22 May Choosing the Right Home Site
Building a custom home can be exciting! However, the property lot you choose can make or break the deal of how much you enjoy or dislike your home. Look at these tips for choosing the right home building lot for your dream home. Then you can be sure not only that your home design and placement of your home take advantage of your chosen site benefits, but also, the location will suit your family’s needs.
Visit the Site in Person
While it may not always be possible, try to visit the property site of where your home could be placed. For many homeowners the “inconvenience” of having to travel to the property site could seem like a waste of time. Walking around the property, observing views from different vantage points, and seeing potential neighbors and how your future neighborhood will look can be extremely beneficial.
Bring a Professional to Evaluate
While you may think can remember all the fine details about the property, also bring along your home designer and builder for their opinion, just in case. While you may fall in love with the aesthetics of the property, a professional can cite issues with drainage of the site, soil erosion and other microclimate issues that you may not be aware of. Ask your architect for recommendations of good professionals to bring along when choosing a site.
Experience the Property at Different Times
Regardless of where you’d like to live the property, climate, local characteristics of the site and neighborhood can all have dramatic differences when experienced at different times. When choosing a property lot, visit during the morning, midday, evening times and if possible in different seasons. A rustic home in the mountains may seem ideal in the summer months, but once the winter snow arrives that you’re not used to maneuvering, you may rethink if this property is right for you!
Choose With Multiple Property Options
You could have your heart set on just one lot, but like everything else in life, it helps to have choices. When looking for a property, ask your Realtor to provide you with several options to narrow down the good and bad of each property. There are several factors that could sway your thinking from size, location of property in the neighborhood, walking distance to resources in the community, views, and obviously the price point that can create factors to consider viewing more than one property at a time. If you are having a challenge narrowing down your list, ask your architect who has your building plan to take a look and they can tell you which one your home will fit on, or will complement the design best.
Consider the Local Resources
Many times the thought of choosing the immediate property is considered without much thought of the location of the neighborhood to local resources. These resources can include schools, churches, shopping centers, commuting to work, hospitals, parks and other amenities your family uses daily. While it is important to be happy with your building lot, choosing a neighborhood that the lot is contained in can be just as important. Most realty websites list the local amenities to the neighborhoods when searching online – this can become very useful if searching from out of town.
Consider Outdoor Living Space
It’s easy to get caught up in the nostalgia of building your home. Envisioning your children or dogs playing on the lush expansive front lawn and having a pool party in the backyard could be in your dreams. Although, if the reality is more in-tuned with you don’t’ like to do any yard work and the thought of having to hire a landscaping professional weekly to keep your outdoor home manicured, you may need to give yourself a reality check. Corner lots usually have a wider circumference of lawn and will require more landscaping. Lots in the middle of a street could have more narrow lots but also will require less landscaping.
Think About Your Lifestyle
If you have small children or prefer a quiet, out of the way street, building your home on a cul-de-sac or dead-end street could be ideal. While if you prefer to stay indoors and have the view of the city life from inside your urban brownstone, a busy city street can suit you just fine. Look to your own family lifestyle to determine what type of lot and street configuration would work best for you. Also consider the age groups of neighborhoods when considering moving. Some communities may prefer more mature residents with kids for a quiet neighborhood, while young families may do better among other families with children playing and allowing the adults to converse and grow up together.
Robare Custom Homes can help you find the right lot for the custom home of your dreams. Contact us today and let’s get you started!