*Quick Disclaimer: This post ended up being SUPER long, so I’ve split it into different steps to allow for easier navigation.*
Curt and I are in the process of building a custom home and we constantly have people ask us where to start, what it takes, where we’re at in the process, how long it will take, etc. Because practically everyone is asking us these questions, I thought it might be helpful to have the answers for our process on here, because if the people we interact with on a regular basis want to know, there are probably more people out there who want to know too.
Before I get into the actual steps, I think it’s helpful to describe our motive behind building a custom home, so here goes!
We’ve been thinking about moving for over a year, but the timing never felt right, mostly because our current location is ideal…we’re close to both of our families, stores, the library, the zoo, downtown, restaurants, the river, we have great neighbors, we have put a ton of work and love into our home…but we still felt the draw to certain changes that could only happen by moving. Our number one reason: the layout of our home is not as conducive to having young children as we’d like. There are two bedrooms on the second floor, none on the main floor, and two in the basement. Our four kids are all 7 and younger and want to be closer to us, and we want to be closer to them, in case they need us in the night. Our second motivator is that we’d like a bigger yard. Our current yard is less than a quarter of an acre and we’d like a space where we can have more privacy and create an oasis-type retreat for our family and friends.
I’ve been obsessed with Zillow for several years and when we decided we really wanted to start looking for new house, we had all of my handy research and house-lingo knowledge to lean on. We went to an open house one Saturday in November of 2019 and met a realtor there who said he could help us with our home search. He arranged for us to look at several homes, but none of them had the layout we were hoping for, or the property wasn’t as secluded as we’d been dreaming it would be. We looked at houses for about three months before we came to the realization that we could build a home within our budget and get the layout, the finishes, and the feel that we wanted in our next home.
We started looking at properties and we found what we thought was the perfect one. This property checked almost all of our boxes: it was an acre of land, it was in a good neighborhood, it was close to the highway which would cut down Curt’s commute to work and would make it easier to see our families on a regular basis, AND it was in our price range! We could see that it checked all of our boxes, so we decided to move forward and that’s where the whole house building process started.
FIRST STEP: Know What You Want
Curt and I have been talking about our dream home since we were engaged, and we have always had similar ideas and tastes, which made deciding on what we wanted pretty easy. We both agreed that we wanted a two car garage, a large kitchen, a dining space, an office, five bedrooms, a great master suite, a big storage room, a large space to gather as a family, and enough room to invite people over for entertaining. We also knew that we wanted land to make our oasis backyard retreat. I also want to note that we are both very spiritual people and a big part of this process has been spent praying and pondering about what is best for our family and our future.
SECOND STEP: Choose a Builder
After we had established bullet points of all of our must haves, the next thing we did was talk to our realtor. He set up a meeting with a reputable building company in town. We also talked to a friend of ours who had recently become a general contractor and had started building custom homes. We wanted to get an idea of what our options were, so we met with both builders.
The first builder had us meet at their spec home where she took us through the whole house and told us that we could get a nice home within our price range, but it wouldn’t have all the upgrades. As we walked through the house with her, she kept pointing at all the things I loved and said, “That’s an upgrade, that’s an upgrade, that’s an upgrade.” The home was beautiful, and I had heard good things about the company and had seen a lot of their home in the Parade of Homes, but it seemed like there were a lot of restrictions as far as making the house my own and it would cost a lot more money to add all the upgrades. She gave us homework: go to their website and look at the floor plans of all their houses and send her our top three picks. We looked through the floor plans and some of them were really nice and had at least most of the things we wanted, so we sent those to the builder and waited to hear the bids (how much it would all cost).
While we waited to hear back from the building company we met with our friend, the builder. We described to him what we wanted and after we told him, he said he felt like he could get us the things we were wanting within our price range. Curt and I both agreed that we’d be okay finishing the basement ourselves in order to save money. I had walked through one of his spec homes and I was impressed by the subtle upgrades. He knew the benefit of adding something a little more expensive in order to increase the quality and value of the home. Because of that standard, the rate he quoted per square foot was more than the other builder had quoted, but that was because he included some upgrades in his initial bid as that’s his standard for the homes he builds.
We heard back from the building company and their bid came in at the right price point and she said the house could be done within about five months, but after talking to our builder friend we decided to go with him. Because of this we had to talk to our realtor.
*I need to add a disclaimer that I am simply describing the experiences Curt and I had in this process that led us to make our decisions, and if you are considering building with a building company there is a lot of value to doing so, such as the timeline, they will be faster because all of the supplies are in stock for them already, all the designs are decided on quickly because you don’t have to make a ton of choices, and all of their subcontractors are working just for their company so there’s not as long a wait for them.
SIDE NOTE: The Benefit of Having a Realtor During a Build
The main benefit of having a realtor when you’re building a house is their role as the go-between between you and the builder. If the builder has a question, bad news, or good news, it all goes through the realtor. The realtor can be as involved as you want. He also is a great help when it comes to buying the land you want to build on if the building company doesn’t have land purchased that you can buy from them.
