Building a House: Before Signing the Contract
I’m excited to share with you that my husband and I are building a house! Every detail of the lot, home, and neighborhood were discussed prior to signing the contract. I’m sharing the steps we went through before signing to help give you an idea of what goes into the beginning of the home building process.
Browsing Neighborhoods and Builders
Our home search began with visiting potential neighborhoods and researching everything that could factor into our decision to live there. This included learning about the nearby schools, average home prices, median income, parks and trails, and driving distance to get into the city; just about anything you could wonder about an area. We also researched if neighborhoods were part of an HOA or metropolitan district, and any dues required to live in the neighborhood.
Touring Model Homes
The time-consuming but also the fun part of hunting for a builder was touring the model homes and figuring out what we preferred for our next house. It was interesting to realize what we considered must-haves and the things that we didn’t want. The number of bedrooms, kitchen size, and backyard size all became important home elements for me.
Most of the model homes had open floor plans, some with a single large dining space instead of a formal dining room.
Discussing Prices with a Sales Associate: What to Expect
When entering a model home, the sales associate will normally introduce themselves and hand you a flyer or two with some homes and starting prices. You then move through a model home that is generally decked out in upgrades from the flooring to the cabinets. The beautiful interior makes you wonder about the price of the home that you’re walking through vs. the base price listed on the sheet of paper.
If you feel that you might have found the builder for you, or are wanting to compare builders, reach out to your sales contact after touring the model homes to make an appointment. you can use the appointment to discuss pricing and options, and the builder can let you know what incentives they are offering.
Seeing the interior designs inside the model homes is great for decorating inspiration.
Lot Premiums
After speaking with a couple of builders, we learned about lot premiums. A lot premium is an additional charge on a particular lot that is added to the contract in addition to the base price of the home. We were lucky to have found a lot that we loved that had no premium, but to give you an idea, we were shown lots with premiums of around $8,000, $20,000, and even $95,000.
Some of the higher priced lot premiums were for land on the top of hills, so that you could build a home with a walkout basement. Adding a walkout basement was also not included in the base home.
We also learned that builders release a limited number of lots on a schedule. Although you may see your dream lot on the neighborhood map, it’s up to the builder to decide if they will release the lot for you to purchase.
The lots at the bottom of the hill had no lot premium, while the ones located at the top had a lot premium of around $8,000. Homes built on the lots with the lot premiums will also have walk-out basements.
Options for the House
Exterior:
We could pick the exterior look of the house by choosing what the builder referred to as the elevation. Upgraded elevations included stone and a more stylized look. There was a base elevation option and three different upgraded elevations to choose from with varying prices.
There were also some options to add additional doors off of the garage. Other exterior options to consider may include a covered patio and landscaping. The builder we chose ended up including a covered patio in the base price, while another builder was going to charge $18,000 for this.
These homes have the same floorplan, but the first one is Elevation A, the farmhouse style and the second one is a mid-century modern Elevation C.
Interior:
We learned that the cost of home options can easily add up and that the process to select interior options can vary greatly by the builder.
Some builders have you select the preliminary builder options with them and then send you onto a design center. This is a third party where you can select all of your upgrades for the house. This includes finishes like cabinet pulls, lighting, and hardwood floors. One builder told us to expect to spend about $50,000 at the design center. This is a great way to customize your home and allows you to choose everything exactly how you want it.
The builder we chose did not offer a design center but rather had you select interior finishes by choosing a design package. The packages included cabinets, flooring, lighting, tile, etc. all into a single package that would become the interior of your home.
Boards were available to us with samples of the finishes for each design package.
Design packages ranged in price from the base at no additional charge to over $60,000. Packages do not allow for customization, but they make budgeting easier. You also have the comfort of knowing that the finishes were pre-selected by an interior design team, so you can expect the finishing touches to coordinate.
The finishes packages were separate from the design package. You could choose from base finishes or contemporary and traditional designs.
We spent so much time selecting builder upgrades like tray ceilings, a fireplace, and the number of sinks in the guest bath. I can’t imagine how much time it would take if we also had to choose all of the finishes separately. The design package made our lives easier and helped us save a little more money than going through a design center.
Many Selections in One Contract
We sat down with the builder on several occasions to finalize all of our selections. There was some wiggle room after the contract was signed, but it was important to have things decided ahead of time so that we could stay informed about the final cost of the house.
I hope this helps to explain what you can expect when considering building a house. It’s a lot of information, but It was really fun to look at homes and make selections for our house! Please keep in touch as we share more details about the homebuilding process.
