Building real estate in Arizona is not getting cheaper. The costs of materials and labor are increasing, and this trend is further exacerbated by signs of a cooling market. Home builders are paying more to build homes while having fewer customers looking for the homes they are selling. This means home builders cannot afford to make mistakes that will unnecessarily increase the cost of completing a project. The areas where builders waste money are in their mismanagement of security and maintenance. Emergency repairs of construction equipment can cost builders hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. In contrast, routine maintenance can cost less than $20,000 per year, depending on the type of equipment being used. A lack of a security plan can cost builders even more money in stolen equipment and damage to the building site. Home builders need to establish their security and maintenance plans if they want to save money in the years to come. Here are a few ways builders often mismanage their job sites, resulting in wasted money.
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Creating no security plan and doing no research
Before any builder starts investing in a project, they do market research to see if building in that area is viable. This is second nature to builders, but unfortunately, they often fail to do so when it comes to their own security needs on a job site. Every area you build has unique needs, and this is especially true for security, as crime rates vary significantly from one neighborhood to another.
Wayne Funk, Owner of Bellago Homes, a home builder in Mesa, said that you must assess the security needs of a site before starting construction.
“You have to understand the area you are building in,” Funk said. “If you are building in an area with a higher rate of theft and vandalism, you will need to take that into account.”
A good security plan should involve examining crime rates in the area and consulting with local law enforcement to identify the most significant issues they are encountering. Areas with low rates of theft typically don’t require a substantial investment in fencing, alarms, cameras, or physical security.
However, according to Bill Herzog, President of Tempe private security company Lionheart Security Services, building in higher-crime-rate areas requires an extensive security investment.
“I have seen many builders lose money to job site theft because they did not invest in the physical security needed to protect their sites,” Herzog said. If you are building in areas where theft is high, you need to have security guards on site at night, locked-down fencing around the perimeter, and construction site cameras.
Before you start building, do your research and make a security plan so you know how to protect your job site from theft and vandalism.
Not investing in the right tech
Proper security on a building site means having eyes on all essential parts of the job site and the ability to communicate quickly when something is suspected to be happening. The right technology is critical to having eyes and ears on your job site’s most valuable assets.
Jason Fischbeck is the Owner of Automated Environments, a commercial tech installer in Mesa. He said that the right camera system can give you visual access to all areas of a project from anywhere you are.
“Cameras on a construction site are the only recorded visual evidence that can show someone actively damaging or stealing from your job site,” Fischbeck said. “Every job site should have them because they are the best chance a builder has at catching a criminal in the act.”
Herzog said that security cameras should be placed at all parts of a job site where assets are. This means cameras on the homes, materials, and construction vehicles that are on site.
If you hire physical security for your job site, they must have the tools to communicate. Proper communication between your on-site security team can be the difference between $0 and $ 100,000 worth of damages.
Stewart McClintic, Owner of HQ98.com, a two-way radio retailer in Scottsdale, said two-way radios are essential for job site security.
“Instant communication is how your security team can quickly communicate potential trespassing and property crimes,” McClintic said. “When one member of your security team detects an issue, they can instantly communicate with the other team member, who can then contact the police.”
McClintic went on to say that two-way radios are also essential for the safety of the security team, as a team member can radio in an issue without having to engage someone on the property directly.
Investing in the proper security equipment so you aren’t wasting money recouping stolen or damaged assets.
Job site vehicle mismanagement
Building a home requires the use of construction vehicles. When construction vehicles break down, builders are forced to spend money on expensive repairs and potentially lose money due to job delays caused by inactive job site vehicles.
Sara VanFleet is the Owner of DB Trucks in Glendale. She works extensively in truck repair for builders, and she said that poor treatment of job site vehicles is wasting builders a lot of money.
“Builders often neglect routine maintenance and fail to maintain their trucks properly. Add the extreme heat and dust in Arizona, and you have a recipe for expensive repairs,” VanFleet said. “Builders are driving their trucks until the transmission is dead and wondering why repairs are so expensive.”
Builders are wasting money by avoiding routine maintenance on their vehicles. They invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase them and then spend hundreds of thousands more on essential repairs. On the other hand, routine maintenance will cost you between $2,500 and $6,000 annually per vehicle. Performing routine maintenance and operating construction vehicles safely will help you avoid costly repairs and potentially more expensive job delays.
Improper security and neglectful equipment maintenance are costing builders money. Create a security plan for your build site, hire the right security team if necessary, and maintain the construction vehicles you have invested in. There are many factors beyond your control that influence the cost of building; don’t let the things you can control get in your way.
Author: Max Lancaster is a freelance writer in Phoenix, Arizona.
