Building a Custom Home Series: Part 1
An Overview of the Process From Planning to Moving In
Opening the door to a home that you’ve had custom designed for you and your family is rewarding, and something everyone should get to experience. However, it’s a process that takes a lot of time, planning, and flexibility along the way.
You should plan for about a year between the time you start planning the build and when your home will be ready for move in. It may seem like a long time, and is certainly a much longer process than buying an existing build, but the end result is worth the wait. A custom built home ensures you get more of what you need and want, and less of what you don’t.
Long before shovels hit the ground, you’ll spend hours researching various elements of your build, including location, style of home, and ensuring financial resources are in order. We’ll guide you through this process, and be here to work with you at each step of the process.
The Process
1. Where will your home be located?
Right now, we’re facing a challenging real estate market in that our inventory is very low for available lots, and when lots do become available, it often means making decisions quickly.
If you don’t already have a lot secured, we are happy to help with this. You can select a lot from our inventory, another developer, or we would be happy to coordinate with your REALTOR to assist you in finding the perfect location for your future home.
For more information on choosing the right lot for your build, we have an entire blog devoted to it, click here to read more.
2. Designing your home [within your budget!]
Once the location for your home is solidified, we’ll start working through the design and putting together an exact budget for your custom home build. You’ll need this to secure your financing as well. This stage of the process can take as little as one month, but often takes people longer, depending on how quickly they’re able to make design decisions.
We start by going through a questionnaire that will cover your floor plan and design needs and wants and how we can incorporate as many of those things into your budget as possible. We’ll assist you in coordinating with our preferred designers and architects to complete the plans, and once they’re complete, we’ll be able to finalize your project budget.
At this point, you’ll need to know how much you’ll be able be approved for in terms of financing, so we suggest visiting your lender and securing a pre-approval so that you don’t reach the end of the planning process and face a disappointment or have to re-start the planning process.
You’re probably wondering, how big of a home can you afford? While that does depend a lot on the design choices you make, you can use these figures as a rough guideline:
Homes up to 1500 sq.ft.: $250/sq.ft.
Homes from 1500 - 2500 sq.ft.: $200/sq.ft
Homes 2500 sq.ft. and up: $190/sq.ft
Municipality or developer restrictions may apply as far as size or configuration of your home, so if you’re really set on a certain size or configuration, make sure you know if your lot is suitable before purchasing it.
For more on design and budgeting, read our article here (coming soon!).
3. Securing your financing & permits
By this point, you’ve likely obtained a pre-approval from your lender for a construction mortgage, so they’ll require our final budget and plans as well as a construction schedule to finalize your financing.
Once your financing is approved, we’ll submit all the necessary permit applications. It can take weeks or months for a building permit to be issued, depending on the municipality.
Since financing and construction mortgages are complex, we’ve dedicated an entire article to cover the particulars here (coming soon!).
4. Construction Stages
Construction of your home will begin as soon as building permits are issued and trades can be scheduled. We’ll be able to put together a construction schedule that will follow the 5 stages of construction. Generally, this phase will take 4 - 6 months, depending on the size of home.
We often get asked about what delays come up,
Excavation & Foundation: 15% completion
Lockup: 40% completion
Rough In: 65% completion
Finishings: 85% completion
Occupancy: 100% completion
5. Moving In
Before you know it, the house that was once a series of drawings on paper will be ready for you to make your home. We love sharing these moments with our clients, watching their dreams come to life.