Building Your House - Do's and Don'ts

So you decided to build your new home instead of purchasing a resale home, but are not sure what to do, or where to start. There are a few tips to keep in mind before and during this process to ensure the right house is built.

Firstly, do not build the most expensive house for the neighborhood. Having the largest most expensive house on the block might be good for your ego, but it makes the house significantly more difficult to sell.

Secondly, keep in mind is to build for resale, not just for you. Sooner or later the house will have to be sold. A two bedroom 6 bathroom house may be great for you, but will be impossible to sell.

Find the best contractor you can afford, and be prepared for delays. Quality counts in home building, check with your local Better Business Bureau, and ask for referrals. Check the builders referrals, and ask your family, friends, and new neighbors who built their homes. Check those home builders out too. Careful choice of your builder can save a lots of money down the road. Also, delays can, and most likely will happen, each subcontractor counts on the others to make things happen on time. A delay in the framing, no matter what the reason, inclement weather, materials related, or any of the other million things that could go wrong, will delay the electricians and plumbers, and all of the other stages of building the house. Plan on your actual move-in date being up to several weeks late.

When your new home is being built, remember to monitor the progress as often as you can. Keep an eye on things because a mistake is much easier and cheaper to fix when caught early. If left too long an uncorrected mistake may take weeks, or months to repair, not to mention hundreds or thousands of extra dollars.

In all phases of the construction of your new house, watch your construction allowances. For example, if the allowance for light fixtures is $1000, and the ones you pick total $3000, you have to come up with the difference. This can get expensive very fast. Even small over runs add up fast when looking at lights, floor coverings, bath fixtures, kitchen fixtures, appliances, and all the other small things necessary to make your home ready to live in.