(210) 771-4703

Getting Started

To get the building process started, all you need is a basic concept for the home you envision on your lot. Travis will personally meet you at your lot for the initial meeting to discuss important matters such as house placement, orientation to the sun, breezes and most of all the view. Remember, you are designing and building a true custom home so the first step is to plan the ground work.

Everyone tends to bring something different to the table when it comes time to discuss their house plans. From magazine tear outs, partial plans, plan books, photos, even sketches on scratch paper all help to get the thoughts across the discussion table from the client to the builder.

From the initial lot meeting, brief discussion about a client’s needs and wants, to a personal tour of some completed Mitchell Custom Homes, Travis can get a very close idea of what type of home his client is looking to build and even quote a “ballpark price” of the total construction cost.

“It’s really important that our personalities mesh well and are able to effectively communicate. Home building is a very personal and emotional experience for many people and a strong relationship needs to be formed at the very beginning of the process,” says Travis.

STEP 1: House Plans and Designs

After the first meeting, as ideas grow and things get exciting, it’s time to move on to the next step. Each client has a few choices once this point has been reached.

  1. If a client already has a set of house plans drawn by a local designer or architect Travis will be able to give a bid to the client complete with written specifications and a list of all allowances included.
  2. Some clients come to Travis with plans found on the internet, plan books, or partially drawn plans that they have created themselves. These types of plans are a great starting point but most of them need some “clean up work” due to small errors and or incomplete information. These plans are usually close enough for Travis to price out for bidding purposes but once it’s time to build the plans will need some re-work by a professional designer to meet local building codes and subdivision architectural requirements. Travis can assist in getting the house plans fine tuned to meet all necessary building criteria.
  3. Most clients that come to Mitchell Custom Homes do not have any house plans and can benefit from the assistance of a builder/designer team to create them. To do this Travis works with several amazing plan design firms:

J Edwards Home Designs (Julie Edwards)

P.S. Designs, Inc.  (Peggy Sampson)

K.M. Designs, Inc. (Kim Mockert)

MSA Architecture + Interiors (George Klein)

Each one of these licensed residential designers is accomplished, award winning, and a strong partner with Travis and Donna Mitchell to begin the process of design/build on your property.

STEP 2: Designer Client Meeting

Travis will schedule a second meeting with his potential clients, only this time inviting the resedential plan designer he feels best suits the project. After a walk through at the customer’s land the team will get a feel for the property as well as an understanding of the customer’s ideas for the future new home.

Move the meeting back to the Mitchell Custom Homes Design Center (1937 IH 35 North, suite 102) the meeting will continue. It normally takes a good two to three hours of round table discussion to go over and discuss all the material necessary to start the design process.

STEP 3: Preliminary Floor Plan

After two to three weeks, the plan designer will have a preliminary floor plan for Travis to view and approve before it’s sent on to the customer for feedback. Travis looks to see that the foot print of the home will fit on the lot correctly; the driveway will work with any slope on the lot and fit within all required setbacks. Most often, the preliminary floor plans will require very few customer changes.

STEP 4: Finalizing The Floor Plan

Once the floor plan has been fine-tuned and approved by the customer, the plan designer will then repeat the process with the front elevation and send out two to three possible options for additional customer feedback.

STEP 5: Cost Estimate and Bid Created

After the floor plan and front elevation are final, Travis can then give the customer a very close cost estimate.

With e-mail correspondence back and forth between the client, the plan designer, and Travis Mitchell, the drawings mature into a finished set of house plans including all working drawings and elevations. These plans will be complete and include all information required for architectural approval by any neighborhood where Travis Mitchell builds. At this time Travis can and will fine tune the cost estimate into a complete bid including all specifications and allowances.

STEP 6: Contract Signed and The Building Begins!

After agreeing on costs and signing a basic contract, the building process is nearly ready to begin. After the terms for payment are in place the buyer can then enjoy and be a part of the building process as they watch their dream custom home come to reality.

Mitchell Custom Homes is an approved builder with some of the most reputable lending institutions. If financing is required, Travis regularly works with the following banks and lenders:

Prosperity Bank| James Long  (830) 629-8978

Moody Bank | Dani Hensley (830) 743-9871

Jefferson Bank| Sandra Browning (830) 608-2213

First Commercial Bank | Eric Couch (830) 626-5017

Please give any or each of these lenders a call to receive a good faith estimate of terms, interest rate, and closing costs.

If a customer is to pay cash for their home the team will draft up a simple builder’s mechanics lien contract between the buyer and builder.

This document will be accompanied by partial lien waivers that Travis will provide to the buyer in arrears of each cash draw. There are typically six to eight draws on a home with the final being the last 10%. The last draw will be made to Travis only after the final walk through on the home has been performed and all punch lists have been completed. The original builder’s mechanics lien will be removed from the property with an “All Bills Paid” affidavit signed by Travis/Donna Mitchell.