
Part of the process is the personality match. I am a high energy, fast moving, results oriented professional. This type “A” ( I’ve been told ) is not a match for everyone. Some clients like to enjoy the journey and take a slower pace through the building process. Lucky for us we are Zbranek & Holt, and not just Zbranek Custom Homes. Tony Holt is the perfect gentleman and can operate at any ones pace. Smart builders ( and business owners ) have someone on the team that has a different, yet complimentary personality. Interestingly, the same can be said for couples. More often than not, one side of our married clients will identify with my pace while the other prefers to work with Tony. Lucky for us we have two. When dealing with a sole proprietor builder the personality match upfront is critical. Remember, this is a one to two year relationship. Together we will assemble a home outside, with hundreds of parts, using an independent labor pool, on an imperfect piece of land for our building in various weather conditions. Things will happen, and we need to like each other when they do.
The bottom line is that clients often call previous clients to see how their experience was with a builder. This is a good idea and can help weed out marginal craftsmen. However, how you get along with someone that you are writing checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to, for over a year, should also be considered. Tony and I view each of our clients as five new homes. That is, we hope that they will like their home, the process and us enough to tell 4 of their friends to hire our team. This attitude solves many issues that arise along the way. Building a new home should be fun, not something you would never do again.
Steve Zbranek
Inductee, Austin Home Builders Hall of Fame
Two Time National Master Builder of the Year
Past President of the San Antonio and Austin Homebuilders Association
Two Term Chairman of the Board of the Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce