do you have the right snow load? Do you have the right seismic conditions? Do you have the right wind loads? They’re not necessarily checking to make sure that your grade is right for your car to drive in the driveway. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, and that’s why sometimes people say, hey, building, you go over budget.

Well, there’s a difference of a change that you choose to say, hey, I don’t want a regular tub. I want a soaker tub that may cost more compared to not planning it right. And then later saying, uh-oh, I didn’t plan it right, therefore there’s a change. So what we’re saying is do the right set of plans. So you understand the project, understand your budget, understand your subcontractors, see how we can help you and then make sure it’s the house that you want. So it’s kind of an interesting process. I think people really, after they go through, they’re like, wow, there’s a lot involved. But that’s what we do. You know, it’s kind of like watching TV. You don’t necessarily have to know how a TV works, you just need to know what you want out of it. Hey, I want a comedy. I want a football game. You know, so in our cases, we can help someone through it. And if they choose to want to learn the process, we’re more than happy to work through it with them.

Interviewer: Now, do pre-drawn plans, that’s really hard to say, pre-drawn plans, do they have structural details or does everything need to be verified? And how accurate are the details in a pre-drawn plan?

Steve Tuma: Well, that can vary, but most of the ones that I see, it says right on there, you should have an engineer or someone verify for codes and dimensions. And there’s a variety of releases within the purchase of the plans. Sometimes people have a local Draftsman drive and they’ll put beam in there. Well, what does that mean? What’s the beam? Is it a single two by eight? Is it a glue lamp? Is it a triple 11 7 8 LVL? So those are the things we have to go through. So what I’ve really found on those is they’re kind of architectural plans with the structural details having to be detailed out. And a lot of times it’s just because there’s a lot of calculations, there’s a lot of knowledge, there’s a lot of things. And there’s a difference of an architectural Draftsman compared to a structural engineer and then tying those together. So it makes sense. We get a lot of plans that I say are just not unified. An engineer does this, an architectural designer does that, but they don’t communicate. So the plans don’t match up and people will say, well, why I paid them? They’re professionals. Well, everyone’s doing their own job, but no one’s looking at the overall project. That’s where we come in and play. That’s why our system works, because you don’t have to try to land up the architectural guy, the structural guy, the grading plans, the energy codes, the green codes, whatever details are there. It’s a lot of stuff. And if you don’t understand it, it’s easy to forget things. Right.

Interviewer: So what’s the average plan that comes through you that doesn’t, let’s say that doesn’t come off of the landmark website. Are they complete? Are pre-drawing plans ever complete?

Steve Tuma: I’ve never seen a set. I mean, the reason why is they’re generally architectural plans and they all have disclaimers say, hey, do this, check the dimensions, do this, check this, or they’ll just have simple details assuming that people will figure it out on site. And I think a lot of that is because they’re doing the simplified version of an architectural design. They’re not doing an architectural design that’s intended to fit at your specific building site on your exact lot. Right. So that’s different. So Steve, let’s just take a sloping piece of land and at the bottom there’s a flat spot and at the top there’s a flat spot.

Well, are you building at the bottom flat spot, the top flat spot on the side of the hill? Do you have a walkout? You know, where’s your driveway coming in? There’s a lot of considerations and it takes a lot of time to figure out, hey, what the grade is, how does the house get accessed? Sometimes you need a grading plan, sometimes you need topographical details. So on these standardized plans, of course, they’re kind of just taking plans, copying them and sending them to you. There’s no one there saying, hey, what’s your grade? What’s your slope? What are your seismic conditions? What’s the strength of your soil? Where’s your septic at? Where’s your water supply at? You know, different things like that. How do your energy calculations come into this? So that’s why it just isn’t really possible to have a standard plan that works in a variety of conditions.

Interviewer: But people, when they buy a plan, let’s say online, it seems that they can have a real false sense of accomplishment after they’ve purchased it. It’s like, oh, now I’ve got pretty much the house is ready to go.

Steve Tuma: Right. It’s kind of like buying that one size fits all hat. Not everyone’s head’s the same size or shape or the pair of gloves. It’s like, yeah, you can make it work, but it doesn’t. You’re not going to use it. You know, so it’s kind of an interesting concept and people don’t always realize it. And we understand that. But that’s why we’re here to help, to say, hey, that’s a great starting point. Right. Let’s get you to the rest so that you control the budget and know what’s going on.

