What is this post about? This post is the start of our home building journey. It includes links to useful excel documents.
I have a bad habit of impulse shopping. This usually leads me down a rabbit hole on Amazon or in Michaels. My husband is usually the calm and collected one who reels me in when it comes to larger purchases. Recently I was turned on to 12 acres of land by my family for a decent price. For a bit of back story, my husband and I have been talking of buying land and building a house. While we want to move near family in New York, we were hesitant to full send due to our obligations here in Florida. Well, when an opportunity presents itself, it is best to act. So I presented the information to my husband and we now own 12 acres of land….I’m sure it is fine. Since he is not an impulse shopper, he talked me into writing up a pros and cons list of the location of the land. Although the property taxes in New York are much higher than in areas we were originally looking at, the benefit of having family nearby for build and potential future children ended up pushing us to move back home.
One benefit this decision has created in our life is forced decision. What I mean by this is we are now committed to moving back home. Before this, we were torn between moving to Alabama or staying in Florida. This decision has forced us to start planning our life as New York residents. What this has created is the stress of trying to figure out finding a job either in the new are or remote work that would allow a seamless move. It also brings the stress of figuring out how to build a house….and how to finance it. Now my life is consumed with researching the home building process and floor plans. While Pinterest is a great place for ideas, it can quickly escalate the project from reasonable budget to excessive.
So why am I telling you all this? I wanted to bring you along in our journey of building a house. I am hoping to help you in making the decision whether you want to build or buy. If you decide to build, I hope this post and all follow ups help you with any decisions that need to be made. Essentially, I am hoping to help you learn from any mistakes we make in our journey.
First Steps
Right now we are in the initial stages of the process, but below are the first few important steps that we have gone through.
#1: Find where you want to build
- What worked for us was to find and purchase land before we begin the construction loan process. The reason for this is because we are in a place where we can purchase the land while we continue to save and get ready for the build. In my research, I have found most lenders prefer the land be purchased before they will agree to a construction loan, but it will inevitably be rolled into the loan at the end of the process.
- One thing you will need to do is conduct a Perk test. This determines if a septic system can be put in if there is no City sewer.
- For financing, there are some banks that will do a land loan which require 25% down. Another option is a personal loan. We opted for personal loan for our land. 0
#2: Determine a budget
- Understanding the property tax in your area will be a big factor in determining what you can afford for a mortgage payment. Once you identify what you can afford monthly, this helps you determine the overall budget you can afford for the project. Knowing what you can afford will help you choose the best floor plan and finishing you can afford in your build.
- Below is a link to a site that has several Excel downloads that help track the project budget. The budget and estimator documents have been the most useful for me so far.
#3: Find a floor plan
- What I did was build a list of what we want in a floor plan. From there, I went to Pinterest and simply searched for different floor plans. This took be to several different sites where you can filter floor plans based on several different factors. We found a floor plan that we really like but want to make a few adjustments. What we have found is that we will have to work with an engineer or the site to make the adjustments we want before we submit to the city for approval.
- Some sites for floor plans
Thank you for departing on this journey with us. If you have any questions or advice you would like to leave, please comment below!
