Buying A Home
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
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.
Custom Home/Buying Lot Questions
Do any of you have experiences with building a custom home?
What do you wish you would have known before you started?
Do you typically begin by looking at a lot first or finding a builder?
TIA!
Re: Custom Home/Buying Lot Questions
I am not familiar with the real estate market in Indiana, but where I live you can either find a builder first or find a lot. It's typically easier if you find the builder first, because any lots they would be offering to you are definitely "buildable" lots. Often folks try to sell land, but there is a lot of research to be done to determine if a lot can be built upon and if it's cost effective to do so. You have to determine the cost of bringing utliities in, water quality, soils test, etc etc.
I would research builders in your area - even stop by non-custom home communities and ask the sales reps for recommendations for custom builders. Typically building a custom home will be a little more expensive than buying from a production builder.
Is there a particular reason you want/need a custom home? Regardless, I would start visiting model homes in your area to determine what you like/dislike in a home and lot. Good luck!
We are just starting the process of our custom build home, we have our lot and waiting on our plans from the architect. We went to tons of new construction open houses, met with different builders, then narrowed down from there. We chose our builder first and he helped us select a lot based on the house size, walk-out basement, etc.
I did tons of research on everything. I would also recommend getting building specifications from the builders you are considering, then compare and research what types of finishes you would want in your home. This way you are not surprised when you actually go to pick out tile and find the one you love is way out of budget. We gave ourselves plenty of cushion for going over budget (ledge, well) at least 10%
Good luck, it's a very exciting process
We recently closed on our 1 acre lot. We wanted to find the property first because we knew we were not building for another year and a half. The property had to fit certain criteria - certain location, at least 1 acre, wooded, in a neighborhood. We had the property surveyed to get an idea of how much land we will have to move around (the property is kind of hilly). We have a plan in mind that will require some changes but basically we bought the property first and then we will look for builders.
"What do you wish you would have known before you started?"
It takes LOTS of time, effort and more $$$. LOL.
Find a builder. Builders often buy large plots of land and split them, so their land costs are lower and you can save a lot of money that way.