A Builder’s Perspective — Before You Need the Builder
Michael Stoler
Third-Generation Builder • 30+ Years in Residential Construction
I grew up around building. Long before it became my profession, construction was simply part of everyday life.
That early exposure eventually became a career spent working directly with homeowners through the decisions, details, and conversations that shape a successful project.
It Started With a Treehouse
I’M A THIRD-GENERATION BUILDER.
Some of my earliest projects were treehouses. In fact, I may have been the only kid in the neighborhood with matched cherry paneling in his treehouse.
My dad was always building or finishing our next house, so there was usually plenty of material around. What I didn’t realize was that the beautiful cherry paneling I helped myself to had been specially ordered for his home office.
Whoops.
Building eventually became much more than something I grew up around. I built my own home in 1975, and spent more than 30 years in residential construction.
From the First Conversation to the Finished Home
Our company operated as a design-build firm with nine full-time employees. Most of our work was custom homes, with remodeling projects sprinkled throughout.
That meant I was involved from beginning to end — from early conversations and design decisions through construction and completion.
CRAFTSMANSHIP • TRUST
Those were two things I valued most in the business.
Realtors would bring us clients knowing they could turn them over to us and we would handle everything from soup to nuts — including making sure the realtor was taken care of.
Built in Bucks County. Remembered Decades Later.
I spent my career building custom homes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Decades later, some of those homes are still being marketed with my name attached to them. I think that says more about my work than anything I could say myself.
In Their Words
That experience — seeing hundreds of decisions from the builder’s side of the table — is what I bring to The Builder’s 2nd Opinion today.
How Did It Ever Get This Far?
Years after retiring from building, I started reading homeowners’ stories about remodeling projects that had gone terribly wrong.
Cost overruns. Misunderstandings. Arguments over changes. Poor communication. Money disputes.
I kept finding myself asking the same question:
How did it ever get this far?
During my years in business, I was never involved in litigation with a client, and I never had a client withhold money from me.
That doesn’t mean every project went perfectly. Construction doesn’t work that way. Problems came up. The difference was that we talked about them, worked through them, and kept the relationship professional.
The more of those homeowner stories I read, the more I began thinking that some of those problems might have been easier to deal with before they became problems at all.
That idea eventually became The Builder’s 2nd Opinion.
Problems Are Easier to Deal With While They’re Still Questions.
I’m not here to tell your contractor how to build your project.
I’m here to help you become better prepared for the conversations you’re going to have with the people who will.
I review your answers — not your construction.