What mistakes should you avoid when building your first home?
Building your home is beneficial for good reasons. For starters, you have the opportunity to customise your home to your preference without incurring additional costs.
Likewise, you don’t have to worry about maintenance costs, as you’d be working with new materials. Since you’ll be constructing from scratch, you can leverage the latest technologies and more sustainable materials.
Moreover, you avoid the stress of competing with other homebuyers for your dream property. It’s no wonder that Brits are encouraged to build their own homes.
Building your home can become frustrating when you make certain mistakes despite these benefits. Here are mistakes to avoid to enjoy the home building experience.
We hope you enjoy reading this article. And don’t forget to consider the best mortgage lenders, including Mynd Mortgage, for your investment property.
1. Working with the wrong builders
Building your home is a significant investment, and a lot of money will go into it.
Therefore, taking the time to get the right team for the job is advisable. Many things could go wrong if you get the wrong professionals. For starters, they can make avoidable mistakes that can incur additional costs.
Likewise, you may not get the home you envisioned, leading to regrets. Indeed, it’s not uncommon for potential homeowners to hire builders due to their cheap rates. Others don’t consider their needs before hiring or going for builders without credibility. Fortunately, you can avoid these with the right steps.
You can begin by considering your building needs before hiring a builder to get the best results. You also want to evaluate their credibility and experience by determining how long they’ve been in the business and their completed projects.
By all means, avoid going for cheap builders, as they may not provide quality services. Likewise, checking for reviews on credible third-party sites is recommended, so keep this in mind. You can request recommendations from your friends or a leverage trade association to get the best builders.
2. Choosing an unfavourable location
Location is important in real estate for good reasons. Not only will living in your home be more comfortable, but you can also make good money should you choose to sell your home in the future.
Indeed, it’s important to consider access to amenities, security, and proximity when choosing a location.
However, it’s not limited to these alone. In building a new structure, failing to consider the soil quality and terrain can be problematic. For instance, going for lands with clay soil may not be convenient for building a property, as it’s more prone to flooding during heavy rainfall.
This, in turn, can lead to structural damages and safety hazards. Moreover, you’ll spend more to acquire additional elements to strengthen the foundation. Therefore, you’ll find it helpful to buy land with loamy soil for the best results.
You also want to choose a site that has a good water source to ensure that you don’t deal with water problems later on. It’s prudent to check for site habitability before buying land.
For instance, building close to an industrial area or dumping site can be hazardous to your health. Moreover, building in a land sliding or earthquake-prone zone can also put your life in danger, so keep this in mind.
3. Cutting corners on your budget
It would be ideal to complete your building project without spending too much. However, this can easily lead you to cut corners in your budget. Cutting corners doesn’t mean that you’re cutting costs regarding your construction project. After all, it’s important to find quality products even at the smallest level, such as the hand tools you use or 316 stainless fasteners you secure.
You can incur more costs, defeating the purpose of saving. For instance, a cheap contractor may utilise low quality building materials that you’d have to upgrade shortly. What’s worse, they may be inexperienced and oblivious to code enforcement.
Also, going in for cheap materials, land, etc., can lead to excessive maintenance costs. Therefore, it makes sense to avoid cutting corners on your budget.
It’s more cost-efficient to go for quality materials and services. However, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t search out the best prices to suit your budget. For instance, you’ll find it helpful to compare quotes from different credible construction contractors to determine the best option.
If your budget wouldn’t cater to a larger house, you can consider using an open floor plan to give you the feeling of a larger home without the building costs.
4. Not securing your building site
The US Chamber of Commerce also states that three out of four construction workers have stolen from their employers. It’s not uncommon for your building materials, tools, and other important items to be left at your open, underdeveloped building site.
However, this makes it easier for criminals to steal from you and cause you substantial costs. Also, keeping them in an enclosed space doesn’t guarantee that they would be secured, as thieves can still break in. Therefore, you’ll find it helpful to establish effective security measures on your building site.
You can begin by setting up gates and fences to secure your site’s parameters and install ample lighting to illuminate the area and prevent criminals from trespassing your property. Hiring security professionals is also an effective measure to prevent theft and vandalism, so keep this in mind.
You can also consider installing construction surveillance systems for full security coverage. It’s also prudent to conduct a security risk assessment to identify and improve on the weak points in your construction security plan.
5. Not being involved in the process
When building your home, you want to avoid taking a laid-back approach. Although challenges are inevitable, it would be a mistake to ignore them until your project is completed.
Not only do you risk mistakes that diminish your home’s aesthetics and function, but they may be difficult and costly to fix them. Therefore, you’ll find it helpful to get involved in the building process to get the best results. That said, ensure that you frequently visit your site to monitor the process.
Feel free to ask questions if you’re unsure of certain things your contractors are doing. Likewise, communicating with them about the changes you desire or your concerns is also helpful, so keep this in mind.
