Building a new house can be fun and exciting! Especially if it’s your first time. Before you go off and start signing contracts with builders or contractors, check out these quick tips on how to avoid common mistakes people make when building a house.

If you are building a new construction home in a subdivision with a builder, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about. But you should definitely still do your research on the builder. How well known are they in the community? Have they been around for a long time or are they just starting out?

Just because the house is brand new, does not mean it will be built flawlessly. So when choosing a builder to work with, make sure they have a great reputation for quality builds.

This also rings true if you are building a custom home on your own lot. You are more than likely making a rather large investment, so make sure your custom home builder knows what they are doing and have been reputable in the area for quite some time.

I touched on this subject in one of our previous blogs, but if you are building a custom home, make sure that the area supports that caliber of a home. It may not be best to build a $1.5M home in a neighborhood or area that only has starter homes in the $200,000 range.

Houston is extremely large, so research the area before making your decision.

Today’s buyers love open floor plans. And I don’t think that trend is going anywhere anytime soon. If you are building a custom home, make sure the design is not sectioned off like the 1970’s. Think resale here.

Likewise, if you are building in a subdivision by a trac home builder, not every floor plan is created equal. Go with a builders most popular floor plan if you can, that tells you that most buyers enjoy the look, feel, and flow of the house better than the other plans the builder offers.

This goes for both custom homes and trac homes. Don’t pick crazy colors and extremely unique material choices. Even after the build, don’t install orange and green tile with pink countertops in the kitchen. You may be laughing now, but people pick out some crazy things sometimes.

The reason I say this is because if you ever needed to sell the house for various reasons, those bad material selections could turn off potential buyers and it will prove difficult to sell.

You know your finances better than anyone else. Just because you get approved for $750,000, doesn’t mean you need to spend that much. The last thing you want is to be house broke because you were trying to keep up with the Jones’. Spend wisely!

If you are building a custom home, make sure you have signed contracts with a builder or the contractors you choose to work with. I shouldn’t have to say this, but it happens. People don’t get things in writing and, in turn, people get burned. It’s the unfortunate world we live in. So do everything you can to protect yourself. Have every agreement in writing. Draw request schedule, receipts, everything should be in writing. No verbal commitments or verbal agreements will protect you.

If you are building a home from a subdivision builder, don’t buy the biggest or smallest house they offer. Stick with the in between and get the most bang for your buck when it comes to the square footage. And if you get in early enough, the builders will end up pushing prices up so high, they create a boat load of equity for you by the time the development is complete. And the biggest house in the neighborhood could be a little more difficult to sell than smaller ones.