In general, it can take anywhere from nine months to a year to build your new home from start to finish. Part of this depends on how busy the builder is, but there are some things that are beyond their control.
A good builder will stay in touch with you throughout the building process. And while most have usually been in business so long that they have the process down pat, the following things could potentially delay your new home build.
Finance Troubles
As with any mortgage, there’s sometimes a chance that funding falls through. Usually, problems only occur when you find out that you don’t have enough for a five percent down payment or you have a significant change in income (like job loss) before closing day. There’s also the chance that upgrades you make cause the price of the home to exceed the budget the bank has given you.
You can prevent some of these problems by getting pre-approved for the mortgage before you make your purchase. In a pre-approval, the bank verifies your income and credit score before saying how much they’ll loan you. It’s also smart to be very careful with your budget. Plan to have more than five percent for the down payment so there’s a bit of wiggle room, and don’t make upgrades without seeing what that will do to the overall cost of the home.
Funding Setbacks
There can also be funding setbacks on the bank’s end. New construction homes tend to be funded in chunks. The bank gives the builder about a third of the cost upfront so that the builder can get started building. Partway through the build, the bank gives the builder another chunk of the money. Finally, the builder gets the last portion of their payment on closing day. When a bank isn’t familiar with this process, it can cause holdups.
Avoid this problem by using the builder’s preferred lenders or by selecting a bank that does a lot of new construction loans.
Weather
Occasionally, bad weather can make it difficult to build a home. For example, it can be hard to break ground for the foundation when the ground is frozen. The good news is that it’s usually only extreme weather situations that hold us back. Most of the time, builders can still work on aspects of the home in rain or snow. Sometimes, there are certain things that have to wait until the weather is right — like landscaping and pouring concrete for a driveway — but that doesn’t mean the builder can’t work on other aspects of the home. If your home is finished in the winter, for example, you can probably move in, then allow the builder to come back in spring to finish up some of the exterior work.
Supply Chain Issues
The builder can’t work on your home if they’re missing supplies. If any of a builder’s suppliers have problems getting the materials to them, it can cause a delay. In most cases, though, it’s only a short delay.
A quality builder works hard to prevent this from happening. They know to order materials ahead of time to be sure that the building process is running smoothly. If there’s an issue with out-of-stock materials, you may be offered a different choice or the option to wait until the material is available.
Slow Decision Making
One of the most common reasons for delays in the home build comes from the buyer! Designing a new home can be surprisingly overwhelming. At first, you get excited about being able to pick out all of the design elements of the home, but the details can start feeling tedious. You find yourself staring at flooring or cabinet samples that are all slightly different shades of brown wood. You have to pick out things like countertops, cabinet hardware, wall colour, etc. When you buy a Sterling Home, you get to work one-on-one with a professional design consultant to help you make your selections.
For some people, the choices are easy. Others find that they want to take a step back and do some more research before deciding on something as important as laminate, vinyl, or hardwood flooring. If you’d prefer a fast home build, it’s smart to do a lot of your research ahead of time. Then it will be easy for you to make your selections.
While most home builds go smoothly, the above items can indeed slow the process down. However, you’ll often see that there are ways to prevent these slow-downs from happening. By choosing a quality builder, you are far less likely to have to deal with the stress of having a delay with your build.
