Essential Steps To Take When Preparing To Build Your Own Home
Choosing to build your own home provides you with a huge amount of freedom during the process. Of course, it’s worth remembering that it is an expensive endeavour and one that can easily surpass any budget you set. However, if you create a good plan to follow and you stick to it, you may be able to limit the financial strain that a grand project like this can have on you. There are also many other things that you can do, especially during preparation, to improve your chances of a successful build. To help give you some guidance on this exciting yet often nerve-wracking venture, we’ve put together some of our best tips for preparing to build your own house.
Decide On A Plot
There’s a strong possibility that you’ve already got your heart set on one particular plot of land—a space that you’ve found with perfect views and great nearby amenities. However, just because you like the look of a particular area and can envision what your new home would look like there, it doesn’t mean that it is the right place for you. You need to think about many things when choosing the right house plot. You’ll want to work with your planning team to identify any issues with the quality of the ground, such as soil condition and drainage issues. You’ll also want to think about the future of the lot and whether it can withstand the test of time. For example, building atop a cliff or near a beach is going to provide you with a stunning view, but coastal erosion is going to pose a significant risk to the structural integrity of your home.
Identify Your Budget
The biggest consideration for a project like this is how much it’s going to cost you. Of course, we all have a dream house-build in our minds, and because the chances of building more than one house in our lifetimes are slim, it’s easy to see why we will likely strive to get this build to match your dream house as much as possible. But remember, overstretching your budget and failing to be realistic during this process may cause the whole plan to come to a grinding halt. If you start to pursue unreasonable goals and then waste part of your budget, you might be unable to complete other more reasonable goals as well. Instead, go through the features you want and identify general costs by gathering quotes and discussing the work with professionals that you’ll be hiring. You may have to cut some things out of the initial build, but if you make sure to leave space for future additions, then you can revisit them in the future when you can afford it.
Organise Your Finances
Unless you’re sitting on a fortune, you’re going to need to find some way to fund your house build. There are so many costs involved with a project like this, so getting a self-build loan or mortgage tends to be the route people take here. This is where a lender, usually a bank, will release funds over the course of the building project to cover certain materials and other costs. This makes building a home much more attainable for those who perhaps cannot fund the entire project themselves but are financially stable and responsible enough to be trusted by a lender. It’s important to do your research before accepting the help of a lender and shop around for the best deal possible to both maximise that amount you can borrow as well as find a manageable deal on repaying that loan.
Get Some Insurance
Before attempting a project like this, you’ll also want to make sure that you’re covered in the event of any issues that may arise during the build. Arranging self-build insurance may sound confusing at first, but if you check out the summary of warranties from Buildsafe, you’ll see that simply getting a quote can be quite straightforward. Ultimately, when building your own home, you’ll want to make sure that you have insurance to guarantee a level of financial protection in the event of any structural damage or defects to the property. Without insurance, you’ll have to cover the costs of fixing these problems yourself, which could significantly impact your budget and cause problems for the rest of the build. In fact, there’s a strong possibility that you won’t even be able to get funding from a lender without having an insurance plan in the first place, so get this sorted early on before you start to pursue funding options.
Hire A Designer
While you may have an idea in mind as to what you want your home to look like, if you’re not a designer or have experience and qualifications as an architect, there could easily be some grave mistakes in your plans. It’s therefore very important to consider adding a qualified designer to your team to go through your ideas with you and create something that is structurally sound, well laid out and matches your dream build as much as possible. A custom-built house is going to require some extra thought into the way the house is built and how sturdy it is, as it won’t be based on a standard, ready-made template or blueprint. The shape of your property is likely going to be unique, and so you’ll need to have someone at hand to ensure that the property will be safe to live in.
Plan Your Build
Ultimately, you’ll want to spend a significant amount of time planning out your entire build. This has to include everything from materials you wish to use, the dimensions of each part of your structure, and even the exact positioning of the property on your plot. You should ensure that you do this planning phase with the help of your designer and the other members of your team that will be involved with different parts of the process. You’ll also want to plan a full schedule of your self-build so that you’ve got a good idea of project deadlines and timelines. This should take into account everything from each building stage and surveys and the wait for a mortgage, among many other things. Make sure you’re entirely prepared for this project and add everything you can to the plan to avoid missing anything.
