Preconstruction: Turning A Big Decision Into A Confident One
Start with a conversation, not a contract—book your free concept and budget visit.
What Preconstruction Is (And Why It Makes Building Less Scary)
When You Start Paying (And How That 1% Works For You)
Most people jump from “we’d love a new home” straight into full design and big contracts, then discover the real costs and compromises later. Preconstruction creates a safe space in between, where we explore ideas, test budgets, and plan the build without locking you into a million-dollar mistake.
With Crafted Performance Homes, preconstruction is a structured working phase where we become your guide: we listen, sketch, price scenarios, and show you how each decision affects cost and schedule. You get clarity before commitment, which is what makes a huge decision feel manageable instead of overwhelming.
Your first step with us is always a free concept and budget visit where we talk through your ideas, look at the site, and give you honest budget guidance. If you want us to keep going together, we sign a Preconstruction Agreement for about 1% of your total project budget; that small fee unlocks our full planning process and is credited toward your build if you hire us to construct the home. During this phase we treat your project like it’s already real: we refine drawings, talk with key trade partners, and tighten the numbers until the plan, the budget, and the schedule line up. By the time you’re ready for a build contract, that first 1% has already earned its keep many times over in avoided surprises.
Your Preconstruction Roadmap
We don’t wing it, we follow a clear path together so you always know where you are in the process. First is Concept & Goals, where we listen, walk the space, and capture how you want to live in your future home. Then Budget & Feasibility, where we price different paths and make sure the design and the dollars agree before anything gets too far. Next is Design & Selections, where we refine floor plans and pick key finishes and systems that drive cost and performance. Finally we move into Schedule & Pre-Build, where we map out a Gantt-style schedule, coordinate permits, line up our self-perform crews and trade partners, and set a realistic start window for your build.
What You Actually Get: The Preconstruction Deliverables
Preconstruction isn’t just meetings and talk; it ends with a stack of real, buildable information you can hold in your hands. You get a written budget estimate that breaks down major line items, allowances, and contingencies so you can see where every dollar is going. You get scaled floor plans and drawings that reflect the decisions we’ve made together and are ready to hand to inspectors, lenders, and our field crew. You get a Gantt chart schedule that lays out the major milestones of your project, from excavation to move-in, so you can plan your life around the build. You also get organized selections and scopes of work, capturing the cabinets, flooring, fixtures, and details we’ve chosen so there’s no confusion once construction starts.
How Preconstruction Changes The Build
A home that’s been carefully preplanned behaves very differently once you’re under construction. Because we’ve already aligned the design, budget, and schedule, our field crew isn’t improvising; they’re executing a plan we built together on paper first. That means fewer change orders, fewer “we didn’t think about that” moments, and far less rework. Lenders and inspectors get the information they need quickly, materials are ordered on time, and trades know exactly what they’re walking into. The build becomes predictable and boring in the best way possible, which is exactly what you want when this much money is on the line.
What Happens When You’re Ready To Move Forward
When you decide Crafted Performance Homes is the right fit, we formalize things with the Preconstruction Agreement and deposit, then schedule a working session at your home or our office to dive into details. From there we refine your drawings, nail down scopes of work with our trusted trade partners, and tune the budget and schedule until they’re something we’re prepared to build against. At the end of preconstruction you receive a complete package: plans, written estimate, schedule, and selections, along with a firm or tightly ranged build price and a proposed start window. At that point the next step is simple: sign the construction contract and let our frame-to-finish crew build the house you already understand.