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Designing and building your own home may sound intimidating. Having to deal with contractors, finding the right lot, even having to make all the decisions on what it will look. These are a few of the reasons why people often tend to shy away from building their own home. What people do not realize is that the pros often outweigh the cons when it comes to building your own home. Let’s talk about three steps that will simplify how you look at deciding to build your own custom home. Keep in mind that these steps are explained as if you already have the real estate details figured out ( the lot, loans, etcetera).
- Brainstorm
What seems to blur the creativity and mind of people when they think about building their own home is they don’t know where to start. This is the “writer’s block” of custom home building. There are a couple of options at this point. One, you could give up and go buy a cookie cutter home, or two, you could use the resources available at your fingertips. There are plenty of websites that provide a variety of different styles, sizes, and layouts of your possible future home. Pick one, two, maybe seven. Sift through the ones you like and don’t like and then focus on rooms, features, and designs that are the most appealing.
- Solidify
By this point, you are down to a couple options and are pretty set on what you want. Now is the time to start looking for that special person to help you make your dream become a reality. Assuming you already have a lot picked out and know when you want to build, contact a local designer, architect, or consultant to help you lay your ideas out and put them all into one solid plan. Within this plan, certain aspects are going to need to be addressed; talking with city officials about permitting, the submission process, and what exactly needs to be done to get your home under construction. This is where having the designers help really comes in handy. Not only should they help you draw your dream home plans, but also clarify all those gray areas that you might need a little help with.
On a side note, be careful who you get to draw your plans for you. Sometimes the cheapest guy isn’t always the best option. There are plenty people out there who will draw whatever you tell them to but when it comes to coordinating with contractors, city officials building code inspectors, they can leave you high and dry. So shop around just like you would for anything else. Some designers fail to still be with you at the point when you are ready to submit to the city and often take the approach that once your plans are done, so are they. If you found the right designer, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about coordination with the city because they will handle it unlike the cheapest and fastest guy out there. Remember you get what you pay for and at this point, it would save a lot of stress to have someone else deal with city officials and contractors.
- Submission and Build
Once you found the right designer and they got you through the design and plan process, now is the time to submit to the city or county and put your plans out there for contractors to give you some bids. The city will review basic design and code compliance of your home. If there are changes to be made or certain design features or materials that the city would prefer, your designer should take the responsibility to make those changes for a later re-submission. Once the city has approved your plans you are given the O.K. to break ground and start building your home.
Building your home will come with lots of different decisions that are going to need to be made. Paint color, cabinet choice, floor finishes, the list goes on and on. Remember when you were looking at what you did and did not like when choosing your overall home design? It would be smart to go back and think about those ideas and use the resources available to you. Whether it’s through Pinterest or asking your friends on Facebook, there are plenty of means by which you can receive that final bit of inspiration.
And that’s it! You now have your dream home! This whole process could range anywhere from 6 months to over a year, depending on the team you choose. Sure this is a bit longer than your average real estate deal but, when investing in your home you should be able to choose how and what you want in your home without having to remodel later on.
According to homeadvisor.com you can build and design your own home for as low as $125-$150 dollars a square foot when it’s all said and done. “This will obviously vary greatly with all the costly variables involved, so the cost could range between $167,488 and $446,607.” HomeAdvisor also mentions.
Do you think it’s worth it to design and build your own home? Ready to make the first step? Let us know in the comments what you think or with any further questions you may have.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”253″ image_size=”thumbnail”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_column_text]Hunter Huffman
Owner/Designer
Huff Designs[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]