Westerra Customer Experiences: Rob and Cindy
Why did you decide to build a custom home?
We wanted a retirement home. We’ve actually built several homes and changed the design, so for this home we wanted our own design and our own ideas and colors. We found a nice parcel of land over here in Port Angeles and decided to get something that we actually wanted instead of buying something that might be twenty or twenty-five years old.
Why did you choose Westerra Custom Homes?
We looked at one of the larger builders in the area and then we looked at Greg’s company. We liked Greg’s hands-on approach, and that we could make some changes to the plan. Westerra wasn’t as regimented as we thought the other company was. Obviously price was a major consideration.
Greg has been in the business for many years, and he had told us that he had worked with many of the same subcontractors that whole time, which was important to us. We wanted to make sure that he had a relationship with his subs for ten, fifteen, twenty years. Plus he also has a good rapport with the county. Having a waterfront property requires many different permits with special requirements, so it was important to have somebody who had a good rapport with the county and could handle any obstacles. There are a lot of rule changes when you’re building a waterfront home, and Greg was up on all of them. It worked out well.
What was your experience like building your custom home?
Greg and Jeff came up with a budget and offered us two options: a fixed price or a cost plus plan. We wanted to go with a fixed price plan—we wanted to try to set our mortgage, so we wanted a known contract price. But we also wanted to have the ability to make some changes. And Greg was flexible on that. He gave us a budget as part of the contract and let us pick our cabinet people, pick our floor people, pick windows, all that kind of stuff. We told him what we wanted and he put a package together, but Westerra was flexible enough that even during the process if we wanted to make a change they were willing to work with us. The completion date that Greg gave us—which was very important when it came to the mortgage—was right on the money. We actually had the certificate of occupancy the day he said he was going to have it. So it worked out perfectly.
Would you recommend Westerra to someone else building a custom home?
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Greg and Jeff are very professional. We like Jeff—he put out a lot of fires during the project. Unfortunately, you’re going to have some problems, but Jeff handled everything and Greg oversaw everything else. We would definitely recommend Westerra Homes to build a custom home.