Interviewer: So it’s usually you should think of any pre-bought or pre-drawn plan as a guide more than anything.

Steve Tuma: That’s the way we look at it. It’s a starting point to say, hey, I want this. But we have them on our website. I think we have our website says 1800. I think we have like 6000 plans. So chances are we have the plan that people want or an extreme close thing that we can adjust to it. And we work with a very good plan service that then allows us to have these options and work through with people to do it. So I think we’ve developed a system where people can can get ideas. You know, it’s kind of like going to, you know, if you went and say you needed a shirt for a special family event, you know, you might say, hey, I want one that fits right. That’s red. That’s, you know, this or that big collar or whatever ruffles or whatever it may be that you want.

You know, you’re probably not going to find it. You might have to adjust it, tailor it, get something, get a sweater that matches it, something so it fits for your exact need. So that’s what we’re able to do is customize it and then give people an idea, because whether you’re paying with cash or financing, you want to know that your budget’s right. Sure. You don’t want to go through and say, well, I’m right within two or three hundred thousand. Because if you’re working with a bank, they’re going to look at your budget, ask you to verify it, and you want to be able to stick to it. You don’t want to create issues where you knowingly have bad plans that then lead to a budget issue. And you have to go back to a bank or to your own bank account to say, hey, I need some more money. It’s just it’s a great headache to avoid. And we can do it up front with paper to give people a plan so they can verify the budget and then start building.

Interviewer: Well, this all leads to one big question. There’s a lot of work even after you bought a pre-drawn plan. If there’s so much work, why are there so many companies selling them?

Steve Tuma: Because people buy them. That’s the situation. It’s a great idea. It’s a great place to peruse and have the idea that, hey, I got a set of plans. I’ve started the project. Well, you have in a way, but you need to get deeper into it to really refine the project to it. So they’re easy. Some customers are into the instant gratification. Hey, I could buy it. I could download it now. I’ve taken a step forward and to a degree they have, but has it been a good solid step? But if they do have those plans, we can work with them. If they don’t, if they haven’t purchased the plans, we can talk to them about the situation of where it makes sense, because it’s probably in our plan set. And just with licensing and a whole bunch of stuff, we’ve got a pretty slick process where in the long run they’ll save money. Right.

Interviewer: Well, very informative. I know you answered a lot of my questions about going online and buying house plans. It sounds like it’s a good way to go, but it’s still going to be a lot of due diligence and vigilance to get them done right.

Steve Tuma: Right. But we have a process that makes it easy. We know the questions to ask. If a customer’s not clear exactly what something means, like if we say, hey, your building department’s asking for a grading and drainage plan. They’re like, what is that? It rains and the water drains off of there. What do they need? Well, they want to know that when you put your driveway and the house sets there, it’ll still drain away and it won’t flood your neighbor out or your own house. So we can help them through the process to get it taken care of. If someone says, hey, I want a window in the basement and that basement’s below ground, we can say, hey, this is how we can work light in their windows or do something to take care of their concerns.

So it’s actually pretty cool because the customers that do this, they get a set of plans. They say, hey, I’m not doing changes and they get into it. A couple of weeks into it, they’re like, this is pretty cool. I never thought of it. It feels good to understand and do it right. So it’s actually something that I think at first the customers might be a little awkward. They’re like, but I have these plans that they should be good. But after they see how we help them and they work through these issues, they see the benefit. And then when they’re building, they get to see the triple benefit of not having to do changes, not having to run into those uh-oh moments. And it’s pretty cool. It’s a good feeling. And I think the customers really, really appreciate it.

Interviewer: Well, excellent once again. And that’s going to wrap it up for today’s episode. But before we go and skedaddle out of here, Steve, let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys do over there.

Steve Tuma: The best thing to do is take a look at our website, which is LHLC.com, which is basically the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company. So LHLC.com. They can look at the website, they can look at plans, they can look at just different videos, listen to some of these podcasts, get some great information. They can also send an email from there or an inquiry or give us a call. And Mike will answer the phone at 800-830-9788, at 800-830-9788. But I’d say take a look at the website, LHLC.com. And we’re very helpful and proactive. We answer the phone. And if for some reason you do get our voicemail, you can leave a message and we will get back with you.

