With the real estate market floundering in many areas nationwide, this may be the best time to build a new home rather than buying an existing home. Building a home can be affordable, if you follow these tips:
Affordable New Home Construction Tip #1: Estimate First – Plan Second
Just like a kid in a toy store, it’s easy to get carried away once the idea machine is turned on. Extra bedrooms, an exercise room, a studio, a home office – all of these add-ons will have a dramatic impact on your new home’s price tag. Subtracting them from your building plan because they put your project over budget, even if that plan lives only in your imagination, is painful. Better to add them in if your budget allows after you’ve gotten several estimates.
Affordable New Home Construction Tip #2: Location Still Matters
There may be a very good reason that lot is priced so much lower than the others in that new development. Your building lot location is no place to skimp. If a lot is filled with trees, rocks, or has exceptional drainage challenges, your construction costs will go through the roof. Make sure the lot you choose will be easy for your builder to work with – consider utilities, grading, and clearing before you set your heart on a lot.
Affordable New Home Construction Tip #3: Keep Your Home in Shape
Those “interesting” home shapes you may have seen while you were on vacation make for a great conversation starter, but are enough to break any construction budget fast. Complicated is interesting – but simple is affordable. This doesn’t mean you need to have a cookie-cutter home, by any means. But stick to traditional home styles to stretch your home building dollar the farthest.
Affordable New Home Construction Tip #4: Bigger is Not Always Better
There’s a good reason many of today’s new homes are coming in well under the record-breaking square footage records set even a decade ago. The extra space may seem like a money-saver because all the same work goes into a small house or a big one – but ultimately, a bigger home costs a lot more than a relatively small one. Homes that are exceptionally large cost more to heat and cool, and more to maintain long-term.
Affordable New Home Construction Tip #5: Put Your Money Where It Counts
There are some elements in your new home that you can easily upgrade as your budget allows – and then there are other elements that are permanent. As you plan your building budget, remember that while you can always change out your cabinet pulls, light fixtures, and bathroom hardware, you can’t do that with your roof or other construction materials. While the parts of the construction you don’t see may not be the most exciting part of your new home, they are ultimately the most important. Solid construction that stands the test of time is far more important than top of the line accessories.
