Even if you love where you live, if you own a home that you purchased from someone else, you’ve probably looked around your house before and wondered what the builder was thinking. However, not everyone goes that route and plenty of people pay to have their home custom built. In other words, some homeowners are the builder, in the sense of they are the ones pulling the strings and making the hard decisions on how small or big their residence should be and what features it should have.
If that is what you are doing, you don’t want to look around your house someday and wonder what the builder was thinking. So if you’re spending money on a custom home, keep these things in mind.
Plan Before You Build
This goes beyond knowing how the floor plan will look but knowing how the rooms will be designed. Designing a house seems easy, but the number of choices out there can be overwhelming for many. What color tile, what size, what pattern, will it match with the walls, what cabinets will go with this, what about the faucet? All of these questions could be just for one small bathroom. In other words, you don’t want to be agonizing about how a bathroom should look and holding up your contractors.
Don’t Build Too Big
Sure, you may have a lot of stuff, and you might look longingly at mansions and want the same thing, but if that’s the route you want to take, then be sure that is what you want. What may be right for you now may not be right for you in 10 years, or even next year.
Most families don’t need 5,000 square feet, and a home as small as 2,500 or 3,000 square feet won’t feel small if it’s designed properly. Plus, a larger house is more expensive and more difficult to maintain and clean. According to the National Association of Home Builders, a custom home in the USA costs an average of $105 per square foot to build. That means by eliminating even 500 square feet in a home you don’t need, you will save over $50,000.
Resale Value
Even if you never intend to sell your home, and plan to pass it to descendants, assume that you might sell it someday. It’s a simple fact of life. Most of us don’t know for sure where we will be in 10 to 15 years. The last thing you want to do is build a five-story custom home and get stuck with it when it comes time to sell. So build your dream home, but don’t make it a nightmare for someone to sell. In other words, don’t go crazy.
Keep a Reasonable Mortgage
You can always add to your home later, creating the dream house when you can afford it, and build your realistic home now. You can have the luxurious kitchen and bathrooms while settling for a modest layout.
Don’t Sacrifice All Your Amenities
Preventing your home from becoming an economic abyss means knowing what upgrades are “must haves.” However, once your home is built life starts to happen and you may be in a situation where you have lived in the house for 18 years and you still have not completed the upgrades you wanted. Just be cautious because it is surprisingly easy for a $200,000 house to jump to $400,000 with all the additional upgrades. So don’t go crazy but treat yourself every once in awhile.
Check In On The Work
Don’t get sucked into the idea that it would be fun to have someone drive you up to your new house, while blindfolded, so you can have a surprise unveiling. It may be great for TV ratings but it won’t be good for you. It is best to visit the site during construction and make sure things are matching your expectations and ask questions if they don’t The worst option is to remain quiet and end up with something that you are unhappy with or have to pay to fix afterward.