The Basics of Building Your Own Home

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The Basics of Building Your Own Home

Why Build?

The immediate answer to this question is that many people choose to build their dream home rather than buying into someone else’s. Building your own home means creating a home from your own vision, ideal location, and in most cases, it’s a home that you intend on planning to stay and grow in. when building your home and securing your loan, you are also given many possibilities on how to structure how much you borrow and how big or small you go, this could be by creating and building your own grand design with an experienced professional building contractor, or setting up a fast and affordable kitset home.

Before You Build.

This is the most important part of the whole process, more so than building the home itself, getting the right people on board before blueprints are even drawn is incredibly important so that your home, assets, and finances are secure throughout the process. One of the first things many lenders and contractors recommend is getting a lawyer, a lawyer will be crucial in helping you understand contracts that are drawn up, and will act in your wellbeing to help avoid costly mistakes and make the transaction as seamless as possible. A mortgage and lending specialist will help you organize your assets, figure out a budget, how much you can borrow, and where the best place to borrow from will be.

Getting the right people for the project is incredibly important, and not something that should be rushed, getting the right project managers and contractors is the most important part of the build to make sure everything goes seamlessly, keeps to budget, and makes sure that your future asset is secure. Understanding your rights, and educating yourself on the process will give you added security that will be essential throughout the whole build, and after the work is completed.

Once you have the right contracts and plans set in motion securing the loan will be the next step, if all the contracts and plans are up to standard and you have your deposit and assets figured out, finding the best lender to go with you through his journey will be important, and most mortgage brokers can help you through this process.

The Build.

Location is everything, and this includes finding the perfect plot of land to build your dream home upon, finding the best section you possibly can that you can afford, considering things such as view, north facing, and the neighbourhood can be something that others may be willing to pay a premium for in the future if you end up deciding to sell. Buying land in a renowned sub-division by a respected developer can offer great benefits such pre-serviced sites that tend to have the important facilities (power, water, phone, etc.) already connected, which can save you money in the long run.

Obtaining a building consent from your local council before building commences will be the next step once you have found the perfect location, in most cases your architect, designer, builder, or building company will assist with these applications.

Communication is Key during the build, especially between you, your builder and your bank, otherwise certain problems can arise, these are usually due to conflicts between your bank’s loan criteria and your builder’s invoicing system – ensuring that make an effort to keep a record of all invoices, variation, payments and correspondence is key.

After The Build.

It’s move in time! Before you unpack and start popping the bubbly it’s important that you reconcile your final account with your builders and contractors (you will need to let your building know within twelve months if any problems arise), and ensure all council fees have been paid as well, so that you can get council sign-off in the form of a code compliance certificate.

Moving forward, maintaining your home is crucial if you intend to sell it off in the future, this includes finding out from contractors of any required maintenance related to products or materials, getting insurance on the property, and doing all and any future work to the property to help it grow equity.

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Ravi Mehta