We all have a vision of that dream home, the perfect place for our family, full of gadgets and our own personal decorating style. In theory there is a significant return available to those who are able to build their dream home on budget and on time. However, there are a number of issues you need to be aware of before you even consider this type of project.
Financing
You can bet your bottom dollar that whatever budget you calculate for your dream home the “real cost” will be higher. The degree of additional spending will vary from project to project but there will be an array of unforeseen issues which will not only increase the overall cost but also extend the timescale. An extension of the timescale, where bank loans are involved, will also lead to additional interest charges and therefore you need to ensure a close relationship with your financing company.
You also need to ensure that you are not over extending your own personal finances as a part finished project would have very little in the way of value!
Stage payments
There are many nightmare stories of people building their own properties only for builders and other trades people to go out of business after taking their money. No matter how close your relationship with a builder/third party working on your property you should agree a pay as you go arrangement. The stage payments will be dependent upon the amount of work completed and some people have gone as far as to insert penalty clauses if targets are not met.
Changing your plans
The majority of dream property developments will likely include a number of relatively small changes to the original plans. This is to be expected and it is sensible to put in place some “headroom” with regards to making additional finance available. In theory there should be very few in the way of major stumbling blocks to your dream property because all of the known issue should have been considered at a very early stage.
It is also advisable to run your plans through qualified professionals and even though this will involve additional expenditure it could save you time, money and stress in the future.
Would you ever look to sell?
While the whole idea of building your dream property is to ensure that it incorporates all the elements you have ever wanted, sometimes you need to be realistic. You need to be realistic from the point of view of perhaps not always going for the high end items and also consider if you ever want to sell the property. We have seen numerous examples of celebrities who have built their dream property with a garish style and colouring. Fine for their tastes, but when these particular celebrities have tried to sell their property in the future the decorating style has on many occasions limited the number of potential buyers.
Conclusion
The idea of building a dream home is something that many of us have considered over the years. In theory it is relatively simple, design the property, hire tradespeople and ensure you have enough finance to complete the project. Unfortunately, it is not always this easy and there are many issues to take into consideration – you will be very fortunate if no unforeseen problems emerge but it will be worth it in the end!