There are a lot of positives to building a home rather than purchasing one. For example, building a home tends to be a more satisfying experience because you get to customize it to your liking. Nevertheless, even building a home has its challenges. Here are several things to think about when considering building a home.
Staying Within Your Budget
One of the biggest challenges of building a new home is staying within a designated budget. Like most other construction projects, people tend to underestimate how much it truly costs to construct a house. For this reason, you must maintain a realistic perspective and evaluate your priorities. That way, when construction becomes costlier than previously imagined, you will be ready to make budget cuts where appropriate—whether in your lifestyle (eating out less) or in the project itself (maybe you can do the painting yourself).
Getting a Mortgage
In purchasing a regular home, the mortgage process itself is already complicated, with an application process of hundreds of pages . But building a custom home tends to be even more complicated. For this reason, you will want to work closely with a mortgage broker.
Getting a mortgage for your custom home will differ depending on the route that you take. If you are planning to production build your home, the process is relatively simple but more complicated than buying a pre-constructed home. Production building is when you create a contract with a builder who is constructing homes on development property. The builder and you will negotiate certain aspects of the home, but you will have less freedom regarding personalization. On the other hand, building a custom home on a plot of land you own offers more freedom in customization, but increased complications in the mortgage process.
Delays, Delays, and… More Delays
The biggest problem that home builders run into is delays. You rarely have to deal with delays when purchasing an already-constructed home; nevertheless, though frustrating, any good thing is worth the wait, right? There are several different types of delays you may run into, including delays in securing a building permit, delays in property inspections, delays in HOA approvals, and delays in shipping building materials. The best thing you can do to combat these setbacks is to allow yourself plenty of extra time to build your home and practice a bit of patience.
Custom building is the perfect way to create the home of your dreams. The options are endless! Fortunately, the challenges with building a home do not have to be as endless as the options. Before you start the home building process, be sure to do your research and prepare adequately for any issues that may surface.