Home Builders – Cut Your Home Building Cost Without Cutting the Value (Part1)
How would you like to significantly cut the cost of building your own home without cutting the value or the Appraised Value? Does the Appraiser give you all of the credits you deserve or actual costs that you add or build into your own home or does he see only the items necessary for the appraisal process?
As a builder of over 200 homes in Texas, we developed ways to cut the building costs and still maintain the appraised Value and the overall Quality of our construction. Some of these are secrets of the higher volume Tract Home Builders that I am going to share with you.
In the planning stages of your build job, consider these Savings that DO NOT affect your Appraisal or resale value and in the mean time greatly reduces your costs when you build your own home:
The Driveway for your home is one place to save. A front entry garage will use about half of the concrete and labor of a side entry or a rear entry garage opening.
Place your home as close to the front building lines as the city and your deed restrictions will allow. This will shorten your driveway, and again saves you concrete and labor. The width of the drive and sidewalks can also add or deduct from the cost. On a 2 car front entry garage the minimum width of the driveway should be no less than 16 feet. That is the size of most garage double doors. However, that is a very tight and narrow driveway. I prefer to spend a little more and make it a minimum of 18 feet wide so you can get in and out of your car without hitting the car next to yours.
When closing on the construction loan, consider the One Time Close. Ask your lender about this type of loan. This type of loan will save you from closing on two or three different loans, your lot, interim construction loan and your final or Permanent 15-30 Year Mortgage Loan. It is all wrapped into one loan.
Do not close on the lot separate from your interim construction loan. If you purchase the lot ahead of time you will have a closing, transferring title to your name,Title Policy, filing fees, and etc. Then, you’ll close on the interim construction loan, and finally the final 30 year mortgage. You do not need to have three different closings and the closing cost on each loan. A one time closing will save you tremendously. I recommend that when you write a contract on your desired lot, make the contract subject to obtaining your interim construction loan and to close within about 60 -90 days, allowing you time to get your plans and financial information together to get your loan approved.
You can either buy Stock plans, (plans already drawn and for sale) which is the cheapest way, or take your ideas or floor plan sketch to a Plans Designer to have your blueprints drawn as opposed to an Architect. They are about one third to one half of the price of an Architect, and they can draw your full set of plans for your new home needs. Out of 200 homes, I have worked with an Architect only once. It was a customer who already had his plan drawn by an Architect before he spoke to me. They are very good to have in difficult lot situations or the more difficult houses to build. However, they tend to load the house with lots of trendy, unnecessary structure supports and items costing you more throughout the building stages.
If these ideas are useful to you or if you have questions regarding the above please leave a comment and I will try to answer them in a separate article. Also keep checking back for part 2 of this article in a couple of days. As they say, Stay tuned, more to come! For more information and tips go to http://homebuildingtips.info
Doug Leavitt has been in the home building business since the early 80′s. He started with a Local High Volume Home Builder in the State of Texas. He began in sales but kept watching and learning as much as he could about construction and dealing with the subcontractors on a daily basis. After ten and a half years he began to build Custom homes for customers and friends and eventually built approximately 200 homes in his own building company. He seems to have a natural talent and skill to work with the customers and the contractors alike and answering their many questions as they came up. Doug is now retired and desires to help anyone who wants the challenge and the rewards to build their own home, through his websites.
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