It happened! You’ve found the perfect home. Now the fun begins with picking the exterior and interior design and finally closing on your new home. The process can be exciting and stressful. Gerstad Builders is committed to helping during the closing process and remaining safely physically  distant.

Here’s what to expect when closing a home:

• As mentioned in part one of this series, our sales agents are here to help.
• Fill out the Contact Us form on our website to get in touch with either Tammy Olsen or Tom Roach. If you would like to schedule a meeting about closing on a home, you can schedule your appointment here.
• You have the option to schedule a one-on-one appointment via video conference or phone call. 
• Once you’re ready to submit your refundable deposit and sign a purchase agreement, we will work together to schedule a time for you to drop off your deposit to our office. 
• We want to make this process stress-free for you. Our sales agents will be there every step of the way and provide further details once we reach this step. 
• You won’t go through all the paperwork alone. Our sales agents will set up a meeting in which they share their screen with you and review each item of the purchase agreement to ensure everything is clear to you.  
• Though we are readily available to help in any way we can, some of our devices do not have video components for this type of  meeting which means you may only see our screen and hear our voice.

Color selections.

Color visits are essential operations. As such, they will need to be conducted in person. Before these meetings go on, you must confirm that you are not feeling ill; you have taken your temperature at home prior to arriving; we will provide you with gloves; you must wear a mask and maintain six-foot distancing.

Meeting at our model

The meeting is set, you can meet with our sales staff at our model home in McHenry. We will escort you around the model and to our design center. Leave the door handling up to us—we’re here to ensure you feel safe and taken care of during the visit. Our staff will bring you selections once you are in the design center.

For safety precautions, previously touched selections are set aside and cleaned after each appointment. There are on site bathrooms for customer use only, and will be sanitized after each appointment. Once you’ve made your selections, we encourage you to coordinate any additional follow up conversations with your sales agent via virtual settings. 

The construction meeting will take place via Zoom among you, your sales agent and the construction staff. We want to use this meeting to ensure that we are building exactly what you have envisioned for your future home. Zoom is a great platform for this kind of meeting because it gives participants the ability to draw on the screen. There is plenty of time for you to specify your questions and make sure everything is clear. During this meeting, you can expect to go over every component  involved with the building of your home. However, if you are unable to meet via Zoom, we can help you with the construction meeting in our sales office.

We are here to provide advice, answer questions, and ensure everything is in order for you. Following the construction appointment is the color confirmation appointment in which we will make sure that all the colors are correct and that there are no additional changes. 

During this time of social distancing, you can sit back, relax and leave the construction to us.

Pre-closing orientation.

Pre-closing orientation is next, and it will follow the Essential Operations Process that has been outlined. We will help you get all your design questions answered before closing. We are not able to conduct warranty operations during shelter in place, but we will make up for any missed inspections once the shelter in place order is lifted. Of course, if there is a special circumstance, we will determine whether a warranty operation needs to happen. 

It is our hope that by providing you with an outline of what to expect, we put your mind at ease, that your dream can happen whatever our new normal looks like. Gerstad Builders wants you to feel confident in our abilities to ensure this operation runs smoothly.

During the shelter in place we continue to have emergency services available to homeowners. Visit our website or give us a call at 815-385-4495 if any questions arise.