We understand that customers work different hours, have different schedules, have different times where the husband and wife can get together and communicate. So we make ourselves available and we will take the time to review a process with someone, help them understand how we can help them so that we can kind of mold the project, how we can help them with design, engineering, permit application, and building, so they can see the vision of their project. And we’ll take that time up-front to do it. That’s important. We’re very interested in having people that really want to do it right. It’s fun.

Interviewer: And fun is what home building should be. It shouldn’t all be headache, right?

Steve Tuma: Oh, hey, it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work, but there’s a lot of joy and sense of accomplishment at the end. And that, I think, is why people do it. We have one family, I think they’re on their 20th home or 18th or something. Wow. They’re going to do a couple more. So it’s something that people enjoy. There’s home shows all over on TV. It’s like, hey, let’s go do one. We’re here to help.

Interviewer: Well, boom. Once again, we have wrapped a very, very informative episode of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great day, everyone. And we will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. This is a lot of fun. Let’s help some people build some cool homes. There you go. Thank you.

A: Generic online house plans are drafted to appeal to broad markets rather than specific municipal codes, often labeling beams, foundation connections, and truss designs as optional or to be determined by the builder. Omitting specific engineering details shifts structural decisions to on-site framers, leading to failed inspections, unexpected change orders, and compromised architectural features.

A: Visual perception often hides subtle elevation changes, such as a two-foot grade drop across a thirty-foot span that only a precise topographic survey will reveal. Failing to account for these subtle grade shifts alters foundation step-downs, impedes gravity-fed sewer lines, and disrupts proper stormwater drainage away from finished foundation walls.

A: Minor architectural adjustments—such as setting back an attached garage by two feet or shifting a roof ridge—can open unobstructed sightlines for morning sunrises in the kitchen and evening sunsets in the master suite. Custom drafting aligns window placements with geographic sun paths and surrounding terrain rather than relying on standard, rigid stock orientations.

A: Architectural cross-sections provide a vertical slice through the entire structure, detailing the exact physical relationship between foundation footers, floor joists, interior wall heights, and roof truss connections. These dimensional cross-sections give excavators, framers, and mechanical trades clear installation parameters, preventing clearance errors between living spaces, garages, and outdoor patios.

A: While 2×4 framing may appear to offer minor upfront lumber savings, deeper 2×6 wall cavities accommodate substantially thicker insulation with higher R-values. Investing in 2×6 exterior walls significantly reduces thermal transfer, lowers monthly heating and cooling expenses, and improves overall interior comfort over decades of homeownership.

Steve Tuma: Something which is interesting, a lot of people think, well I’ve never built anything, I’ve never swung a hammer. We have a lot of extremely successful customers that have been successful in building because they understand the management of a project.

Interviewer: Hi everybody and thank you for joining us for episode 52 of the panelized prefab kit home building show. With me 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 and Steve you must be proud this is the 30th anniversary of Landmark, that’s pretty cool.

Steve Tuma: Yeah yeah a couple weeks ago it’s kind of weird I woke up and I was like something’s up today what’s going on and then like oh it’s a birthday you know and it’s kind of interesting because I remember starting the company and working through different growth phases, coming up with new products, expanding across the country, working internationally in different places and you kind of look back and go this is cool. Yeah. It’s amazing and just the knowledge and attitude we’ve developed to help people really get their house projects going.

Interviewer: You know it’s one thing I found kind of interesting is that sometimes it seems like the companies that are family-owned, family-started, are the ones that last forever. What do you think that is?

Steve Tuma: Well there there’s more of a desire for long-term planning. It’s not like you know let’s do something today and hurt us tomorrow. It’s like let’s do something today that benefits our customers today, next week, next month and tomorrow. And when you’re in for the long run it’s just like compounding money. You’re compounding goodwill, you’re compounding knowledge, you’re compounding the methods of helping customers and refining your product and services as you move along. So I think that’s the difference is we’ve had some customers, I’m not suggesting anyone try to break this record, but took ten and a half years of working with us before they actually signed the contract. Because they had to go through this, then they had to go through this, then this happened, then a little bit of this happened, and then they had to get their land and you know so it goes through. So this isn’t something where you’re like hey honey on the way home pick up a gallon of milk. You know people think about it. It’s a big step, big step. Yeah but it’s a big step but it’s also a beneficial situation. It’s a situation where you build and get a new home, save some money, get some equity, control the quality and get the house you want instead of someone convincing you that you need a house. It’s kind of like sticking a square peg in a round hole type of thing. It’s like why not just get the house you want.

