Building a custom home can seem like a daunting task, as it’s a more involved process compared to moving into a production home. It demands your time, effort, and money, but it’s all worth it when it comes to building the home of your dreams. It’s best to break the process down step by step in order to feel as confident as possible. Large projects like this require effective communication, research, and even physical labor at times. Use these five tips to make building your custom home as smooth of a process as possible.
Develop a Budget
The first step in your custom home building process is researching how to get pre-approved for a mortgage and filing the necessary paperwork with your financial institution, as you’ll have to have a written pre-approval letter before building. This is critical when interested in a new construction home and although it won’t secure your mortgage for you, it will help jumpstart the building process. You’ll want to ensure that you can afford the building process, your payments in the future, and this will also help you create a realistic budget when moving forward with the rest of the custom home building project. You’ll also want to set aside the estimated amount for your down payment when it’s time to close on the home.
When creating a realistic budget, you’ll want to develop one that will save you money and meet your vision at the same time. Your financial situation can determine various aspects when building your home, such as the size of your home, the materials used, and the location of where you’re building. You’ll need to look into a construction loan since you’re building a home from scratch. This will help you allocate money for the estimated costs from your builder, including the labor, landscaping costs, interior design features, furniture, and more. It’s better to save a nest egg of money too in case there are any unforeseen issues or additional expenses than once thought.
Decide on a Location
Another critical aspect of building your custom home is finding enough land. Most homeowners have the choice to either build on a lot or use acreage. Investing in acreage can provide a sense of privacy, along with opportunities to build out or expand on your home down the line if desired. For homeowners who like to be around people, building on a lot can increase interactions with neighbors, especially if your lot is in a friendly neighborhood. This also makes it much easier to maintain, considering tasks like low-maintenance landscaping are rather inexpensive and low maintenance on a lot compared to a high acreage location where you have to clean up a lot of the land to build on it or get it to your standards.
Be sure to conduct enough research into what location you feel is best for you and your family. Look into the surrounding school districts if you have children attending school and see if the public or private schools in the area would be a good fit. You’ll also want to take into account if there are plenty of opportunities in the area for your job’s industry in case your job doesn’t allow relocation or remote work. These are also important aspects to consider when choosing what space is best for your family and your new home.
Carefully consider all expenses while you hunt for a location that is best for you. Finding an exact figure for how much a new home costs per square foot is difficult. Consult with your builder and designers to come up with an estimate that is realistic so you can start saving or setting aside money as soon as possible. In order to do this, take the total cost and divide it by the total number of square feet in your project. There are resources online that can calculate figures such as square feet and other measurable statistics.
Consider Interior Designs
It’s important to understand the entire layout of your home before you build it. Begin by prioritizing the interior; create an image in your mind and sketch it out. Tools like digital floor plans, furniture layout kits, and kitchen layout kits are all items that can help significantly. This is critical when establishing a natural flow within the home and deciding where to place certain furniture items.
Closely consider the floor plan and interior designs of your custom home. Decide where appliances will go, which rooms should be built where, where your bathrooms and closets will go as well. When considering the interior aspects of your home, think of possible ways to go green in your custom home when configuring the layout. Look into energy efficient windows, lighting appliances, and eco-friendly flooring. Not only are they small changes to make from your current lifestyle, but with a custom home it’s easy to place these items anywhere you’d like. Don’t forget to ensure that your furniture and vision for the space will fit within the allocated space between the rooms’ walls. Luckily, when you design a home with a builder like Urban NW Homes, you gain the advantage of having an in-house designer that helps you choose and coordinate your selections to make this process much smoother and a lot more fun.
Evaluate the Exterior
The exterior of your custom home can play a variety of roles, specifically protecting everyone and everything on the interior from exterior forces. An effective exterior can protect your home against wind, rain, sleet, snow, branches and debris.
Evaluate your exterior design and consider the materials you plan. Decide which ones are affordable, durable and stylish. The most commonly used materials for custom home construction are concrete, wood, brick, stone, steel, and plastic. It’s crucial to consider longevity when planning which roofing and siding material is best for your home. For example, if you build your home with mostly wood for the aesthetic, there’ll be more maintenance over time and perhaps more repairs. Consider which materials are the most adequate and practical for your price point, lifestyle and climate.
Hire a Professional Team
This is your project so it’s necessary to hire the right builder, or team of contractors and designers, who will make your ideas come to life. Do research and try to find a team that has years of experience building homes in your area. Ask your friends or family members, as well. Word of mouth is a powerful tool when it comes to residential construction referrals. It could be helpful to analyze previous projects that they have done. Reviews are also a great way to garner feedback from previous customers.
Once you find your team, communicate with them to decide on a specific timeframe for the project. Timeframes for specific projects can be difficult to decide on. Discuss what your goal date is to move-in on when payments are due and see if your timeframes align. Oftentimes, snowy and rainy seasons can affect how quickly a job can or will be completed.
Even though this seems like a lot of information to take into consideration, it’ll directly benefit you when building your custom home. Use previous projects as guides or blueprints and go from there. Be sure to stay positive and trust the residential construction process. The experts know what they are doing and in the end you’re sure to end up with a home that’s just right if you follow the proper steps during the planning process.