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Q.
Why are you called a club, and how do you differ from a consultancy service
A.
In a consultancy service the clients pay their fees and sit back and wait for things to happen. In a club those who wish to can help out, making what would be clearly impossible to achieve within consultancy possible.
A consultancy would also solve the needs of a client at a time for time related fee, where a club can combine tasks it is doing so as to benefit more members at a lower cost to each of them.
Members are involved, or involved if they want to be, in many ways from keeping an eye on local papers to checking some information for us, to leaflet dropping some areas, to introducing new members, to looking at some potential site for us. They are our many local eyes and ears, and while no one of them would be able to provide all the help we need in an area, if each person does just a little then together a lot is achieved.
Add to this the skills added by the consultants of the club, negotiating ability and the experience we can use based on other areas and more, as well as the use of systems to allow members who wish to become as involved as they wish. You will see we have a formula that makes the chances of finding you and other members the ideal plot, and helping you to move to the next stages of the development, far easier than anyone could do on their own or with just a few friends.
Historically self builders usually worked alone, looking at every opportunity and plot that came up over very long periods, and its not uncommon to find self builders who took 8 or more years to find the plot and we all meet others who are still searching convinced that one day they will be lucky and come across just the right opportunity. Many of these people have spent all their spare time and large amounts of money in this search and many will tell you of the ones that got away, the expense they have gone to on many occasion only to fail to get the plot in the end, where someone else outbid them or where they were just too late, and this like gamblers, motivates them to invest more in their desire to get the plot they are dreaming of. You may feel there is a need for an association for those addicted to plot hunting, to help them back to a more normal lifestyle, and allow time for a little more fun in their lives. Along the way they have seen and rejected hundreds of sites for one reason or another, location, size, cost, direction, noise, isolation, distance, flood risk, land slope..... however many of these would have been ideal for others with a different definition or brief, and they would have perhaps succeeded faster on the site they did try for if they had been better prepared, knew what they wanted to achieve and needed, or even had the chance for a little more lateral thought as to how a site could be used. When you ask why they have not cooperated and shared information with others and bounced ideas as to how the site could be used around with others also seeking a plot, the answer is usually that they are frightened that the plot that turns out to be ideal for them, will be stolen from them, by someone they share information with. This can even go as far as not wanting to show architects and others site they have found in case they tell others of it. With a club we have developed solutions to these problems and people can confidently share information with the club, without risking loosing a site that they find first, if it is the one that is right for them.
Not everyone is good at everything or likes undertaking all types of tasks, not everyone can find the time in the working week or at other specific times, not everyone is confident meeting people or finding a place on a map. However between a range of members and the consultants the club uses, just about everything gets covered. With larger projects being run, like those to create our own new developments or to work on joint ventures with developers, and you can see we get the opportunity be become proactive creating sites rather than just being reactive, rushing around trying to get something before someone else snaps it up.
As an individual many people would not be all that excited about talking to you or sharing information they may have with you, and if you keep coming to see if anything has come up they may get annoyed, especially considering they may well have a load of other potential self builders asking the same questions. Checking on behalf of a number of members is different, and often we share this task between several members so that we can check more often and if you are away on holiday or can't carry out the task you have taken on, it does not impact so much.
Things that as an individual you just could not get involved in, as a club member you may be able to, for example one or two members in the area will be talking to all the local builders, and developers about joint ventures on sites and how working together can be advantageous to them. Others can be monitoring the development of the local plan, and others involved in walking the area and identifying all sites where there may be scope for development.
There are so many things that can be done, and we try to both sort out what individual members like doing and prioritize the tasks that can be done where we can.
This is perhaps a long answer to what was a simple question, and I should have just said that as a club, and having some members volunteer we have a far greater coverage and ability to carry out research and make contacts that would just not be possible within a consultancy operation.
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Self Build Homes Club is an international club
and trading title of Self
Build Homes Club llc. Local services
to serve members are commissioned for the club by New
Atlantis International Services Corporation.
All major commissioned companies involved, have New Atlantis trust status.