Interviewer: I wanted to start off this episode by asking you about something you have listed on your website. Something called standardized plans and I think what that is, is plans that are generic but still they need to be updated for local building departments, code applications, specific building sites. Can we get into that with you exactly? How standardized plans start from a certain space and how they can change along the way?

Steve Tuma: That’s something what happens. There’s websites all over and some of them are actually decent but people will have a set of plans that they’ll buy and they’ll be like well I paid whatever I got them online and here’s a set of plans and they must be good for the building department. Maybe they are and most likely they’re not. So you never know. It really comes down to what the building department needs but even so sometimes these plans are drawn up for the purpose of selling them online instead of really having the details of what’s there for building departments, any changes that you may want and real structural concerns.

Everyone I’ve seen I should say has stuff saying you should run it by a structural engineer, that they’re not necessarily designed for your building department. They might be designed for one town in America and so what are the chances that someone designed it for one town in America that it fits your code? But also building departments are getting more and more sophisticated even in places where they may not have been sophisticated 5-10 years ago where they need different details, they need sections, they need accuracy. They don’t want plans that say size of beam to be determined, trusses by designer. The building department wants to see the trusses, the building department wants to know what beam you’re using. So sometimes those standardized plans are kind of generic for the purpose of maybe an idea but generally we have found our customers want to know exactly what they’re building. They want to know what the ceilings are right. They don’t want to look at a plans and say optional. What does that mean? So if you give them a builder he gets to make the option and say oh this is easy for me, you’re not getting your cathedral ceiling. So that’s one of these things. So they’re kind of a generic guidepost on building. A lot of people think that plans are there to get your building department to approve them. That’s a portion of it.

We believe that the plans are there so that the customer understands what needs to be built as the financing source, as the building department and any contractors involved as well as us. So when you have a standardized plan they’re not likely to be detailed to the degree that you will really need so you know what is being built. So it’s a variety of situations. It’s code applications, building department requirements, clarity for your contractors, clarity for yourself. You know so you know what’s being built. You should you should know what’s on your plan set. You shouldn’t look at your plan set and said room size to be determined, ceiling height to be determined, trusses to be determined. A lot of people think well a truss it’s just a truss. Well no it isn’t. It could have a tray ceiling, it could have a cathedral ceiling, it could have an energy heel on it. There’s a lot of details that that can be worked out but that’s that’s where we come in. We can help. We don’t expect every customer to know every single detail. We just want to get an idea and then help them move along for the plan set.

Interviewer: And you’re talking details like details that are very specific like like working with contractors or the or the you know trying to get building departments things like that. But let’s let’s move over to the details of the build and I mean things like ceilings, walls, windows, you know roof structures, relationship to the foundation. How does Landmark go about helping the customer know exactly what they’re building so they can be like you just said a customer wants to be clear and they want to be clear in their own mind as well as you know with the contractor working one on one and everybody isn’t just standing around guessing on a build site.

Steve Tuma: Right that’s what we do is we kind of plug in where the customers ideas where they’re formulated and then we get them you know across the line. So customer may have the general concepts of what’s there but they probably haven’t thought about grade, drainage plans, gutters, how to how to attach a beam. They might not have thought too much about the windows. You know windows are the perfect thing. People go through and say oh just put a standard window in. Well window manufacturers do not have standard sizes. Right. So they might have a window that’s three by five but is that the rough opening size or is that the window size? Right. Or is it a slightly different size if it’s a casement window versus a single hung? Mm-hmm. So it’s all those little details that once we work with the customer in a process that we have that’s a proven process to help them get the information as we need it through the design process so that they’re not out there you know they’re ordering windows and suddenly the wrong size window comes in. Right. So there’s a lot of little tricks and nuances that that we can help make it easy for them. So in a sense we kind of help coach them through different situations see what’s going on and take it from there. Like ceiling ceilings it’s you know it’s something people to understand more. Some people be like I just want a flat ceiling.

