Building a new home comes with all kinds of costs, some expected and some unexpected. These costs start to show when you’re in the early design phase of building your house, and can start to seem overwhelming as you begin to add more features.
Obviously, it’s in nobody’s best interest to go over budget when building their home. In the interest of helping all new home builders save money, we’ve compiled a few tips to help you save money when building your home, particularly with regards to the early design stages.
Paint
When building a new home, builders will ususally offer a template of various neutral paint colors to choose from. These are typically referred to as “level one” paints and will almost always be included in the cost of the house.
However, builders will frequently also provide other options for paints that will cost additional money. These options are usually referred to as “level 2” and above. Choosing upgraded paints can run up costs significantly, and with these upgrades often the painting of the walls and the ceilings are usually two separate additional charges. So, not only are you paying for a different paint color, but also two extra service fees.
A simple option to avoid this is to go with one of the included paint options, then repaint later if you feel the need.
Carpet and Flooring
Similar to the paint options mentioned above, builders will usually offer options for carpet and flooring in a system of levels. With flooring options, level one will almost always be a less-expensive carpet option.
As with paints, if budget is an issue, it may be best to go with a low-cost option because you can easily upgrade later and for far less cost than what the builder would have charged for similar upgrades, potentially saving you thousands of dollars.
Upgraded Granite
Granite features will also frequently be offered in levels, similar to the other customizable features in your home. An interesting point to note here about granite is that the difference in finished look and quality between the various levels offered is not entirely noticeable to most people.
Realtors will typically agree that it doesn’t matter so much what “level” of granite fixtures you choose. Rather, upgrading to any level of granite over standard materials adds style and value to your home, both for you to enjoy and for potential resale value.
Lighting Fixtures
Upgrading your lighting fixtures can be a great improvement to the overall aesthetic of your custom home, but can also be very expensive. As with other upgrade options, if budget is an issue, remember that you can always go with a lower-cost option now and then do your own upgrades in the future.
Having said that, there are a few cases where it can be better to upgrade lighting fixtures during the initial construction with the builders. These are cases where it may be difficult to upgrade certain fixtures yourself due to their complexity, or if they are relatively inaccessible after construction is complete.
Appliances
Pay close attention to which appliances are included in the cost of your home, and the cost of any upgrades offered.
Be sure to compare the costs of any upgraded appliances through your builder to those same or similar appliances available at stores where you could purchase them yourself. The cost difference can be huge, and may be the difference between spending $5,000 or $1,400 on a refrigerator, for example.
It is almost always more cost-efficient to purchase and install upgraded appliances on your own.
Elevation
Elevation refers to the design for the exterior of your home, and upgrades can be very costly.
In most cases, the elevation will be a purely exterior aesthetic feature that doesn’t add to the interior of your home. However, some elevation options such as larger windows, which allow more natural light into the interior, may be worth paying for during construction as they can be costly to upgrade later.
In other cases where the elevation choices are merely cosmetic, consider carefully whether it is worth spending the extra thousands, and sometimes even tens of thousands of dollars, in light of the fact that they won’t be adding any real value to the interior of the home.
So, if budget is an issue, you may want to stick to the basic elevation options you’re given.