Here at Pratt Homes we know that building a new home can be overwhelming, and when you’re building a custom home it can be downright scary. However, too often people give up before they even get started! So we’ve started our ‘How to Build a Quality Custom Home’ series to try to inform anyone interested in starting a new custom home project.

This week we’re focusing on the top mistakes to avoid when starting your custom home project.

• Focusing on a floor plan – When you work with a custom home builder you’re partnering with a firm. The firm will design and build a home that fits your needs and established budget. You’re not buying a floor plan, you’re purchasing the firms expertise to design you the best home possible.

• Choosing the Lowest Bid – Although saving money during a big project such as this seems appealing, choosing to go with the lowers bid often ends in disaster for you as the consumer. Stay tuned for a post featuring Choosing a Builder where I will go over question to ask potential candidates and find the perfect builder.

• Not allowing enough time – In this hectic world it can be difficult to allow the proper amount of time to anything. Between work, family friends, hobbies, and everything else it can be extraordinarily difficult to try to allow any additional time to planning your future home when it seems as if you can pass the job on to someone else. However, it’s important to realize that when you commit to building your custom dream home you’re committing both money and time to ensure your home is exactly the way you want it. It’s your dream home, is it worth taking the time to make sure it’s designed and build exactly the way you want it?

• Settling on a used house – If you’re interested in building a custom home, there’s a good chance that you’ve already looked at some nice used homes on the market right now. The used homes may be attractive because they’re already build and are priced lower than building a new home from scratch. However, you need to keep in mind that when you buy a used home, you’re likely to ‘invest’ thousands in repairs and remodeling projects to get the home ‘nearly’ the way you’d like it, but in the end you’ll still be living in someone else’s dream home, and will likely have spent more money on the used home in the long run than you would have if you had spent more upfront on your personalized dream home.

This was only one building and designing a quality custom home tip. If you’d like to read more tips check back at our blog every now and then. Or, if you want all of the info NOW, sign up for our FREE planning guide where you can find this information and more! Secrets to Building a Quality Custom Home.