Many people dream of owning their dream home, but finding it already on the market is often a challenge. As a result, many choose to instead build their dream homes, that way they can make sure everything they want in a home is included. Whether it’s to have a backyard for your kids, a place all to yourselves, or just for investment value, there are a lot of reasons to consider buying your home rather than spend months searching the real estate market.
That being said, building a home also comes with its own challenges, and even if most of the work is being done by contractors and construction workers, you still need to have a hand in the entire process to make sure you get exactly what you want. Often you won’t understand the processes involved in construction and what parts are included in building a new home, especially when you first start. From selecting a site, clearing it, and building your home with help from experts who can design your dream home, here is what goes into making your dream home a reality.
Preparing the Construction Site
This may seem easy, but many people do not think about this. When you are ready to start building your dream home, the biggest decision you need to make is where you want it to be. While there are likely many land development projects available where other people are also building homes, cities making a push to develop their neighborhoods and housing, and spots of land ready for claiming, not all of them will be suitable for your wants and needs.
Many factors go into choosing where to build a home, and no matter where you choose to go there will be some form of challenge you need to overcome in order to make living there possible. For example, you might have found the perfect spot to set down roots, but it also happens to be in a flood zone, or it’s near a major highway, or even a little too far away from your child’s school. There’s a balancing act between a spot you may have fallen in love with, and what you’re going to have to put up with in order to live there.
Pick Your House Plan
One of the biggest draws to building your house, as stated earlier, is getting to have control over what goes into your house. This means you get to pick the floor plan the contractors and construction workers will be working off of. There are many options to consider when undertaking this step. For example, you can choose from various home plans that are already available and provided by construction companies who are focused on building new homes for sale or ask for the help of the contractors you’re looking to bring onto the project as they can design a house plan that best fits your needs. This means you can have complete customization control, and with the input of a professional, it becomes physically possible to create. Depending on the type of home you have in mind, this also means choosing the best construction methods and materials to make it a reality.
For example, after the land is cleared and the foundation is laid comes the next step: the framing of the house. This is essentially the construction of the home’s skeleton and can be a first glimpse into what your home will look like when it’s finished. Something to consider for this step is just what kind of material your frame will be made from, and what method of framing the construction crew will use. The materials vary, from wood and concrete to steel and ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms), which is concrete poured into hollow panels with reinforced bars. Types of framing include platform framing, in which the frames go up floor by floor, and the ICF method, which is an entire framing system unto itself.
Budgeting Your Money
Building a new dream home is an extensive process that can take anywhere from three months to a year, with the general average being around seven months. The timeframe mainly depends on things like the design you’ve picked, the time it takes to acquire the necessary permits in order to begin building, clearing and prepping the land, and more unpredictable factors such as the weather, labor, and any last-minute changes you or your team might make to the house or the construction process. All of this, understandably, will take time and money. Thus, it’s important you’re able to fund the entire project from start to finish.
To make it as affordable as possible, you want to ensure that your budget is realistic. Ways to do this might include the use of budgeting apps, or you can also use spreadsheets to keep track of your spending to ensure that you are staying within your budget. You might even consider consulting a financial advisor to make sure you’re numbers are correct and that what you’ve planned out is indeed realistic. For instance, you may want to add extra features to your new home, but you should plan this out carefully because the costs can quickly add up, especially depending on the feature and the materials used. Some of these features may include things like security cameras, smart locks, pools, patios, and other features that will add to the cost of your home.
Building a home isn’t necessarily easy, but it is the best way to make your dream home a reality. Once you have decided on what you want and where you want it, it’s onto who will build it and how much it will cost. With these tips in mind, you can enjoy building your dream home knowing you have everything covered.
