How to Build a Custom Home on a Budget

and the Clear Benefits of Remote Home Building

No doubt you’ve heard Benjamin Franklin’s famous words, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” So is the case with making a solid plan for the budget of your custom home build.

Starting to build a home from scratch will be one of the important milestones of your life, and as such, it demands focused attention and care, whether you’re doing all the planning yourself, or with the help of a home-building company.

First on the agenda, determine how much you would like to spend. Take the time to set an accurate budget based on what feels comfortable to you.

We know it sounds straightforward, but building a home can and often does come with a variety of interesting and unwelcome surprises that, once they start to unfold, will resemble a set of Russian nesting dolls. One, followed by another, then another, until your initial budget ideas have been upended and transformed into something unrecognizable.

An inevitable problem with the cost of building a custom home?

Absolutely not.

In fact, most of the budgeting problems you’ve heard of from friends and family can be completely avoided once we understand where things are likely to go wrong.

What is the Cost of Building a Custom Home

Most budgeting problems can be traced back to the initial stages.

Start with the basics of budgeting for your custom home:

Setting a realistic budget.

Don’t make the mistake of working backward from a photo of an extravagant home build, and try to meet that goal if it’s not within what is possible for you. Realism wins this race.

The Dream Home Trap is a very real thing, and many of us make the mistake of getting lost in it in the planning stages of building a home. We spend hours upon hours perusing over photos of luxury homes on Zillow, picturing ourselves in a life that looks good in photos but is terrible for our wallets.

In fact, It is absolutely possible to build a home that is both beautiful and matches our financial and lifestyle goals. Building to match our existing lifestyle is the best way to avoid the Dream Home Trap in the first place. While you are dreaming and meticulously calculating the features of your new home, picture yourself there, as if your welcome mat is already at the front door.

Will you really use that copper claw-foot bathtub nightly, or do you just like the way it looks? Is a 12-foot walk-in closet a necessity, or can you comfortably fit your wardrobe into a functional and well-organized armoire? These are not substantial sacrifices if they don’t fit within your lifestyle to begin with.

Prioritizing What Really Matters

Can’t live without a Chef’s pantry because you’re a dedicated foodie who loves to entertain at home? Make sure that pantry takes precedence over other budgeting decisions so it doesn’t end up as an unwelcome addition to your bottom line at the last minute. Your budget for a custom home can easily get out of hand when a few of these last-minute details add up.

All of us have items we wouldn’t want to live without in our dream home. Now is the time to list them down and see where they fit into the overall plan.

Some things are more important than others.

• • Suffering from allergies? You’re probably not going to opt for thick carpeting throughout. Wood flooring will be a priority for you.
  • Are you an artist who needs to have plentiful natural lighting to be able to work? Then big windows and clean landscaping around your home will automatically make it to the top of your list. You would have to make sure that your design plan starts with an architect and designer who understands that the orientation and position of your home are important to the quality and quantity of light you will have throughout your home.

 

Clarify your list of must-haves to the 5 most important, and ensure they are met before you make space for your secondary concerns.

Avoiding the 10-20% Padding Fallacy

Understanding this common misconception will pay dividends later on, and we’ll tell you exactly why.

We love to talk about this part, because it is one of the most common ways to go over budget while thinking that it can’t be avoided.

The Misconception of the 10-20% Rule

The mistake most of us make is believing the common misconception that your construction budget inevitably has to expand along the way. This is often referred to as the 10-20% padding that everyone ‘knows’ will be added to their building costs.

But what is this padding, and why it is there in the first place?

Planning the details of a custom build takes effort and knowledge. The builder or building planner has to know their costs well, and not leave the details up to chance. A lot of building companies will gloss over the costs of finishes, and even materials, because they simply don’t know them.

Estimating poorly can cause a lot of problems because it’s these unexpected costs that end up being the biggest budget busters in the end.

Why You Should Choose a Builder Carefully

With the right builder, you’ll have as many of the budgeting details filled in as possible, from the start. Be patient and take your time to work with a builder who is willing to put in the necessary time it takes to plan.

It’s the reason we believe Remote Building is the way forward. It cuts into the overall building cost and timeline in ways regular home builders just cannot do. We make sure to save on overhead costs, and collaboration costs. We use virtual and remote tools and make communication and decision-making simple and budget-friendly.

Besides, planning is our strong suit. Learn more about us and how we can help you build your dream home on whatever budget is right for you.