The New Build Home Process
Bryan and I just got back from a whirlwind weekend in Dallas! I’ll share more on our trip soon! We flew down to check on our new build home / neighborhood. Now that we have seen the house in person there are a few things I wish we would have done differently. But overall, we are so thrilled at how our house is coming together.
I thought I would share what that entire process has looked like for us – purchasing a new construction home from states away. When we were deciding to move we spent a ton of time on realtor.com looking into neighborhoods and tentative locations. Bryan also had a couple of phone conversations with a few realtors. We quickly realized that a lot of the more established suburbs in Dallas were not feasible for a few reasons.
1. The price points – just not what we were looking to spend (think fixer upper or total gut at the top of our budget!) 2. The housing market is insane, most homes were going for over-asking with bidding wars earlier this year. 3. The fact that most were fixer uppers – we aren’t super handy and to not know any contractors sounded very scary. And also, we have two kids and a dog – living in a construction zone sounds absolutely terrible.
We were feeling kind of discouraged at first. But then we stumbled upon this new master-planned community. I’ve only recently learned about that buzz word phrase. It’s fairly common in Dallas – basically a bunch of homes, built around the same time with many community amenities in the neighborhood – think parks, schools, pools etc. While we were in Dallas this past winter for my interview, we drove out to this particular neighborhood. There were multiple model homes available to tour. Even that was such a strange concept to me!
We toured three different model homes from three different builders and ultimately decided to go this route! The home we picked worked the best for our timeline, our budget and our family. The house we ended up purchasing was already underway with construction and finishes had already been picked out by the builder’s design team. Had we picked out a house earlier in the process, we would have been able to potentially customize further the exterior and then meet their design team at a design center to pick out literally every finish. They shared with us the basics they had picked – wall color, flooring, backsplash, tile in the primary bathroom, countertops etc and we were able to switch a few things.
We kept just about everything the same with the exception of the flooring and kitchen backsplash. Then we were also able to pick out our light fixtures for every room. So now, after seeing the house in person, I’m a little bummed that we didn’t think to get all the details for the finishes in the other bathrooms. I think we assumed that they would all be the same but that was not the case. Really minor issues in the grand scheme of things, but I just don’t love the tile that they used in the showers. May be a project updating that in the future.
Bryan was super geeked too about the home automation stuff. He met with a team for that and was able to put in a sound system and decide on where we needed electrical outlets and internet access. Everything at a cost of course. We had a base price for the home and anything we’ve added on has just been getting tacked on to the final price. So far though I do feel like the base price has included a lot!
Let’s Talk Finance on this New Build
We decided on this home in March of this year. We have a closing date now of mid-October. To talk finance for a second in case anyone is curious, we had to put down a deposit on the house to get a purchase agreement. This amount gets applied to our down payment on the mortgage. The financing with our mortgage will be set once we close in October. Now, here’s a shameless plug for my husband – he’s a self-employed mortgage broker. He’s actually able to do our own loan so we are saving there on closing costs. He’s currently licensed in Michigan and Texas if any reader is looking for a friendly, attentive, professional guy to help with a purchase or refinance in these states!
Inspections and Construction Details
After we had our purchase agreement signed, we started receiving weekly emails from the construction managers on the progress of the build. They have included photos along the way too since they know we aren’t local. It’s been incredible to see the progress! Halfway through, we did a “pre-sheetrock inspection,” another buzz word phrase I learned. We were on zoom with the managers walking through the house when it was all framing and studs. They showed us all the outlets and light fixture wiring to make sure everything was correct. I would recommend not skipping this step if you ever find yourself in a new build situation! We did find a few minor things to correct.
Our plan was to schedule another inspection prior to closing to make sure everything is as it should be. However, we found out our builder conducts a third party inspection. A lot of homeowners will wait until their new build warranty is about to expire (usually a year) and get one then. I need to do more research on that. Overall, this process has been pretty painless for us. I hear of all of these delays in construction, unexpected costs etc. and so far, we have yet to experience either! Our builder is fairly large in the DFW area and I think they have warehouses of building materials. This allows them to stay on schedule and on budget.
As I mentioned, this is a new community. Our house is on the edge of the community so far. Directly behind our house is still majorly under construction. Think no roads, all dirt, construction trucks – major construction. Since seeing that in person, I’m a little anxious to see how that process affects us. Hopefully our boys just like seeing all the construction equipment!
I’m so excited to make this our home. Moving into a brand new house with no major projects to do makes this whole thing seem way less daunting to me. 11 ish weeks and then our family will be moving in! The countdown is on!
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Comment below if you have any moving / packing tips for us or if you have any questions about this new build process! Clearly I’ve become an expert. 😉