A HOUSE IN THE SOUTH: OUR HOME PROGRESS UPDATE
Hi, friends!
It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write but it feels good to be back.
The lovely ladies over at Ready Pretty gave the website a beautiful refresh and I couldn’t be more thankful for a much more user-friendly experience!
As some of you may or may not know, my fiance (yay, I got engaged on June 13th!) and I are moving in to our new construction home in the early fall and we’re so excited! I wanted to give some updates on the overall process and experience so far, the look we’re going for, and hopefully some tips if you’re thinking about going through the process of purchasing a new construction home as well.
I figured that I’d start off with the steps for building since I was pretty clueless before going into this and doing some research. Keep in mind that this is not necessarily the process for building a completely custom home (you will have a lot more options and decision-making to do, but the benefit is that you get exactly what you want!), but there are similarities nonetheless.
NEW HOME CONSTRUCTION PROCESS:
START LOOKING
Start looking in areas where you’d be open to living and go through some of the models that are available to get a feel for how you like it. Keep in mind, the models almost always have the best upgrades and options so go into these knowing that. Get a feel for the neighborhood and whether the age range is for younger couples or more established, retired couples. I remember falling in love with one neighborhood, only to find out that it was an active-living community, meaning that we’d be the youngest ones there by a landslide. Knowing that we want to be around some couples who are close in age to us, we removed this as an option - haha!
NARROW DOWN YOUR OPTIONS
We spent many weekends going to areas and touring the homes, sometimes twice to really see what it was that we liked about each one. From there, we made a list of our top 3-5 and sat down to weigh the pros and cons of each. We made sure to get the brochures and all pertinent packet information from each neighborhood so that we could see what was included in the base model, the lot premium (what you pay for the land itself), and any other relevant information available. We read reviews online of each builder, looked up nearby schools, and thought about how the floor plans would fit our lifestyle. We laid out the base model price + lot premium + estimated upgrades to take a look at what we would be committing to with each one.
SELECT YOUR BUILDER & NEIGHBORHOOD
We decided on the one and worked with their Sales Representative to get started on next steps. We picked our lot and model, then worked with a lender for pre-approval. Hire a realtor if you don’t already have one to help review the contract and work with you along the way. After getting approved, we were able to sign the paperwork in order to get started on next steps! We also made any structural upgrades at this time as it affects the square footage and floor plan, thus changing the overall “base” price of the home. A few things we changed were:
A guest room on the first floor instead of an office when you first walk into the house. We knew this was more functional for us as we want my mom to stay with us, and maybe even live with us, in the future!
An extended outdoor living area - we love the idea of utilizing this space as much as possible, even if it requires a heater!
A few additional windows because we want as much natural light as possible.
Depending on your builder, you will also likely owe them an “earnest deposit”, or “good faith deposit”, which basically shows the builder that you are making a serious offer. This money is placed aside and put towards your down payment in most instances.
PICK YOUR SELECTIONS & UPGRADES
Here comes the really fun part (for me, not Travis)! About a month later, we were set up with a Design Center appointment to go through all of our selections and any relevant upgrades. This includes flooring in every area of the house, paint colors, cabinet choices, countertop materials, hardware styles, pre-wiring for outlets or additional lighting areas, security packages, bathroom tiling options, kitchen backsplashes, and more. It was a fairly lengthy process and Travis was so glad to be done with the meeting, but I knew we wanted to get this right! There were different tiers to almost everything and the higher tier you go, the more expensive it becomes. It’s a good idea to know what you want to prioritize with upgrades and what can be changed more easily down the road. For example, flooring is not something you want to necessarily replace later because you’ll already have all of your furniture in the home. However, maybe you could hold off on the best tiling for the backsplash and replace that a little later on as you see fit.
We asked to see the options ahead of the meeting so that we could go ahead and pick out some of our favorite options. This made for a much smoother process as we were already able to estimate our upgrades, talk through them together beforehand, and see what was within budget.
After the meeting, you have a bit of a grace period to go over your selections and request any changes before signing off on them. DISCLAIMER: after you sign, they typically will not allow for further changes. We actually wanted to upgrade to something higher up after signing and thought it would be no problem, but the options are sent off for ordering pretty quickly after signing and we weren’t able to make the change.ATTEND CONSTRUCTION ORIENTATION MEETING
This is where you’ll meet with the builder (likely the project managers) for your house. We brought our realtor to this meeting as well. You’ll go over your floor plan, all of your upgrades from the Design Center meeting, the estimated timeline for completion, and be able to ask any other relevant questions you might have. After signing off on what was discussed, they’ll be ready to start construction!
CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
…And this is where we are right now! Our house is currently in the construction process, specifically the “pre-drywall”, or framing phase. We decided to have an inspection at all 3 phases of the construction process to be completely sure of everything before we signed off. We’re no experts but want to be 100% confident that the builder is doing everything correctly! Hire a reputable inspector that finds the tiniest details - it’ll save you money down the line if something wasn’t up to par during construction.
We’ll have our first inspection next week and from there, we’ll set up a meeting with our realtor and builder to talk through the report findings and the status of our house.
I can’t wait to share more of the home with you all and especially to start working on the projects once we’re all moved in! I hope this was helpful and provided you with some tips if you’re thinking about going through with this process.
Until next time,
Megan