5 Tips Before Building A Home

I have been asked several times during our home building process to share tips about what we learned, what we would do differently, and more. We are so blessed to have had an extremely smooth building process. Would we do it over again? You bet. Are we happy with our decision? Entirely. Would we do anything differently? No. And that's because we planned. I attribute the smooth sailing to a lot of that. I thought I would share some tips that are hopefully helpful before one considers building.

BUDGET
Create a budget! You don't want to get in over your head, and when you build, that can happen really fast. Sit down and discuss what you can afford.
Do you have a house that you currently own that you would need to sell in order to begin the build process? Remember to factor in the cost of making your current home sell-able and then the realtor fees and other fees that will come in to play afterwards. Thoroughly discuss with your sales agent at the new build how much money you will have to put down for a down payment.
Are there any hidden fees? Make sure you know exactly what you are going to have to shell out at the end. There are a ton of fees that can occur when building-- land deposit and upfront home design gallery fees, just to name a few. Realistically speaking, expect to spend significantly more than what the "base" price is that is advertised by your builder. Just because it says "From the low 300K's," for example, does not mean that's what you will be paying, ESPECIALLY if you do not want to settle for a basic, standard design. In our case, we had two kinds of upgrades: structural and aesthetic.
AREA BUILDER
Where do you want to live? Sit down and make a list of what is important to you in your community. Are you a people person? Do you want land? Do you want a gym close by? We've lived in this town for several years so we knew we wanted to stay where we were currently living based on personal preferences like proximity to grandparents and church, overall community, great school districts, active lifestyle and things to do for our kids and kids to come! And lets be honest-- at least 5 minutes from Starbucks! ;)
Research your builder! As far as our builder was concerned, we knew who we did and did not want to use. We researched builders and asked friends who have built in the past. Some of the things that our house came with at a "basic" level were appealing: standard granite (which we still upgraded but it was not crazy outrageous because we were just adding onto the "credit" they gave us) and great basic carpet and tile (areas we didn't want to sink money into because our goal is to change it in the next couple of years anyways due to heavy traffic areas and having little ones, and aesthetic preference).
Guard your heart to avoid disappointment! We did consider other neighborhoods and one in particular was at the top of our list because of lot size. Once we started researching the area and the builder, several factors veered us away (flood zone? only electric, no gas? what!) -- and they were big factors. All to say... definitely do you research before you get excited about something only to be disappointed. We had been looking potential house builds since we moved out here in 2011. I really am so happy we took our time to consider each option before just jumping in and eventually regretting something down the road.
MAKE A LIST OF PRIORTIES
What is important to you? Is there anything you didn't like about your last home and desire to do differently? Before you build, you want to have a clear, un-emotional list of attributes of your future home that matter to you. Joshua and I sat down and literally wrote a list of what was important to us. We made a list of what was important, things we could change down the road, and things we would not budge on. We stuck to it. We upgraded our granite, opted for a butler's pantry, didn't drywall in our loft, opted for a major garage facelift (extended door and width and length), open stair railing, extended outdoor patio, and double-sided gate. Most of the structural upgrades are things we have absolutely no regrets on-- we can absolutely not change the design of our house, but we can change flooring down the road! On an aesthetic level, we upgraded almost everything (faucets, cabinets, etc) except for flooring. We chose to paint the interior house ourselves (saved us about $3K), and didn't do the "extras" like have a surround system installed, etc (we did, however, have it pre-wired).
Are you planning on moving one day? Another very important factor to consider is resale. If you are not planning on staying there forever, make choices during your house build that will benefit your future sale. We are not planning on moving for a longgggg time (praise Jesus!). We focused on our kitchen and our master bathroom. Both were our areas of highest upgrade cost, but we knew they would benefit us in the long run, if we do ever decide to sell. We also opted for a water softener loop, BBQ gas hookup outside, lots of outlets inside and outside, and many more areas in our home that would be appealing to future buyers.
OPEN COMMUNICATION
Form relationships! We really had a great building experience and I attribute a lot of that to forming a good, solid relationship with our sales associate and team of people building the home, especially our construction manager. Dozens and dozens of times they would just give us the key to walk through our home when it was being built to just check it out and ask questions. They were always available for us on the phone. They kept us informed on what was going on all the time. We formed a special bond with the crew and they almost became like family during the 6 month long process.
HAVE FUN
Relax! This is SUCH an exciting time. Enjoy every minute. We definitely had our share of stressful moments. I remember one time in particular when we stopped by for a random visit to the build site and one of our rooms was framed wrong. Fortunately it was an easy error to fix, and had we not even stopped by our construction manager would have caught it. Fortunately it was literally just wood and nails at that point, but I got so stressed and worked up about something that was a simple fix. Enjoy the ride and cherish these moments. Have a sense of humor! Building our home was such a special time for our family! I love that no one has made memories in it but us.