Doug Clark of Choice Construction and Consulting Inc.

“The three office staff drive the project, and I get the fun part — I work with the customers,” Clark says.

Clark says his company is not just about building homes but also about building client relationships. The home is the end product, but the building process is centered around the future homeowner.

“We only work with people we like,” he says. “If I wouldn’t barbecue with them, I wouldn’t build their house.”

Clark he and his wife, Karen, usually have lunch or dinner with every client. “Our projects are really nice projects and we’re doing them for really nice people — what a win-win,” he says.

Clark founded the company in 2001 after working with Westin Hotels in North America on amenity development. The job involved extensive travel, and he wanted to be closer to home and his family. Getting enjoyment out of the presentation aspect of the hospitality industry, he found that building a custom home is exactly the same — all about presentation.

After a few years in business, Clark found a tool that helps greatly improve that presentation. Every customer, no matter what price range their custom build home is in, gets a “virtual tour” of the home before it’s built. They take the CAD schematics and actually turn them into three-dimensional images, all the way down to details such as paint color. The customers know exactly what their home will look like before the walls are even built.

“Once they see it, they understand it a little more,” he says. “Once they understand it a little more, their fear goes away and they can make better decisions.”

Clark says the customers should expect quality from a builder at every price level, whether they are building a million-dollar home or one that’s a quarter of that price. He says that a more expensive home is not necessarily better quality, it just has more expensive features.

“We treat the house as if it’s our house,” he says. “I’m on the front line with the customer and it’s my reputation, my company’s reputation.”

One of the important aspects of home building is communication, and Clark says e-mail is “a true blessing.” Every Friday, they take photos on each job site that are available online by Monday, and every week they have a staff meeting to discuss the projects, after which they tell the customers what the plan is for the week.

“We walk them through the process and keep a tight project line,” he says.

Clark grew up in the Gig Harbor area and graduated from Peninsula High School. He returned to the area in the late 1980s. The company builds about $10 million to $12 million worth of homes every year, so the number of homes depends on the types of homes built, but generally they do about 13 to 16 homes per year. The customer stays involved throughout construction, making various decisions.

“We do the work and they get to make the choices,” Clark says. That’s why the company is called “Choice Construction,” he adds. And while the customers make the choices, Clark says the company must “challenge their dreams to their budgets” in order be honorable to the clients.

Choice Construction gets involved with the home construction process as early as possible — even before the client purchases the property, when possible. This allows the builder to look for potential issues with wetlands, geotech and other site features. “For many builders, it’s hard to go solve issues like that (before hand),” he says. “I like the idea of having the customer know upfront what issues the property has.”

Choice Construction uses subcontractors for the construction phase. Clark had employed laborers in the past but says he can better control costs, schedules and quality by getting competitive bids from high-quality contractors. They keep a tight timeline — for example, a 3,000-square-foot home would be built in 22 weeks.

Clark agrees the slowing down of the real estate boom will bring some change to the construction industry, but believes many people will turn to building homes because they could get a better value due to increased home prices in the market. As for Choice Construction, he feels the company has reached a good balance with the number of projects it takes on. The company has doubled its volume in 2004 from the previous year, and tripled it in 2005.

“Any further growth would not be as manageable. We still have our quality of life and the quality of relationships with our clients,” he says. “To satisfy greater pace would take changing the company… We’re in a good spot.”.