Other people say oh I want a big volume ceiling which might also be a cathedral or might be a vaulted ceiling. Kind of the same idea three different words for the same thing. But what does that mean exactly and what are they intending to do with it? So some people would say hey we have big holiday celebrations we want a spot for a big Christmas tree or hey we we want a tall ceiling so that we have big windows so we could have a view of the mountain range or the night sky. So we can work with them on on details like that. Different walls. Just had a customer working on a project and he said Steve I want a great insulated home it’s my last home I’m gonna live in it for 30, 40 years I want to do it but I want to save money and go with a two by four wall. And I’m like well I don’t know if you’re actually saving money because in a two by six wall you can get a lot more insulation if you’re going to live there for 30 years you know we could work those details out. So there’s structural concerns, insulation concerns, just different details we can work with them. A lot of people like on the plans they think hey I got a beam in my basement but who’s thinking about how that beam’s attached to the post or how that beam’s attached to the foundation.

You know different details and that that’s what we work on so with a complete set of plans the customer and us can work on it the customer understands it it’s on the plan so it’s clear to the contractor minimizing uh-oh moments and gee I forgot I didn’t know it’s on the plan so they can review the plans before they start the project and the contractor can can go do their their work. Right. You know you brought something up relationships to the foundation that’s one of those things that people never even think about. Right. You know so so let’s just say you were building a house on a flat piece of land you and I might stand out there and go yeah that looks like a flat piece of land but if you had a surveyor there might be a two foot rise in 30 feet. Right. That appears flat but in reality it isn’t so depending on the foundation you have you might have to adjust some of the the the foundation or grade around it. Also relationships to the foundation sometimes people want to a walk out basement sometimes they want to look out basement kind of half basement underground windows above ground sometimes they want a slab but they’re building on the side of a hill how does this work how do we get stuff uh together and then a lot of stuff it’s also how the energy codes work how do you insulate this so that you don’t have a cold floor and then you know the you you have an energy efficient and comfortable home so there’s a lot of details all of us will know about it’s like when you mention it you’re like yeah that makes sense I knew that well you do when that when it’s brought up in conversation going through the design process but it’s not something if if you asked a typical customer to list it that they would right yeah when’s when’s the last time you were at a cocktail party and said hey let me tell you about the relationship of the foundation to my grade on the side of a granite cliff you probably never heard that you probably also never really heard about someone just putting a slab on a fat on a flat piece of land so that’s that’s one of the things that that we work with because people don’t realize that can affect drainage to your septic system or sewer line it can affect drainage of water off your roof so it’s kind of important stuff yeah those are things that you know we’re so comfortable in our life we never think about the things that we have to do to do it but that’s what we do we we kind of geek out on this and and help people get through the process.

Interviewer: You know it just occurred me what I wish is that there were companies like Landmark Home and Land Company for all aspects of life like buying a pair of jeans online you know every every company makes so their sizes are completely different you know a Levi’s or a Wrangler and a 34 waist isn’t going to be the same in every one so if there was a a Landmark Company sort of like that for clothing where you could call them and they could talk you through this yeah that would be great.

Steve Tuma: Well what it’s true and it but it’s but it’s really a true understanding to your specific project your project in your house one thing that you bring up is like I joke with people I saw this ad for a large pizza so I ordered it and it showed up as 12 inches right I think a large peach is like six when I was a little kid there was 16 inches it was like you feed a family but now for different marketing things it’s so it’s like so what are you really getting and that’s the time that we go through and on a set of plans go through and show it dimensions what the house is like sections of a house so you could see what a cathedral ceilings like so you can see the relationship of a ceiling height in a hallway and how it transitions to an outdoor patio you know so there there’s a lot of cool stuff that that we could do and what we try to do is have an extremely complete set of plans so your excavator understands your foundation guy understands the framer the window people the roofers the electricians the building department the inspectors banks and your own family so you know what it is that you’re choosing to build.

Interviewer: It sounds to me like having the having the right plans knowing what the plans are are going to be they’re going to help not just with hey look how my house is going to look but the budgeting the schedule the overall keeping control of your own project it seems like that all is sort of shoved into what a really detailed plan would be.

