House Plan, Its Importance to Building a New House

A House Plan is a must for building a home before its construction begins. It is helpful for planning home space, estimating the cost of the expenses, allotting the budget, knowing the deadline of the construction and setting the schedule of the meeting with the architect, designer or home builder. So if you are planning to build a new house without it, then it’s for sure, the house will have a low quality structure and design and also cost you more money in the long run because of the mistakes that may arise once the construction starts.

When making a house plan, there are many important points to consider. One is the location where the house will be built. It is usually best to buy a land before you start to make a house plan. Knowing the area and the type of terrain you chose to build on is helpful to properly plan the house and maximize the space of the land area. It’s also necessary to consider the lifestyle and the size of the family to see how many number of rooms and bathrooms needed, what kind of style and design of the living room, kitchen and dining room and how much space is needed for each of them. You also need to consider the number of your vehicles for you to plan well how much big is your garage. It’s best to discuss these details with your family to make sure that your new house will meet your standard of living.

There are lots of ways to obtain a desired house plan for your new house. You can search it through the internet and choose from various websites that feature display homes with their corresponding house plans designs. Searching for some examples of house plans can be an efficient, smart and fast way of getting and refining ideas in planning and making your own one.

Certainly, a house plan is necessary in building a house. It helps you visualize how the house should look like when it’s fully finished. Seeing the overall layout and house design will make you sure that the architect has met your exact requirements on its structure, features, designs, styles and all other important details in building your house. It also gives the home builder a good overview on its home design and guide him all the way through the entire project. So it’s imperative to not be rush in making a house plan to ensure that all your requirements are met and to avoid mistakes. Ideally, preparing a house plan should take several weeks and need a lot of discussion with your architect or home builder. Doing this gives you a sense that your hew house is built safe and also assures you its quality and excellence.

For more useful tips and advices in house planning, keep updating on House Building Tips Blog

Written by Dashiell Wood
Image Source: Tidewater Builder Sinc

What You Need to Ask to your Home Builder

The key to choosing the right home builder is to ask questions. Through asking your potential home builder for all the important details, before and after the construction of your new house, you would know if their service is trustworthy or not. It’s best if you prepare a lot of questions prior to your meeting so that you have more time to think for all the information needed. It also helps you to stay focused in asking questions and ensure that you let your prospect home builder know all your concerns. Here are some good questions you can ask to the builder to help you decide if they are qualified to be your home builder:

• How long they have been in their business?
• Do they have the required licences and registrations?
• Do they receive any special award in home building?
• Do they have some samples of home designs they made?
• When will the home builder be able to start the home construction? How long do they build it? What would be the expected completion date?
• What happen if the construction has not met the expected completion date? Do they have a clear process for dealing with delays?
  
• Once the building has started, what will be the schedule of your meeting to update you on the development of home construction?
  
• Do they have a written contract?

While having a conversation with your home builder, observe also the following:

• How well does the builder listen?
• Do they answer your questions clearly and sincerely?
  
• Does the builder seem to be skilled and able to give some suggestions or other good options to meet your needs and preferences?
• Do they treat you with respect?

It's important to not be in rush when making your final decision. Do a lot of research and ask as many questions as you can to your home builder to ensure that all of your concerns are clearly discussed with him. This makes you become at ease and also feel that you will be in good hands with your chosen home builder.

Written by: Dashiell Wood

How To Choose the Right House Builder

Choosing the right house builder is an essential key to get the best design and quality of your new house. So it's really important to deal with a house builder who is highly skilled in planning, building and designing and can be able to meet your needs and expectations at a reasonable price.



To guide you on selecting the right house builder, here are some guidelines to consider:

1. Gather and Make a Short List of Potential Home Builders

Before dealing with home builders, it's best to gather first some potential builders and make a short list out of it. There are lots of ways to do this. You can ask your trusted friends, relatives or neighbors who have had some good experiences from their house builders. Asking them for some names of reputable builders that they have dealt with before is the first and foremost thing to do when searching for a potential home builder because you are certain that they can give you some reliable referrals and share you their unbiased stories or experiences from their previous builders.

Aside from your friends, you can also get some referrals from well-established building-products suppliers in your local area because they know several house builders who have good credits and who don't have. But if you can’t get any referrals from any of your close friends, you can search it through the internet. Always remember to search smartly and carefully look over all the information you read and collect as there are lots of scams online.

2. Make a Background Check for your Short Listed Home Builders

Once you have created the short list of your possible home builders, it's now time to check for their background profile or credentials. Spend some time to meet each one of them personally at their home or office. Talk to them about their skills and attitudes to building and designing. Look for indications that they’re focused in what you need and want rather than just getting you to sign up with them. As much as possible, ask many questions to see if they are worthy to be hired as your house builder.

Don’t forget to ask for their references or their list of clients that they have worked with before. Take time to call them and you’ll be surprised to hear their stories or experiences. You can also do a home visit to some of their new and older houses they have built to personally ask the home owners about the skills and attitudes of their builder before and after the building process of their house. Look and inspect for the design, layout and quality of its construction. If you think your knowledge about home building and construction is not enough, bring a home inspector or an architect with you or someone who is skilled in home inspection to help you evaluate the quality and value of the house.

Selecting for the right home builder is so complicated and hard to do. It requires a lot of work and time in searching, gathering and investigating for the credentials of your shorted listed house builders before you make your final decision. But these are all worth the effort as closing a deal with a good house builder can help you build your new house that will last for many years or for a life-time.

By Dashiell Wood