Wondering how long it will take to build your new TJH home? We understand that you want certainty about your move-in date. That’s why every home we build comes with our delivery guarantee: we’ll complete your new home within 12 months of starting construction. (Plus, the price of your new home is locked in upon contract execution with our price guarantee.) Your dedicated TJH build experience specialist will keep you updated throughout the construction process and celebrate important building milestones with you. Read on to learn more about the steps of building a new home with TJH.

Step one: Designing the right home for your lifestyle

BUILD by TJH is a full-service design and construction solution that begins with designing your ideal home. During your free BUILD Analysis, our team will provide the TJH home plans tailored to your homesite, needs, and lifestyle. Once you select your home plan, you’ll work with our design experts at your local TJH Design Studio to choose your exterior style, interior finishes, and additional personalizations.

If you don’t have a homesite, we’ll help you find land to build your new TJH home. Our BUILD+ land sourcing service locates off-market properties in sought-after neighborhoods and takes care of the ins and outs of the acquisition process.

Step two: Obtaining permits

After you finalize your home’s design with our team, we’ll submit the plans to the city to obtain all necessary building permits. Fortunately, when you build with TJH, you won’t have to worry about typical delays during permitting. Such delays can be common, especially in more regulated areas. We avoid these delays with our library of home plans that meet jurisdictional requirements in each of the areas in which we build—Southern California, Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, and Arizona. In addition, we perform an internal review of all home plans before submitting them to the city to make sure everything is in order for easy approval. 

“Every home plan in our library has been meticulously reviewed, vetted, and approved by each team lead during our Paper Walk. By carefully examining all details of a home’s blueprint, we’re able to streamline the construction process and give our clients the confidence that their home meets the highest standards.”

Adam Ganzell, National Vice President of Construction + Quality, Thomas James Homes

Step three: Tearing down your current home

If you’re rebuilding with TJH, the next step is to demolish your existing home. Because we provide a full-service solution to get the home you need without leaving the location you love, we take care of every aspect of demolition. Homeowners are even invited to a special demolition day event with the build experience team.

Step four: Construction of your new home

Our construction process will last no more than one year—that’s our guarantee. Throughout this phase, your build experience specialist will notify you of key milestones, from laying the foundation to installing countertops, fixtures, and flooring. They will also set up multiple walk-through opportunities for you at the home. Building with TJH means we handle every aspect of construction on your new home, even landscaping, so you can sit back and relax. Whether you choose to build a new home or buy one of our homes underway, you’ll know your move-in time frame from when we start construction.

“The communication was great. We were given the timeline from the beginning—what to expect and at what point in the process. At every point in the construction process, it was very clear what kind of decisions we had to make. And it was really seamless, the handover from team to team. I was out of the country for a large part of the year, and it was not a problem because the communication was so good.”

Asha V., TJH homeowner, Menlo Park, CA

Step five: Moving into your new TJH home

This is the day you’ve been waiting for! We take all the necessary steps—from working with you on personalizing the perfect home to our delivery guarantee—so this day is filled with excitement and joy, not uncertainty. With more than 350 homes in annual production, we’ve established a reliable construction process that allows us to provide all of our homeowners with our delivery guarantee. 

As an added benefit, we’ve partnered with leading home concierge platform Virtuo to give our homeowners a complimentary membership to access services to help with moving. This is just one of our strategic partnerships to further improve your TJH homeowner experience. Your TJH home delivery includes a homeowner orientation as the final official step in the TJH new home journey. However, that’s not where our relationship ends. Your TJH home is protected by our new home warranty, and our devoted customer experience team is always available following move-in. So even after move-in, we’re here to make sure you have the best experience possible with your new TJH home.