Steve Tuma: Right right but we don’t it’s not something that’s so overbearing where you got to understand this all right away it’s piece by piece you work on this you work on the schedule you work on the budget you know so like like someone told me way back how do you eat an elephant you don’t do it in one bite you do a bunch of little bites you manage it you prioritize things and and we can help uh people people through the process to to get them uh push started and be there for continual support through throughout the project right something which is interesting you know a lot of people think well i’ve never built anything i’ve never swung a hammer we have a lot of extremely successful customers that have been successful in building because they understand the management of a project and they choose to go through so even though they’ve never really built anything before i mean maybe when their kids used a lincoln log or legos or something but they’re able to understand the process work with the right people to to to get the uh the the home built and that that’s what’s amazing about it so you don’t have to be an electrical engineer you don’t have to be an hvac design genius you don’t have to be the master drywaller you can be if you happen to have those skills or you have friends and family that can help right or you could be someone that hires subcontractors to get the job done and what you’ll find is when you have a real set of plans with accurate details those people take you seriously if you show up with what i call you know jokingly called cartoons the people aren’t going to take you seriously you know just think of it if you were someone offering a service and someone came to you saying hey i’m building at one two three main street here are the plans you’re going to take them a lot more serious than well we might build something that kind of looks like this you know what i mean you know so that that’s what it is it makes the the overall project go better.

Interviewer: Well it sounds to me like one of the the aspects of landmark home and land company the the I’d say one of the tightest things that you guys offer one of the most amazing things you guys offer is it sounds like you’re helping the customer keep an overall control of their house build you know and that’s got to give people confidence.

Steve Tuma: That’s that’s it that that’s it because when you retain control you you control the budget you control the schedule you control the quality you control what’s being built right yeah and that’s that’s i think ultimately why people work with us now people come to us saying you know they’ll find panelized homes on uh on our website they’ll see it but when they get into the support of the plans and they start seeing the control and how they can get it put together that’s that’s really the the key element of it yeah because it’s people build their house it’s a lot of work but the end result is something that they’re not likely have been able to get any other ways and by understanding your project controlling your project knowing about your project you’re going to get a better product you’re going to get a beautiful home.

Interviewer: Yeah and you’re you’re allowing people to be flexible because there’s a lot of of plans plan designs on your website to choose from but i doubt very often that somebody buys one of those plans and the house ends up being exactly what that plan is.

Steve Tuma: I think in 30 years it happened once like 22 years ago someone said i want that exact house right and i’m just kind of like wow you know but you know people people always go through and do it that’s the cool thing because you know everyone’s watching their budget whether it’s a hundred thousand dollar adu or a five or ten million dollar home everyone’s watching the budget but there’s still stuff that they want they want to make it their house i want my kitchen with my window overlooking the yard i want my garage with my workbench i want my basement with the pool table and a walk out to to the garden or whatever it may be so that’s that’s the the thing that we have so you know there’s a lot of ways to get a house but i look at it as when you’re done you you give yourself the best chance to sit there at the end look at it go this is cool this is what we want we designed it the way we want it it works and five ten years later still have it work.

Interviewer: Yeah yeah well you know we talk about plans on this show a lot because that’s where everything starts but we all but plan isn’t just one piece of paper it’s not just a letterhead with here’s your plan and i’m there’s there’s so many aspects to just the plans themselves explain that explain what what plan sets are and and how they work as a tool between you and the owner builder.

