# Prepare a renovation or rebuild inquiry without deciding it online.

A renovation or rebuild inquiry page should help homeowners describe what they need before choosing a construction path. Ask what they want to keep, change or replace. Separate preferences, observations and professional findings. Show which records inform the first conversation, and leave feasibility, approvals and project comparisons open for qualified review.

## What should your renovation or rebuild page help a homeowner do?

Help the homeowner prepare a useful first inquiry. The page should gather the household brief and identify available records. It should explain how your team receives an undecided project. It should not recommend demolition, diagnose an existing house or declare one path financially superior.

Begin with two questions. What no longer works about the home? What remains valuable to the household? A homeowner might want a different room relationship while hoping to retain a familiar space. Record both statements. Neither statement establishes that a particular construction approach can deliver the desired result.

Place this early comparison within your [builder sales process](/articles/sales-process/). State the next conversation your team can support. If you do not review undecided renovation projects, say so in your approved service description. Do not borrow a broader service claim from a single completed project.

## Which homeowner goals belong before the two paths?

Ask about daily activities before asking the homeowner to select a solution. Which rooms need a closer connection? Which activities compete for space? What does the household want to preserve? Describe the desired experience separately from proposed building work.

For example, “we want a quiet place for work” is a goal. “Extend the house at the rear” is a proposed response. Keep those entries separate. The goal can remain useful while the response changes during professional review. Do not rewrite a homeowner's suggestion as an approved scope item.

Invite priorities without requiring private household details on a public form. A short description of room use can start the conversation. Ask for sensitive supporting records through your approved private channel. Explain what your team needs for the initial review, using the broader [builder discovery questions](/articles/sales-process/builder-discovery-questions/) as a reference.

Include a field for disagreement. If household members want different outcomes, retain both preferences until they resolve them. The website should not choose the most detailed answer as the controlling brief. A blank priority field means the priority is unknown.

## How do you separate preferences, observations and findings?

Use explicit labels in the inquiry worksheet. A preference describes what the owner wants. An observation records what someone noticed. A professional finding records a conclusion within the identified reviewer's scope. Keep the source beside each entry.

| Entry type | Useful intake wording | What remains open |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner preference | We want to retain the front sitting room. | Whether the proposed work can retain it. |
| Owner observation | The owner reports a mark on an interior wall. | Its cause, significance and required response. |
| Documented finding | A supplied report addresses the identified area. | Any question outside that report's stated scope. |
| Unknown | No current drawing has been supplied. | The existing layout and proposed changes. |

Do not convert a photograph into a structural conclusion. Do not turn an old drawing into a statement about present conditions. If records disagree, identify the conflict and request the appropriate review. The public page can explain this boundary without publishing the underlying private documents.

Ask who supplied a statement and when. Keep “owner reports” when the source is the owner. Keep “review required” when no qualified conclusion exists. These labels describe the evidence available for discussion. They do not establish the safety or suitability of the house.

## What records can the page ask homeowners to identify?

Ask which records exist before asking for every file. Useful categories include existing drawings, proposed sketches, prior reports and records of earlier work. Record each document's title, date, revision and stated purpose. Mark absent records as not supplied.

A homeowner may have a drawing without knowing whether it describes the current house. Provide an “uncertain” option. Ask the reviewer to establish what the record supports. Do not demand that the homeowner certify technical accuracy before the first conversation.

Keep the initial public inquiry separate from document publication. Do not treat receipt of a drawing as confirmation of publication permission. Before using any project material publicly, confirm publication rights with the responsible party. Keep addresses and identifying household details out of your public example.

Explain the review sequence through your [written build process](/guides/writing-down-your-build-process/). Use only the sequence your team has approved. Avoid promising a site visit, estimate or technical answer at a stage where your process has not established one.

## What belongs in a copyable two-path inquiry worksheet?

Copy these prompts into a working document. Keep the same household goals above both paths. Each path records questions for review rather than a recommendation. Replace bracketed fields with supplied information, and preserve unknowns.

