Three Questions before before building your home
Posted on: 1 November 2017
Building your own home allows you to create exactly the property you want. It offers the opportunity to create a design that is truly unique to you, but before you start to build a home, it is important to make sure that you are able to successfully complete the project. To ensure that you will end up with exactly the property you want, you must ask yourself some questions before you start.
What is your budget?
If you want to build a home then you must know how much you can afford to spend on the project and how much each part of the process is going to cost. You should think not only about the immediate construction costs, but also about the additional 'hidden' costs that may come with your new home. You should know how much of your final cost you will spend on land acquisition. Then you must add the materials cost, the building costs, and all of the 'fitting out' costs for the project. Don't forget that even once the building is finished you will still be paying out to furnish the new home and landscape the property, so make sure that you budget accordingly.
What will your home look like?
Many people who want to build a home will start by looking through stock plans to find one that suits their needs and their location. Other people prefer to hire an architect to custom design a property for them. Whichever route you choose, you must be sure exactly what you want your property to look like. Decide which features in the home are essentials, which would be nice but not essential, and which you really want to avoid. Get your design finalised and then stick with it. Trying to make changes to a home already in progress will lead to soaring costs and potentially to mistakes that could jeopardize the entire project.
Who will build your property?
It's unlikely that you will want to build a home yourself. You probably need to find a surveyor, a builder, and perhaps an architect. You could either put together a team yourself, or you could hire a project manager or builder and let them assemble the team to complete the project. Acting as your own project manager might give you more control, but it also brings with it more responsibility to make the right decisions at every stage.
Thinking through the answers to each of these questions before starting to build a home will help you to make the right choices and complete your home building project successfully.
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