The Steps to Building Your New Home
This is an outline of the steps taken from start to finish to build your new home. This will give you, as the client, a sense of timelines and process.
- Selecting the property (Finding the right place to build your home is usually a personal preference. Find what feels right to you and is in your budget. Keep in mind the area so that you have good appraising, comparable homes around you.)
- Pre-approval: You will need to work with your financial institution to acquire a letter of pre-approval stating how much you are approved for. This sets the top end of the budget of your home and property.
- Selecting the plan. (Looking at home plans online and finding the different features you like from each plan is a good way to start. Even doing an amateur sketch on graph paper can give you and idea of what style of home works best for you. Once you have this done, then its time to meet with the draftsman and have a professional set of plans drawn. Be sure to keep in mind size vs price when determining your new home.)
- Draftsman. (With your ideas and sketches in mind, M & S will consult with you and the draftsman through the drawing process. This process may take approximately two weeks.)
- Bidding. (Once a completed set of plans is done by the draftsman, M & S can take those plans and begin getting the bids done from subcontractors and suppliers in order to come up with the final price for your home. This may take up to 2 weeks to gather all of the information from suppliers, subcontractors and such.)
- Pricing. (One of the main points of information any client will want to know is how much it will cost. Once the bidding process is complete, M & S will go over the allowances for different features of the home that are impossible to get an exact number for. Allowances are realistic budgets set for different parts of the home such as flooring, cabinets, wall covering, etc. If you go over or under on one allowance it can be balanced by the budget on another allowance as they are all combined together for the final sales price of the home. The balance of the allowances will either be subtracted from or added to the final price of the home. M & S works very hard to make the allowances high enough that you will subtract from the sales price of the home, but that is not always possible depending on different clients styles and tastes. If you do not count the property on a home, you should expect a price of $90-$115 per square foot of heated living space in most typical homes.)
- Contract. (Once you have agreed verbally with M & S, it is time to sign a simple contract allowing the process to begin. M & S will take the signed contract along with your pre-approval letter to the lending institution to secure financing to build your home on the property you have selected. M & S will purchase the property for you and at closing sell you the home and property in one package at closing.)
- Begin Construction. (Construction will last between three and six months depending on the size of the home. You will be given a schedule of when items need to be picked out or decided on in advance of that part of construction happening. M & S takes great pride in making a smooth work flow and enjoyable experience for the client.)
- Closing. (Once construction is complete, a closing will take place at an attorney’s office to sell you the home and property. As discussed earlier, the final price of the home will be the original contract price + or – the allowances.)