Are you concerned that the price you are quoted won’t be the price you’ll pay for your new home?
You might believe that keeping your budget to yourself, or not giving away your actual budget to your builder will help you avoid being ripped off. But this will only leave you with complications down the road, and far more headaches.
When you’re open and honest with your builder and realistic about how much you’re willing to spend, you can ensure that your new home is built exactly to your expectations of design and affordability.
Even if you’re not sure what your budget is if you’re clear about what you really want from your new home your builder can guide you through the process to help you set a budget that will get you the home you’ve always dreamt of. Professional builders will even present you with a selection of options for your design to help determine what your budget should look like.
The Collaborative Approach
According to the Design-Build Institute of America, projects that involve the builder at the design stage take 51% less time to complete than those that only involve the builder after the design has been completed.
That’s why Professional Builders are now collaborating with architects. They work to the architects’ vision of your ideal home and align that to the price you’re willing to pay. And in turn, they’ll provide you with a fixed priced building contract based on those designs so you know the price you’re quoted is the price you’ll pay.
Average builders will simply quote from the plans your architect has already created. The problem with this is, while it is highly recommended to work with an architect, they don’t take into account the important insight that only a builder can provide.
That’s why it’s important to have your builder and architect work together when preparing the design of your new home. This collaborative approach means that the home you design is exactly the home that will be built. All while staying within your budget. This contradicts what most consider the traditional method of building a home; that you need to get your designs drawn up by an architect then send those designs to builders to quote on construction.
However, when you approach an architect without including a builder, you’ll likely end up with designs that no builder can complete within your budget. And even if a builder does quote the designs within your budget, the unfortunate reality is that they are simply trying to win the job. You’ll find that important elements haven’t been accounted for, leaving you to make unwanted sacrifices to make the plans align with what you’re willing to pay.
Here are some tips that will help you build your new home inline with your budget as well as your design.
Know Your Budget
First and foremost, you need to get clear on what you’re willing to pay for your new home. Clarifying your expectations of what you truly want from your new home is important here. Take some time to think about the must-haves for your new home.
Once you know what you want, take a look around at the selling prices of similar homes. Take note of what the homes in the area are listed for and take your land cost off the final price.This will give you a ballpark figure for your budget. A bonus tip for this step is not to fall into the illusion that you can make money from building rather than buying new. Remember, this is your home, not an investment property.
However, if you’re not sure what your budget should be, talk to your builder and let them guide you through the process.
Create Your Team
When you’re clear about your budget, build your team to help design your home. Approach an architect as well as a builder from day one. An architect provides the vision and a builder turns it into reality. By beginning with this collaboration, you can ensure that no important elements of your new home are missed. As well as making sure you can actually afford the home that’s being designed for you. That’s why it’s important to be clear about your budget before you start this process. Designing to your budget is easier than creating your budget from the designs.
So, it doesn’t matter if you are building your first home or if you have built many times before… Starting the process of designing a new home can be very overwhelming and it's not easy to remember everything you need to do to ensure your new home stays within your budget.
All the tips I’ve covered here are just a small sample of the information I can share with you to ensure you are well informed when you get started on the design process. So I’ve put together a quick guide for you to download. It’s completely free, and it will help you to keep your design on budget and avoid any nasty surprises that can sneak up on you when building a custom home.
Just click on the link below to download our guide, The 7 Things You Must Know Before Designing A New Home.
