TTFT: Tell the Truth From the Start
By Jim Steg, Steg Custom Homes

In this business, you will never go wrong telling the truth.

It sounds simple, but in the world of custom home building — where emotions run high, budgets are tested, and decisions are deeply personal — truth-telling isn’t just a virtue. It’s a requirement.

At Steg Custom Homes, we have a hard and fast rule: Tell the Truth From the Start.
We call it TTFT.

Every week, we hear from homeowners who’ve started a build that quickly turned into a nightmare. And time and time again, the common thread is this: someone didn’t tell them the truth early on.

Instead of laying out real numbers, clear timelines, and honest expectations, someone told them what they wanted to hear. And once the web of untruths begins, it’s nearly impossible to untangle. Stories shift, budgets balloon, timelines slip — and no one can quite remember the version of the lie they told last.

We don’t operate that way. We never have.

Just recently, we had a client come back to us — a year after choosing another builder. He was originally told his dream home could be built at $400 per square foot. We told him the truth from day one: based on the level of finish, design complexity, and current costs, he was looking at $800 to $900 per square foot. He didn’t want to hear it. So he walked.

Fast forward twelve months — with a lost deposit, a fractured relationship, and plans that now need to be redrawn — he’s back, asking us to price the home again. We did. It came in at $875 per square foot.

Sometimes the truth stings.


But in the end, the truth always holds up.

At Steg Custom Homes, we aren’t in the business of selling false hope. We’re in the business of building high-end, high-integrity homes — and that only works when the foundation is honesty.

So whether we gain a client or lose one, we’re going to TTFT — Tell the Truth From the Start.
Because that’s what real professionals do.

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Interested in building your dream home with a team that tells it straight? Let's talk.
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