The decision to build a new home could be one of the most rewarding — or stressful — experiences of your adult life.
It’s a huge commitment in both time and money; and with a lot at stake, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Decisions begin to pile up, changes inevitably come up, and little-by-little so does your blood pressure.
Stress is a natural reaction once the project leaves your hands and becomes the homebuilder’s responsibility, but there are steps you can take to remain calm, and genuinely enjoy the home building process.
1) Trust Your Homebuilder
We say it a lot, but make sure you’re working with a home builder you can trust.
It can set the tone for your entire project.
A rigorous vetting process before choosing your homebuilder can go a long way towards keeping your stress levels at a minimum. Seriously, we can’t overstate the value of researching who you choose to build your home.
2) Make All of Your Selections Before You Build
One of the best things you can do to ensure your project goes smoothly is to select everything you can before construction even starts. That means appliances, finishes, materials, textures — all of it.
If you don’t, miscommunication and last-minute changes down the road are likely to cause delays and affect your bottom line.
These selections play a big role in how your new home will feel, and they tend to stick in the forefront of your mind during the build process. Which is exactly why we encourage our customers to make all of those decisions before we start building.
Taking time to make your selections first will make all the difference in the world when it comes to keeping your project on time, on budget, and stress-free.
3) Understand Bad Weather Happens
If this is your first time building a new home, you should understand two important rules of construction.
- Bad weather might mean delayed progress on your home.
- And just because you do not see anyone at the job site, does not mean your home is behind schedule.
Put simply, you don’t have to stress about whether or not your home is on or off schedule, because any good homebuilder will immediately communicate delays or issues that come up.
Communication about progress, delays, and changes is so important that we actually invested in software to help keep our customers in the loop wherever they are. Every homebuilder communicates differently, which is something you need to consider when choosing yours.
(See point #1.)
4) Communicate Regularly With Your Homebuilder
Like any good relationship, effective communication with your homebuilder is the key to success and happiness.
This should go without saying, but do not hesitate to call your homebuilder with questions or concerns. Don’t sit back and hope something will get better. If you think there’s a problem, call it out!
You’ll feel better, and your concerns are more likely to get addressed immediately.
5) Visit the Job Site
They say ‘seeing is believing,’ and we encourage our customers to visit their project from time to time. But you can get a lot more out of seeing your new home if you visit the job site with a salesperson or project manager.
You can get the answers you need during the walkthrough, instead of racking up a list of questions that add to your stress levels.
Amidst all the decisions, discussions, and construction, don’t forget to enjoy this time in your life. Be active in the process, and learn from it!