The process of trying to find and buy a home can be tedious as well as tiring. In the middle of the fourteenth open house you’ve been to in a week, it’s easy to start dreaming. Maybe you’ll ditch the whole process. Maybe you’ll stop talking to real estate agents and start talking to construction firms. None of the homes you’ve looked at so far have the sleek, modern bathroom you’ve been dreaming of. What if you just built your own? What if you left right now and started looking for available lots to build the home you’ve always wanted?
When you’re in the middle of a frustrating process, it’s common to think that anything has to be better than this. That’s not always true, of course. Just like you shouldn’t rush into buying a house, you also shouldn’t rush into building a home. These things tend to take time, and there are some good reasons for that. There are also some bad ones, but don’t get so caught up in the annoying parts that you run headlong into a situation that’s full of different problems that are equally hard to solve.
Starting from the bottom
When you buy a home, there are a lot of decisions to make. You have to decide whether or not you want to tear out the carpet and replace it with hardwood, or if you want to replace the chandelier in the kitchen with something more energy-efficient. But there’s a big difference between deciding what to hang on the walls and where to put the walls. How many windows do you want in your room? What style windows should they be? Do you want to get up and watch the sunrise from your window, or do you want to sit down with a cup of tea and watch as the sun sets? The array of choices can be dizzying. So if you want less responsibility, building a house from the ground up probably isn’t the right call.
If you do decide to build your own pad, finding a good home construction company is absolutely critical. They must have the proper licensing and insurance, and they should be ready and willing to answer your questions about the process. You don’t want to work with a place that just wants you to shut up and hand over a check.
Construction delays are incredibly common, too. Weather is a common cause of delays, as are city regulations that must be satisfied. It takes a lot of materials to build a home, and sometimes there can be a problem within the supply chain. You want to work with a crew that will be open with you about any slowdown in construction. They shouldn’t be evasive or defensive. They shouldn’t make promises they know they won’t be able to keep.
Building a home requires patience and dedication. You need to have a vision for your new home, but it should be an adaptable one.. Remember that something that seems like a big deal today probably won’t matter at all in five years. It’s understandable for a delay of a few weeks to seem like forever, but with any luck, you’ll be living in your home for decades to come. Focus on that future, and remember to breathe.
