Self-building your own home is an amazing opportunity. You get to build a home for yourself and your family. Additionally, you make an investment in your financial future that can give you a huge return to help you plan for retirement. However, it is not all plain sailing.
There are many challenges to self-building a property. Here are some top tips from self-builders and construction experts that can help you avoid the common pitfalls and make your self-building dream a reality without losing money or causing too much stress.
Paperwork And Planning
Before you can break ground and start building your own home, you will have to get the paperwork in order, with all the boxes ticked by your local council. The project will need a lot of planning too, or the build will get complicated to manage. With enough preparation, any endeavour becomes easier to complete.
You will also need to plan for the paperwork that comes after the building has been completed. Building warranties are important, especially if you are planning to rent the property or you are funding the construction with a self-build mortgage. BuildSafe can help you find the right warranty at the right price. They search all the best quality policies to find one that suits your build and your budget.
Design For You And For Potential Buyers
Building your own home is an opportunity to create living spaces that are perfectly tailored to the needs and demands of you and your family. Be careful that you do not design a home that is too specific to your family, however. There will come a time in the future when you will be trying to sell your home, and if it is overly designed to suit your needs it may not be a viable space for potential buyers.
Always have an eye on resale. Every choice you make when designing your property will have a financial cost, and you want to recoup that investment and profit later in life. Though you will want to make the most of the opportunity to build a unique property for you and your family, you need to be able to profit from it later in life to help fund your retirement.
Develop Your Skills Ahead Of The Build
The more you do yourself, the more cost-effective your build will be. Before you start the process of building your home, try to learn and develop some new skills that will help you save money and give you the satisfaction that comes with building elements of your own home.
Bricklaying and plumbing are good examples of this. You should be able to find courses at your local colleges that you can take where you will learn these skills that you can utilise during your build. This can save you a lot of money, which will help you realise extra profits when you do sell your property.
It is important to be reasonable. Do not give yourself more to do than you can handle, and work with any contractors or builders to see where you can help and the best ways to save money on the build through your own labour.
Plan For Problems
No matter how big or small your self-build project is, you are going to run into some problems along the way. You can mitigate the negative effect they have on your construction by having some plans in place to help you weather the storm. A contingency fund is highly recommended for self-builders.
Most builds will go over budget. Small delays can cost you lost labour, as something as simple as a change in weather can delay progress while workers have little to do to push the project forward. Most self-builders and home construction experts recommend adding an extra 20-25% to the cost of your build just to help pay for delays and the problems you inevitably experience when building a home.
Add Sustainability To Your Build
Building homes now means building homes for the future. In the coming decade, there are going to be huge changes to the way we power and heat our houses. This is to help protect the environment and also to help reduce the costs of living. When you are designing your property and planning the building process you should have sustainability in mind when making decisions.
Solar panels and ground-source heat pumps are two popular additions to self-build homes. Not only are they environmentally sustainable sources of heat and electricity, but they can also help you save money while living in your home. You should also pay close attention to the insulation materials and building materials you use. Spending a little more on these can save you a lot of money over the years that you live in your home and make it more desirable to potential property buyers in the future. You also want to think of how you will get rid of waste from your project. It’s a good idea to look into skip hire in Liverpool, London, Brighton or the town or city you live so you can get a location-targeted company to sort your debris. They will take care of this for you and ensure it’s done as efficiently as possible.
Plan Your Funding Carefully
Building your own home comes with many challenges, and funding your build will be one of the biggest. Self-build mortgages release funds in stages, often when certain milestones in the build are reached such as buying the land, laying foundations, and completing the first fix. You will need to balance the timescale of your build against these funding hurdles so that you do not run out of money at crucial points of the construction.
There is help available from the government to help you finance your self-build property. The Home Builder’s Fund is a government initiative that can help builders of any size, from small-scale self-builders to large corporate developers, to complete their projects. There are two types of financing, one to help you develop the land and one to help you build the property itself. These can be incredibly helpful for self-builders, especially when it comes to covering the cost of the infrastructure your home will need, like water mains and sewage connections, and connecting to the national power grid.
Follow these top tips for a successful self-build. Planning and preparation are key, and not just when it comes to designing and building the home. Plan your finances carefully, and try to anticipate any problems or holdups, so you do not lose momentum and keep the build going.
