New Year’s Resolution For Your Dream Home
It’s officially 2020! This new year marks a fresh start and for some, might also include a few resolutions. Whether that be eating healthier, working out more or maintaining a consistent budget, a common underlying factor amongst these is planning ahead! This same logic holds true with building your dream home. There’s certainly plenty of variables to be mindful of to ensure the entire project doesn’t turn into a major headache! Having said that, our team compiled some of our favorite New Year’s Resolutions for a new home build. If building a home is a goal you’re hoping to get accomplished in 2020, then this will be the perfect starting place to get an initial checklist going.
Look at the Numbers
Without a doubt, there are plenty of exciting parts to new home construction. From finalizing the floorplan to selecting individual materials, we’ve seen hundreds of past homebuyers have a blast customizing every aspect of their new residence. Before getting to this stage though, it’s important to take a careful look at your finances. Not necessarily the most exciting part of the process, but an important one regardless!
On this note, we’re referencing meeting with a mortgage broker to determine how much you’re approved for and ensuring you’ve saved up enough for a down payment. Past tax returns, W-2’s, bank statements, and credit history can all be a part of the process. Make sure everything’s accurate and get this taken care of before selecting your perfect floorplan!
Research Before Signing Anything
While clearly on a bigger scale, choosing a builder for your new home should include plenty of research just like any other purchase. Especially in a growing market like Kansas City and the rest of the Northland, you’re going to be presented with at least a dozen potential builders to pick from. Even though we would love to have you work with our team during this exciting stage in your life, we also want to make sure you’re protected if you were to sign with another company. As a result, we can’t stress the importance of research enough with a purchase of this magnitude.
- Check out their website and testimonials. Google Reviews are a great place to look, as it’s one of the first places prospective homebuyers go to when looking for a service provider.
- Ask about warranty policies before signing anything. Obviously, the last thing you expect to happen when moving into a brand new home is for something to not be perfect. Unfortunately though, there is always going to be that possibility of a couple hiccups early on. If this were to happen, make sure you’re covered and that the builder will stand by their product.
- Inspect the quality. If the homebuilder has any models currently open, go and check them out to see the quality for yourself in-person. Pictures and fancy marketing say a lot, but nothing beats seeing it first-hand.
In a blogpost from a few months ago, we took an inside look at all of the questions we would ask a builder before proceeding with a project. If you’re getting ready to sign on for a new home, no matter which builder you choose, we encourage you to check out our home builder checklist HERE.
One Thing At A Time
As each new year begins, we always have high hopes for the next 12 months! We want to accomplish “X, Y and Z” and make it the best year yet! Since opening the doors to Hearthside Homes in 1987, our goal has always been to make the entire home building process as stress-free as possible. With a streamlined 3-step process outlined on our homepage, we don’t want there to be any surprises along the way.
Despite this, there’s no denying the fact that building a home is a major purchase (and sometimes stressful!). For most, it’s likely going to be the biggest purchase one makes in their lifetime. As a result, it’s important to make sure you don’t have one or two other major projects also going on at the same time. It will make the entire process that much more enjoyable and likely preserve some of your sanity in doing so!
Quality > Cost
To be completely honest, there’s not an exact dollar figure you can attach to quality. Going right along with this, most would likely agree with me when I say, “there’s a happy medium between cost and quality.” This means you might not necessarily be in the market for a million dollar home, but at the same time, you certainly don’t want something that’s going to gradually fall apart!
Throughout the early stages of researching builders and eventually selecting floor plans/materials, make a concerted effort to select options that will last for the long haul. Even if it’s not the cheapest option, the difference in initial investment will likely be a fraction of the cost of dozens of repairs and headaches!
Needs and Wants List
With any new home build project, we’d be lying if we said there wasn’t at least a handful of decisions you’ll need to make. To simplify this and ensure you stick within your budget, a great tactic to employ involves creating a needs and wants list. Think about the items that are must-haves and which ones you could probably live without. Start off with the bigger items, such as number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, square footage, and then work your way down to individual material selections.
With a number of different floor plans available, as well as communities we build in, we try to have something available for every situation. Curious which area or layout will give you the most bang for your buck? Give us a call at 816-781-0234 or take a look at our current listings.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions
With any major purchase, you can never ask too many questions. This is the only way you’ll be 100% confident that you’re making the correct decision. From the initial inquiry where you’re just testing the waters to signing the closing papers, don’t be hesitant to ask your builder any questions. As always, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Whether it be timelines for completion or simply double-checking that a change order has been correctly applied, it never hurts to ask.
For example, here at Hearthside, we utilize a production app that keeps you in the loop every step of the way. However, we still encourage clients to reach out if there’s ever any questions during the build process. Even though we try to include every piece of information one would need to know, every new project is a little bit different.
Why Hearthside Homes?
Here at Hearthside Homes, our mission is to create a space where memories can be made. Whether that means a home you intend to raise your family in or one that you’ll retire in, everyone has their own unique vision of their dream home. Since 1987, we’ve been honored to have had the opportunity to work with over 1,500 homeowners in the Kansas City area.
If building your new home is a goal of yours for 2020, we strongly encourage you to include the resolutions above in the process. With an investment of this size, it’s important to be fully confident in the builder you select and not have to worry about something going wrong throughout the build. If you’re interested in learning more about how we operate or would like to get the ball rolling for a new project, don’t hesitate to fill out the form HERE. We’re happy to help and always look forward to creating forever homes!