Cincinnati Nesties
kannf1982
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
New Construction - What is your advice?
My husband and I are thinking of building new in a suburb of cincinnati. If you have built new, what kinds of things did you do (or wish you would have done)? This would be our first house but our budget is pretty decent (~ $300k). How much luck did you have with getting upgrades for free or cheaper than what they told you? Were there things that you wish you would have asked for and didnt? Alternatively were there things that you had the builder do that you wish you would've done yourself after the fact?
Also, did you get a realtor?
How long did it take to build? We would probably be in a position to seriously pursue it in the fall, which makes the builder's timeline a little unclear for me.
What about financing? Any surprises there?
Sorry so vague 
Were in the beginning stages of considering new construction
Were in the beginning stages of considering new construction
Re: New Construction - What is your advice?
@kannf1982
My FI and I just moved into our new home in December 2014 in a suburb of Cincinnati, so hopefully I have plenty of helpful advice for you.
We did pretty much everything we wanted to with the house, minus a few small upgrades/improvements we can make on our own (switching out bathroom mirrors, building a bookshelf nook into a weird diaganol wall, etc) and finishing the full, walk-out basement (this will happen within 5 years).
We went with a small custom home builder (he does a limited amount of homes each year, very picky-choosey), which is a little different than a commercial builder (Drees, etc), so we didn't really have pricing on "upgrades." Our builder put together a proposal, spec sheet, and we did our plans with an architect in the beginning. And then throughout the process we kept track of any deviations we made from our original proposal/spec sheet. Because he was custom, we were able to change vendors with his approval and he was extremely flexible with changes throughout the process. For example, after seeing his granite vendor we decided we didn't like what they offered at our price point, so through research on our own and with his approval, we found a new granite vendor. Instead of usual, builder grade light fixtures we were given an allowance (approved by all parties in the spec sheet) and we were free to purchase our light fixtures from anywhere we saw fit. Same with my soaking tub in the master - but in that case, I was having a really hard time finding what I wanted at the right price point, so the builder took over and just ran the final selection by my for approval. So it was a very give and take type situation. We were in constant communication with him - text, email, phone, meeting on site. And we had full access to the construction site the entire time.
We did not get a realtor. We purchased the land in a private subdivision (7 other homes) from a private party and we sourced the custom builder ourself.
We broke ground in July 2014 and moved in December 2014.
We financed the lot loan through a small bank in February 2014 and got our construction loan in June/July 2014. At that time, the lot was rolled into the construction loan. No surprises, large down payment since it was a construction loan, but it was a big headache-y process to go through. If you go through a builder like Drees or Fischer Homes, for example, your financing will be different than ours since you will be buying finished home and lot from the builder, instead of obtaining a construction loan.
I know our situation is unique bc of the custom builder, but if I can answer any more questions feel free to ask!