Great Expectations: New Home Edition

The decision to build your own new home is a big one and not one to be taken lightly. By making it, a prospective home owner is taking on the entire process of taking a new home from idea to reality, managing each of the steps along the way. Your building contractor will likely be your guide along that journey and the first thing many prospective home owners wonder about is just what a builder expects out of the buyers in a new home purchase. The level of interaction will probably depend on the builder, but there are some basic tasks asked of the buyers and some basic collaboration done to bring a dream new home to fruition.

Of course, one of the ways many home owners have reassured themselves about their involvement in the process is by involving a real estate agent and that can be a great idea for new homes. A real estate agent has likely seen it all and can offer advice when questions arise about a particular builder’s stipulations or other items that cause pause. Not everyone involves a real estate agent in the process and these tips will apply either way, but keep it in mind as a way to solve some new home headaches.

Relax And Let The Process Run Its Course

The easiest way to get in a fight with your new home builder is to assume that you are their only client and take up as much of the builder’s time as possible with demands that are out of line. Just as in any job, no one wants to deal with someone unreasonable, so holding true to the tenets of patience and accommodation is one of the best ways to ensure a smooth new home build. Animosity between builder and buyer will only lead the process down a negative path and a new home purchase is complicated enough without that happening.

This is where a real estate agent can come in handy to navigate the situation when a dispute or critical question arises. Whether you have a real estate agent or not, remember to engage in active communication with your new home builder in a constructive way. Beating down the door of your builder’s office might get attention, but it’s also a great way to inject ill will into the new home process when a simply phone call or e-mail should clear up the issue.

Get Everything In Up Front

The other way to quickly anger a builder or set your new home process off on a bad foot is to make changes to the agreed-to plan well after the start date. A builder works in long term plans that demand attention to detail so that set goals can be reached. Modifying some of those goals halfway through the process is a great way to get your new home delayed and behind schedule.

Avoid this by making sure you bring up all of your new home wants and needs up front with the builder before a pen is ever put to paper. Even if you think something might be difficult to do, learning that before you’ve already signed on the dotted line can give you a better feel for the situation and will help you decide whether to proceed or compromise. These are all things that can be done at the beginning of the new home process, but not in the middle or the end.

There is a fine line between being overbearing during a new home construction and being invisible. Walk that line by engaging in active communication with your builder and expressing all of your needs and concerns up front so that a workable solution can be reached before the foundation gets poured. A new home process is complicated, but making sure your relationship with your builder is strong can take out much of the stress.

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