Tom Groh, owner of the UBuildIt franchise in Naperville, says he can help people save money when they want to build a new home or renovate their existing home by being a go-between for them and contractors. (Steve Metsch / Naperville Sun)
Business: UBuildIt
Address: 1320 N. Route 59, Naperville
Phone/Website: 630-233-8243, www.UBuildIt.com
Years in Business? The Naperville franchise office opened in 2016.
Franchise owner: Tom Groh, 61, of Barrington. He started with UBuildIt in 2004.
What does your business do? According to the UBuildIt website, clients pay a fee for the firm to act as the “hands-on home-building consultant,” providing homeowners with planning and building expertise as well as access to suppliers, subcontractors and lenders.
Groh added: “It’s really simple. It’s for the homeowner who wants to build his own home, or remodel or build an addition. If you want to build your own home, you have two choices. You have millions of dollars and pay for the home yourself. Otherwise you have to get bank financing. No bank is going to loan a homeowner a construction loan if they don’t have an approved builder or general contractor. … When a bank interviews to approve, they interview me and, so far, everyone has had the same types of questions.”
How does it work? “You are the owner/builder. You’re going to be doing it at cost. We charge a set fee per square foot, our professional fee. … You make out like a bandit because if there was a builder, the pricier the work is, the more profit for the builder. … You’re the builder. You run the show. You hire the people. We have people for you (to hire).”
How much can you save? According to the UBuildIt web site, builder markup on new home ranges from 18% to 30%. Even at a 20% markup, you’d be paying the builder $50,000 on a $250,000 home. By being the builder, you get to keep the majority of money in your pocket, the site says.
How did you get started? “I’ve been doing this all my life. … I started with this when I didn’t have a driver’s license. My dad would drop me off at job sites. I was the go-fer. My dad was a builder. So was my grandfather.”
What happens when someone comes in? “You have to start with a dream. People come to me with dreams, what they envision. Some show up with drawings. … Or they describe to me what they want. They interview me, I interview them. How realistic is your dream?”
Any negatives? “Some towns are worse than others (to work with). … Naperville is normal. Chicago, it may be a pain to get the permits, but to do the job is easy. … There are rules for new houses and rules for old houses. It’s the after-the-fact stuff that becomes costly to the homeowner.”
What’s the best part of having a business in Naperville? “The best part, for me, is being centrally located. Naperville is huge in the number of homes here. … To me, all these older homes, there are new needs for old floor plans. Or for additions.”
What’s popular in recent months? “For whatever reason, we’ve been doing a lot of second-story additions. That’s easy. You go upwards. Unzip the roof off, and there it is. … We build a deck over (the first-floor ceiling) and that’s the new floor (for the upstairs).”
“A real good (carpenter), like the guy I’ve got, he’s able to put up a 1,000 or 1,100 square foot second-story addition in three days. And (then) they’re shingling it. That’s rocking and rolling because they’ve got it down like droids. Everybody knows what they’re doing. … You can hire other carpenters I have (to finish) in a two-week span.”
What’s a common mistake? “A lot of people make the mistake and employ the architect first. That’s like calling the driveway out first. Silly. Because the architect is not interested in reading your budget. A lot of them want to be builders, but the ones who can (be) are those who understand there is a budget.”
What do you like best? “The remodels. Especially the smaller homes where you do a second story. They live in a ranch. To me — what I see on the people’s faces — it’s more rewarding then the people I build a brand-new house for. You take an existing home and, all of a sudden, it has a new character.”
What advice would you give someone starting a business? “You have to have knowledge about it. … Knowledge is divided into the job itself, the task at hand and the people. You have to understand that person.”
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
Copyright © 2022, Chicago Tribune
Copyright © 2022, Chicago Tribune
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