Thursday, June 19, 2008

Garman Homes - Racing for the Cure


It was great to see so many "Give it Back" shirts at last Saturday's Race for the Cure. Team Garman Homes had a great showing! Thank you all for joining us!

And most importantly, thank you for raising awareness and money for the fight to cure breast cancer. My family has recently been touched by this disease...since then my eyes have been open to how common breast cancer is. One in eight women. Wow. Let’s find the cure!

Jim Garman
jim@garman.net

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Fairytale at Stonegate


Frequently, we as consumers enter into business transactions jaded by our previous poor customer service experiences. All I’ve ever heard about building a home and working with contractors are nightmares and tales of woe. With Garman Homes, these preconceptions disappeared with every interaction. Each and every interaction has been incredibly smooth and all Garman employees have treated us like we were the most important customers they had. After this experience I don’t think I’ll ever purchase a new home if it wasn’t built by Garman. I know this is lengthy but fewer words wouldn’t have done the experience justice…

The Backstory

On a whim my husband and I put our house on the market…it sold in six days and had to close within a month…we went on a 48-hour house shopping binge landing us in Stonegate. We found a house we liked by another builder, and tried to buy it…but received poor service. We continued to try to buy anyway because we wanted the house but then we had an idea…

The Fairytale

We googled Garman Homes, found their website, after about 3 minutes on their website we called our realtor and asked her to set up a meeting with Garman. They give $1000 to Habitat for Humanity for every house they sell, why wouldn’t you want to buy from them?

The NEXT day, we were greeted by the contractor Chris, the sales manager Alaina and the OWNER Jim! We were given a tour of a recently framed structure that could potentially be our new home. The tour was animated, amusing and well organized. They had never built this model before and we had no idea what it was really going to look like when finished.

When we left the meeting, we felt like we were treated right, certainly in contrast to the previous experience. We were treated like people not as a sale, an important Garman difference. Before we even got home, we knew we would be purchasing a home from them, even though it meant we would be "homeless" for a month.

Keep in mind there were still available, finished homes in the neighborhood that could have closed on the same day as our previous home. Due to their incredible customer service as well as their commitment to doing the right thing for their customers and community we elected to put ourselves in a temporary lurch just to have the opportunity to work with Garman.

The entire building process felt like a fairytale, it was nothing like what many of our friends have struggled through when building. Garman was extremely conscious of any errors on their part, often taking responsibility before we had a chance to notice. Chris always greeted us with a smile and was happy to answer our questions even if we showed up unexpectedly (as we often did). Even the Wells Fargo staff made the lending and closing process seamless.

After a month of living with friends, we have now been in our brand new Garman home for two weeks and we continue to receive phenomenal service from the Garman employees. They haven’t discarded us after closing as many builders would have done. They continue to check on us, stop by and follow through with unwritten promises of small things they would fix after we moved in. They have honored all agreements, both oral and written. I don’t know what their actual business motto is but "Do the right thing" seems like the perfect way to sum up our experience.

My husband and I have truly enjoyed our Garman Homes experience and would recommend to anyone if they ever have a choice, to choose Garman. Thank you, Garman Homes for raising the bar for customer service!

Lesley
lesleyrcoe@gmail.com

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Habitat Blitz - Looks like a House Now!


Monday morning started early for the Garman Homes G-Team. Before 7 a.m. our team was on the job site checking and rechecking the house before the rough-in inspections. The framers, plumbers, HVAC guys and electricians were all there to walk with the inspector to be sure everything was just right! There were trucks everywhere!

By 10:00 AM we received the green light to insulate the home, and by lunchtime Cortes Construction was hanging the drywall. It’s hard to believe we just started the home two days ago. On the outside, Stock Building Supply was installing the siding and finishing up the porches. Like contractors should, they started with the front of the house so that everyone could see their progress immediately.

It was great!By the time we were cleaning up on Monday evening, the drywall crew was applying the second coat of mud to the walls. Even as we left, we knew they would be there most of the night so that the next morning we could start running the interior trim and installing cabinets.
— Jim Garman

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Habitat Blitz - Calm Before the Storm


Our trade partners agreed that they would prefer to work hard on Saturday and leave Sunday for a day of rest. I thought they were crazy! After all, we only have six days to build this entire house — I couldn’t imagine leaving the house idle for an entire day! But I was wrong; it worked out.

Our only activity on Sunday was the electrical. Imperial Electric ran the wiring and they had the job site to themselves. They accomplished their work quickly and expertly and packed up. The home was ready for inspections on Monday morning!

On this quiet day, I want to take a moment and describe the benefits of the Advanced Energy Program that we are following on our Habitat for Humanity home. As the owner of Garman Homes, I have weighed the costs and benefits of such energy programs and, so far, we have not committed to taking the plunge. But, with this Habitat for Humanity home, I admit that I am now a believer.

Thanks to 10 to 12 key building techniques and materials defined by this program, Cesar’s home will have an electrical bill of less than $25 a month. That makes a BIG difference for him and his finances. Thank you to Chatham County Habitat for Humanity for teaching us about this powerful program.

-Jim Garman
jim@garman.net