Features To Consider When Building Your Own Home

Building a home is easier in some ways than buying, at least where getting the features you want is concerned. In some cases, it may be simply adjusting the costs to include the extra features, but in others, you may need to calculate the long-term benefit of adding a feature, an additional bedroom, carport, etc.
House hunters looking for existing construction with a fully finished basement, for example, may be tricky depending on the housing market.
But when designing your own home, if that is important to you, it’s a simple matter of calculating the extra expense and anticipating that cost in your overall budget.
And what about people who expect their family to grow over time? Building a house to grow into instead of out of makes a lot of sense if you plan on keeping the property long enough to experience changes in family size along the way.
Do you need to consider buying a property with more land for a bigger yard? If you don’t already own the land you need to build, this is a consideration worth considering. Some home loan programs (FHA, VA, USDA) may not allow the purchase of “excess land,” so you’ll need to know what that definition means in your housing market.
Do you need a home with a fenced-in yard? That may seem like a cosmetic issue to some, but any homeowner with a dog can tell you the fence is not decorative in that context.
Building a garage is something some might consider, but others may prefer to lower the overall cost of doing so by opting for a carport instead.
Are you building with an FHA One-Time Close or a VA single-close construction loan? If so you’ll likely need to get caught up on what the FHA or VA considers “luxury items,” such as a barbecue pit or a swimming pool.
You may need to find an alternate way to finance such additions if they are not permitted by your loan agreement.
The number of bedrooms the home has is a significant consideration. It’s not just the previously mentioned anticipated changes in the family’s size you should be concerned with; if you have a family emergency and need a guest bedroom to help out, that’s motivation enough for some to add the expense to the construction project.
Some don’t need the extra living space, but if you think you might, it could be worth comparing at least the costs of adding another bedroom.
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Please note that investor guidelines for the FHA and VA One-Time Close Construction Program only allow for single-family dwellings (1 unit) – and NOT for multi-family units (no duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes).
In addition, the following homes/building styles are not allowed under these programs: Kit Homes, Barndominiums, Log Cabin Homes, Shipping Container Homes, Stilt Homes, Solar (only) or Wind Powered (only) Homes.
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March 21, 2023If you are building a home using a single-close mortgage, you likely already know the process is more complex than buying an existing home. That shouldn’t stop you from building the house you want, but there are critical mistakes to avoid when planning your home. How do you know you are ready to start building your home?
March 14, 2023Are you ready for a construction loan? There are some simple questions to ask if you are not sure. Building your own home on your own lot or on land you buy for the project is an important investment, and you want to ensure you have covered all the following topics before committing to a One-Time Close lender.
March 7, 2023In previous articles, we’ve noted that building a home is easier in some ways than buying an existing property and more complex in some other ways. But one thing these two processes have in common? They both include a need for the borrower to shop around for the right lender for the One-Time Close construction loan and the right terms and rates.