How to Choose a Home Plan That’s Right for You.
PLANNING SERIES PART 4 | WHAT WILL YOU BUILD?
What home will you build? And how do you decide what design is right for you?
Welcome to Part 4 of the Planning Series. If you’ve been following along, you now have a good handle on why (with an awesome priority list to stay focused), how (with a preliminary financial plan - including how much you can afford), and where (and how to tell if the land is right for you) you’ll build your new home. While some of these steps can work in parallel, we recommend getting WHY and HOW nailed down before diving into the rest of the steps.
In part 4 of this series, we’re diving into WHAT you’ll build. How do you decide what design is right for you? How much can you invest in the design? And what should you look for in a home plan? Doing a little research at this point in the process will lead you to WHO is on your team (we’ll be covering “who” next!).
🌶️ Hot Tip: In today’s busy world of construction, having an idea of what you’d like to build when reaching out to builders can be a great way to get their attention (and get them excited about your project!).
To help you determine what home design is right for you, we’ve created a checklist as a guide.
Let’s start at the beginning. To build a house, you need a design and you need blueprints.
Design is done by an architect or design professional. Years of experience and understanding of home building techniques, matched with an eye and translation of design go into the balancing act that is designing a home.
Drawings, or blueprints, communicate the design to the building team so that the home can get built according to the design intent. These drawings, also created by the architect, include everything from floor plans to building details — providing the builder with a map to the design. If the map is clear and well communicated, the building process is much more successful.
🌶️ Hot Tip: A quality set of blueprints is not something to snooze on.
First, choose your level of customization and design support.
Determine your programming (aka, how many bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.), what style of house you like, and the general square footage that makes sense for your budget. Your home design will either be custom, semi-custom, or pre-designed. Choose what type of design route you’re interested in based on the level of customization and support you want and need.
Note: There are always different routes you can take other than those listed below, but we’ve outlined the 3 primary approaches that we’ve seen lead to successful builds.
Custom : An Original Home Designed by an Architect | 💵💵💵💵💵⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛
Semi-Custom : A Pre-Designed Home Plan Customized for You | 💵💵⌛⌛
Stock : A Pre-Designed Home Plan, Ready To Go | 💵⌛
Custom Home Design
A fully custom design by an architect is a great approach if you have the time and financial resources. They’ll help you work in a step-by-step manner from schematic design through construction documents. The obvious benefit of working from scratch is a home that is unique to you and your land. The other advantages to working with an architect is the coordination efforts they can provide through bidding and construction, as well as code review.
Time Investment: 3-12 months (for design & drawings)
Financial Investment: $20 - $30 / SF on average (for design & drawings)
Semi-Custom Home Design
A little personalization can go a long way. If you’ve found a plan online that you love but want to make some tweaks, many companies offer customization services in-house. The great benefit of working with a pre-designed plan is that you already have a base design to work off of, but can personalize the design to be uniquely you. This saves a lot of time and money rather than working from scratch. We highly recommend working with the original designer or company to update the home design. Some companies (like ours) even offer add-on services to provide a little more support.
Time Investment: 2 weeks -4 months (for design & drawings)
Financial Investment: $2 - $8 / SF on average (for design & drawings)
🌶️ Hot Tip: Communication is everything. If you choose to go semi-custom, make sure you get some 1:1 time with the designer who is doing the customizations so that your preferences and needs are understood.
Stock Home Design
A pre-designed, or “stock”, plan is a budget and time friendly approach to getting your home design and blueprints. I started Hereabout to bridge the gap between budget and design for those who seek a thoughtfully designed home - knowing that not everyone can invest in a custom home design.
Time Investment: 24-48 hours (for design & drawings)
Financial Investment: $1-$4 / SF on average (for design & drawings)
How to Choose A Plan That’s Right For You
If you’re leaning towards going down the pre-designed plan route, the fun starts here. Start looking at plans online (Pinterest can be great for this) and seeing what designs peak your interest. There are a lot of great architects that are putting out plans these days - your job is to find a plan that resonates with you, works for your lot/land, and matches your priorities. If you’re having trouble knowing where to start or want a 2nd opinion on the plans you’re interested in, book a Discovery Hour with us.
Get Specific with function and flow.
As you look at plans, be critical of how the design of the home will work for you. Make a list of your needs (maybe you need a large entry to store a billion coats and lots of tiny shoes or you need a single level plan for accessibility) - and get specific. This pinpoints the function of the home for you.
Print the plan out and trace your route through the home with a colored pen - this is a great technique to imagine how you will move through the home, aka the flow.
If you have land, make sure the home will fit on your lot. Think about the orientation and how the sun will play a role in where the house can fit.
When you’ve found a plan that checks all of your boxes, reach out to the company to make any changes that you’d like to see, or if it's perfect just the way it is - then make your plan purchase.
If you’re hoping to get a gut check on what it will cost to build the home, many companies now offer a “lite” version of the blueprints to get a building cost estimate from your local builder. You might see some online estimating tools out there, but to be honest, we’ve never found those to be reliable.
Use our checklist to help you narrow down and determine which home design is right for you.
What’s Next?
It’s time to build your dream team. In Part 5 of our series, we’ll dive into WHO is on your team, how to find them, and what to keep in mind.
Did you know we help folks all over the country kickstart their home building journey and find success in their build with our bespoke home plans?
Kickstart your project with our Planning Package or find your perfect (and customizable) home plan in our bespoke & sustainable home plan collection.