Planning and designing your custom home is an exciting and empowering process. However, it also involves lots of communication, waiting, patience, more waiting, and wrangling scheduling from various entities – banks, vendors, subcontractors, delivery companies, building departments, etc.
The more you’re prepared and know what to expect, the more seamless and stress-free the process will be for you and your family. Fortunately, all of our customers attest that despite any unexpected setbacks or delays, they would choose to build a custom home over a subdivision production home any day.
Here are five things you can expect when designing and building your DeLand custom home.
1. The planning phase may take longer than you think
Actually, the entire process may take a bit longer than you think. From first concept planning and lot selection to the day clients gain occupancy of a home can take one to two years or longer. While most people witness the grading, foundation pour, and buildout of a home, there are months of planning that take place before the first piece of heavy equipment rolls onto the lot.
The planning/design process moves through eight phases, which we discuss in detail in our post What to Expect During the Planning and Design of Your Custom Home.These phases can take several months or longer to complete, depending on whether or not you already own your lot and how far along you are in selecting your design/build team.
These include:
- Choosing the right home builder for the job
- Lot consultation and selection
- Initial design consultation(s)
- Permit application(s) and approval
- Design phase
- Final floor plan approval
- Selections approval
- Final sign-off on plans, selections, and the building contract/schedule
Once all of the above is complete, it’s time to break ground. Even so, there is more planning and designing that takes place.
2. Be prepared for the unexpected
You know the saying, “the best-laid plans…,” and that is certainly appropriate for the full-spectrum home build process. While some factors are within your home builder’s control, others are not. Plenty of things arise unexpectedly, causing delays or opportunities to regroup and redirect the decision-making process.
Weather is undoubtedly one of these factors since Mother Nature never seems to sign a contract. However, other factors also cause delays or a need to go back to the drawing board and make new decisions, such as delivery delays, back-ordered fixture/finish selections, or even our clients’ family emergencies.
These are all reasons why choosing a DeLand homebuilder with a good reputation and that you can trust makes all the difference. Solid, grounded, and trustworthy relationships allow the team – including the clients – to weather whatever arises and continue moving forward in sync. We do our best to help clients understand the construction calendar is more like a guideline than a hard-and-fast schedule.
3. We aren’t in complete control of the schedule
As your builder, we are the point-people for the project, but we never claim to be in complete control. We do our best to create legitimate timelines and schedules based on the current “knowns,” but another crucial player in the mix is your local building department.
Building takes place in phases, all of which must be inspected, approved, and signed off by the local building department. It’s their job to ensure every single step of your home’s construction, from soil quality and grading/drainage to the house and its interior finishes are built to code. We do our best to schedule inspections in a timely and efficient manner, but the building department’s schedule often dictates what we’re able to work on and when.
Financing is another area out of our control. Your lender also has a say in how fast this train moves forward, and we’re accountable to our clients honoring their lender’s paperwork and document requirements to keep the funding process moving forward. Construction loans aren’t distributed in one lump sum. They are paid out in phases, dependent on building phase completion and building inspection sign-offs.
4. Plan for an out-of-pocket contingency fund
If you’re using a construction loan, you should still plan to keep an out-of-pocket contingency fund. As mentioned above, construction loans fund in phases rather than one lump sum. As a result, there are bound to be things you’ll need to pay for along the way that require a pay-first-get-reimbursed-later expectation.
Depending on your loan, you may have to pay out-of-pocket for things like:
- Non-fixture furnishings
- Appliances
- Landscaping
- Interior decorators
- Etc.
As experienced builders, we’ll let you know what to plan for so you can keep those funds handy.
5. We welcome allying with your interior designer
If you’re working with an interior designer team, we welcome them to the table. There’s nothing worse than interior design plans that aren’t physically possible with approved building plans. Even the most experienced interior designers and decorators misread or misunderstand what’s possible – and what’s not – in a given space.
We’re happy to collaborate with your interior designer if you choose not to work with our in-house design team. It’s the best path for a win-win outcome.
Are you ready to embark on the exciting journey of building your own custom home? Then, schedule a consultation with Fogle Constructors. We’d love to be one of your top considerations.
