“Top Home Building Tips” presents Mel Inglima, Show Host of the “Creating Your Dream Home” WebTV Show

Our primary mission at www.TopHomeBuildingTips.com is to provide information, strategies and support for homeowners, owner builders, home remodelers and the professionals that help them.

Sadly, there is a lot of confusion and frustration in home building today. The traditional approach to custom home building and remodeling is broken. Builders suffer from poor reputations. Quality suffers, cost overruns plague most projects, communication vanishes, and projects take much longer than expected.

This website and show will help you avoid these problems.

“Creating Your Dream Home” WebTV Show

Our webTV show, “Creating Your Dream Home” delivers tips and strategies that empower you to manage your own project with ease and simplicity.

New shows every week provide you with valuable insights into products and procedures, and give you ideas and strategies at absolutely no charge to you! We are committed to keep this site and webTV show open and easy to access so that you can come back often. We believe that knowledge makes the difference in your success.

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Sponsors and professional memberships allow us to give you free access to these shows. Please support our sponsors and browse our list of vendors so we can continue to provide you expert advice on home building, home expansion, and remodeling.

Show Host Mel Inglima

Mel Inglima is not your typical home building professional. He has spent 15 years as a home building coach to homeowners and home builders. Working with hundreds of clients and thousands of home building industry professionals has allowed Mel to develop a unique owner-builder system that empowers people to become their own builders.

From the Ground Up

Years spent working directly with client after client, on home after home, has given Mel unique insights into what it takes for successful building and remodeling projects that were directed by the homeowner builders themselves. This hands on work, and the hundreds of varied experiences allow Mel to pass along an expertise you cannot find anywhere else.

But, it didn’t start with a bang. Much learning and experimentation was involved. Mel’s story is what makes him so valuable to you today.

It was 1999. DeGeorge Homes was defunct and Mel was out of a job. He had liked his work with DeGeorge and its predecessor, Miles Homes. For five years he had been selling house packages to owner-builders providing materials, funding, house-plans and customer support. He had won sales contests; cars, cruises, plaques, and various other awards.

Mel’s desire to help people build homes could have easily died right here. There was no other company that did just what DeGeorge Homes did in his area. The thought of starting his own company crept continuously into his thoughts but the enormity of this idea boggled his mind. There just had to be an opportunity here but unless he could make it a great business, doing great work, within a simple to deliver format, it just wouldn’t hold the promise of success like he demanded.

For a short time he hooked up with somewhat similar companies but nothing clicked. In his mind, they simply didn’t measure up. After considerable soul searching concerning the investment of time, the financial commitment, and the complexity of the endeavor, he decided to build his own company from the ground up!

A New Company Emerges

It turned out to be a formidable challenge. Persevering through personal anguish and near exhaustion (not to mention the exhaustion of nearly all his funds), Mel Inglima created Allied Building Solutions (ABS). And the “fun” began!

After nearly 3 years of struggle, and doors that opened and closed as frequently as a screen door in a tornado, many of the necessary components were at last together. He had assembled lenders willing to fund “would-be” homeowner-builders under his direction and without requiring a General Contractor. He found a housing company that would discount house packages to offer to his clients. He found licensed designers and structural engineers who offered access to their services through him. Deals were made with local suppliers (including even Lowe’s and Home Depot) to give discounts to his clients. And in that third year he landed two clients and helped build two custom homes!

Systems and Procedures

Two clients grew to four, and four to eight, then 12. Mel began to take on remodeling clients as well.  However, while successful, the inherent problems in the industry, as well as having to handle the business almost entirely on his own, were taking a toll. He used his growing experience and natural talents to sell, lead and support. Sometimes things went very well and sometimes the results were, shall we say, unexpected. ABS wasn’t the complete answer.

Mel was motivated to document processes and make charts and lists and owner-builder systems. These helped him to be more consistent. He compiled an Owner-Builder Handbook and a home building Manual, authoring them himself. They proved to be quite beneficial. It became apparent that the more knowledge the client had the better the process. It was a great help in managing their expectations which is at the heart of most home builders’ frustrations.

Dream Home Creation

Soon, Allied Building Solutions became Dream Home Creation and focused more on information, education, and systems. Things got better. Clients began to learn more, save more, and get more of what they wanted in their homes by doing even more of their own management.

Despite this success, there was something missing. Clients were coming in with high expectations of a fun and exciting process and getting bogged down in the complexities and fluid nature of the building and remodeling process. Things just didn’t always go as planned.

He knew, that to reach his dream of providing a great home building experience, he needed even more. And that “something more” was to provide clients with a deeper understanding of what to expect along the way and how to handle it.

“Creating Your Dream Home” WebTV Show

A shift in thinking led to where things are today. Mel has devoted his time and energy to improving the custom home building and remodeling experience for people everywhere. Using his ability to explain concepts, provide inspiration and motivation, and rally support from the building industry, Mel is changing the way custom home building works.

Through the use of Home Building Coaches with step-by-step processes and systems, and with the knowledge available through this site and video shows, people can run their own projects, get more of what they want, save money, and enjoy the whole process at the same time.

Life is too short to waste months in agony in a home building project that has gone sour. Our mission is to take the pain and suffering out of personal home building through education and the support of experienced industry professionals.