As opposed to purchasing an already built property, building your home can have several significant advantages. For instance, you have more liberty to customize the home to your liking, stay current on building codes, and stay on top of the current trends.
A brand new home can also be constructed with energy efficiency in mind, which is one mammoth topic of the century. Plus, a new construction helps you avoid bidding wars in the real estate market, there’s fewer maintenance issues to worry about, and as long as it’s complete, it’s usually ready for you to move in.
Besides these benefits, here are five more things to expect if you want to build your own home.
1. Construction Might Take Seven Months Give or Take
Constructing your own home will probably take longer than you think. Even if you have a good plan and everything goes according to schedule, building a home from scratch is not the fastest of processes. Don’t expect to move in overnight! Based on reports from a construction survey done in 2019, building a home from scratch to completion takes an average of 7 months. Of course, this might be slightly more or less depending on your contractor, home size, and specifications, among other factors.
2. The Costs Will Vary Depending On Various Factors
Without sugarcoating things, it’s probably going to be expensive. Building a home is not a cheap undertaking. There are a lot of costs that you need to account for, from the cost of the land to the cost of materials and labor.
The costs will, of course, vary depending on the size of the house you intend to build, the materials you choose, the contractors you enlist, and whether or not you have existing land on where to erect the structure.
3. You’ll need a Way to Manage Project Costs and Progress with Your Contractors
As stated earlier, new constructions can be costly and time-intensive. Even if you have a good contractor in charge of the project, it’s important to stay abreast of progress as well as the various costs involved throughout the project.
Building your own home requires a lot of coordination between different tradespeople, suppliers, and contractors. Things can get chaotic quickly if you’re not organized and on top of things.
Thankfully, there’s a perfect solution for contractors that allows you to manage and keep track of everything from estimates to project costs, labor, project progress, and more with a few clicks on your computer or mobile screen. A reputable contractor who uses such software to keep you in the loop will usually be a good hire.
4. You Will Probably Need a Building Permit
Most remodel and construction projects require getting a permit in the state where the home is located or to be built. A construction or building permit is simply a written authorization that’s given by the state, city, or municipal authorities to builders to authorize a construction project after deeming it compliant with building, zoning, safety, and zoning codes.
Your contractor will usually guide you regarding the necessary documentation required to get a building permit before the project breaks ground. All the same, some documents you might want to get prepared with include:
- Survey plan
- Environmental expert report
- Architectural and structural plans
- Land ownership documents
- Personal identification documents
5. You Need To Be Prepared For the Unexpected
No matter how well you plan, there will always be unforeseen problems and delays during a home-building project. Many of these can even affect you and your family, especially if you were planning to move in by a specific date.
For instance, you could encounter the need to change the design at some point in the construction, probably leading to unbudgeted expenses. Permit delays and other legal issues could also bring the project to a halt for days or even weeks if not months.
This is not to mention the possibility of delays due to bad weather, which may also affect the moving. Contractor issues, such as when they fail to show up to work for days in a row or do a shoddy job can especially be very frustrating.
With this in mind, it’s best to be flexible and prepared to roll with the punches. Also, it’s an added advantage to work with a contractor who’s experienced enough to predict possible challenges and explain them to you so they can be averted before they become a real pain.
As much as it might be the most rewarding experience, building your own home can be an enormous undertaking. There are a lot of things to think about and plan for if you want the process to go smoothly.
There are also issues to anticipate and responsibilities to take charge of at the same time. The above few pointers should shed some light on what to expect before and during your project if you’re thinking about building your own home.
We hope you found this blog post on 5 Things to Expect if You Want to Build Your Own Home useful. Be sure to check out our post on To Build a Home On Your Own Lot Is The Best Way To Get a Dream Home for more great tips!
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