It has been a while since I’ve posted anything on my blog. Life has been a little hectic over here. It is a little difficult to keep up with blogging when you have a toddler and are running a business and now the addition of being pregnant with our second baby. But I wanted to get back to writing blogs and be more active on here.
We moved into our new home we just built in a couple weeks ago, so I thought I would write about the process of how we built our home. I never thought that I would build a home. I always thought building a home would be way more expensive and more complicated than buying a preexisting home. About 10 months ago, when we decided to buy a home, we only thought to look into the realtor market for an old home to buy. We spent about a month looking at homes but we didn’t like any of them. None of the home had things we were looking for that made them dealbreakers . But we saw a few builders posting their model homes and floor plans on the market place and began looking into it. We really liked one particular builder’s floor plans; plus we loved the idea of customizing/designing our own home. So we decided to build our home instead. Below are a few steps we took to build our home.
- Discuss it with your real estate agent.
Real estate agents can provide you information on homes that fit your style and price range or even help you find builders. The agent we worked with was very knowledgeable about different builders and where they’re building. We told our agent which city we wanted to live in and gave details for the kind of home we wanted to live in as well as a price range and she was able to recommend a builder right away. Although real estate agents help out a lot, you should do a lot of research on your own. We spent days look into different builders and read tons of reviews online as well as looking at the builder’s website. What you really want to look for is if the builder builds quality homes. I’m sure most want a quality, long-lasting home. Even if it is not your forever home, you’ll want a quality home so you could sell it in the future.
2. Schedule a time to go see the model homes with your agent.
Seeing a model home is an opportunity to look at the builder’s craftsmanship. You’ll see the quality of the home as well as how their floor plans look in person. Before going to see the model home make sure to do look through the builder website. Look at the different floor plans you would like to see then sort out the floor plan you are more likely to pick as your future home. List all the questions so you can ask the builder when they show you the model homes. Make sure your agent is present so she or he can assist you since they’ll be asking a lot of questions as well. The model home will be built to look nice, so many of the rooms, cabinets, and appliances are upgraded and cost more than the standard included items. It’s a good idea to ask the builder what features in the home are upgrades.
3. Pick a floor plan and build your home.
After you go see the model home, and you like what the builder has to offer, you will pick a floor plan that fits your budget. Make sure to calculate the upgrades you would like to add to the house, because they add up. Once you pick a plan you will meet with your agent and builder again to sign all the the documents. After you’ve signed the papers it will take about 3-4 weeks to get to your home design appointment. At the design appointment will get to design your home the way you like home. You will be guided through what are features are included in the home and what features are upgrades. They will tell you the exact price for all the upgrades and also help you stay within the budget as well. After the design appointment, it takes about 1-2 months for the city to approve your home. Depending on the city you’re moving to, this may take longer. After the city approves your home plans the builders should begin construction on the home soon after. We completely moved into our new home 5 months after the start of construction, but completion times may vary between builders and floor plans.
The building process was very smooth and it came faster than we thought. What I loved about building a home was the process of building and getting to be the first people live in your home. Also it was probably cheaper than buying a prebuilt house. Let me know below if you have any questions 🙂
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