We find this approach, although not the always the cheapest, is the most cost-effective in the long run. As we have personally coded every element of you site, tracking down and fixing bugs, modifying how systems work to suit unforeseen scenarios and other general updates are all much more straight forward. Websites and their functionality is growing in complexity and future changes are inevitable, so getting your web company right from this standpoint is one that we feel is critical to your on-line success.
We have inherited projects developed off-shore from other local web design companies, where the client has hit a in-pass, because the web company was unable to make changes they required. Out of desperation they have been forced to start again, and have come to us because we can assure then that we are always able to make the changes without problems.