This Saturday Denis and I are dropping off the kids with a babysit and
heading over to see a man about a house. While we still have no
intention of building anytime in the next year, we’ve decided to go
ahead and meet with the homebuilder so we can get a good idea of the
current costs to build our dream house. Regular readers will recall that back in March we visited the model
home of a floorplan that I discovered online. The model home was
gorgeous (naturally) and would be the perfect house for our family.
Slightly smaller than we have now, single level instead of 2-story,
better entertaining space, and an amazing kitchen. During the past two months I’ve worked on a Word document containing
every question, comment or note that I have regarding this homeplan.
I’m trying to arm myself with all information going into the meeting
on Saturday so that we can come out with the most clear picture
possible about what it’ll take to build this home. I’ve got fourteen specific questions about how the homebuilder works –
from inspections throughout the build to negotiating deadlines to
policies regarding problems we may encounter after we move in. I’ve got fourteen specific questions regarding the floorplan itself –
from standard features we don’t want to non-standard features we’d
like to have. The questions range from expanding the garage by two
feet to getting rid of the bathtub in the master bath and only having
a shower. We’ll get a price quote that includes the custom features we liked in
the model home (i.e., coffered ceiling in the great room) to the
removal of standard features we may not want (i.e., a fireplace –
we’re in the south, we don’t necessarily need a fireplace). Once we get the price quote, Denis and I will get to spend the rest of
the year nitpicking the expansive price quote (I’ve been told that it
can be anywhere between 40-60 pages of detailed information) to get to
the point where we have a final product with which we could be happy.
We’ll then know exactly what we’d pay for the house were we to build
in 2011. And that cost would reflect no discounts we’d get from the
homebuilder (they offer different types of discounts every month – one
month they might offer $15-20K in free upgrades, another month they
may offer a free covered porch or sunroom). At that point we’d be able to set our goals – how much cash to save
over the next 18-24 months, how much we want/need in equity in our
current house when we go to sell, what kind of construction loan rates
we’d need, etc. But first things first: meeting with the homebuilder to find out
exactly how much our dream house would cost if we had every bell and
whistle on our “wants” list and started the build the very next day.
Should be an interesting day and I can’t wait to see what that house
looks like!
heading over to see a man about a house. While we still have no
intention of building anytime in the next year, we’ve decided to go
ahead and meet with the homebuilder so we can get a good idea of the
current costs to build our dream house. Regular readers will recall that back in March we visited the model
home of a floorplan that I discovered online. The model home was
gorgeous (naturally) and would be the perfect house for our family.
Slightly smaller than we have now, single level instead of 2-story,
better entertaining space, and an amazing kitchen. During the past two months I’ve worked on a Word document containing
every question, comment or note that I have regarding this homeplan.
I’m trying to arm myself with all information going into the meeting
on Saturday so that we can come out with the most clear picture
possible about what it’ll take to build this home. I’ve got fourteen specific questions about how the homebuilder works –
from inspections throughout the build to negotiating deadlines to
policies regarding problems we may encounter after we move in. I’ve got fourteen specific questions regarding the floorplan itself –
from standard features we don’t want to non-standard features we’d
like to have. The questions range from expanding the garage by two
feet to getting rid of the bathtub in the master bath and only having
a shower. We’ll get a price quote that includes the custom features we liked in
the model home (i.e., coffered ceiling in the great room) to the
removal of standard features we may not want (i.e., a fireplace –
we’re in the south, we don’t necessarily need a fireplace). Once we get the price quote, Denis and I will get to spend the rest of
the year nitpicking the expansive price quote (I’ve been told that it
can be anywhere between 40-60 pages of detailed information) to get to
the point where we have a final product with which we could be happy.
We’ll then know exactly what we’d pay for the house were we to build
in 2011. And that cost would reflect no discounts we’d get from the
homebuilder (they offer different types of discounts every month – one
month they might offer $15-20K in free upgrades, another month they
may offer a free covered porch or sunroom). At that point we’d be able to set our goals – how much cash to save
over the next 18-24 months, how much we want/need in equity in our
current house when we go to sell, what kind of construction loan rates
we’d need, etc. But first things first: meeting with the homebuilder to find out
exactly how much our dream house would cost if we had every bell and
whistle on our “wants” list and started the build the very next day.
Should be an interesting day and I can’t wait to see what that house
looks like!