RENOVATION OR REBUILD INQUIRY

Household goal: [activity or daily-use problem]

Priority confirmed by household: [yes / unresolved]

Features the owner hopes to keep: [list / unknown]

Observed conditions: [owner statement and date / none supplied]

Professional findings: [report, scope and date / none supplied]

Existing records: [document, revision and source / unknown]

PATH A: KEEP AND ALTER

Owner's proposed changes: [request / undecided]

Areas the owner hopes to retain: [request / undecided]

Evidence available for discussion: [record reference]

Questions requiring qualified review: [question and role]

Decision status: OPEN

PATH B: REPLACE

Owner's reasons for considering replacement: [statement]

Household goals carried into this path: [same goal reference]

Evidence available for discussion: [record reference]

Questions requiring qualified review: [question and role]

Decision status: OPEN

COMMON FOLLOW-UP

Conflicting information: [items / none identified]

Missing source: [record / unknown]

Responsible reviewer: [role / unassigned]

Next discussion purpose: [question to resolve]

No feasibility, cost or approval conclusion recorded.

Add a source field when someone supplies new information. If a conversation changes the household goal, revise the common brief before comparing the paths again. Otherwise the worksheet compares different projects while appearing to compare construction choices.

Keep the working record private. Publish a blank worksheet or a clearly fictional excerpt. A completed buyer record can contain personal plans and information about the home. The public article needs the method, not those private particulars.

## How could a fictional first-contact page explain the hold?

The following excerpt is fictional and unnamed. It illustrates page wording, not a real service offer, completed assessment or approved construction plan. No dimensions, site findings, prices or project dates are known.

Considering changes to an existing home? Describe the daily-use problem before selecting renovation or replacement. Tell us which spaces you hope to keep and which relationships you want to change. Identify drawings or reports you already hold. If a record is missing, mark it unknown.

Your inquiry starts a discussion about the available information. It does not select a construction path. Feasibility, scope, project comparisons and approvals remain open until the responsible reviewers examine the project.

In this fictional inquiry, the household wants a quieter work area and hopes to retain a front room. The owner has not supplied current drawings. Neither construction path is selected. The next discussion identifies the records needed to understand the existing layout.

The excerpt does not promise that either goal can be met. It also avoids presenting replacement as the default. Your real page should describe only the inquiry work your team accepts. Use your [Operating profile](/process/operating-profile/) to confirm who receives the brief and who approves the public explanation.

## How should images support the inquiry?

Keep a picture's role narrow. An image may illustrate the area an owner wants to discuss. It does not establish the cause of a condition or prove that a proposed change is possible. Explain the image's purpose in the surrounding text.

For informative images, write a text alternative that conveys the image's meaning in context. The [W3C informative-image tutorial](https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/informative/) explains this approach. That guidance concerns image presentation. It does not verify a building feature or a proposed construction solution.

Before publishing an image, confirm its source and permission. Label a concept as a concept. If the approved caption cannot explain what a drawing represents, hold the image. You can publish the text worksheet without adding a visual claim.

## How do you prepare the next conversation?

1. Confirm the household goal in the homeowner's words.

2. Separate requested changes from documented conditions.

3. List available records and their revision status.

4. Keep both construction paths open where evidence remains incomplete.

5. Assign each unresolved question to the responsible review role.

6. Read back the purpose of the next conversation.

The [first builder meeting guide](/articles/sales-process/first-meeting-with-a-custom-builder/) provides the wider agenda. If review later supports a documented addition story, use the separate [home addition project-page guide](/articles/sales-process/home-addition-project-page-content/). A completed-project story answers a different question from this early inquiry.

## What do builders ask about renovation comparison pages?

### Should a renovation or rebuild page recommend one path?

A renovation or rebuild inquiry page should record household goals and open questions. Keep a project recommendation with the responsible reviewers after they examine the relevant information.

### Can homeowner photographs establish existing conditions?

Homeowner photographs can identify subjects for discussion on a renovation inquiry. They do not establish structural findings, causes or approval status. Record the image source and request qualified review.

### What if the homeowner has no current drawings?

Mark current drawings as not supplied in the renovation or rebuild worksheet. Identify who will review the missing information before the team makes project-specific conclusions.

### Does a completed addition prove renovation is suitable elsewhere?

Use reviewed project records to describe a completed addition's scope. That project does not establish renovation suitability for another house or make every demonstrated feature part of your standard service.