7 Secrets to Creating a Successful Custom Home Project
The fear and anxiety behind building a custom home can lead to irrational thinking: The quicker you start, the sooner it’ll end, right? Not so fast.
Remember, you only have one chance to make this right. As a residential architect for over 25 years, it breaks my heart when someone reaches out because they began their project too soon, and now they’re in too deep to fix it. They either spent too much money, wasted their time with a false start, trusted the wrong people, or are completely dissatisfied with the results.
You don't have to end up in that situation. There’s a better process. You just need to know how to start strong. While these may seem like simple tasks, if you keep these seven things in the forethought of your planning decisions, it will help you create a very successful residential project. Let’s dive in!
1. Start with a Residential Architect
Hiring an architect from the start gives you more control over the entire construction process. You become the lead decision-maker from the point of original design, rather than reacting to the methods, predetermined materials, and trends of others involved in the process. An architect serves as your guide; evolving your needs, and your vision, into a thorough plan.
It’s also important to use a licensed, experienced, residential architect. A professional specializing in custom homes maintains a great deal of knowledge about new materials, design options, common challenges, permits and logistics needed to build a house compared to a commercial structure. More importantly, they will have a better understanding of how to watch your personal budget versus working with other financing structures. There is often a great deal of emotion tied to your residential project—you need somebody who’s been a guide to others before.
Read More: Phase Zero: How Do You Initiate The Custom Home Architectural Process?
2. Choose an Architect-Led, Design-Build Firm
“Architect-led, design-build” is what we consider ourselves at Springhouse. The entire design-build process is led by architects. One of the biggest advantages of having a true architect-led, design-build process is that the homeowner’s details are not lost in translation.
Another advantage to using an architect-led, design-build process is that you’ll save time and money. Having an integrated process from the very beginning ensures that from the design through construction, you’re getting all questions answered quickly. When the construction manager is involved in the design process, they’re able to bring up questions that the designer may not have thought of, which makes planning ahead much more streamlined. This also saves the team from making mistakes. When questions go unanswered, which happens in a fake design-build firm all the time, the contractors make their best guess at interpreting the drawings, and then it usually needs to be redone—or worse, just gets pushed through.
Read More: Don’t Be Fooled By The Term “Design-Build”
3. Find a Trustworthy, Awesome Builder
Put a good builder to work with a great set of architecturally created plans, and they will build you a great home. However, builders often control a lot of things like money, timing, materials, etc. It is important to have your own set of plans, crafted from your dreams and budget, so you can consider different builders for your project. Sitting down with a builder and looking at your blueprints makes a world of difference. This allows them to ask you questions about your project that are specific to what it is you have already planned rather than you considering examples of their past projects.
Not sure how to find a trustworthy builder? Ask the prospective builder for references, call those references, and ask really specific questions from those references. Keep in mind, people are going to be eager to tell you that their home is beautiful, and maybe that the process was hard, but they made it through. Ask them to give you details about the rough patches. Ask them about timelines and communication. And lastly, don’t be afraid to Google search!
Read More: What to Do If You Don’t Trust Your Custom Home Builder
4. Stick to Your Timeline & Watch Your Budget
Sticking to a timeline for decision-making is one of the most important ways to help eliminate the stress of completing a construction project on time and within your budget. Putting off one small decision can snowball into delaying more and more aspects of your project. Making your choices on time also helps make sure you stay on budget. Staying within your budget can be overwhelming, especially when you are choosing materials. It can become very easy to go to a store and find the perfect chandelier for your dining room that completely blows most of your lighting budget. You have to stay conscious about the purchasing decisions you make and ask yourself “okay, are we going to pay for this out of pocket, up our budget or backtrack?” Most of the time, you should start with backtracking.
With all the items needed for a residential project, it will be easy to go over budget without thinking about the increasing bottom line. Keep your budget in mind and try not to alter it too much. One great tactic is to keep everything under budget except for one thing. Spend the money where you think you’ll get the most impact. For example, if you enjoy gourmet cooking, spend it in the kitchen. This will help you focus on one exciting item and allow you to stay within budget in other aspects of your purchasing.
Read More: How Often Do I Pay an Architect During My Custom Home Design-Build Process?
5. Gather Custom Home Inspiration
Consider this like corporate brainstorming. Let your mind be open and use many sources—scan the internet, look at ads in magazines, keep your eyes open as you are going through your day. Then, start a vision board. A vision board will help organize your thoughts and dreams for your new home. You can create one by pinning images onto a pin board or go digital by collecting inspiring images on Pinterest or Houzz.
Start with broad strokes first; just save everything that appeals to you. Then, after just one night on the couch looking through your gorgeous pictures, you will start to notice a pattern. The next night, go through those photos again and save the ones you love the most. This serves two purposes: a) it narrows your focus, and b) it communicates to your architect what is difficult to put into words.
6. Questions to Ask When Searching for a New Custom Home Lot
Being a residential architect, I love helping people choose their site. There are so many things that play into the design of the home simply based on what site you choose—specifically the high-level cost for some of the unique features of the lot.
As far as when to choose your site, it's early on in the process, so a lot of people actually choose a site and hold on to it for a couple of years. Obviously, you will have that site ready before you go to an architect to design a home, which is perfectly fine. True, if you're building a custom home, there are a lot of different things we can do to design to the light that you already have. Ideally, though, you want to engage an architect or designer or builder before you choose the lot.
Whether you work with an architect on your custom home site selection or not, you’ll want to ask yourself these questions:
Where do you want to live? City, township, school district, proximity to stores, etc.
What lifestyle do you want? Neighbors, density, community rules, etc.
Is privacy important to you? Are you a block party person or do you prefer to see no one from your patio?
What sun orientation is best for you?
Can you absorb the additional costs to build on a nontraditional lot?
Read More: Everything You Need to Consider for Your Custom Home’s Site Selection Process
7. Reflect on Your Custom Home Reality
Reflection work is a key part of our Springhouse process and we guide our clients to do the same. The end of the year is all about transition and renewal, so taking stock of the past year will help prepare you for the next. Believe it or not, the prep work you do to set yourself up for a successful year ahead is very much the same prepping you need to do when getting ready for your new custom home.
Here are the 3 ways we advise clients to prepare for a new home:
Think About How Your Home Serves You Right Now. Go through the past year’s calendar, month by month, and think about how your current home served you through those seasons. Is there anything you would change?
What Will Your Life Look Like in 5 Years? Think about your life in the near future. What will you be doing? How do you foresee your needs changing over time (if at all)?
A New Home Involves More Than A New Design. Your options for mechanical systems have come a long way. Now is the time to research what is the most important to you and where it makes sense to spend your money.
Read More: 5 Ways We Advise Clients To Prepare For Designing Their Home
Introducing Create A Home You Love
This online course is a one-of-a-kind experience that teaches you everything there is to know about custom homes—before getting started.
Together, we’ll determine your real long-term goals and internal motivators that drive your steps to build a house. Plus, you’ll learn how to set priorities early, establish a budget (and stick to it!), find the perfect location, and choose your team of professionals. By the end of this course, you’ll feel confident, organized, and equipped with everything you need to turn your vision into a reality. Learn more!
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When it comes to designing and building a custom home, nothing beats having a trusted, experienced team of architects on your side. Let’s set up a call to meet, discuss your goals, answer your questions, and settle your fears. We can’t wait to meet you!