Apartment Living: Finding the Right Place to Call Home

If you recently purchased some land to build a house on, the first step you should take is getting approved for a home loan. Once you do this, you can hire a contractor to build the house for you. As you prepare for this, here are several challenges you may face during the process of planning for your new house and actually building it.

Putting In A Basement

Putting a basement under your new house might be something you hope for, and this is typically possible with any land you purchase; however, there are several things you should realize. When a basement is put in a house, the contractor will have to see how far to dig the hole for the bottom of the basement, and this will depend on the water level on your lot. The basement cannot be put below the water table; because if it is, you may end up experiencing water in your basement all the time.

Because of this, putting a basement in your house might be very costly. If the water table level is not very deep, the contractor will have to put the basement out of the ground, and this will require buying a lot of sand or dirt to use to build up around the foundation of the house. If you are in this situation and want to save money, you could opt not to put a basement in.

The Type Of Septic You May Need

Another challenge you might face when building a house involves the septic system, and this challenge is likely to be present if the water table is high. When the water table is too high, you may not be able to use a regular septic system that is placed underground. Instead, you may be forced to use an above-the-ground system, which is often called a mound system.

There are times when mound systems can cost $30,000 or more, and this is much more expensive than a regular type of system. If you were not initially planning on having to do this, this could cause a huge increase in the amount of money your new house will cost to build. There really is no way to avoid this problem, other than checking this out before you purchase land to build on.

Sticking With The Budget Is Not Always Easy

The other challenge you should know about involves the budget you will have for the house. When you build, the contract the builder creates will include every aspect of the house (with a few exceptions). You will be responsible for sticking with certain parts of the budget, though, such as the amount you spend on cabinets. The builder will allow you to choose the cabinets and countertops you want, but you obviously only have a certain amount of money to spend. For example, if you end up spending more on the cabinets than the budgeted amount, you will have to pay extra for the house in the end or you will need to adjust your budget elsewhere. There will be other parts of the budget that you could spend more on too, and you will need to be careful if you do not want to overspend.

It's also important to realize that the builder might charge you extra fees if you make changes to your home along the way. Each time you make a change, you may be required to fill out a change order request, and there might be a set fee to do this.

Building a house can be exciting, but there can also be a lot of challenges along the way. To learn more about this, contact a new home construction builder today.