So… You Want to Build a Custom Home

Used Home vs New Home

When it comes to moving into a home that is new to you, you have many options. The typical homebuyer takes the usual path and starts looking at the used home inventory on Zillow or Trulia. They find several homes that seem to meet their needs and start calling real estate agents to learn more about the homes they are interested in and that they want to visit. However, once you start visiting the homes, they don’t actually look like the pictures you saw on the internet. In addition, everything was built to someone else’s taste and the colors and materials are 10 years old or more. Not exactly what you wanted. That’s when the compromises start.

Another option is to start visiting communities for a new construction home. They are beautiful. The models are furnished and they are decorated as if you could move in today. The latest colors and materials are used and the finishes are fantastic. However, you are limited to certain options. Need something special in the bathroom? It isn’t offered? Or, if it is special and the builder can do it, there will be an $800 change fee plus the cost of whatever it is that you want to have done. And what about the special view. In most new home communities you have a view of the house across the street or the house a few feet from either side of yours.

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With both a used home, and especially with a new construction home, it is easy to get so distracted by features and upgrades that you don’t even think about how it was constructed. With a used home issues like asbestos, lead paint, and water/mold issues should be a concern to everyone. Inspectors can’t catch everything and finding these things after you buy can impact your family’s health and cost thousands to repair. At least with a new construction home you have a warranty. However, in today’s world, production builders are finding new and creative ways to cut hundreds, if not thousands of dollars from building costs. Many, if not most, production builders are using a cardboard like product on the exterior of new homes. Cover it with siding and add some decorative window and door treatments and the house has amazing curb appeal. However, a burglar with a box cutter can be inside your home without going through a window or door in about 60 seconds. Most homebuyers never even think to ask how the home was constructed or what materials were used.

What about a New Custom Home

Buying a used or new construction home in a community is so ingrained in most homebuyers today that they don’t even think about building a new custom home. The term “custom” means expensive to many people and so they don’t even check it out. With modern building methods today such as using modular construction, new custom homes can be built at a value that may surprise you. Modular construction is used to build homes off-site and indoors. Quality materials used to build your new home in a dry environment with quality craftsmen using building system that promotes quality is the picture of efficiency when building a new custom home.

Get Land and a Construction Loan

When you buy a used or new construction home you get the land as part of the package. When you build a new custom home, you have to bring the land with you. You may find a unique building site, a place with a special view, a parcel in a community that is perfect for you and your family, etc. Once you find the land now you have to buy it. Next comes the time to choose a plan and start working with a bank to get a construction loan. You are now creating a home where none existed before. You can build a new custom home cost effectively but it will require more from you than simply purchasing a home that already exists.

Decisions… Decisions…

Building a new home is fun! You will get the opportunity to view and choose a house plan or to design your very own. You can decide the location of everything in the home. With so much information on the internet you have access to the best and brightest in design available at your fingertips. You can design a home that is perfect for your family. The perfect exterior and perfect interior combine to create the home that fits your personal and unique lifestyle.

You get to pick every color, every product, and every finish in your new home. The only issue most homebuyers have is that they are required to pick every color, every product, and every finish in their new home. Building a new custom home is rewarding but to some it can become overwhelming at times. So many decisions have to be made. Sure, there are standards and options but you still have to decide on every one. And it usually just isn’t you, a spouse or significant other is involved and all must agree before the decision is made. Once a decision is made, it can be expensive to change it. Especially if that part of the home is completed or the product has been purchased. Eventually, in every custom home building project the final decision is made and you can stand back and see what the culmination of months, if not years of planning has resulted in.

Love Your New Home

The hours of research, selections, visiting flooring stores, etc. have paid off and you are moving into your beautiful home. Your home is an extension of you because you planned it, designed it, coordinated it, and finished it. Your new custom home is worth every bit of effort you put into creating it. It is you.