While constructing a custom home can be exciting and fulfilling, it can also be daunting, especially if you’re not adequately prepared for the task. The process of building a custom house is filled with potential mistakes, causing annoyance, hold-ups, and additional expenses.
To help you out, we’ve put together a list of frequent errors that people commonly make when building a custom home.
1. Not Preparing an Appropriate Budget
It’s essential to establish a solid budget before you begin the home-building process due to the high costs typically associated with custom housing. Spend some time to investigate all potential expenditures. This research should include the costs of building materials, labour, and other related spending. Your budget should also consider potential unexpected expenses such as changes to plans and specifications, and enhancements.
Get several cost estimates from reputable local home builders. If a price seems too good to be true, it generally is. A significantly lower quote usually indicates the possibility of considerable additional costs during the custom home building process.
2. Delaying Hiring a Contractor
Instead of using just your imagination to draft the design of your dream home yourself, it’s advisable to involve a reliable contractor from the early stages of the process. This will help in charting the ideal approach for your upcoming Vancouver home building and prevent unforeseen issues in the future.
Some homeowners may believe that building their own house could save them a lot of money compared to hiring a contractor. But when do-it-yourself mistakes occur and unanticipated changes pop up, costs will also increase. Many owner-builders have come to realize that building a home without a contractor may not be worth it.
3. Wrong Choice of Contractor
Appointing an unsuitable home contractor could cause unending setbacks. It is advisable to read reviews, confirm referrals, and look for endorsements from other local homeowners. It’s also crucial to conduct an interview before hiring the builder, to establish whether your ideologies and values align with theirs. To gain insight on your prospective builder’s handiwork, consider visiting some of their completed projects.
4. Trading Off Location for a Cheaper Price
Making a compromise between the location and the cost is one significant mistake to avoid when constructing a custom home. While a less expensive property can be tempting, the location holds significant value.
Key aspects to consider in real estate include the accessibility to amenities nearby. Schools, shopping centres, entertainment venues, and the safety of the neighbourhood directly impact the value of the home. This direct correlation explains why treasured locations are often pricey.
When building a custom home, you have the freedom to choose the perfect location. So, is the high cost for an ideal location justified? More often than not, yes!
5. Overlooking Functionality
While fantasizing about your custom home is alluring, it’s vital to balance this with practicality. Designing a functional space that suits your family’s needs should be given equal attention as aesthetic considerations.
Some designs fail to satisfy core housing principles such as sheltering, balance, and structural integrity. Others simply forget to account for basic needs such as adequate HVAC systems and compliant plumbing. This is unfortunately common among DIY house designs.
6. Managing Construction Personally
The thought of personally managing your home’s construction might seem appealing, but it’s not as straightforward as YouTube videos make it out to be. A major project such as house-building requires a high level of task management skills. Even with an experienced manager at the helm, the project will very likely encounter road bumps that call for strategic solutions.
Enlisting professional help in building your dream home is necessary. This will help mitigate delays, mishaps, and unexpected costs.
7. Failing to Consider Future Needs in Construction
We all largely understand our current needs. A good number of us are even capable of imagining what the coming five years may bring. However, the real challenge often lies in anticipating our demands 10 to 20 years into the future. Will your family grow and need more space? Will you yourself need home modifications as you grow older?
If you plan on long-term residence, it’s crucial to ensure that what you’re constructing today is designed to be amenable to future requirements.
8. Assuming All Will Proceed as Scheduled
There’s hardly such a thing as over-planning — it’s a fundamental tenet we stand by. Unexpected hitches are inevitable. But, collaborating with reliable, professional home builders ensures that you can respond effectively to unforeseen circumstances. Should things veer off course, you can be confident that they will be there to realign and get things back on track!
9. Neglecting Adequate Storage Space During Design
In home design, the element of storage is frequently dismissed. Reality is that over the years, we gather numerous items that pile up into clutter. An ample amount of closed storage space solves this, creating a sense of organization and peace in a home. With closed cabinets, shelves, and closets, only your oft-used items and decor are visible, while the rest are neatly organized in dedicated storage units.
Contact Us
Ever thought about having a home that could be your family’s treasured heirloom or a profitable property investment? Let’s start working on your dream house without any delay!
At Building Space Custom Homes, Ltd., we’re more than just Vancouver’s leading custom home builders and renovation specialists. We love creating spaces that you’ll absolutely cherish and be proud to call home!
Contact us at (604) 726-5839 for an initial discussion.