Steve Tuma: Well i look at it as a communication tool you know so that everything is there in a drawing and writing with details showing what the customers have built so the banker understands if financing’s involved the building department contractors the the owner us to go through and get it put together so it’s details it’s architectural design sections structural designs electrical layouts plumbing layouts different levels of availability of hvac design energy calculations site plans if a customer wants it green codes in certain areas but the key is not just that you have those individual items but it’s that they work together and the plan set is consistent right so that you don’t have a conflict here you know the energy calculations say you should have R and R 19 and the drawing says R 13 right to have everything there so so so that it uh so that it works together and that allows the customer to fully understand the process so it’s it’s a communication tool first of all in the early stages for the customer to kind of communicate with us and the customer to go through the process of of thinking it through because you know sometimes the design process it kind of starts the overall form what does it look like where’s the big window where’s the garage but as you get into it suddenly it’s like hey wait a second where do i want the dishwasher hey where’s the pool table going to be where where is the big screen going to be where you know some customers they they have different shifts or they want a room that’s quiet you know what room’s going to be super insulated is there a theater room how’s the theater room going to work how’s the garage going to access where’s the utility room and and just by spending a little bit of time we can go through and and help people through through the process to get the home they want so we don’t expect people to understand everything the first time through it’s it’s an it’s an evolution kind of to go through and get the plans good together and you know what’s interesting um i’ve actually never counted how many customers we’ve helped but in in 30 years every project is different and we’ve had customers build the same house multiple times and there’s always different concerns sure yeah because one lot’s different than the other the sewer comes in on the back instead of on the front or hey it’s on a septic or hey the evolution from regular hvac systems to mini split heating and cooling systems you know different different situations a lot more people are going with heated floor systems how do those work so as people go through they they get different questions and you know some might be more involved with the windows some people might be more concerned about their basement in their garage some people might be uh more interested in other things.

We had a customer great guy todd hey todd he’s in wisconsin built a uh a retirement home and and his concern was he saved his life for his life to get a lake property so he wanted to be able to sit in a chair his lazy boy look out the lake nice see the fireplace and his big screen tv and he didn’t want to really have to rotate so we actually we actually worked to make sure the windows were there the fireplace was there and the tv was there so i jokingly said with him because we we got along and just had a great time like we do with all of our customers and i i said but todd who’s going to bring your your soda he goes oh my dog does that he knows how to open the fridge and bring me bring me bring me what i need so in that case this particular customer that was an that was his dream that he worked for for 30 40 years to have a home where he could watch the lake the swans on the lake watch the fireplace and he was a green bay packer fan well so he could be in one place he knew what he wanted get that taken care of we’ve had other people that have exceptional views of mountain ranges and the sierras um in the rockies or in the plain states or oceans whatever whatever it may be and there’s specific things that they want to be able to uh to look at and this doesn’t always mean that you have to have the most expensive coolest piece of land on the property everyone’s property has something that that they that they like that we work with we’re we’re actually just delivering a house uh this friday um a nice two-story kind of colonial design where we actually shifted a roof line in the garage so that a window coming out of the the upstairs master suite would get a better view of the the sunset you know it’s just this this little thinking of like hey wait if we jockey the garage back two feet he’ll get the sunset because this particular customer bill he could watch the sun rise in the kitchen in the morning with coffee and then at night when he’s winding down reading he could look out the opposite window and see the sunset and those two things the inviting the day in and closing the day out were extremely important in in this house a beautiful home yeah and that that that’s that’s the cool thing about it so when we get to standardized plans it’s like yeah that’s someone’s idea and they’re they’re in the business of duplicating plans we’re in the business of saying but what about you what about your land how how do we get the most out of it because the time it takes to adjust a window size slide a garage back a little so that you get the sunset that you want it’s just a little bit of thinking yeah and and and we uh we we got it taken care of.

Interviewer: How how good have you gotten over 30 years at at playing let’s say psychologist in the way that people you know if i were building a house i know there’s going to be panic times and the fact that you guys are so available and on the phone so readily and uh you know talking somebody off the ledge who really thinks a small problem is really much bigger than it is.

Steve Tuma: You know amazingly that doesn’t happen a lot really because i i think the process of finding us and working with us the people have a level of comfort we’ve got great reviews you know people could read the reviews on our on our website from the better business bureau it’s right at the top of our web page you can click it and i think that there’s a comfort there that hey you’re being taken care of because all of us have been consumers where you know there’s some company that’s got some award from who knows what company and then you you get to call in and your hold time is 52 minutes you know 10 minutes later your hold time is 56 minutes oh but if you want us to call us back you won’t lose your position yeah you know just leave your number and you never get a call thus you give a call and there’s there’s a knowledgeable person likely me that will go through and work specifically to answer your question right not with a canned standard answer but with an answer that relates to you your house your project and what you need and sometimes we’re we’re even able to jump ahead of it because sometimes people ask questions and they don’t realize that there’s a downstream question right so so we could kind of say hey we’ve been here before you’re asking this question but let me let me expand it a little bit farther and help you through this process.

