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Why do I need a consultant? Planning, designing, bidding, and building
a Green home is a fun and exciting process.
You will be creating the perfect house for yourself:
a place where you and your family
can eat, sleep, play and work together,
creating memories that last a lifetime.
But building is also a complex process,
and evaluating Green options
only adds to the complexity.
We at Amour Consulting have the experience and the intellectual capital to take you from initial concept to finished product. No other single professional in the typical home building process can offer what an end-to-end independent consultant can:- Green expertise at every stage
- Continuity from lot identification to final inspection and certification
- Unbiased advice based on facts, not profit margins
- Contacts in the Green community across the spectrum
- County plan reviewers
- product manufacturers
- vendors
- tradesmen
- architects
- builders
- third-party inspectors and certifiers
- local and federal Green officials, programs and incentives
Who can do what?
| Amour
Properties
| Real Estate
Agent | Architect | Builder | Third Party
Inspector | Find the
Ideal Lot
| yes | yes | | | | Refine
Green Agenda
| yes | | yes | yes
| | Create
Design
| yes | | yes | | | Estimate
Build Cost
| yes | | | yes | | Review
Bid | yes | | | | | Perform Inspections
and Quality Control
Checks
| yes | | | | yes | Obtain Final
Certification
| yes | | | | |
The chart above shows how different professionals aid you at the various stages of your project. Each one is capable in its core competency; some architects and builders are already accredited Green. But even these professionals cannot and will not walk you through the process end-to-end. And none of them have the incentive to put you, the client, ahead of their own interests. Only Amour Consulting, with no vested interest in any company or product, can and will put your first.
For example, real estate agents can help you find the right lot, but they cannot save you time by ensuring you see only lots that lend themselves to Green building. We pre-screen properties, so you only need time to see those selected not only according to your preferences for neighborhoods, setting and size, but also to maximize your energy efficiencies through passive or active solar design. Moreover, we can show you how to negotiate a significant reduction in purchase price when we do the leg work. Your savings on this step alone could cover all your costs with Amour Consulting!
In order to refine your Green agenda, you will have to decide among a host of Green elements. The options are many: they include measures to maximize energy-efficiency, improve air quality, optimize landscaping, and save water. Architects, even Green architects, are knowledgeable of some Green elements of design, but they are not always aware of their costs, nor do they know whether or which builders can incorporate them. Similarly, builders know what they have done before but may not know the whole breadth of options. We can help you make the choices right for you, including appropriate trade-offs of functionality and budget, without ever sacrificing aesthetics. Because we neither sell the products nor endorse or install them, our advice is never tied to our income.
As with real estate agents, architects are highly-educated, highly-paid professionals who design homes and ready the plans for permitting. With Amour Consulting, you will save tens of thousands of dollars by using techniques we have developed to make that process more efficient. Our involvement dramatically reduces the time it takes to finalize a design that incorporates the most cost-effective Green components with your ideas and needs.
Our experience permits us to make accurate estimates of building costs. Nothing is more frustrating to a family than spending many months on expensively constructed home plans for a dwelling that runs hundreds of thousands of dollars over their budget when the bids come in. Architects can help with standard construction cost estimates, but providing figures on the host of Green components, such as HVAC systems, siding options, and interior appointments of recycled materials typically are outside their scope. Builders can give you an estimate of cost, but they are incentivized to incorporate elements they prefer to use, not the ones right for you.
Once they come, the builder bids must be reviewed. Again, your architect may be able to help you analyze them in sweeping terms, but they seldom have and use the tools we employ that give
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