The HFL Process

1. ASK the right questions.

Homes for Life will meet with you to get to know you personally and discuss your wants and needs.

Why are you considering a home for life?

Do you want to live in place as you age?
Do you want multigenerational living?
Do you have physical limitations or another disability?

Or, why are you considering a home for life for your parents or other family members?

What are their wishes and desires?
What issues are they facing right now?
What might they need in the future?

2. EXPLORE your options.

Once we understand you and your situation, Homes for Life will discuss the pros, cons and costs of each option you may be considering:

Option 1: Stay and renovate. Since most people do not want to leave their home, they often begin by considering custom renovations to make their existing home more accessible without sacrificing aesthetics. Renovations like these can be costly – sometimes as much as 10 times the cost of building those same design features into a new home. Plus, depending on your location, these types of renovations could make your home the most expensive home in the neighborhood. As a result, you may not receive a suitable return on your investment.

Option 2: Stay, raze and build. If your existing lot has amenities and local conveniences you don’t want to leave behind, a second option is to raze your current home and build a new home right where you are. You can include all the design features you need in either an accessible modular home or an accessible site-built home.

Option 3: Move and build. A third option is to select a desirable area and build a custom home on the lot of your choice. You can include all the design features you need in either an accessible modular home or an accessible site-built home.

3. CHOOSE where you want to live.

If you’ve chosen to move and build, Homes for Life will help you consider what’s important to you in a location. For example:

If you’ve chosen to move and build, Homes for Life will help you consider what’s important to you in a location. For example:

Do you want to be in an urban, suburban or rural area?
Do you want to build in an existing development or in a new development?
Do you need to be close to grocery stores? Restaurants? Shopping centers? Hospitals? Parks with walking trails?

Homes for Life can connect you with our local real estate partners who will help you search for and evaluate the best lots based on what’s important to you.

4. ASSESS your current and future needs.

As part of our service, Homes for Life relies on our expert partners in occupational therapy, assistive technologies and durable medical equipment to conduct personal, in-depth assessments with you or your family members either face-to-face or remotely.

Our proprietary assessment tool considers the science and influences of aging, medicine, healthcare – even your family’s medical history.

Our assessments not only help us determine your current needs for an accessible home but also let us predict what you might need in the future. This allows us to include all the necessary design features into the infrastructure of your new home now, which saves time and money by avoiding rework later if circumstances change.

Your In-Depth Assessment Report prepared by Homes for Life becomes the foundation for choosing design features in step 6.

5. DECIDE on a lot.

Based on potential lots you may have already visited and your In-Depth Assessment Report, Homes for Life will help you refine your site selections so you can purchase the lot that’s right for your needs and your home size.

Based on local zoning and building ordinances and the topography of your lot, we will discuss which home styles work best (a ranch on a crawl space vs. a ranch with a basement) and home sizes to consider (2,000 square feet vs. 3,000 square feet).

6. REVIEW available design features.

Once you own the lot, Homes for Life will review the design features and decisions you need to make based on your In-Depth Assessment Report and your personal desires and tastes.

The starting point for our discussion is our proprietary list of 50 Standard Design Features in Homes for Life Homes so you can live in a beautiful, custom home that’s barrier-free. We will also present some optional design features you may want to consider.

Families tell us that starting with this list of standard design features makes their decision-making process easier and faster.

7. CUSTOMIZE your home for life.

Homes for Life relies on a team of professional home designers to include all the standard and optional design features you’ve selected into your accessible home design. Your design includes interior floor plans plus options for building elevations.

The final design is the house plan that is used to build your home. It contains all the design features and selections that make your home unique.

8. BUILD your home for life.

After the design is approved, you contract directly with one of our certified builders in the Carolinas who understand what it takes to imagine, design and build a custom, beautiful, accessible home.

Meanwhile, whether you’re building an accessible modular home or an accessible site-built home, Homes for Life will oversee every aspect of construction from start to finish. We ensure that the design features you chose are built to specification and construction remains on schedule and budget.

We will ask you to join us for periodic walkthroughs to review progress and answer any questions you may have.

Homes for Life gets paid directly by our partner builders for completing all the upfront work required to deliver a client-approved home design and the final house plan so your new home construction can begin and continue without delay. Our process is seamless, and your experience is worry-free.

9. MOVE IN!

Once your home is constructed and a certificate of occupancy is issued, it’s time to schedule your closing and move-in dates. Homes for Life will be with you before and during closing to ensure that everything in your new home meets the specifications.

Once you move in, it’s time to start living a higher quality of life – at home.

10. ENJOY peace of mind.

Homes for Life stands behind every home we help to imagine, design and build. That’s why we offer extended warranties as a matter of course:

You enjoy a two-year warranty on construction instead of the industry-standard one-year warranty.
You enjoy a 10-year warranty on your home’s foundation instead of the typical six-year warranty.

Plus, we check in with you. After year one, we complete a 12-month inspection. Then we return in years two and three to ask how else we might be able to help.

Any reputable builder can give you exactly what you want

But in the end, you still may be unhappy in the long run if your home is not designed to meet your needs for accessibility both now and in the future, even if circumstances change.

Neither modular home builders nor conventional site-builders have the expertise and experience to provide the level of advisory services that Homes for Life delivers through The HFL Process™.

At Homes for Life, we ensure you not only get what you want but also what you need in an accessible home.

The HFL Process™ builds trust, and our expertise ensures a positive outcome.

MEET THE HFL TEAM

An infographic demonstrating the Homes for Life process.