Interviewer: Yeah and just it’s you guys help people prepare that’s the thing so that’s the more the more preparation the less of those um panic of talk me off the ledge moments there’s

Steve Tuma: But but it compounds so a lot of people are like they don’t realize the value of the the right set of plans and when building so what it does by compounding is we also build the panelized home package that matches this plan so a good decision in the early stage allows us to build we’ll develop the final set of plans that go through permitting and then build the the panelized home package that fits that plan set so it matches the plan set which makes for easy assembly and easy building department inspection and approval so it’s kind of a compounding of good decisions and good decisions make for a better project so the key to it is the the unity and the design and the panelized home package so that you don’t end up in a situation where someone has a set of plans and then a local contractor sticks builds something that might be easier more convenient different that doesn’t match the plans and then an inspector says hey that doesn’t match what we approved and you the customer gets to pay for that that’s not the way we do it we do the set of plans that matches the panelized home so what’s delivered is what was approved by the customer the bank and the building department right yeah so that’s that’s an extremely important part we’re doing a lot of talking about the the plans which are good but the plans it’s it’s the kind of the roadmap to the construction of the house so how it ties into the panelized home package the floor systems the walls the headers the roof systems electrical layouts plumbing layouts that’s that’s what the key issue i don’t want to simplify it too much to say it’s kind of like a recipe but it is if you have a good recipe you’re gonna have a better meal and that that’s kind of the same situation of uh.

Interviewer: Well it’s kind of life i mean preparation builds confidence that’s how our confidence comes from the more prep you have

Steve Tuma: And that’s why when you say to people you know are they on the ledge it’s like no they start seeing this they start seeing how we help right there you know some people be like well what’s a section i’m like well it’s kind of a slice through the house and i’ll be like well why do i need that well because you see the relation of the land to the foundation to the floor system to the walls to the the ceilings to the roof systems how how you approach from a garage into a house how you know make sure that you have all these accesses so you do so things are well thought out so you’re not out there building something and someone goes well this isn’t working you know we we’ve already worked through those items and that’s that’s the the key element and another thing is we also suggest that during the plan phases our customers share the plans with the contractors because sometimes different places people have different ideas of how to do the same thing the end result is likely the same but maybe they like to do something differently sure you know there are just some places where people do block foundations other people do icf other people do poured cement you know so there’s different theories you can’t really say one’s better than the other there it’s just a different one and each has their benefits you know to work with so we like to go through and make it make an accurate set of plans so that people do so that people work with it the the important thing about this and the very interesting thing is people appreciate it when they’re into it they don’t realize the value of front but when they’re there and it’s going smooth and maybe their friends building a house in different methods and this house gets done quicker it’s easier and they still have their hair there they’re all doing i gotta be honest about it building a house is a lot of work it can be stressful but it’s in the management and like you you brought up confidence and understanding of your project that puts you in in position to build it better right it’s the pre-planning that goes through to uh to make the actual execution of building a lot better

Interviewer: Awesome well that’s gonna wrap it up for us today for this episode of uh the panelized prefab kit home building show and uh but before we let you go Steve i want you to tell our audience how to get ahold of you guys over at landmark home and land company.

Steve Tuma: I think the best thing to do is check out our website um maybe you found our podcast on the website or you just found them floating around the internet but our website is l h l c dot com kind of like the initials of landmark home land company l h l c dot com and there’s videos on there there’s these podcasts there’s thousands of plans there’s general discussions about different things and you can submit inquiries on plans or just general comments through the website but you can also give us a call at 800-830-9788 again it’s 800-830-9788 and you could work with Mike he’ll work in the initial phases to find out what you need how we can help you do you have land you know what kind of help you need and get you you know preliminary concepts and then once you’re at a point where you’re ready to go um i would contact the customer and then then we get into the you know the details of actually getting the project going it’s a kind of a seamless process it’s easy going and we work at the pace that a customer wants to work at we don’t push it along you know it’s i mean if a customer needs us to push it along we will but we work at the pace that that they do for their timeline their budget and and the expectations so it’s a lot of fun it’s it’s a great time.

Interviewer: Perfect well thanks again for taking time out today Steve and thanks to all of you for listening to the panelized prefab kit home building show always informative always helpful so for Steve Tuma and myself have a great day and we will see you next time thanks Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thank you.