What are the most Common Errors to Avoid When Building a Custom Home?

It’s an overwhelming process to build a custom home, unless you’ve done it before! Today, we’re covering some of the most common mistakes people make when building a custom home, and how you can avoid them.

Compromising Location for Price

One of the biggest mistakes that homeowners make with custom homes is paying less attention to the location and opting for something for less money. While you might be tempted by a less expensive lot, you simply can’t forget about location.

Amenities are everything when it comes to properties. Houses in a prime spot command an immediate premium. Build Custom: Buy the best lot you can handle/afford when building a custom home. A great lot in a great location is a huge bonus to the value of a home.

Failing to Put Your Whole Team at the Outset

No matter what position you start with — architect, builder or interior designer — when you gather a team, it will likely center on a common vision of the house.

Informal teams are OK – but the point is to bring your entire team together before you begin the design-build process.

This will be useful for budgeting and to prevent delays that are most likely to happen if a new team member (with their new ideas) is hired after design (and even worse, after design has been completed).

Don’t Spent Enough Time on Designing

Paper changes are relatively easy and a fraction of the cost of changes executed after construction has started. It’s crucial to make quality time and space during the programming and design phase to optimize how your future home will live.

This is how they guarantee a quality design that you will be happy to call home, and helps prevent costly changes later in the process.

Not Making Timely Decisions

With extended lead times and full schedules, the importance of making decisions and selections early can not be overstated to prevent construction delays.

To construct a custom house well-a lot of choices should be made before the real building even starts! This enables an overall plan to be developed and ensures construction can proceed in an orderly fashion.

Constantly Doubting Your Own Ideas

During the process of designing and building your custom home, you’ll probably make somewhere in the neighbourhood of 280 decisions. And often your first impression is the one that is the best for you – LOTS of time spent second guessing along the way, resulting in stress and delay. If you have doubts, trust your team – you did not just randomly pick these people.

Trying to Utilize an Existing Plan When Your Program Requires Custom

A true custom home is unique. Depending on what you need and, more importantly, what you’re trying to do, attempting to modify an existing plan to meet your custom program can be like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

There are dozens of builders who specialize in semi-custom homes, and depending on your program, budget, and desired level of customization, they may be the right fit for the job.

Overspending on a Remodel

Well, the first thing people don’t understand is that remodeling is not less expensive than new construction. That may or may not make sense, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

If you’re doing an extensive remodel, it might be worth it to have a conversation with your architect and/or builder about what works best for your project.

Not Leaving Money in a Contingency Fund for Overages

Despite your best efforts to plan for every eventuality, something is bound to happen on a new build or remodel that you simply hadn’t factored in when drawing up your initial budget. But we do recommend building a contingency fund into either the builder’s bid or your overall budget for your project.

The size of the contingency fund will vary from one person and one project to the next, but generally, aim for at least 10% of your total construction budget. If possible, 20% is ideal.

Homeowners Giving Direction to Subcontractors

It is not subcontractors (although the cookies and milk are appreciated). They’re out there to do the part of the work that the construction manager assigns them.

Hence the one you need to go through for your home is the construction manager or builder. They are the only ones who have all of the information about the project.”

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