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You’re in a perfect position to do it.
People who are able to take on a lot of the work associated with building a home and invest their own ‘sweat equity’ into the project can save a lot of time and money, which makes building a home an attractive proposition. You might even save money when compared to buying a ready-built house if you plan carefully.
Design with a goal in mind
It’s important that you approach your custom house build with a fixed goal in mind. When designing your house, it’s quite easy to get swept up in what you think looks great or what would work for you right now, but that can lead to problems. It’s important to always keep your end goal in mind.
If you’re building a house with plans of living in it, think about your current lifestyle – for example, things like if you often like to have overnight guests, or if having space to socialize outside is important to you, but also think about the future. Things like whether you’ll want to create a home that’s suitable for children, for example.
If you’re building a house with plans of selling it, then think about what the people buying your home are likely to want, rather than what you would want. Enlisting the help of a realtor is a good idea for this.
Choose your land wisely
This ties into thinking about the purpose of your build.
If you are building a future family home, then you might want to consider building in an area where there are good schools and good access to central city locations. It’s worth bearing in mind that getting building permits in an existing residential area is often easier.
The easiest way to maximize your profit is to build in an up-and-coming neighborhood, where you can secure land at a low cost and make a profit when the area becomes desirable.
Some signs that an area might be up and coming are:
- Close proximity to central city locations and transport links like highways and train stations.
- An increase in the number of things like co-working spaces and restaurants.
- Properties staying on the market for a shorter amount of time.
Financing your project
Unless you have a lot of capital behind you, the most common way to finance a home-build project is through a loan.
Looking at loans from new construction lenders means that you will have faster access to the capital you need, which can be great if you need to get moving quickly. These types of loans are typically designed to be taken over a shorter time period than a traditional mortgage, so they can be a good option if you are planning to sell your property once it’s built.
Construction mortgages last for the time of the build itself and then convert into a traditional mortgage once you have finished the build.
Be prepared for timelines to move
It’s important to have a project timeline in order to help to keep yourself on track and on budget. However, it’s important that you build a timeline that allows for some degree of flexibility.
Things like weather conditions, availability of contractors, and unforeseen building hiccups can and will add to your timeline, and it’s important that you account for this if you don’t want it to derail the whole project.
