Real Estate Careers Garage Sales
Marketplace
TO PLACE AN AD, CALL 444-7355
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Copperleaf Homes Model Home: 2172 Red Edge Heights CopperleafHomes.com • 719-598-8900 SPONSORED FEATURE
BUILDING SMART:
Top 3 ways to ensure your new home build is a success COURTESY OF COPPERLEAF HOMES
As spring nears, so do the aspirations of many to build that perfect home residing within their head and heart. Thoughts of more space, a better suited floor plan, an enlarged kitchen, or maybe that wrap around deck you’ve always wanted — all of these thoughts begin to quicken our excitement and determination to build! In this context remember the old saying, “What you focus on determines what you miss.” For those who have never built a new home before, by the time they begin to turn their attention away from the exciting parts of a new build and begin focusing on the processes of building, (which will largely determine the ultimate price of your home), it’s often too late to make impactful budget decisions. Here are some critical elements of a new build that need to be given ample attention in order to have success:
Spectacular by Nature. Custom Homes & Homesites (719) 649-0605 Classic Homes (719) 481-9828
1. Determining the price. Building a new home is one of the largest financial decisions you will ever make. So make sure you press for an explanation of the final build cost. For instance, many custom builders will not give you a firm price per square foot to build your home. In some instances, builders tempt buyers with a “cost-plus” arrangement. In this scenario the builder charges a set percentage for his fee based on the total cost of the build — as an example: cost of materials, supervision and labor plus 15 percent. Buyers who enter into agreements such as these lose sight of the fact that there is no incentive for their builder to keep prices low — 15 percent of a higher number is more profit for the builder. Beware of these pricing arrangements. Don’t build unless you know the final price of the home prior to signing a contract.
2. Get the builder to put in writing their list of standard included features. Just because you receive a price per square foot from a builder doesn’t mean your work is done. Unfortunately many builders do not have a written list of included features to match their price per square foot quoted, instead relying on convincing the consumer that “this is a custom home — it’s all determined by what you choose.” The fallacy behind this reasoning is immediately seen upon your arrival at your first design center appointment. Imagine a 300-foot wall of plumbing fixtures and no pre-negotiated selections or pricing on your behalf. Where do you start? What should your budget be? How do you know if you’re being upsold? This is the proverbial “sheep led to the slaughter” scenario.
3. Know the condition of your soils prior to closing on your lot or signing a contract to build. As we’ve seen pictured and printed here in The Gazette, soils in Colorado are expansive, and if not properly mitigated by your builder, these conditions can lead to many problems down the road. With a simple soils test prior to closing on your lot, your builder should be able to let you know how much, and at what cost, mitigation needs to be done. In sum, you can probably guess that we at Copperleaf Homes are happy to do all of the above for you; but we don’t have to build your home to be a good neighbor, so whether we do, or we don’t… we hope these insights are helpful. If you’re contemplating a new build, stop by our model and say “hello”… we’d be thrilled to continue the conversation.
Where Tranquil Shores
Meet Mountain Views
Located South of Monument, just off Baptist Road, West of I-25
ForestLakesColorado.com