- Costs
- Delays
- Changes
Building a home can be one of the most exciting times in your life.
You get a chance to take all of the ideas, designs, and colors you’ve found on Pinterest over the years and put them together to make your dream home.
Whether you’ve always dreamed of a large kitchen with white cabinets and a quartz island, or you’ve been dying to get the exact color of laminate laid in your great room to match that couch and rug, this is your chance to make it happen.
There’s a lot of fun that comes with walking through new homes being built to get ideas, as well as going through lots and lots of floor plans with your builder (or architect) to find the layout you like the best.
What Concerns Come With Home Building?
While there is a lot to love about home building, there are also some concerns that may come up during the process.
Knowing how to deal with these concerns can be the difference between the home-building process being a collaborative, rewarding process and a total nightmare.
Here are the 3 most common concerns people encounter when building and some strategies on how you can overcome them:
Costs
Depending on your local home market where prices might be a tad high (or available stock somewhat lower than desired), deciding to build might be an easier call to make.
That being said, just because you’re building you’re not exempt from the unexpected costs that can come from construction.
Costs can come in the form of the lot itself and any premiums that are placed on it. Since you’ve likely been dreaming not only of the perfect house to build but also where that house will sit, you may find prices in the location you desire are higher than you expected.
Also, when you find a floorplan you like, remember to budget in an allowance for any structural changes you make to the house. If you decide you want extra windows, a bump-out in the dinette, a finished basement or covered patio, that will all be in addition to whatever the base price of the house is.
A lot of builders use tools like this revenue recognition to help them budget out the prices of these services before you make your choices.
Once the structural is done, then comes the design costs. Plan on budgeting at least 5-10% of your house base price for design upgrades. Design upgrades come in the form of different levels of tiling, different countertops (whether quartz, granite or laminate), bathroom formations with a water closet or a second vanity sink, and much more.
Once you get down the rabbit hole of design you’ll realize that there are seemingly endless amounts of upgrades that can be done on your house, so if you aren’t careful, you may get in over your head and realize it’s something you can’t afford.
Budget carefully and know beforehand what the costs might be, so you are prepared when you go in to finalize your building details.
Delays
One of the things that can hold up a build is that of permit delays. Whether it’s dealing with the HOA, city permits, licenses, inspections, or anything else, delays will very likely happen.
One good thing to keep in mind is that most permits take a little longer to get than you think they should.
If you can plan for this in your building timeline, you will be able to rest easier knowing things are staying on track in the long run.
Changes
Last of all, expect the unexpected.
As hard as you try to plan for everything upfront, once the building starts, changes are bound to happen.
On paper, it’s sometimes hard to visualize what everything will look like until it starts to come together. Put a little money away for unexpected changes that come up like deciding you now want a slightly taller garage door or a spot where a window wasn’t planned on, but definitely needs one.
If you do this, you’ll be much better prepared to weather the small storms that come up when building a home.
